Fydell Street

Many thanks to Rob Smith for sending me these two pictures of old Fydell Street. The first is the men only bar at the Castle pub with landlord Samuel Reynolds behind the bar with his beer jug, and the second shows a very young Les Farrow with long hair and wearing a dress with his mother outside their off licence (opposite the Castle pub) which is now Johns TV repair shop.

　

The Castle Fish

If you had walked into the Castle Inn in Fydell Street in 1953 you’d have seen fish everywhere, on the walls, above the bar, over the seats and in the back rooms, but there was no smell of fish because all of them were stuffed and in cases. The landlord at the time Mr. Ernest Ratherby said, “They have turned this place from a back-street pub into an anglers inn.”

There were about 60 fish in the pub and if any large fish was caught in Boston then it was stuffed and put in the Castle Inn, but it was not just a drinking place for local men, anglers from all over the country came by car, coach and rail to see the collection of fish. When Mr. Ratherby came to the Castle in about 1936 he said the collection was worth about £300 but had no idea what it was worth in 1953.
The best of the collection was a 23lb. Pike and there was a story that a drunk, leaning unsteadily on the corner of the bar one evening, trying to get the fish into proper focus, is reputed to have said, “The fisherman who caught that fish is a sh-tinking liar.”
Prize piece of the collection was a large case holding two enormous Pike, both were caught within a stones throw of the pub and both within an hour of each other. The oldest fish was caught in 1903.

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."