Old Fireplace.

In April 1959 the removal of an old partition and fireplace during structural alterations at Addy's the Wide Bargate photgraphers provided a surprise. For behind that fireplace they discovered another, an attractive brick built affair, believed to date back to the mid 1600.'s. It was cleaned and re-pointed and formed a focal point in the firms new showroom. The brickwork was cleaned up with spirits of salts and wire brushes and as the hearth had crumbled away a new one was made with bricks taken from an old boundary wall at the back, which was of a similar age. This wasn't the only discovery for the removal of several coats of paint revealed that some panelling in the room was of beautifully grained oak probably dating back to the same period. That panelling too was restored to its original beauty, while the oak from a further portion, on a wall that was taken down, was used to construct new show counters.

Above and below: Two views of Addy's photographic shop in Wide Bargate.

Boston lamplighter.

In 1960 one of Boston's three remaining lamplighters, Mr. C. E. Kirkby, of 8, Fydell Street, gave up his "beat" and did a less strenuous job at the works of the East Midlands Gas Board. For 15 years he had cycled and walked round 150 of Boston's gas street lights, lighting, cleaning, and winding the mechanisms that controlled them. It was in 1934 that Mr. Kirkby, a lad of 14 at the time, joined the then Boston Gas Company. His first job was emptying meters, then he became an apprentice fitter. The war sent him to Leicester, where he served with the R.E.M.E. until 1945. "When I came back they were short of lamplighters and I took the job," he explained. "It was as simple as that." His odd job meant odd hours. "Sometimes I didn't get finished till after eleven o'clock at night," he recalled. It meant working in odd weather too. "When there was snow on the ground the lights on the outskirts of town had to be missed. You just can't ride a bike with a ladder on your back through a foot of snow!"
Mr. Kirkby's round took him down Witham Bank West, Carlton Road, Frampton Place and the Tattershall Road area. "I estimate that some days I biked well over twenty miles." he declared. "When I first started doing the job, there were over five hundred gas lights left in the town. Now they are disappearing," he said, with a hint of regret. "Don't suppose there are more than two hundred left now." He explained that the Gas Board maintained the lights for the Corporation. When he retired from the work, he wasn't replaced, and it left only two lamplighters in the town.

Buried bottle

Why would anyone bury beneath their kitchen floor a bottle filled with oil and with its neck jammed full of pins? In 1960 Mr. and Mrs. Forster, of 39 Norfolk Street , Boston were asking this question after they found such a bottle beneath their kitchen floor. It all came about when they decided to have a new floor in their kitchen to replace the original brick one.

39, Norfolk Street, Boston.

"The bricks were laid in earth," Mrs. Forster said at the time, "then beneath the earth was a layer of ashes, and beneath that a layer of chalk, and the bottle, standing neck down, was buried in the chalk." The bottle was cylindrical and was filled with what appeared to be a light oil. In cleaning it, Mrs. Forster would appear to have broken the seal for afterwards it contained a few air bubbles and there were none when she and her husband found it, and similarly some of the pins became dislodged from the neck and fell down inside the bottle.
From the obvious care with which it was buried, it would seem that it had a serious purpose and from its position in the chalk Mrs. Forster deduced that it had been there since the house was built. Incidentally, the bottle was buried directly in front of the outer door and about a foot inside the room. Could it perhaps have been intended to prevent evil spirits or witches or similar unwelcome visitors from entering the new house, or did some other strange belief or superstition lie behind its presence there?

August Oddments.

Above and below : A Christmas greeting card painted by Alfred Rimmer.

The old goldfish pond in Central Park

A Harvey Brothers lorry at Boston cattle market in 1943.

The Boston accent.

Boston has its own unique accent, below is an extract from "Highways and Byways of Lincolnshire" published in 1914 which describes how the fishermen and farmers of the town spoke.

Boston, having the Marsh farmers as well as the Fen-men meeting in her market, preserves a more racy dialect. I was once in the Boston Station, three people of the sea-faring class were there a tall, elderly man standing up, his son asleep on the floor, and the son's wife sitting and apparently not much concerned with anything.

 

The father, seeing me look at the sleeper, said " He'll be all right after a bit. My owd son yon is. He's a bit droonk now, but he's my owd son. A strange good hand in a boat he is, I tell ye. They was out lass Friday i' the Noorth Sea and it cam on a gale o' wind, they puts abowt you knooa, an' runs for poort. The seas was monstrous high, they was, and the gale was a rum un, an' the booat she was gaff-hallyards under. The tother men ' She's gooing ! they says, ' She's gooing ! But my owd son he hed the tiller. ' She's all right,' he says,and mind ye she was gaff-hallyards under, but ' She's all right,'he

says, and he brings her right in. Aye he's a rare un wi' a booat

is my owd son, noan to touch him. He's a bit droonk now, but he's my owd son."

On another occasion at Boston I heard one farmer greet another with " Well, Mr. Smith, how's pigs ? " a very common inquiry, for in Lincolnshire pigs fill a large space on the agricultural  horizon.

Witness the reply of an aged farmer, probably a little unmanned by market-day potations, to a

vegetarian who, with a cruelty hardly to be suspected in the votary of so mild a diet, had attacked him with " How will you feel at the day of Judgment when confronted by a whole row of oxen whose

flesh you have eaten ? 'Taint the beasts I'd be scared on ; it's the pigs ; I've yetten a vast o' pigs.'

Some of Boston's Schools

Matthew Crowden's Holland House School, 69 Wide Bargate. The building is still there near to Bargate Bridge and is now (2012 below) a Dentist's.

The former Grammar School in Wormgate

Boston Grammar School

The interior of Boston Grammar School.

Above and below : Staniland School, corner of George St. and Fydell Crescent, now a Car Park.

Staniland School was established in 1896. In 1987 the school moved to its present location at Peck Avenue, Boston.

Allan House High School, used before the present High School on Spilsby Road was built in 1938.

Boston High School first opened on 19 January 1914 at Allan House on Carlton Road, Boston. There was a headmistress and seven teachers, with 112 girls on the roll. Due to increasing pupil numbers additional classrooms were built in 1922. The school's first headmistress was Miss F.M. Knipe, who served from 1914 until 1927, and there have only been five further headteachers in the history of the school.

The school was relocated to Spilsby Road during the autumn of 1938. However, the official opening ceremony did not take place until 1939, the year that World War II started.

The old Carlton Road School, before the Fenside Estate was built, and taken from a spot which would eventually become Taverner Road.

Conway School in Tunnard Street, about 1910.

Conway school was established in 1851 by Martha and Mary Gee as Boston Middle Girls School at George Street, Boston and was "intended for female children whose parents are in the rank next above the actual poor". It subsequently moved to its current site at Tunnard Street, at a rebuilding cost of £800.

In 1905 the school was renamed as Conway School and established a good local reputation. The school eventually became coeducational, achieving high levels of annual passes in the 11+ examination. In 2000 Conway School had 100% passes in the 11+ for the third year running.

Part of Witham Green School, demolished in about 1969.

The Bluecoat School, not far from the Sluice Bridge.

Plaque on Park Board School, Tunnard Street. Demolished and now another Car Park. The plaque was the only part of the school saved and is cemented into the entrance to the car park.

Shodfriars Lane School, near the Gliderdrome.

An advertisement placed in the 1872 County Directory by Miss Francis Pocklington who after 1868 took part of Ingelow House and in 1871 had 12 resident pupils. The school passed on to Misses Ann and Mary Adams,  and later to Miss Cecily Matthews and then Miss Evelyn Rysdale until after 1919.

Around Boston. Old Mother Riley.

Arthur Lucan, was born Arthur Towle, the third of seven children, on 16th September 1885 in Sibsey, a village 5 miles from Boston. He moved to Boston with his family when he was five years old and attended school in Boston.

Arthur, second from left back row, when he was at Boston National School in Pump Square, Boston.

It was at Shodfriars Hall, which housed a theatre, within sight of his home, where the young Arthur Towle first trod the boards. Initially, his job involved sweeping the stage and selling programs.

Shodfriars Theatre.

However, a serious epidemic of measles resulted in the young Arthur being asked to play a minor part. In 1899 he eventually managed to secure an onstage roll at the nearby Corn Exchange in the Market Place.

Above: The Corn Exchange, Boston.

Below: The Corn Exchange was situated at the rear of the buildings in the Market Place and was reached by an archway (see below) which still exists today at the side of the present (2012) site of Marks and Spencers.

After seeing a Pierrot show in nearby Skegness around 1901, the restless young Arthur joined a traveling troupe, "The Musical Cliftons." His formative years were spent learning his craft around England and Ireland. Whilst he enjoyed his time with them he yearned for the warmth and comfort of the static theatre. To this end, in 1910 he managed to secure a pantomime – Little Red Riding Hood – at the Queen’s Theatre, Dublin, by literally writing the script overnight, with himself playing the role of Granny. The title role in the pantomime had been given to a beautiful thirteen year old raven haired brown eyed local girl, Catherine "Kitty" McShane.

The couple fell in love, and against Kitty’s parents wishes, they were married in Dublin in 1913. Arthur was twenty eight and Kitty, only sixteen. Around this time, Arthur Towle changed his stage name to ‘Arthur Lucan’, after spotting a Dublin horse-drawn milk float with the words "LUCAN DAIRIES" on the side. ‘Lucan and McShane’ went on to develop one of most popular British musical hall, radio and film comedy double acts of all time – "Old Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty", forging a show business career spanning over forty years.

After their marriage, the couple honed their act, playing down the bill in numerous variety theatres across Britain. Arthur wrote the material and Kitty performed the musical numbers. The gangly Old Mother Riley dame character was usually a charwoman or laundress. With the aid of her headstrong daughter, Kitty, the comedy came from Mother Riley’s absurd predicaments, eccentric ways, facial and bodily contortions, and malapropism-filled tirades against all who displeased her, seasoned with "knockabout" slapstick. The character was extremely popular with children.

In the early 1920s Lucan & McShane’s hard work paid off, and in 1923 they undertook a successful overseas tour playing in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. For the next ten years they continued to play the variety halls, now topping the bill. In 1934 an appearance on the Royal Command Performance established their popularity and celebrity status and in 1936, the couple’s famous sketch "Bridget’s Night Out’ was filmed for ‘Stars On Parade’ – a compilation film of British music hall acts of the time, including Gracie Fields and George Formby.

After appearing in minor roles in the film ‘ Kathleen Mavoureen’ (1937), a musical tale set in Ireland, the couple was approached to star in their own film, ‘Old Mother Riley’ (1937). The film, which was cheaply made (it cost £2,000, and took six weeks to shoot) was based around their famous music hall sketch ‘The Matchseller’. The film was a box office success and another quickly followed, ‘Old Mother Riley in Paris’ (1938). This film was based on another sketch; ‘The Stepwasher’ and it repeated the box office success of the first film. Another thirteen ‘Old Mother Riley’ films were to follow between 1939 and 1952. The couple also found time to tour South Africa in pantomime, make numerous radio appearances for the BBC and also record a number of discs for Columbia. They also featured in their own comic strip.

The last film in the ‘Old Mother Riley’ series, ‘Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire’(1952) is perhaps the most well know, mainly for the bizarre casting of Bela Lugosi in an attempt to appeal to the American market. Whilst the ‘Old Mother Riley’ films were hugely popular in Britain, the Americans found the dame character and British humour not to their taste and this film was no exception. The film was made without Kitty, her part being played by Dora Bryan. The Lucian’s marriage had disintegrated due to Kitty’s infidelity and Arthur’s increasing drink problem. At the time of filming Arthur had serious money problems and was eventually forced into bankruptcy by Kitty’s profligate spending. Lugosi, who had been touring the UK in the play ‘ Dracula’, needed the money (he was paid US$5,000 plus living expenses for four weeks work on the film) in order to return back to the USA.

In the film Lugosi plays a mad scientist (Von Housen) – not a vampire – who is trying to take over the world with army of robots. After a series of comic misadventures Mother Riley saves the day. The film also featured well known British actors Richard Wattis, Graham Moffat, Hattie Jacques, Dandy Nichols and Charles Lloyd Pack, grandfather of ‘Wish You Were Here’ actress Emily Lloyd, and father of Roger Lloyd Pack who played ‘Trigger’ in the TV comedy ‘Only Fools And Horses’. Because the film was considered "too British", the American distributors had planned to edit out all of the footage featuring Arthur Lucan and re-shoot more scenes featuring Lugosi. However, by this time Lugosi was very ill and gaunt looking, so the idea was abandoned. The film was released under various titles in the States, the most well known one being ‘My Son The Vampire’, which featured some re-shot scenes and an introductory song by comedy singer Allan "Camp Granada" Sherman. Despite these changes, the film still remained a commercial failure across the Atlantic.

Arthur continued to make stage appearances across the country to pay off his creditors, chiefly the Inland Revenue. He collapsed and died in the wings of the Tivoli Theatre in Kingston-upon-Hull on 17th May 1954, whilst waiting for his cue to go on stage. In true music hall tradition of "the show must go on", the performance went ahead with an understudy playing the lead part. The audience was totally unaware of developments backstage, and only learned the tragic news after the performance.

Kitty McShane outlived her husband by nearly ten years. She died alone in her Mayfair flat in March 1964.