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About SLHA Publications Local History Archaeology Industrial Archaeology Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology |
Local History FeaturesChurch Guide - Wrangle Charity School - Tips for L H Groups - Lincolnshire Floods - Chapel Survey - Lincoln's Town Crier - Canon C W Foster - Placename Quiz - Torksey Writing a Church Guide Blyborough Here are some key areas to consider when researching the history of a church and writing a guide. TALK - to the Churchwardens - to retired Churchwardens - to the oldest worshippers - to ex-choir boys - to previous vicars and school teachers - and ASK them about their memories of church events, history and projects - and COPY any photographs that emerge. READ - old parish magazines - trade directories (such as White's) - Buildings of England volume for the county (Pevsner) - King's England book for the county (Mee) - Discovering Church Furniture (Shire Publications).  Boothby Pagnell READ (for a Lincolnshire village) - Monson's Church Notes, Lincoln Record Society, Volume 31 - Bonney's Church Notes 1845-48 (pub 1937) - Church Furniture by Peacock (pub 1866) - Diaries of Bishop Hicks, Lincoln Record Society, Volume 82 - Church and Society in Medieval Lincolnshire (Dorothy Owen), SLHA CONSULT - library collections (earlier church guides, illustrations, parish magazines) - archive material (parish deposits, vestry books, glebe terriers, wills, faculties) EXAMINE - church memorials (wall tablets, stained glass, other plaques) Brenda Webster Charity School in WrangleThe Lincolnshire Historian of 1963 printed this article - so much for sex equality! In 1555 the Rev. Thomas Allenson left his house at Joy Hill in the parish of Wrangle, Holland, Lincolnshire, as a Bedehouse for the poor of Wrangle and Leake, accommodation being provided for one poor man and one poor woman from each parish. A fifth member of the Bedehouse (and usually referred to as ‘the five poor people’) was to be a schoolmaster. The establishment was endowed with 30 acres of land in Leake and 21 acres 3 roods in Wrangle; and the field names are still the same after 400 years. The bedespeople had for their use the grounds of the house, called the Pingle, and the Bedehouse ‘two acres’ for their cows. Probably bearing in mind the rule of Leviticus 19 vv.9 & 10, whatever could be gained from the sale of the ‘aftergrass’ of the Pingle and two acres did not pass into general account but was distributed equally to the five members. Winter fodder was also provided by the endowment for the Bedehouse cows which had the usual grazing rights on the Common. The parish members each had two small apartments, one of which had a fireplace, but there was no free supply of fuel. The provisions of the will supplied each of the three men with 6d a week and the two women with 5d each. These amounts were unchanged until 20 May 1705, when ‘Mr. William Erskine Vicar of Wrangle, did his last will dated 26 April 1705 gave 9 acres of pasture adjoining to the 6 acres of pasture belonging to the Beadhouse nigh a Common called Seadikes for and towards the augmenting of the weekly pay of 2s 4d given by Thos. Allenson, Vicar of Wrangle to 5 poor people, members of the Beadhouse’. As result of this bequest, each member henceforward received a shilling a week. Note: The original four brick-built almshouses on Joy Hill have been converted into a two units and two additional post-war brick bungalows have been added. Pearl Wheatley, with additional information from Lincolnshire Almshouses by Linda Crust, published by Heritage Lincolnshire, 2002 Holding a tea party: Tips for Local History GroupsThe Society recently invited several local history and heritage groups to Jews’ Court to show the visitors the building, the shop and the library and to discuss ways in which the Society could help. Under the guidance of Brenda Webster (Chairman of the SLHA Team) there emerged a number of ways in which local groups could enhance their performance and progress. The suggestions may help others. 1. Hold a village walk/trail including a short history as introduction. Finish with tea in the village hall and add to the experience.  village magazine 2. Develop a website – involve the school and other local groups and societies. Add to the village website if one already exists.  Local History Magazine 8. National Monuments record offer Local Studies Resources pack for £15.00. It includes aerial photos, listed buildings, archaeological sites etc. Tel 01793 414600 email: english-heritage.org.uk/nmr Brenda Webster High Tides on the Coast of LincolnshireWe are warned that global warming over the next few decades may well bring about significant rises in sea level and threaten large areas of Lincolnshire around the Wash. Five years ago we marked the fiftieth anniversary of the severe floods along the east coast in 1953. Inevitably these events cause local historians to refer back to past floods of 1281, 1571 and 1810, and especially to Jean Ingelow’s famous narrative poem, ''The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571'. This is where difficulties arise. This poem is highly atmospheric, but it has to be remembered that it was written in the 19th century and is fiction, not fact!  Jean Ingelow, 1820-1897 Two aspects in particular seem to catch people’s imagination. One is the alleged tune played on the church bells, The Brides of Enderby. Although Mavis Enderby is a real place (not to mention the other Lincolnshire villages, Wood Enderby and Bag Enderby), and bells could be used to warn of danger (as was planned in World War Two), there is no such tune or peal of this name. It was just an invention that fitted the rhythm of the verse. I hope this will not upset the Canadian place which allegedly named itself after this particular Enderby reference! The second myth is that the tide came in as a really gigantic Eygre, or tidal bore – nowadays spelt eagre. There is no doubt that Boston-born Jean Ingelow conducted some research in preparing the poem (though sadly, not into bellringing!) and used accounts of the 1810 floods as the basis of some of her images. She may well have known people who remembered 1810, and an exceptional eagre is commented on in the Stamford Mercury at the time. This is the only reference to an eagre on the Witham although there used to be a modest one on the Welland at Fosdyke, and there is of course a well-known one that appears on the Trent near Gainsborough. More can be read about Jean Ingelow’s sources in the article by the late Chris Sturman and Valerie Purton in Lincolnshire Past and Present, No. 6 (Winter 1991-2) pp 3-6. A few more flood references are noted in No.10/11 (Winter 1992 -Spring 1993) pp 29-30 of the same magazine. Hilary Healey Chapel Survey : A Non-Conformist HeritageThe county is dotted with chapels, many of them derelict, some converted into houses, others into workshops or stores. How about the Society gathering enough information to commence a survey? Are you prepared to give us details of your local chapel? Is it Methodist (Wesleyan, Primitive, Free), Baptist or what? Are there interesting inscriptions (foundation stones, Brunswick, dates etc.)? Are there old photographs? If only half of our members respond to this we would have enough to get started.
Some Lost Chapels in Lincoln: 
Lincoln's Town Crier John Foley, last Town Crier Handbells have been used to make announcements or call an opening of a market or other local activity as far back as Roman times. The City of Lincoln always had a bellman until 1898. It was an appointment by the City Council. Many wills lodged with the Lincolnshire Archives record bequests for the remuneration of a bellman. One example was the will of Thomas Palfreyman in 1552 'to the belman of the Citie of Lincoln iiiid (four pence)'. The last crier, John Foley, died in 1898. He was also Mayor's Officer, Sheriff's Officer and Keeper of the Guildhall. He must have been quite a character since a biography of him notes 'more than one occupant of the Mayoral Chair had found it to their advantage to make a friend of him'. The role of Bellman or Town Crier was introduced again nearly 100 years later in 1989 and now the local occupant of the post regularly competes with others nationwide for the best crier of the year.
Canon C W Foster's contribution to Lincolnshire's HistoryIn 1989 the 200th edition of the Victoria County History of the counties of England was published. To celebrate the event SLHA arranged a series of lectures at Jews' Court on Lincolnshire historians. Dr Kathleen Major's contribution was on Canon C W Foster and Sir Frank and Lady Stenton. This and twelve similar lectures were published by the Society in a book entitled: 'Some Historians of Lincolnshire'. (The book is still in print - see Other SLHA Publications.)  Charles W Foster (1866-1935) as a young man On Canon Foster Miss Major said: 'To him we owe the Lincolnshire Archives office and its associated Foster Library - the working library of a scholar so far as I know the finest collection of books in a provincial record office. We also owe to him the foundation of the Lincoln Record Society in 1910. Thirdly - and this may be less obvious - he first brought before historians of the church the fact that the history of the church cannot properly be understood without attention to the administrative and legal records of the daily business of bishops, archdeacons and parish priests.' When considering the many large collections with which Canon Foster dealt, the most striking in bulk is perhaps the series of Bishops' Transcripts of parish registers. He found these is a very dirty and neglected state but managed to sort and index them, despite difficulties with seven different Carltons, six benefices at the various Toyntons and seven at the several Kirkbys.
Placename QuizThe solutions to the following cryptic clues are names of Lincolnshire towns or villages Click here for Answers
(New quiz to appear in August 2008) "Doctor Rename" |