Some old street names,

Thanks to Harry Fountain, a lover of local history, for the following.

When Swineshead Abbey (5 miles from Boston) was in its palmy days the Abbot is said to have been "rowed in his barge to the ford at the entrance to Boston, where the Abbey owned a house and garden near the mill." This street became Ford End Lane, then Forthe End Lane, Farthing Lane, Fir Dale Lane and ultimately West Street as it is still known today.
Carlton Road was an old road formerly known as Butt Lane. Towards the close of the 15th century King Edward IV issued an order that archery butts should be provided on the borders of each township. The Boston butts were situated on the west bank of the river, Butt Lane leading to them. The butts on the east side of town were situated near Bargate Bridge on the town side of the stream known as the Scyre Beck, now the Maud Foster Drain.
George Street, King Street, Queen Street and Innocent Street (top of King Street) are said to have been named as a result of the trial of Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV, who was tried for adultery and found to be innocent.
Liquorpond Street was once called Walnut Tree Pastures, a road called Water Lane connected it with High Street (once called Gowt Street} via what is now Victoria Place.

LIQUORPOND STREET

There are a couple of stories to suggest how Liquorpond Street got its name. The first is that there was once a chain of ponds around the area and two extensive breweries, one at the Lord Nelson and one at the Royal Oak might have discharged their surplus water into one or other of these ponds.

Another more interesting one is that an old sailor went into one of the pubs in High Street and while the landlord was not looking stole a bottle of liquor. The bottle was missed almost immediately, and when the landlord went to the door of the inn he saw the man running up High Street. Together with other men he gave chase, and the man was caught in the lower part of what is now called Liquorpond Street but was then Walnut Tree Pasture. The man denied having stolen the liquor, but was handed over to the officers of the law and ultimately put on trial. The man had been thoroughly searched but no liquor was found on him and he was acquitted. About 20 years later one of the ponds was being cleaned out and the missing bottle was found. Realising that he could not outrun his pursuers the old sailor had evidently thrown the bottle of liquor into the pond.

Day's Cash Stores

Thank you to Kim Loos, who lives in Minnesota in the U.S., who e-mailed me to say that Day's Cash Stores (which was situated in West Street, and later the site of the Wimpy Bar) was founded by his Great Grandfather Charles W. Day. He says the original building was destroyed in a fire in 1910 and replaced within the year by the building that housed the Wimpy Bar and that Days went out of business when his Grand Uncles retired. Charles Day was also mayor of the borough in 1924/25. He and his wife donated the gates to Central Park and the electrified Five Lamps that stood in the Market Place and can now to be seen in Liquorpond Street. He also attached a 1925 photo of Charles and Ellen (nee Ward) Day.

Above: Day's Cash Stores. Below: The same site in 2012. Notice the left hand side pillar from the old shop didn't get destroyed in the demolition and is still to be seen today.

Charles and Ellen Day.

The lamps in the Market Place that Charles Day donated, they are now situated in Liquorpond Street.

 

The Five Lamps

The Market Cross (below) stood in the Market Place until 1730 when it was taken down

and the Buttercross (below) erected in its place in 1732. The Buttercross itself was demolished in 1822.

The first set of Lamps were presented to the town (and erected on the Buttercross site) in 1842 by Mr. Henry Rogers who was Town Clerk of Boston from 1816 to 1831. At first there was only a solitary light (see below in this 1842 print)


described by Pishey Thompson as ‘an ornamental and very useful lamp’ but four more lights were added by the Lighting Commissioners in 1848.

By 1927 the Lincolnshire Standard was saying ‘They have had their day, and now their bulky base is a hindrance to the increasing road traffic’, also in the same issue Mr. Thomas Kent said that ‘the old standard was modelled by his Grandfather, when the lamps were cast at that once flourishing local works, Tuxford’s foundry’
So it was that in 1927 a new column of electric lights (below)

was erected and the tradition of the old lamps was preserved by having three smaller lights on the column in addition to the two main bracket lamps above.
By the time the photograph below was taken in the 1960's the three smaller lamps had disappeared, presumably to make room for the road signs.

These lamps were themselves taken up and repositioned (below)

in front of the old Elephant and Castle pub in Liqourpond Street (which then changed its name to the Five Lamps but is now a Chinese Restaurant) where they can still be seen today.
For many years on New Years Eve the young (and the not so young I remember) tried to climb to the top of the lamps but the tradition seems to have died off now.
Since their removal various modern lamp standards have been erected and we are left with the characterless view we see today (2011 below) with even the traffic roundabout gone.
On a brighter note at the present time (2011) there is a plan to re-install a replica of the old Five Lamps or move the 1927 lamps back to their original position in the town centre.

UPDATE. Finally on July 6th. 2012, the replica of the old five lamps (below) is erected in the Market Place and the story has turned full circle.