Down among the dead men.

There are many people in Boston who are unaware that there was ever a church called St Aiden's Chapel of Ease down high-street, let alone that it had a crypt.

The Chapel of Ease. High Street.

Thanks to the courtesy of the Rev F H Duggins, M.A. in 1912, a "Boston Guardian" representative was allowed to inspect it and also to take photographs of one or two of the more interesting items.
The crypt extended right under the main floor of the church, and consisted essentially of three main galleries with side vaults. The method of disposal of the bodies was to place them on shelves in receptacles which for all the world closely resembled ovens. The shelves were in tiers of three, and were sealed with stone slabs bearing the name, age, and date of death of the occupant. The bodies interred in the crypt numbered 61, and there was room for more than double that number but those vacancies were never filled, for by Act of Parliament such burials were forbidden by 1912. One thing noted was the purity of the air and the entire absence of any smell which is usually associated with dead bodies and unless you knew to the contrary, you would never have suspected the presence of so many bodies in such a confined area.

The royal assent to the Act of Parliament, by whose authority the church was erected, was given on May 19th, 1819. The first internment in the crypt was in 1822, when, as a slab testifies, "George Bryon, Boston, died August 1st, 1822, aged 72 years."
From the first to the last. The final internment, according to the register, was that of "Arabella Porter, Boston, died April 20th, 1844, aged 56 years." Some of the names to be found in the register were Jeptha Pacey, Ogle (a vicar of Boston), Meaburn Staniland, Holloway, Yeatman, Brelsford, Claypon, John Robert Rogers and Collis.
The roof of the crypt had fine vaulting brickwork, and was about 6 feet from the floor. The side vaults were, with one or two exceptions, empty, and had never been used for their original purpose.
The wood of the coffins was quite rough and plain, and had obviously never received any of the elaborate attention bestowed on modern day coffins. It may seem strange that the coffin should be exposed to view as in the picture, but it is really due to the door of the vault having broken away from its fastenings. Normally the vault was entirely closed.
The difficulty of taking photographs in such dark and eerie surroundings, especially in 1912, should be appreciated when you learn that the only focusing light was that afforded by one candle, and that owing to the lowness of the roof the flashlight could not be placed at any height. Neither could the photographer choose his distance, the narrow passage preventing him. It was thought that these were the first photographs ever taken in the crypt, and it was hoped they would prove of some little educative value in illustrating an obsolete system of burial.

Below, note the different spelling on the plaque to the newspaper cutting, which one is correct?

You don't know you're born.

Mrs. Fanny West was 95 years old when she died in 1910, before her death she was a fine old lady with a retentive memory and a cheery smile and very active and nimble for her age. She had been "the oldest guest" at the gathering held in Shodfriars Hall on January 1st. 1909 in celebration of the Old Age Pensions Act, when about 400 of the residents of Boston, who had passed the age of three score years and ten, were entertained at a tea and concert promoted by the Boston Liberal Association.

Mrs. West was born in June 1816, and in an interview two years before her death stated that she remembered the last election when voting took place in the Parish Church. Excitement was so intense that the electors tore off the green baise coverings from the pews in the church to make banners and flags.

She remembered she was cleaning the doorstep when the horsemen riding past announced the death of King William IV, and was present at the feast provided in a booth in Pump Square to celebrate the coronation of Queen Victoria.

Mrs. West had been a widow for fifty four years and when her husband died she was left with four children under seven years of age, the youngest being ten months, and no parish relief. The oldest boy, 9 years old, worked seven days a week for sixpence a day. The next, a mere boy of 8 years, worked for fourpence a day, Sundays included. Tea was a rare delicacy in those days, and more often was made by pouring boiling water over toasted bread and calling it tea because it looked brown. The eldest girl went out to service at 12 years of age for £1 per year, and Mrs. West toiled for the little ones, washing at one shilling a day, taking in sewing and gleaning in the harvest time corn getting enough to keep a pig in a stye. The humble pig in the olden days seems often to have been the saviour of the family.

Left over August oddments.

Two 1907 Advertisements for Clark's Tobacconist on the foot of the Town Bridge.

The Market Place.

The Congregational Church which once stood in Red Lion Street, on the site of which is now a car park.

Frank and Company, once opposite where the present day "Moon under water" pub is.

One of Ogden's tobacco cards showing Shodfriars Hall.

The Old Park.

Twiddy's Undertakers.

Born in Botolph Street Boston in 1878, Henry Twiddy started work at an early age cleaning boots at Rainey and Son's factory before he went to school in the mornings. At the age of 14 he became an errand boy for Messrs. Scrimshaw, house furnishers, Dolphin Lane (below) for 3 shillings and sixpence a week.

A year later he became apprenticed as a cabinet maker with Simpson and Son's and when his apprenticeship was completed he went to Newcastle and later spent a year with a firm in Louth before returning to Simpson's, of Boston, (below) with whom he spent the next 22 years, the last ten as foreman.

Mr. Twiddy had always had the ambition to start his own business, and eventually he bought the premises of Mr. W. Darby, undertaker and art dealer, in Wormgate, where he continued the business of undertaker and converted the shop into a furniture dealers emporium.  The only help he had at this time was from his brother, Mr. Sidney Twiddy, but later the showrooms were much enlarged (by 1924 he occupied numbers 41, 43 and 45 Wormgate) and modernised and his two sons entered the business, and he employed a cabinet maker, an apprentice and an upholsterer.
In 1893 Henry became a member of the Grove Street Congregational Church, became a Deacon in 1915 and became treasurer of the church (below) in 1934, he was also a member of the choir for many years.

Marriage, death and murder.

In August 1653 an Act of Parliament ordained that Banns of Marriage should be published three times on three seperate Sundays in the church or, if the parties desired, it in the Market Place on three market days, between the hours of eleven and two.

It was in January 1654 that the first banns of marriage were published in Boston Market Place, although before that marriages had been solemnised before a magistrate. The banns of marriage were published in Boston between 150 couples in 1656, 48 proclaimed in the church and 102 in the Market Place.
1657 saw 104 in the Market Place and 31 in church and in 1658 the Market Place 108 and the church 52.
The last recorded proclamation in the Market Place was on 1st. July 1659. It is also recorded that banns were published in Boston Market Place between parties residing at a considerable distance from the town - Spalding, Horncastle, Louth, Leicester and Warwick.

The Church and Market Place, Boston.

 

Here are a few more intriguing entries on Boston's records.

1672. William Pawmer died distracted in prison.
1676. Orlin Bradley drowned in the church well.
1681. Thomas Brown slain by a beer cart.
1770. Robert Harrold of Friskney, killed in a fray. (see below)
1737. Patrick Gregory, a mariner, killed by a fall from the south west pinnacle of the steeple.
1748. Richard Everett, a joiner, deposited in a tomb in his own garden in a coffin made by himself.

The Oxford Magazine for July 1770 recorded that, "Last Wednesday ended the assizes at Lincoln, when James Kearney, a private dragoon in Bland's regiment, received sentence of death, for the wilful murder of Robert Harrold, of Friikney, in that county. The murder was perpetrated at Boston. He was executed last Thursday, and afterwards his body was delivered to the surgeons for dissection."

St. James's Church

Thank you to Heidi Chester for this photo of St. James’s Church in George Street. Heidi thinks the 3 storey house on the left is still there (No.9?). It is from a postcard and the post mark indicates a date of 1924.St. James’s church was a chapel of ease to the Parish Church. The foundation stone was laid on St. James’s Day 1861 and it occupied two years building. It was opened for public worship on 24^th August 1864. It was built in the Gothic style and was designed by Mr. G. Hackford, Westminster, hon. Architect.
I remember during the 1960’s little dances were held there called “Bob hops” due to the fact that it cost a shilling (a Bob) to get in, I also remember a Youth Club being held there where I first heard “Come on” (the Rolling Stones first ever record) which made me a life-long fan of the Stones!! Happy days. I think it was demolished in 1969 but am not certain.

The same view today, looking from Fydell Crescent toward the old Wickes's store.

　　

Two Signs

The man stood in front of St. Botolph's Church in this picture is Mr. G.E. Hackford’s (a Boston photographer) Uncle. There are two signs above the doorway he is standing in, one warned people where the key to the fire station was obtainable, while the other draws attention to the fact that shaking rugs in the churchyard is not permitted!!

Congregational church

The Congregational Church in Red Lion Street was opened on November 21st, 1850 and was designed by Mr. Stephen Lewin.

It occupied the site of an old theatre (near the present site of the N.C.P. car park) and some of the materials from this were re-used where suitable in the new building.

Above: the Congregational church, top centre with the spire.

The church was approached by a flight of seventeen steps, and the tower contained a staircase. The main entrance had a semicircular doorway and above this there was a large rose window.
The tower, with the exception of the sills to the windows, was entirely constructed of brick, of a tint approaching that of stone.
The interior of the church was divided by two aisles into three divisions of seats.
The exterior length of the church was 62 feet and the width 37 feet 6 inches. By the time the photo below was taken the tower had disappeared and the church itself was demolished in the 1960's.

One of our aircraft is missing

One of Our Aircraft is Missing (parts of which were filmed in Boston) is a 1942 British war film that was made under the authority of the Ministry of Information. It begins dramatically with the crash of "B for Bertie", a  Wellington bomber whose crew were forced to bail out over Holland after one of their engines was damaged during a night time raid on Stuttgart. It goes on to tell the story of how they are helped by the Dutch resistance.Many of the outdoor scenes set in Holland were filmed at Boston (as in 1942 the Germans still occupied the Netherlands) and many of the town's landmarks are visible in the film for example the quaysides, the Railway Swing Bridge (below) and the Church house at the top of Wormgate.