Good neighbours.

Robin Smith sent me this amusing story written by John Geoffrey Horton (1900/2002)who as a boy lived in Cheyney Street and was educated at Tower Road School. He says that on Market days in the 1990s Geoff used to hold court in the Still where a stream of people would come up to him and ask him all manner of questions about old Boston and to identify people and places on old photographs of the town, although a modest man he did this with ease due to his vast knowledge of the subject.

A Bullock in the Bedroom

by J.G.Horton.

On a very hot summer afternoon around 1910 all was quiet in Bargate End. It was hot and sultry and everyone who could had put work to one side. Fred Staniland the Barber was sitting in his shop doorway reading his newspaper. Tubby Wright the Butcher and his man Bill Raithby were sitting in the shop with the window and door wide open and the meat in the Ice Box. The Ram doors were wide open,in those far off days the pubs could open from 6am to midnight. The Vet Walter Dickinson had taken off his morning coat and was fanning himself. His coachman Tom Harrison was standing talking to Tom Foreman at the Smithy and there were others taking their ease.It was even to hot for us boys to play at anything energetic. In those days there were trees and grass around Mill Hill.

Mill Hill.

One lady who lived there was frequently taken with the "vapours" as she put it and had to have another little tot of brandy. This trouble often occurred several times a day. Her house had iron railings around the little garden and as she crossed over to the Ram for another little tonic she left the house door and garden gate wide open, it was of no real concern, as from her seat in the Ram she could see the house.

The Ram.

Suddenly the scene changed, a few bullocks were being driven from the Bargate Bridge direction and the drover stayed to have a word with the Smithy, the beasts seeing a small patch of grass went to it and after a moment the drover rather noisily tried to round up his small herd and they scattered. One of them bolted through the garden gate and house door and up the stairs, it came to a standstill wedged between wardrobe and the bed. "Here was a pretty kettle of fish". Everyone suddenly aroused from their rest and ran across to the scene and a plan of action was generally approved. Tom Harrison fetched a long ladder from Dickinsons yard, Bill Raithby fetched a big rope from the slaughter house in the Ram Yard. Tom Harrison broke the bedroom window and got in, Bill Raithby climbed the stairs and threw the loop of the rope to Tom Harrison who was standing on the bed and he slipped the loop over the animals horns, a light rope was also attached to one of the beasts hind legs to encourage it to walk backwards, meanwhile the frenzied animal was struggling to get free and broke many things in the process. When all was ready gentle pulling was exerted on the ropes and the animal very slowly responded and backed down the stairs. The filth and damage was indescribable. Meanwhile our lady had had to have a little more revival spirit and was by this time in no fit state for anything, she was helped into Mrs Gooses shop to sleep it off. Meanwhile willing hands with buckets of water and brushes cleaned up the worst of the mess and various ladies around and about helped clean up the house and so ended a hot summer afternoon.

SOME PHOTO ODDMENTS.


Here are a few pictures that I can't find stories for at the moment, I hope you enjoy them.

In 1978 this lorry got stuck when the driver tried to get out of Mitre Lane in Bargate.

One of the many sets of cards given away by Beaulahs of Boston with their food products.

The Railway Mission Hall was in Fydell Crescent. Marriots Motors offices were built on the site and thankfully Marriotts kept this stone and built it into the new property.

The sixties group The Animals, on stage at the "Glider"

The last commercial sailing vessel to leave Boston Dock.

Some Boston nick nacks for the tourist trade.

An old Vesta case (match case) showing the Boston Coat of Arms.

An old picture of Carlton Road School.

Houses that were pulled down in Duke Street.

Looking out onto the Market Place from the Peacock and Royal window, note the Rum Puncheon in top right corner.

The Peacock and Royals curved window on show at the Guildhall.

Lord Nelson's Field in about 1966, built on its place now is the Nelson Way Industrial Estate.

Buildings on the corner of Pen Street and Main Ridge, demolished when John Adams Way was built.

The building of John Adams Way in the 1970's, with The Ram pub at centre right.

An old potato weighing machine used in the old hand-picking days.

The demolition of the Regal Cinema in West Street.

This is the Zion Church which was itself demolished and the Regal built on its site.

An old Lincolnshire Road Car bus and below an old Sharpes bus.

And finally some more nick nacks.

Description of The Peacock and the Red Lion (1904)

A description of the Peacock and Royal and the Red Lion in 1904 by an American visitor Josephine Tozier.

The Peacock and Royal.

The front is decorated by bright flowers and long trailing vines growing from the window-boxes on the balconies, and above all is a most gorgeous sign of the most gorgeous of birds, from which it takes its name. We ate our comfortable little dinner in the coffee-room……it was nine o'clock before we left the table. We were too tired to explore Boston's winding ways, and, as it was too early for bed, I had this time secured a large front room looking over the market-place, and my sleepy friends soon found entertainment there.

The sound of a twanging banjo, which came from beneath our window, gathered the few stragglers in the market-place into a circle around the door of the Peacock. We could not see the musician from our window, but he broke forth as soon as the audience had gathered into the usual sentimental ballad dear to English ears. Some boys, with dogs at their heels, formed the outside of the meagre crowd, and then from a side street came belated mothers, pushing their babies home in perambulators. Polly says that at no hour in the twenty-four are English streets entirely free from perambulators, and, late as it was, three of these useful carriages joined the circle, the mothers, in true Boston fashion, being unable to resist music. The audience grew larger and the circle wider; the songs were succeeded by dialogues, and coppers rained plentifully into the collector's hand, until a baby set up an opposition concert, and an enterprising dog was encouraged by the noise to fight his four-legged neighbour. During the rumpus which succeeded, the musicians vanished. The dog riot was finally quelled, the babies trundled home, and the market-place in a few minutes was absolutely deserted for the night.

The Red Lion.

The Red Lion Inn, which faces the Narrow Bargate, has a more venerable exterior than the Peacock, but a decidedly decayed interior. It owns to the age of four hundred years, so no wonder that it is neither very clean nor very modern at the present time. It was formerly the property of one of the Boston guilds, and in the inn yard strolling players were wont to perform for the delight of all Boston.
There is still a very stern, solemn, Puritanical look about the dull little Holland-like city, in spite of the numerous houses of entertainment. Some of these rejoice in extraordinary names. There is "The Axe and Cleaver," "The Loggerhead," "The Indian Queen," "The Ram," "The Whale," "The Unicorn," "The Red Cow," "The Blue Lion," and "The Black Bull." They all furnish abundant liquid refreshment, with our favourite "The Rum Puncheon," and the picturesque "Angel." Even the streets have delicious names: "Paradise Lane," and "Pinfold Alley," "Liquor Pond Street" and "Silver Street," "The Worm Gate," "The Bar Gate," Wide, and Narrow, and "Robin Hood's Walk." There is "Pump Square," there is "Fish Toft Road," and in quaint "Spain Lane," in a house since demolished, until she was fourteen years old, lived Jean Ingelow, the writer. Boston is proud of its literary celebrities, and has erected a statue to Herbert Ingram, the founder of the London Illustrated News.

Old Pub Photo's

A few photo's of some of the old pubs in Boston.

The Loggerheads, near the outside seating area of the present Waterfront pub.

The Red Cow in Wide Bargate.

The Lord Nelson and The Royal Oak in High Street.

The Ram down Wide Bargate.

The Rum Puncheon in the Market Place.