Our Blog
- Sunday 5 October 2008
Lincolnshire Day – October 1st – Cyprus Independence Day
Having just had the good fortune to holiday in Cyprus (arriving back to the cold and wet, green and pleasant lands of Lincolnshire in the early hours of this morning!), I discovered that Lincolnshire shares quite a special day with Cyprus.
October 1st is both Cyprus’ Day of Independence (celebrating the day Cyprus gained independence from Great Britain in 1960) and our own Lincolnshire Day. This year, Lincolnshire Yellowbellies have been celebrating the county’s culture and some of its finest foods.
Our county has produced several key figures in history including explorer Captain Matthew Flinders, physicist Sir Isaac Newton, academic George Boole and poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and authoress Enid Blyton. A number of the pilgrims (including William Brewster) who travelled onboard the Mayflower in 1620 and played a crucial role in the early history of America were from the region. We even can claim fame in association with the founder of the Disney empire as Walt Disney has links to the county.
Among our finest foods - traditional stuffed chine, haslet along with Lincolnshire sausages and plum bread are amongst the most commonly thought of but if you know of others do let me know.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Saturday 27 September 2008Council BIDS yes to town improvement scheme
A scheme to improve Boston town centre to the tune of £650,000 has received the support of Boston Borough Council. The authority voted 'yes' to the Boston Business Improvement District at the meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday 24th Sept 2008.
The initiative could see businesses stumping up £650,000 over the next five years to be spent on improvements to the town.
Coun Ray Newell said he was 'massively in favour of this' and the benefits would not just be seen by the business community but all citizens.
The money would be raised by a one per cent levy on the rateable value of the business. But first those with premises in the area have to agree – and out of the approximate 500 business 20 per cent have to vote yes. A further vote would then be needed for it to be successful, with businesses given a share of the votes depending on their rateable value.
And there's no opting out – if the required majority vote in favour that's it - all businesses will have to pay. Coun Jim Blaylock raised concerns that such a small number needed to be in support for the scheme to get pushed through. "I wouldn't want to support something on a very small turnout," he said. "If you get a good turnout and genuine majority then I'm happy to support it."
For the council the project will mean it has to stump up an extra £5,730 on the premises it owns in the town.
It will also have to fork out the £25,000 needed to get the BID off the ground, however this will be recouped.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Thursday 18 September 2008Big County, Big Skies, Big Future - shaping Lincolnshire together
A big future for Lincolnshire? You decide!
People across Lincolnshire are being encouraged to get involved in the second phase of an ambitious project that aims to shape the future of the county.
Lincolnshire Assembly (of which the Bishop of Lincoln is chair) is now asking for views as part of the Big County, Big Skies, Big Future - Shaping Lincolnshire Together project.
People have until 17 October to fill in an online questionnaire at www.lincolnshireassembly.com/bigideas . Alternatively, paper copies are available at various public locations including doctors' surgeries, libraries and council offices.
The questionnaire is also being sent to a selection of households countywide.
The results of the consultation will be used to plan the county's priorities over the next 25 years. This follows work carried out last year when the Assembly asked a variety of people and organisations to rank the importance of aspects of local life.
If you would like to take part, please look out for paper copies of the questionnaire in public places, look online at www.lincolnshireassembly.com/bigideas or phone 01522 782060.
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A Huge Success
Last weekend’s Heritage Open Days events in Lincolnshire were a resounding success. Over 11,000 people enjoyed the 90 free heritage events which took place all over the county.
Lincoln Cathedral saw over 2,500 visitors. People were able to view the triforium, which was opened for the first time and to take part in guided tours of the towers and roof. Special activities for children in the Wren Library and tours aimed at families helped to make everyone feel welcome.
Sally Scott, the organiser of ‘Feuds, Farming and Families’ at Fiskerton St. Clements Church said….”We couldn’t be more pleased. Around 200 people visited our event and everyone loved it. We had family history information by the graves and a large scale map of the parish, an archaeology display and lots of historic photos in the church. All the hard work in getting the displays together was worth it as people from the village and visitors from further afield were so appreciative.”
Freshly dug vegetables from the Beacon Hill Allotments in Cleethorpes featured in the Sealed Knot’s re-enactment of a Civil War field kitchen as part of the allotment open day. Over 200 people visited the allotment gardens and the nearby observatory. They enjoyed the opportunity to find out about plants growing in the ground and celestial bodies in the sky above.
Well over 1,000 visitors descended on Chambers Farm Woods, near Wragby for the Working Woodlands Weekend. Hundreds of people took advantage of a rare opportunity to experience the process of prehistoric iron smelting with Jake Keen, an experimental archaeologist and smelting specialist from Dorset. A corner of the field was transformed into an Iron Age smelting workshop complete with furnace made from local clay, shelter from local coppiced hazel, locally made charcoal and Lincolnshire iron ore from Harlaxton. After more than 4 hours of smelting inside the furnace at temperatures of over 1000°C a ‘bloom’ of molten iron was spectacularly produced from the furnace. It is hoped that that the furnace and the iron produced will be on permanent display at the new centre at Chambers Farm Woods.
Sandra Kelley - Heritage Open Days Co-ordinator with Heritage Lincolnshire said….”This year’s events have been hugely successful. Around 600 voluntary organisers, guides and property owners have been involved in making it the largest annual programme of its type in the county and I’m pleased the events have been so well supported and appreciated.”
Next year Heritage Open Days will take place over Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th September and our theme is ‘Arts, Literature and Music in Lincolnshire.’ If anyone would like to be involved, or to find out more please contact Sandra on 01529 461499 or info@lincsheritage.org
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On Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September 2008, there will be an
extremely rare opportunity to experience at first hand the
dramatic and fascinating process of prehistoric iron smelting.
This is part of the Working Woodlands Weekend at Chambers Farm
Woods near Bardney.
Jake Keen, a well known experimental archaeologist, will be
carrying out a prehistoric iron smelt at the Working Woodlands
Weekend at Chambers Farm Woods as part of the Heritage Open Days
Weekend on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September.
For the first time ever in Lincolnshire, we will be carrying out
prehistoric iron smelting. These experiments are dramatic,
fascinating and useful – but rarely carried out because of the
significant quantities of raw materials needed.
Find out more about the event on our website at:
http://lincsheritage.org/articles/item.php?articleID=7
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Saturday 23 August 2008TAKE ADVANTAGE
There is a minimum postage charge (of £2.50 to addresses within the UK) but this covers the total package weight. If you are tempted to buy a second or third title (and they are, for instance, small booklets) you may well find you are paying no more postage. If you add them to your 'cart' you can always check this out and remove them if you find the postage has increased.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Friday 22 August 2008Boston Community Showcase
Knights to appear at the Boston Community Showcase
Sunday, September 14th - Boston’s Central Park
More than 100 organisations from the area will be involved in this year's event.
The 14th Century Knights will be brandishing maces and axes, displaying battle with an array of weapons, and showing off their cooking skills. There will also be demonstrations of what can be done in full armour - and proving someone wearing it can get up after being knocked down.
In addition to the medieval group, other features will include a petting zoo, live music, dog agility sessions, circus skills, a food court, and arts and crafts. TV star, Richard 'Nooky' Nauyokas of ‘ITVs Bad Lad’s Army’ fame will be there to promote the services of his Not All Bad company to visitors.
The event is held each year to enable the Boston community to come together and have fun while finding out about the volunteering opportunities and services on offer.
The event, which runs from 10am to 5pm, is free and everyone is welcome.
For more information about the Boston Community Showcase call Paul Kenny on 01205 318553, or email paulk@bostonmayflower.org.uk
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Monday 18 August 2008Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days – Lincolnshire at Play
Thursday 11th – Sunday 14th September
Enjoy Lincolnshire’s heritage for free at over 80 special events including walks, talks and access to rarely opened buildings. Over the four days from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th September, Lincolnshire’s rich heritage will be on display at over 80 special, free Heritage Open Days openings and events.
This year’s theme is “Lincolnshire at Play,” so it’s a chance to find out how local people spent their leisure time in the past. The events include:
Guided tours of Boston United Football Stadium and Grimsby Town Football Club.
Free access days and activities at St. Peter’s Church in Barton upon Humber, Belton
House, Epworth Old Rectory, Gainsborough Old Hall, Woolsthorpe Manor, Tattershall
Castle and the Cathedral and the Medieval Bishops’ Palace in Lincoln.
A rugby match with an 1885 team versus a 2008 team at Grimsby Rugby Club.
Open days in ancient woodlands with countryside crafts, woodcarving, woodland skills
and family activities at Chambers Park Wood near Wragby and Hill Holt wood near
Norton Disney.
Childhood playtime activities at Alford Manor House, the Wilderspin National
School in Barton upon Humber, St. James’ Church in Grimsby and Woolsthorpe Manor.
A chance to see the grounds, listed buildings and the ‘King of Games’ in action at
Leadenham Polo Club.
Local and family history exhibitions at Aubourn, Fiskerton and Saxilby.
Open days and guided tours at Sleaford Playhouse and the Broadbent Theatre in
Wickenby.
Talks in Lincoln on seaside holidays and the history of the Lincolnshire Show.
A chance for children to try out ‘twirling’ with The Global Twirlers Majorettes in Grimsby.
Open Days at the Evergreens Miniature Railway in Stickney and the Cleethorpes Model
Railway Society.
Guided walks at Gibraltar Point, Hartsholme Park and the Arboretum in Lincoln, Long
Sutton, Mablethorpe, Sleaford and Spalding
An exhibition in Skegness on 100 years of the Jolly Fisherman
A chance to see inside the pumping Stations at Dogdyke and Owston Ferry
Plus guided tours round rarely opened historic homes, special exhibitions and activities
in museums and galleries, music in ancient churches and much more.
You can have a go at the activities on offer or you can take it easy and just soak up the atmosphere whilst enjoying the refreshments available at many of the events.
Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days is part of a national and European wide scheme to celebrate local heritage and to promote awareness of the historic environment by arranging free openings of historic buildings and other events. In Lincolnshire, the specially organised programme of events is co-ordinated by the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire. Last year over 10,500 people visited the events and this year over 600 voluntary organisers, guides and property owners will be involved in making it the largest annual programme of its type in the county. Heritage Open Days is co-ordinated and publicised at a national level by the Civic Trust and is supported by English Heritage.
For details of the events visit www.lincsheritage.org where you can also download the Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days 2008 leaflet. Or, pick up a leaflet from Lincolnshire’s Tourist Information Centres or libraries.
The Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire is a charitable trust working to protect, preserve, promote and enhance Lincolnshire’s rich heritage for the benefit of local people and visitors.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Sunday 17 August 2008Mystery Object at The Heckington Show - July 2008
Over the weekend of Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July 2008 the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire had a mystery object on display. Visitors were invited to try and guess what the object was.
The mystery object is the Ground Zero Indicator (GZI) from the Trust's underground Royal Observer Corps monitoring post at Holbeach.
The monitoring post is one of many constructed across the country in the 1950s and 60s to monitor nuclear bomb explosions in the event of a nuclear strike. There were 46 such posts in Lincolnshire sited in clusters to allow the triangulation of plots, and reporting to group headquarters at Fiskerton. They were manned by volunteers. The posts were decommissioned in the early 1990s after the end of the Cold War.
The Ground Zero Indicator is a unit containing a set of four pinhole cameras facing north, south, east and west.
It was designed to record the position of a nuclear detonation. The four concave interior faces were fitted with special light sensitive papers to register the position and size of the fireball. It was positioned at the head of the post's entrance shaft.
To see pictures and learn more about this please visit Lincs Heritage site at:
http://www.lincsheritage.org/articles/item.php?articleID=6
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Monday 11 August 2008Review: Out of Grimsby by Alf May
The author, Alf May born in 1909, is the third generation covered by this fascinating family tale. Though much of the story is about his father, the book begins with the tragic death of his grandfather at sea aboard a trawler in 1882 and concludes with Alf (the third) beginning his married life in 1932.
This book gives a vivid picture of life as it was between 1882 and 1932 for a trawler family, describing the tremendous difficulties faced from, large families, the cruelty of the sea and the struggles for many during the war years (1914-1918) to the hardships of the great depression in the 1930s.
It creates wonderful images of the fun and mischief children found in simple things as well as the hardship faced tirelessly by adults with little money and large families to support. The responsibilities adults shouldered and how children from the age of 14 had to share this.
Though the text is not illustrated you finish the story with a sense of really knowing the May family well and find you have your own pictures of the individuals well depicted. A book that’s hard to put down.
(Emailed by a happy customer)
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Thursday 31 July 2008BOSTON a little bit of history - comment from Barrie Higham of Cultural Services Manager, Boston Borough Council
The entry on your blog has alerted me to an error on our website that we will have
to correct! Unfortunately our web entry perpetuates the myth that Botolph founded a
monastery here which is not proven. To quote the historian (and one of your authors)
Neil Wright "In 654 a Saxon monk named Botolph founded a monastery at a place called
Iken, which was probably the village still called Iken near Aldeburgh on the coast
of Suffolk. The parish church of Boston is dedicated to St Botolph, and gave the
town its name, and for this reason a legend has arisen that Botolph’s monastery
might have been at Boston despite the lack of any other evidence or archaeological
remains to support the legend".
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Thursday 31 July 2008BOSTON Lock Cottages and Boston Waterway Link Project
BOSTON Lock Cottages
The existing Environment Agency owned Black Sluice cottages will be refurbished as part of the Boston Waterway Link project. The renovated building will contain a café, exhibition space, offices for start up businesses, a small shop and toilet/shower facilities for boaters. The building will be glass fronted with views overlooking the watercourse. The café will serve drinks and snacks and will have an attractive outdoor seating area. The offices will be situated on the first floor of the building and will provide open plan office space. The toilets and showers will be available to boaters with a British Waterways navigation key. The building is designed to minimise its impact on the environment with water efficient features and energy efficiency.
The surrounding area will be landscaped with new shrubs and trees, there will be a new parking area and cycle racks. A new cycle route/footpath will follow the watercourse linking London Road to Spalding Road.
The refurbishment will start in July and the building will be completed at the same time as the lock in late 08.
Andrew Usborne
Environment Agency
BOSTON Waterway Link Project
(Information taken from Lincolnshire Waterways Partnership Newsletters - March 2008 edition).
The Boston Waterway Link Project is now underway. In January the Contractor (Jackson Civil Engineering) starting setting up the site and carrying out enabling works. These involved diverting 3 11,000 volt cables that were running along the top of the flood bank exactly under the location of the new lock control house!
We have also taken the opportunity to move some telephone cables and we have started to construct a new temporary defence at the rear of the flood bank. This will allow us to put a 90 tonne crane on site and begin the demolition of an existing dolphin and start the sheet piling works in early March.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Saturday 26 July 2008TIME is running out
Just a reminder to all visitors that the 31st July 2008 is the deadline for purchasing copies of Monumental Brasses whilst supporting the American Friends of Boston Stump!
Monumental Brasses by Jeremy Wheeldon.
I will contribute 50p ($1.00) to the American Friends of the Boston Stump (AFBS) for anyone purchasing a copy of this before 31st July 2008. If you would like to know more about AFBS please visit their website http://bostonstump.googlepages.com/givingopportunities
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Tuesday 15 July 2008NEW TITLES BY OTHER PUBLISHERS
I am pleased to promote two further new books to the site by another publisher. These are about a Jamacian man integrating into the community in Boston. 'You'll never get a job here' follows his career from demob in 1949 to 1989. Where 'Stranger Bwoy' describes (often with good humour) his time in the RAF during the war 1944 to 1948.
I am very pleased to announce that we now carry many titles published by Lincolnshire Heritage (around 23 titles). These all appear in the Aspects of Lincolnshire History category though some also appear in the Military History and Life in Lincolnshire categories.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Monday 14 July 2008BOSTON a little bit of history
A settlement in Boston is believed to date back to 654AD when a Saxon monk named Botolph established a monastery on the banks of the river Witham. The name Boston is said to be derived from "Botolphs town". However, more fact-based information on Boston doesn’t emerge until the late 11th century.
What we do know is that during the 12th and 13th centuries Boston was a thriving port, and became a member of northern European trading states known as the Hanseatic League by the 14th century Boston had become the fourth-richest provincial town in England. As a symbol of this wealth the old parish church was rebuilt on a grand scale. That symbol still stands today. Dominating the fens the tower of St. Botolph’s affectionately known as the "stump", is one of the east of England’s most enduring and imposing land-marks.
Taken with kind permission from: www.boston.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=256&Itemid=3530
This town was one of the major ports in mediaeval times and greatly influenced the importance and growth of Lincoln. This of course was when the coastline was much closer to Boston than it is now. In 1205, the levies on Boston, which was more than any other port, was a little less than London but by 1279 to 1289 Boston was paying a third more than the capital city. In 1353 the wool staple was removed from Lincoln to Boston. The wool staple being the right to collect all taxes on any wool leaving the country. The mediaeval street pattern remains at Boston and several important mediaeval buildings still remain but usually covered up with later facades. There were 4 lots of friars settled in the town The Black Friars, Grey Friars, The Austin Friars and the Carmelites. The only sect to have left any remains are the Black Friars.
Taken with kind permission from: www.churchmousewebsite.co.uk/boston.htm
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Friday 11 July 2008WELCOME
Welcome to our blog page. A new addition to the site which I hope will encourage visitors to find out more about Lincolnshire and help to promote the many positive aspects of our county.
If anyone has any contributions, these can be news, reviews or comments please submit them via email through the site.
I look forward to keeping this an active, interesting and informative blog.
Would you like to comment on this post? Click here. Friday 11 July 2008New blog launched!
Kay Books online have launched their new blog. This is where we will keep you updated on any upcoming events and new books and authors. Please check back with us soon!
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