Boston's first railway bridge.

Below is a view of the first railway bridge in Boston over the River Witham, erected by the Great Northern Railway Company and opened for traffic on October 30th 1848. The bridge carried a single line of rails over the river in a sweeping curve. In the process of reproduction and reduction, interesting features of the original picture  have been more or less lost to view. Two trains, for instance, are seen travelling in opposite directions, on the opposite sides of the river, on a single line of rails. But as a railway official is seen waving a flag in face of the train approaching the point where the present level-crossing exists, it is to be supposed that all danger of a head on collision midway of the bridge was thus averted.
A good deal of shipping appears to be moored just beyond the Sluice Bridge, adjacent to the Railway Bridge. The old buildings on the left of the picture are old warehouses that later became Beeson's Glass Merchants and are now modernised and converted into housing accommodation. See second picture below for the warehouses at a later date.

Before and After

A few pictures to show how Boston has changed.

Bargate Bridge. The Queens Head Hotel on the left is gone and is replaced by an undertakers and the buildings to the right were demolished to allow for bridge and road widening.

The Old Town Bridge. The little tobacconist kiosk was previously a watchmans hut and the building to the left of it (now a chinese restaurant) was the old Boot's the Chemist shop. The old bridge was replaced by the one below in 1913.

The junction of Bridge Street and High Street. The two buildings facing have been replaced by a pub and a kebab shop and the bow windowed shop on the right has long gone and is also a fast food shop.

Thankfully this building in the Market Place hasn't changed too much, except for the ugly hole in the wall cash machine.

High Street. Once one of the main routes into town, with busy two-way traffic, it is now a one way street. A lot of the upper parts of the buildings are untouched which sadly, can't be said of the lower parts.

Market Place shop. This shop next to The Still pub in the Market Place is now a bookies shop.

This building in Wide Bargate was, for many years, the home of the local newspaper "The Standard". It has recently been used as a small supermarket for Somerfield's, the Co-op and Morrison's.

Castle on the The Town Bridge

This unique picture of a busy shipping scene near the Town Bridge was the work of William Brand and was published in 1795. The Corporation Buildings on the right were erected in 1772 and the Assembly Rooms had not yet been built. It also shows the old wooden bridge with its lamp standards, but the most remarkable thing about the picture is the appearance in it of the castle like tower at the West end of the bridge , from which Stanbow, or “Stonebow” Lane probably derived its name. This is the only known picture to show this structure. On page 251 of Pishey Thompson's History of Boston he writes "The bridge being in a very ruinous state, and in danger of falling, was taken down in 1629, and a new one erected. This bridge had a stone gateway standing across it, and it is probable from this circumstance, that the lane called Stanbow Lane, which would be very near the western extremity of the bridge, has derived its name."