Early 1920's Fire Brigade.

At a meeting of the Boston Town Council in the early 1920's a new scheme was adopted with a view to do away with the difficulties of transport of the fire engines. Accordingly the old manual engine was mounted upon a Ford lorry chassis, and the difficulty of obtaining horses was eliminated.
The members of the brigade standing outside the Municipal Buildings in West Street above are left to right.
Back row : Fireman May,  2nd. Engineer Budge,  and V. McGuire.
Front row : Capt. Wells,  Senior Fireman Jessop,  Assistant Fireman Graves,  Fireman Savage,  Wright,  1st. Officer Trevitt,  and 2nd. Officer Bradley.

Tom Kemp

Tom Kemp retired in March 1937 after 44 years of employment as a paver and slabber at Boston Corporation, paving the streets at the time when they were of granite slabs. He was one of the first to pass over the Town Bridge after it was reconstructed (in 1913) and helped to pull the old bridge down of which he had a memento, a piece of ironwork in the shape of a figure "8", that his wife used as a stand for the flat-iron!

The old and new Town Bridge.

 

He helped in the construction of the Municipal Buildings and one of his last jobs was near the Sluice Bridge where he helped to make the circle (the small roundabout?) near the bridge and lay the pavement from Tattershall Road up to the bridge. For 15 of those years he was transferred from the town down to the dock, and while going to work from his home in London Road one day over the Swing Bridge, wheeling his bicycle, he got almost over the bridge when a railway engine came down the line. He couldn't get away and was pinned between the bridge and the engine. The bicycle was torn in half and he was left holding the handle-bars and the front wheel.
On another occasion he was helping to trace a gas leak in West Street when he struck a pebble while shovelling out soil. The spark from the pebble ignited the leakage in a main pipe but he jumped out before any damage more serious than singed eyebrows had occurred!
One embarrassing occasion which stayed in his mind was when he had been stationed outside the Municipal Buildings when they were opened in order to take the tickets of those who had been invited. He stopped one man from going through because he hadn't got a ticket and refused to let him pass, then the Police came and told him that the man was Mr. Doughty, the M.P. for Grimsby!

Boston celebrates the relief of Mafekin

Lord Baden-Powell

Lord Baden-Powell, although outnumbered, defended Mafeking for 218 days during the Boer War and when the town was finally relieved in May 1900 by a British force the whole of Britain, including Boston, went wild with rejoicing...........

The Royal Standard floated from the Municipal Buildings, a Union Jack was hoisted on the tower of the Stump and flags were raised on other public buildings. Men, Women and Children donned red, white and blue rosettes and ribbons, horses, carts and carriages were adorned with smaller editions of the national flag. Children marched through the street bearing banners and singing patriotic songs, men congregated in public places and indulged in much hand shaking and the bells of the Stump rang out all day. In the evening the band of the Artillery Volunteers paraded the town playing patriotic music.

The Market Place, High Street, Bargate and West Street were all adorned, one of the premises in the Market Place being literally covered in Union Jacks, the letters "V R" were formed in fairy lights on the front of the building and illuminated at night.

The news formed the one topic of conversation, Near the Town Bridge, Mr. Fred Parker sang the National Anthem with band accompaniment, and the incident roused the hundreds of spectators.

The following Thursday was Queen Victoria's birthday and the two events were celebrated together on this day. Proceedings opened at 10.54 a.m. when the band of the 1st. Lincolnshire Voluntary Artillery played The National Anthem, Rule Britannia and Soldiers of the Queen from the Stump tower. In the Market Place later in the afternoon was an Orchestral Band and a parade of the Artillery and Rifle Volunteers and a grand parade of cyclists, motor cars, pony traps, ponies, riders in costume and machines and traps artistically decorated. A concert and variety entertainment in the Market Place were followed by the ascent of fire balloons from Bargate Green. The cattle market was illuminated and there were fireworks and rockets followed by a huge bonfire on Bargate Green. And the memorable day concluded with three ringing cheers for the Queen and three for Baden-Powell.

Old Postcards

Below are some of the many postcards that have been published over the years of Boston.

Various views

The Stump from the Town Bridge



Various

The Municipal Buildings, West Street

The Swing Bridge

Upsall's boat hire, Witham Bank

The Wesleyan Chapel, Red Lion Street

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.