Some Oddments.

 An old bottle.

Thanks to Tony Pygott who informed me that William Towell was landlord at the Lord Nelson in 1841, the pub having previously been in the hands on Ann Towell in the 1820's and 30's. The pub brewed its own beer and was still brewing 30 years later. This dates the bottle to the middle of the 1800's. 

 A Steam train at the station.

 A jug with the Stump printed on it.

 A model of a Boston Deep Sea Fishing and Ice Co. goods wagon, the type that would have been used in Boston.

 A mug with the Boston Coat of Arms.

 Boston station, looking toward West Street crossing, c. 1965.

 Above and below: Boston Barracudas speedway badges.

 Below: The Boston Bowling Club badge.

Below: A postcard c. 1917.

Below: A platform ticket for Boston Station.

Death on the Railway.

Below is just one of the many deaths that occured on the railways at Boston.

In 1907 a fatality occurred on the Great Northern Railway at Boston. The victim was a porter named Samuel Wilson, aged 30, who lived at No. 2, Bartol's Row, Brothertoft Road.
He had been on the staff as a porter since November 1902, and was doing temporary duty as an assistant shunter, and was piloting a goods train from the Sluice Bridge through the station.

Boston Railway Station in the early 1900's.

When it arrived at the West Street crossing he jumped off the engine, with the intention it was supposed, of giving some directions to the signalman. Unfortunately he stepped immediately in front of a light engine, which was being brought from the locomotive shed into the station by a driver named Gee. Poor Mr. Wilson was thrown along the line for a distance of five or six yards, and although Mr. Gee pulled the engine up with all possible haste, its wheels passed over Mr. Wilson's body. Inspector Kane, of the railway companies police, was at hand at the time, and he personally removed the body from beneath the engine. A doctor was sent for at once, but it was plain that nothing could be done for him. The upper portion of his skull had been taken off, and both legs were crushed, so that death must have been instantaneous. Several people who were standing at the crossing waiting for the gates to re-open, witnessed the occurence. The only explanation that could be guessed at was that Mr. Wilson forgot to look out before stepping from the footboard, or that the approaching train was obscured from view by steam from his own engine. The body was removed to the Eagle Hotel to await the Coroner's inquiry. He was a married man but had no children and was known among his friends as an extremely religious man. He was a member of the Railway Mission, and was familiarly known as "Salvation Sammy." Among the effects found in his coat pocket was a Bible, with his name on the flyleaf.

Below:  The Railway Mission Hall used to stand in Fydell Crescent, the site is now part of Marriott's Motors who thankfully saved this stone from it and placed it in their reception area.

Mishaps.

Yesterday (Monday 25th March 2013) an articulated lorry driver took a wrong turn into Powell Street Boston, a narrow street  which is also a dead end. As he tried to reverse out he got caught up in overhead wires, which were attached to a chimney on one of houses, this pulled the stack off the roof and on to the residents caravan causing damage. No-one was hurt in the incident and the driver can take comfort to know that he is not the first to suffer in Boston's streets.
I remember in the 1980's when C.B. radios were popular, one driver was asking for directions and someone just for a laugh (Boston sense of humour?) sent him completely out of his way and he ended up in the narrow road that is at the side of the Stump.
Another two incidents were caught on film, the first happened round about 1978 when the lorry below got stuck in Mitre Lane off Strait Bargate. This in itself would be bad enough but remember this is now a pedestrian area and in those days had two way traffic running through it!!

The picture below was taken in 1993, what a place to have a crash!! Right on the West Street railway crossing!!

 

 

 

Boston's first railway bridge.

Below is a view of the first railway bridge in Boston over the River Witham, erected by the Great Northern Railway Company and opened for traffic on October 30th 1848. The bridge carried a single line of rails over the river in a sweeping curve. In the process of reproduction and reduction, interesting features of the original picture  have been more or less lost to view. Two trains, for instance, are seen travelling in opposite directions, on the opposite sides of the river, on a single line of rails. But as a railway official is seen waving a flag in face of the train approaching the point where the present level-crossing exists, it is to be supposed that all danger of a head on collision midway of the bridge was thus averted.
A good deal of shipping appears to be moored just beyond the Sluice Bridge, adjacent to the Railway Bridge. The old buildings on the left of the picture are old warehouses that later became Beeson's Glass Merchants and are now modernised and converted into housing accommodation. See second picture below for the warehouses at a later date.

Before the railways came

Travel in Boston in the early 1700's was still something of an adventure, people did not often travel for pleasure and those that did travel went on horseback. For the people who had to travel and the transport of goods, there was, first of all, the stage coach.

Two coaches passing the Red Cow in Wide Bargate.

Stage coaches ran between London and York and stopped at Stamford and Grantham on the Great North Road. Boston was cut off from this great highway but in February 1786 it was announced that a stage coach to carry four inside passengers was to run three times a week from Spilsby, Boston, Spalding, Peterborough and Huntingdon to London. It took nearly a day and a half to get to London and stopped the night at Peterborough, leaving again at 5 a.m. next morning.

A stagecoach in the Market Place.

From July 1st. 1787 a diligence left the Peacock Inn, Boston on Sundays and Thursdays at 9. a.m. and went by way of Wainfleet to Skegness.

A coach outside The Peacock Hotel.

During the 1700's an increasing proportion of rough goods went by water. The Witham had always been the main link between Boston and Lincoln, and the means by which the goods shipped to the Port of Boston found their way into, and out of, the county. There was a good deal of coasting trade between Boston and London and boats regularly plied on inland waterways. This water transport was increasing right down to the coming of the railway. In an old Lincolnshire directory of 1821 there was advertised a steam packet running every day between Lincoln and Boston for both passengers and goods.

Very swiftly in the end the coach and river trade were overtaken by the railway which arrived in Boston in 1848.

THREE FORGOTTEN NAMES

HALF CROWN HILL.

The Ostrich and Gaol, demolished to enlarge the churchyard.

In 1774, Mr. John Parish gave the Ostrich public house and several buildings and shops adjoining for the purpose of enlarging the churchyard upon the condition that the Corporation would give the old Gaol and two shops for the same use. Behind these houses there was part of the churchyard called Half Crown Hill which had long been used as the burial ground of the lower classes and where, in consequence, the ground had been raised, until it was level with the windows of the Ostrich looking into the churchyard. The hill was levelled, the houses taken down, and iron gates and palisades next to the Market Place were erected.

BETTY BARBER'S LANE.

Stells Lane.

Betty Barber's Lane was the old name for Stells Lane in London Road. The lane appears to have been an old footpath that ran along the boundary line of the town, dividing Boston from Skirbeck and years ago a young girl named Betty Barber was killed while crossing the railway by this path, hence the name. After this fatality the Railway Company was put to the great expense of erecting a high wooden bridge that carried the footway over the shunting yard. This was later taken down and a new concrete footbridge (now demolished) was built near the present Black Sluice.

PARADISE ROW.

Church Close (below) was once known as Paradise Row.

Red Lion "Bus"

In July 1964 Mr. Arthur Windley, a poultry farmer of Mareham-le-Fen bought the remains of a horse drawn 'bus' which was being auctioned at Frampton. Mr. Windley managed to get the bus for nine shillings and even he at the time described it as "a heap of firewood" So why so much interest then? Well, the old horse drawn bus, minus chassis and forecarriage (which was eventually got to Mr. Windleys farmyard at Mareham) was one of Boston's two Red Lion buses which used to transport passengers from the Red Lion Hotel to the Railway Station.
Mr Windley was hoping to rebuild the bus to its original state, "It's in a terrible state, I'm going to have to spend a lot of money to restore it", he said.
I don't know whether Mr. Windley did restore the vehicle or not, maybe someone out there knows the outcome of this story?

The horse drawn vehicle (above right) in the picture was a Red Lion Hotel bus.

Grand Sluice railway bridge

The Railway bridge over the Grand Sluice was designed by Richard Johnson, chief engineer of the Great Northern Railway.

 It was built by Stanningley Iron Works in Leeds.

It was opened to traffic in May 1885 to replace the original wooden bridge of 1848 and is still in use today.

The Railways

The Railways arrived in Boston in 1848.

By the early 1900’s they were the biggest employers in the town.

In its heyday the station alone employed over 50 staff

Today, only the line to Skegness and the line towards Sleaford remain in use. There was previously a southbound line to Spalding that joined the line to Peterborough its route is now the main A16 road.

Left : An Engine near the Black Bridge, a footbridge at the bottom of Duke Street that led to Locomotive Street.

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.

Human remains

In April 1900 human remains were found in a sack in Boston and were about to be sent away for disposal before they were discovered.
The scene of their discovery was the Railway Goods Yard where they had been sent to be forwarded on in the ordinary course of business by a rag and bone man. A railway employee, who knew something about the human skeleton, noticed a bone protruding from the sack and realised it was the forearm and hand of a girl!! He told James Carr, a carter who was unloading in the yard and Carr took possession of the bone and hurried up to the Police Station

The Railway Goods Yard at Boston.

The police were soon upon the scene, with them came the Medical Officer and the Sanitary Inspector and others officially concerned (as at this time it looked very serious) but after a while it was proved there had not been any murder or tragedy.
Enquiries showed they were broken up skeletons from the sale of the late Dr. Snaith in Pump Square and their recovery at least rescued them from a fate that would seem incredible to us today.
There were several skulls - the number was variously given as three and five - and the bones of an adult’s and a young female’s skeletons. They were all contained in the sack, and their destination, along with a truck load of animal bones, was a factory at Newark that crushed bones and turned them into manure!!
It seems the skulls and skeletons were “cleared out” at Dr. Snaith’s sale as a job lot, they were taken to a rag and bone yard by a man named Blades and received in the normal way without too much attention being paid to them. Their man was loading iron when the bones were brought in and were passed as ordinary commercial animal bones.
The human fragments were eventually decently interred under the directions of the Medical Officer.