Historic Spalding

Note: This is an extract from “Historic Spalding” it was written by Graham C. H. Smith in 1966. It is a record of the Spalding at this time.

LATER HISTORY

Spalding contains many private houses of considerable age and interest. Since Spalding was once a flourishing port and fish were landed at the bottom of Herring Lane, most of the more interesting houses are on the riverside in bygone times, the main thoroughfare of the town. There are also, however, some old buildings in the present centre of the town and several of the shops, though they have been re-fronted, are Georgian or earlier.

On the corner of Church Gate and Church Street, stands the White Horse Inn. This was originally built as a private house, Bergry House, in 1553 by William Willesby father of the founder of the Willesby School. It is made out of material from the old Priory. It is now, however, divided into an inn, a shop and a private house. A little further along, past the Church Hall and Town Hall is Ayscoughfee Hall. This hall was built in 1420 by Richard Aylwin, a wool merchant. The Hall passed to his son, Sir Nicholas Aylwin, who gave the rood screen to Spalding church, which now stands in the south transept. During the sixteenth century it passed to the Ayscough family, by whom it was retained until early seventeenth century. They were a knightly family, famous in Lincolnshire for their great exploits, but they didn’t reside in Spalding for any length of time. In the early seventeenth century, the estate was obtained by the Wimberleys. After about half a century, John Johnson of Pinchbeck bought the Hall and his grand-daughter, Jane, married Maurice Johnson of Splalding, father of Maurice Johnson, the famous antiquary. The Hall remained in the Johnson family until 1876, when it passed to Charles Foster Bonner. It was acquired by public subscription as a memorial of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and handed over to the town in August, 1902, in celebration of King Edward’s coronation. The Hall has, of course, been modernized since 1420, but the basic structure is the same. The stained glass windows are of interest for they contain rare and valuable glass. The three-light window in the gallery has a collection of ancient glass of nearly every period from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

In Cowbit Road, (the continuation of Churcb Gate,) there are several good eighteenth and nineteenth century houses. The Brewery, now merely a depot, was built by Mr. Henry Bugg in 1809. Westbourne House, now offices, was built by Mr. William Sands in about 1770. In what is now the brewery garden, stood an old and dilapidated Inn, the Star, which Captain J. H. Burg, who was living in the house in 1880, pulled down. However, he retained the old doorway of the inn which was built from Priory material and moved it to where it is today in the garden wall. This was probably used as a side entrance to the Priory. Langton House, next along the road, was built by the same architect (Mr. Sands) as Westboume House and about the same time. Westbourne Lodge is a Queen Anne House with a porch added later. Its original name was Claremont, but it was changed by Mr. Leopold Harvey.

London Road, on the other side of the river, apart from the Odeon cinema, has some very good buildings. Town End Manor, known for most of last century as Duck Hall, was built on the site of the old Town End Manor, pulled down in 1746. There are several large nineteenth century houses along the road, among them Limehurst (built in 1825). The High School (Welland Hall) was built in 1815. In Bedford House, during electrical alterations, some oid stone, thought to be a part of the priory, was found in the cellar wall. Victoria House, opposite the footbridge, the oldest house in London Road, was built in the eighteenth century by a member of the Johnson family and occupied by the Dinhams. The houses on Welland Place were built in 1813 by George Favel.

The first five on Welland Terrace were built by John Cunnington about the same time and the next eleven by him some years later.

Double Street is one of the oldest streets in Spalding, having been changed little in the last hundred or so years. The old warehouses on the riverside are reminders of Spalding’s past standing as a port. The Crane Inn is certainly old, for the sundial from it is now outside the Gentlemen’s Society Museum in Broad Street and bears the date 1702.

The Limes is a very old house, which belonged in the eighteenth century to the Massey family. The Friends’ Meeting House was built in 1805 while the Almshouses were given by Mrs Elizabeth Sparke in 1709 and rebuilt in 1812.

In Albion Street, the continuation of Double Street, is Willesby Hall. This was built in 1553 from ruins of the Priory by Thomas Willesby but burnt in the mid-nineteenth century and rebuilt as it was before.

High Street contained the homes of many of the most notable members of the community during the great of Spalding as a port. Welland House was built in 1663 by Martin Johnson, Minister of Spalding and Master of the Grammar School and used to be called West Elloe. Cley Hall was built in 1754 by Theophilus Buckworth, Lord of the Manor of Spalding, who married Miss Cley and named his house after her. Henry Everard built Yew Lodge in about 1760. Welland House, Cley Hall and Yew Lodge together make a most picturesque trio.

Mr. William Sands was the architect of the house adjoining Plowman’s Mill and John Heals was the builder. It was constructed in 1746 out of materials from the old Town End Manor, which, at that time was being demolished. It is now owned and has been converted into flats by Mr. George Plowman. Mr. Sands also designed Holland House, which is probably the best example of a house of this age in Spalding. Mr. John Richards, chief patron of Spalding Races, built it in 1768 and it is now converted into offices. The house, which is now No. 9 was built in 1650 and has since been re-fronted but contains an excellent Jacobean staircase, and is now owned by Mr T. W. Townsend.

Church Street contains an excellent row of Georgian houses, amongst which the Vicarage, originally three small cottages but made into one house by the Rev. William Moore about 1840, is of special note. Stonegate Lodge, facing up Church Street from the end of Love Lane, was built by Samuel Dinham, a solicitor, who lived there and died in 1829. The Master’s Lodge was constructed in 1722 as a residence for Grammar School masters by the Rev. T. Nevew, elected Master of the School in 1716. By his own generosity and a subscription from the inhabitants of Spalding, he leased a piece of land “of size one rood three poles” and the house built there housed many masters before the expiration of the lease. After the expiration of the ninety nine years lease in 1821, the property came into the hands of the Town Husbands and is now the home of Dr. J. Cadas.

The small building next to the Master’s Lodge used to be the Blue Coat School, founded by John Gamlyn about 1649. It was rebuilt in 1815, but closed in 1924 and the parsonage, but is now a private home.

The Almshouses were founded and endowed by Sir John Gamlyn in 1590 as a benefit for twenty-two poor of the Parish. Originally in eleven compact tenements, they were rebuilt between 1754 and 1763. In 1884, they were pulled down and again rebuilt as seventeen houses in the Domestic Tudor Style, at a cost of three thousand pounds, paid out of Feoffee’s Funds.

Broad Street contains only one large building of age, The Conservative Club, previously known as the Manor House. This was originally a stone house, built out of the remains of the Priory. It was rebuilt in 1727 by Everard Buckworth, Councillor, and remained in his family until the beginning of this century. The Museum of Spalding Gentlemen’s Society is also situated in Broad Street, and this contains most interesting relics.

Herring Lane has changed little in recent years, except for the new Car Park on the site of Harrington House. There are no large houses in this Lane and consequently, we have few records of exact date of construction. In the photograph can be seen the comer of the wall near the river end of the lane, which has been worn away by the wagons of olden times, scraping against it when going to and from the the waterfront.

The shop of Messrs. Bratleys in Bridge Street was built in 1776 and most of the other shops were built about the same time, although they have since been refronted. The shop of Messrs. Berrills Ltd. Adjoining Abbey Passage, was built in 1772 and some old stone coffins were discovered when the cellars were constructed. The remains found in the coffins were reinterred in the Churchyard of the Parish Church. When Messrs. Woolworths Ltd. was rebuilt, an excellent Tudor fireplace was discovered.

Much of the Market Place was destroyed in the Great Fire of Spalding in 1715. In general, the shops were built later and many have since been again rebuilt. The Com Eatchange was built in 1856.

The White Hart has been in existence, as a name, since the reign of Richard II. The actual building was partially destroyed in the Great Fire, although the present Television Room and the bedrooms above are Elizabethan. In the Television Room there is a mark painted on the wall, for which there are two possible explanations. It is either a Mason’s mark, dating from when the piece of wall over the fireplace was actually built or it is a post mark, in use when the White Hart was a Coaching Inn and the letters travelling by the stage coach were stamped with that mark The latter seems a more likely explanation, as Masons’ marks were usually scratched or carved on the stone surface. The Red Lion Hotel was known in 1616 as the new White Hart to distinguish it from the other White Hart, but the building is eighteenth century. In Hall place, most of the buildings were erected after the Great Fire and here also many have been altered or demolished in recent years.

The Sessions House was built in 1842 and the Police Station in 1852. The Prior’s Oven on the comer of the Sheep Market somehow survived the Great Fire.

In Pinchbeck. Road, there are various nineteenth century houses, as well as the Castle Site. The old priory cottages may be found near the Johnson Hospital but above the shop windows, as these tend to remain unchanged for longer than the ground floors.