Some Mkt. Place lanes.

CORNHILL LANE.

Cornhill Lane when it was named Cockbourne Lane.

This street name is comparatively modern, it was formerly called Cockbourne Lane and once was the site of the Post Office.

DOLPHIN LANE.

Jessop's of Dolphin Lane in 1936.

Dolphin Lane has been a busy thoroughfare since Boston's early history. The ancient name of the street is lost but the present name was, in all probability, taken from an inn called The Dolphin that stood near the east end of the narrowest part of the lane. In the 1880's this inn had an unenviable reputation and, some years later, the licence was revoked and the premises used by Mr. Charles Small as a mission room. The old buildings were ultimately destroyed by fire along with the furniture stores previously occupied by Mr. W. Scrimshaw.

Scrimshaw's of Dolphin Lane.

PETTICOAT LANE.

Some believe that the name of Petticoat Lane (like that of Threadneedle Street) was copied from the street of that name in London, others have another explanation. In a map of 1742 Petticoat Lane is called Smock Alley and what is now called Mitre Lane (in Strait Bargate) was then called Petticoat Lane. When these names were given it is just possible that these lanes, leading as they did, from the central area to walks through fields and pastures, may have been a favourite meeting place for the wearers of smocks and petticoats.

Memories of Boston.

In 1914, Mr. James Faunt (then over eighty years old) of 10, Cornhill Lane looked back and told us of West Street in the old days.

West Street he said was largely a residential street and was one of the main arteries of the town but it also had the offices and warehouses of a great many of the business firms of Boston. The dwelling houses were frequently of great age and almost the last of them (a row of particularly old houses pictured below) were demolished and the Municipal Buildings built on the site in the early 1900's.

An old mansion house stood on the present site of the Co-operative Stores and nearby the business establishment of Mr. Norris had, in its rear, a garden forming part of a paddock from which the name of Paddock Grove arose. The paddock provided a feeding space for sheep and cattle but was also used by the children of the town as a playground.

Mr.William Mumford of 9, Tunnard Street who was 82 years old in 1914 also left us some good descriptions of the town. He was born in the neighbourhood of the Workhouse in Skirbeck Road and a few years later in about 1844 moved with his parents to West Street to a house at the rear of the shop of Mr. J.H. Clarke, a fruiterer, near the Primitive Methodist Chapel (below, near present day P.C. World).

Here his father had five acres of garden, a portion of which was destined to be the the site of the present railway of which he went to the opening of in 1848.

He also remembered seeing Queen Victoria passing through the town on a train, there were some pear trees near the station and he put a ladder against one of them and climbed it to get a good view. Passing on, he remarked that we should have seen the market when all the country lads came in the town in smock frocks or slops on, and with their braided waistcoats.

He remembered a time when there used to be dancing booths open all night, there was one at the Little Peacock he said, and they had a fiddler and a cornet player. He also said that there were some good boxers in those days recalling the names of Joe East and three of the Holden family. "Tom Holden was a little fellow of about 9 stones" he continued "and I once went down to the Scalp Marsh to see a fight between him and Joe East"

"I think Joe East had the hardest head of anyone, I have often seen him run butt at a wall with his head." He would shout "You can't hurt my head, I don't care how you hit it" "I have often seen him do it where the Rum Puncheon is (below, the present day Stump and Candle)."

There used to be some fine does at the Queens Head (just over Bargate bridge) and the London Tavern (opposite the present day Waterfront pub and both pictured below) he said.

They had a free and easy at the London Tavern every Thursday night and some good singers there were too, there was "Diggery" Pearson, he used to sing some queer songs, he was a comical card.

Finally Mr. Mumford tells us that years before he used to go down Tattershall Road to the race meeting, there were many flat races and for one event "trays" were put down for the horses to jump. He had seen hundreds of people on the high bank on one side of the course, where drinking booths were erected by various publicans.