Nellie and Leslie, a Boston fishing smack.

The Nellie & Leslie story begins back in 1911 when a Boston fisherman, Mr Norris, known affectionately by the locals as ‘Sweet Tea’, commissioned a fishing smack from the Kings Lynn based shipyard of Wolfords, run by Gerald and William Wolford. The ship was completed and made its maiden voyage down to Boston in 1911 to serve Sweet Tea, who named the craft after his two children, Nellie & Leslie.

The Nellie and Leslie, moored up on the river down London Road, with the swing bridge in the background.

The boat was used for fishing anything from sprat to shrimp, and made regular trips into the Wash, and up the East Coast towards Grimsby on occasion too, serving Sweet Tea faithfully for over 20 years. Disaster struck the boat when it collided with another vessel in heavy fog in the Wash, and eventually sank. Fellow fisherman Albert Bagley heard about the wreck and decided to rescue the boat, returning her to Boston to patch her up. Albert used the boat from 1932, even equipping her with a Sherman tank engine sourced from GM, used in some of the earliest tanks during the war. “She was the fastest thing on the Wash at the time.” recalled Albert’s son, Ken, who worked on the boat alongside brother Steven until 1979. “She would achieve over 30 knots and was really well-known both in Boston and further up the East Coast at Grimsby docks.”

Her career on the Wash nearing its end, Nellie & Leslie was sold to a businessman from Lowestoft for just £250, and was eventually purchased by a trio of German marine engineers who were looking for an excuse to keep in touch following their engineering studies and were looking for a project on which they could work during their spare time.
As part of their fact-finding mission, the German engineers visited Boston, and met up with both Ken and Steven who remembered their workshop contained a few of the boat’s original elements, including the original sails.
“They went absolutely wild!” said Ken. “They were really keen that lots of reclaimed materials should be used, and the idea that their new engine could be supplemented by its original sails delighted them!”
The Germans took the sails back to Bremerhaven and made a final promise to Ken and Steven; they’d return to Boston to celebrate its centenary in exactly the same year that Ken and Steven Bagley’s father, Albert, would also have celebrated his 100th birthday.
The sailors kept their promise and sailed into Boston in 2011 with a much transformed Nellie & Leslie — the boat’s sale being made on the condition that its name would remain. Nellie & Leslie now boasted a brand new deck crafted in African teak, and a new Mercedes engine with 80hp.
It’s a dedicated pleasure craft, sailing at around 10 knots with seven tonnes of lead replacing the previous 10 tonne iron ballast. Inside, a 10 berth cabin replaced the previous 11 tonne fish hold, and now features a lounge area, galley and bathroom.
“It’s a beautiful craft.” said Müller. “We wanted to create a craft from which we could see the world, it’s a pre-retirement project but also something we can pass on to our children.”
The trio left Bremerhaven and sailed to England over the course of three days, being led into the Wash by Ken and Steven to celebrate the craft’s anniversary by spending five days in Boston.
“We fell in love with her!” said Alexander, who made the voyage with sons Vincent & Martin, and Max & Johannes Dellman. “Since buying her and restoring her, we’ve spent time sailing around the Baltic during our summer vacations.
We really didn’t expect such a warm welcome, and we had some really gorgeous weather with beautiful blue skies during the journey, so it really was a pleasure to bring the boat back to its home!”
The sailors were presented with a picture of Nellie & Leslie in her earlier incarnation, and were treated to a tour of Boston including some of the favourite pubs of the 23 fishermen then based in Boston, as well as a trip to the top of Boston Stump to enjoy a panoramic view of the Wash’s market town.
"We can’t believe how many came to see the boat, and some were even in tears as they’d worked on it or seen it in their youth.” said Alexander.

Oddments.

A few spare oddments.

 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/aearchive/8029370279/

This photograph is believed to have been taken in about August 1926, possibly at the opening of the playing field, which was situated next to the Black Sluice Bridge on London Road, Boston. Children from St. Thomas’ School and the surrounding area enjoyed the play area for many years until it was closed.
In the front row - Phyllis Charlton, Frank and Eva Chapman, Cyril Handley, Ron Diggins, Charles Atkinson, Terry Corrigan, Eric Stray, Ralph Broadley, Ruby Parker, Peggy Kemp, Ray Popple, (?) Clayton, (?) Barwick, Doris Bagley, Doreen Wain (baby in pram) and Elsie Patchett.
Others on the photograph are Gertie Bourne, Ethel Hunt, Barbara and Doug Baxter, Maurice East, Ralph Buff, Dick Hammond (on rings) and Jack Fletcher.

The demolition of the cattle pens in Wide Bargate about 1974.

 

 

Undated photo of marching dockers taken outside what looks like the Co-op Stores in West Street.

 

 

An unknown bus driver and conductress taken outside the Post Office in Wide Bargate.

 

An advert for Hubbert's Hairdressing Saloon.

 

 

An undated photo of an old T.V. detector van down Tower Street.

 

 

 

 The Stump and the river.

Arthur Morton, a Bostonian to remember.

Please see http://www.diggersdiary.co.uk/Articles/ArthurParishMorton/Morton_Boston.htm

Arthur Morton was born in 1872 in Boston. He started a mineral water business some time between 1901 and about 1910, as a sideline to a grocers, bakers, and provision merchants business he already owned at 70 Blue Street. By going into the grocery business Arthur was following in the footsteps of his father William, who had a grocers shop on London Road in Boston for several decades up to about 1920 (William was also the landlord of the Black Bull pub, next door to his shop).

Above:
Arthur Morton outside the Blue Street shop, probably about 1909 or 1910, with his delivery cart pulled by his pony ‘Topsy’. Various enamel advertisements can be seen on the walls including Fry's Cocoa, Rowntrees Chocolates, and Colmans Starch.
Arthurs drinks business was entirely for fizzy pop. He used Penny Monsters bottles, stone flagons and 10oz codds. The codds, and possibly the flagons, had his own name on them, but the Monsters bottles were the standard ‘franchised’ type of one pint screw stoppered bottle, embossed ‘Monsters’ but without any proprietors name.

Above:
Arthur (on the right) in the yard of his mineral water business, also in Blue Street, some time in 1913.
Arthur was in the pre – 1914 equivalent of the Territorial Army, having joined while he was still a teenager in the 1890s. He was called up for active service abroad on the 10th September 1914, a month after the war started and by October 1914 (within a year or two of the photograph above being taken) he was on the Western Front with the 7th Division. He was a driver for 105 Battery of XXII Brigade Royal Field Artillery, and between October 1914 and September 1916 he was involved in most of the major British battles of 1914, 1915 and 1916 including 1st Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, Loos, Aubers Ridge, and the Somme.

Above:
Arthur (on the right) in a studio portrait taken in France or Flanders, probably in 1915 or early 1916, along with his best friend of the time ‘Nobby’ Clark (or Clarke).
Arthur was invalided back to England in September or October 1916 after being incapacitated during the Battle of the Somme. He had shell shock (and possibly a head wound), and never fully recovered. Both his mineral water company and his grocers shop were already out of business before he returned to England. In 1917 his wife and children moved from Boston to Grimsby, where Arthur joined them after several months of convalescence at the Lord Derby War Hospital in Warrington, and then at the smaller hospital at Poulton-le-Fylde.
Arthur suffered badly from the effects of shell shock for the rest of his life. For several years he could only cope with quiet and low-intensity work. After spending several months in hospital he returned to his family in Lincolnshire. He managed to find a job as caretaker of the smallpox hospital in the rural setting of Laceby, near Grimsby. Eventually he moved on to other work, but he never again ran his own business. He died in 1937 at the age of 65, two weeks before he was due to retire.

Arthur's Father, William Morton's shop on London Road, Boston, about 1918 - 1920. The taller building immediately to the left is the Black Bull pub, of which William was the landlord for many years. William died in 1920, and his shop was taken over by two of his daughters
(Arthurs sisters).