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.

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!

When the Germans conquered England

What's this? A German sentry at the top of Wormgate, which has a strange foreign name plaque?

German soldiers marching past the Blenkin Memorial Hall toward the Market Place?

No, these are stills from the film "One of our aircraft is missing" which was filmed during the second world war in Boston. They needed a Dutch town and of course couldn't go to Holland to get the real thing because the Germans occupied Holland at the time so, with Boston having some Dutch styled architecture, the Dutch scenes were filmed in Boston. Scenes of the Stump and of the swing bridge were also included in the film
Googie Withers played the lead feminine role

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

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.