Neil Wright, who has a lifelong interest in the two Bostons, spoke on this subject to SLHA members at the Sunday Special in Lincoln on 20 November.

Athenaeums, organisations with dedicated buildings which brought together libraries, art galleries, reading rooms and the like, were set up in many English-speaking cities and towns including Boston in the US (1852) and Boston, Lincolnshire.

It is suggested that the style of the American building directly influence the one built by Bellamy and Hardy in the Market Place at Lincolnshire's Boston.

Neil argued that it was Pishey Thompson, renowned student and promoter of Lincolnshire Boston's history, who created the link. Thompson spent almost 20 years in USA and is known to have had close links with John Quincy Adams, who was actively involved in the project in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mark Acton gave the second of three talks at SLHA's 'Sunday Special' on 20 November about one of his favourite local characters, Colonel Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp. He was Lincoln's MP from 1826 to 1855, an outspoken reactionary who was frequently lampooned by the satirical magazine Punch in word and cartoon.

Sibthorp vigorously opposed railways and many other developments of the time. He was also strongly against the Great Exhibition, principally because it promoted the products of Britain's foreign competitors. His xenophobia - which even extended to disapproval of the Queen's consort - was frequently mocked in Punch's cartoons.

At a "Sunday Special" meeting at Jews' Court on 20 November Brian Porter of SLHA's archaeology team gave an entertaining talk about a recent community project in Lincoln. Small test pits at 23 locations spread along Newport and Riseholme Road to the north of the city have revealed a wide range of interesting information.

From the Roman period have been found walls, a bowl, a drinking vessel, a coin and evidence of burials (cremation and inhumation). Objects from later periods include tiles, hair pins, buttons and toys, and a deep well.

Corrugated iron was patented by Henry Palmer in 1829 and first used for storage shed at London Docks. Its low cost, high strength and ease of use soon saw it used in buildings large and small across the world. It was also used to support the sides of WW1 trenches and in both aeroplane (duralumin variety) and steam locomotives.

It is frequently found in works of art and receives several mentions in literature. Tin tabernacles - churches roofed and clad in corrugated iron - are still to be found in the UK, and whole communities in the east of Iceland have been constructed in the material.

Illustration: The Cottage Museum, Woodhall Spa, constructed in corrugated iron over a wooden frame. It was supplied by Boulton and Paul in 1884 and erected here three years later. 

SLHA arranged an Industrial Heritage Day (or EMIAC) at Lincoln Christ's Hospital School on 12 November on the theme of Lincoln's manufacturing companies' contribution to the Great War entitled 'Ploughshares into Swords'. Over 100 people, from city, county and the East Midlands, enjoyed a series of illustrated presentations.

Lincoln�s Industries up to and during the Great War
Peter Robinson
Four large engineering firms in the city switched from their normal products and made armaments, aeroplanes or vehicles, all vital contributions to the nation's war effort. Clayton & Shuttleworth made planes and a wide range of other items in their Waterside site and also, as the need grew, in their newly developed Titanic, Abbey and Tower Works to the east.

Ruston, Proctor made bombs on their Waterside site and later built over 1000 planes on new sites in New Boultham and Spike Island. Robey, at the extensive Globe Works on Canwick Road, also built planes and vehicles. Foster's Waterloo Works, where the tank was developed, were in New Boultham, close to Ruston's.

Peter gave an excellent overview of these companies, their factories and the WW1 products, accompanied by illustrations of outstanding interest. He also explained how the "chain tractor" or caterpillar, pioneered in Lincolnshire by David Roberts of Hornsby's, came to be an invention owned by the Holt company in the US and later sold to the British.

Walter Wilson and William Tritton were the Foster's men who developed the tank, initially based on the Holt tractor's track system. After the limited success of their first prototype "Little Willie", they settled on a model with rhomboid track ("Mother") which climbed well and could straddle trenches.

Tanks of this type - either made in Lincoln or Birmingham - made a strong contribution in the battle at Cambrai but war-time strategy was slow to take full advantage of the tank.

After the war tanks were taken around the UK by the War Savings Committee to promote the cause. They attracted massive attention.

Aircraft Made in Lincoln
Charles Parker
Over 3000 planes were made in Lincoln during the war, the majority by Ruston Proctor at their Spike Island works. First came the BE2, then the highly regarded Sopwith planes (1.5 Strutter and Camel) which were versatile planes for both reconnaissance and fighting. Testing took place on Lincoln's West Common.

Robey designed and built their own aircraft with little success but they later built Short floatplanes (more the 150). They developed a separate testing site at Bracebridge Heath.

Clayton's made components for airships and also built the Sopwith tri-plane for the RNAS as well as Camels at their Titanic Works. Only one or two planes made by the Lincoln companies survive.

Women Munition Workers
Neil Wright
Most female workers in WW1 munitions factories were unmarried girls engaged in relatively unskilled jobs. Nevertheless, some, clad in overalls, took on heavy "men's" work in casting shops and the like.

Even though the hours were long and the work often physically tiring, many women seemed to relish their wartime work and comradeship. The war saw a breakthrough in female employment, but most Lincoln women had to leave their engineering jobs when men returned from the front.

Neil's talk was based on the research of the late Ann Yeates-Langley.

The Lincoln Tank Memorial
Richard Pullen
The essential contribution towards the production of the tank by Lincoln's workers - both men and women - has been commemorated in the recent memorial sited on the large traffic island at the north end of Tritton Road. This is very close to Foster's site where the tank was conceived and built. The much-admired, two-dimensional steel memorial was designed by Mike Credland and Robin Wheeldon.

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The conference concluded with three short films: the testing of the Roberts/Hornsby tracked vehicles in Grantham in 1909; the history of Ruston's from its 19th century beginnings to the Alstom gas turbines of the present day. Finally a remarkable film about the huge WW1 cordite factory (and community) created in south-west Scotland.

The day's events were greatly enhanced by excellent stands from several groups displaying information about the tank and other WW1 products. The SLHA bookstall offered a large range of books on the conference theme and other aspects of industrial archaeology.

The SLHA Memorial Lecture (formerly the Leach Lecture) for 2016 was dedicated to Kathleen Major* and given by Rev John Wilford at Saxilby Village Hall on Tuesday 20 September. It was arranged in collaboration with the Saxilby and District History Group who provided generous hospitality for the evening and helped create an appreciative audience of 60.

Thomas Watson, born 1514, child of a landowning family in County Durham, attended Durham's Priory School and then studied at St John's College, Cambridge where he came under the influence of John Fisher, the college chancellor and Bishop of Rochester. Watson's play entitled Absolom - written at this time but never performed - reflects caustically on the Act of Supremacy and Henry VIII's becoming head of the English church.

As Chaplain to Stephen Gardiner (Bishop of Winchester), Watson maintained his strong allegiance to the Catholic faith. As a result he was imprisoned under the reign of Edward VI, but when Mary became Queen Watson was soon elevated to Dean at Durham and in 1557 Bishop of Lincoln.

When she came to the throne in 1559, Elizabeth I demanded her priests recognise the Act of Supremacy. Watson refused to do this and along with many others was imprisoned. He lived his final years at Wisbech Castle where he died and was buried in an unmarked grave in 1584.

John gave a clear account of the political and religious changes affecting Watson's career and built up a portrait of a capable and determined man with an unshakable strong faith.

* KATHLEEN MAJOR (1906-2001) was Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford, from 1955 to 1965, and the foremost historian of the medieval cathedral and diocese of Lincoln. Born in south Lincolnshire, Miss Major made large and lasting contributions to the Lincoln Record Society and SLHA.

Rural settlements are usually associated with agriculture and have constructed facilities such as roads, enclosures, field systems, boundary banks and ditches and conglomerations of dwellings. In historic times these might be defined as villages, hamlets or farms and can be recognised through extant remains, historic maps and place names. Understanding prehistoric settlement is difficult particularly in an agricultural county with few visible prehistoric remains.

In Lincolnshire our evidence for human activity in prehistory derives largely from surface scatters of occupation debris and cropmarks visible on aerial photographs sometimes supplemented by excavation. Dr Chowne's paper presented a brief overview of landscape occupation in early prehistory before focussing on the later Bronze Age and Iron Age through a case study of the fen margin between the River Slea and River Welland.

This contribution considered the extent to which the Parisi, who according to Ptolemy occupied the north bank of the Humber, possess a distinct tribal identity, from their roots in the Iron Age Arras Culture, famous for its chariot burials, to the end of the Roman period.

Reference was also be made to the growing evidence for the possible influence from the south bank of the Humber in the form of coinage and pottery in the later Iron Age and the extent of continued connections.

This paper focused on recent findings resulting from excavation and survey at sites of the Roman period in the Waithe valley through the Lincolnshire Wolds. The Wolds have been little studied archaeologically but new examination is revealing their importance in the past.

The work has been undertaken through an on-going partnership between the North-East Lincs Archaeology and Local History Society, the University of Kent and local volunteers, combining research and training and involving a wide spectrum of people.

Two sites in particular were discussed together with their broader context within Lincolnshire and beyond, in Roman times. The first was the late Roman site at Hatcliffe, which was thriving right till the end of the Roman era, while the second was a high status site near Binbrook with a formal layout and strong 'economic pull', as seen in the finds. Classical architecture, religious curse tablets and the importation of coal are aspects of the freshly emerging picture.

A theme of the paper was that this part of Lincolnshire was a thriving, vibrant and integrated component of the Roman Empire.

Closer examination of the evidence from Eastern England, however, reveals important changes in the settlements of the seventh and eighth centuries, reflective of an increasingly complex and hierarchical society.

The power of elite institutions is particularly apparent, as Anglo-Saxon kings can be seen as consolidating their authority through the establishment of new settlement forms, typically attached to early church communities. These centres were often remodelled in subsequent centuries into recognisable historic villages, providing a legacy which continues to influence the landscape character of Eastern England today.

This paper had its origins in research done by Paul Everson and David Stocker on the church and village of Car Colston, Notts, for the Joint annual conferences of the Society for Church Archaeology and the Medieval Settlement Research Group, held at Leicester in 2015.

At Car Colston, a link is proposed between the exceptional architectural features found at the church, and the unusual plan-form taken by the medieval settlement.

Having established the likely sequence of events, and the relationship between the reconstruction of the chancel to the pattern of development in the village plan-form, a number of other cases were identified for the same developments at Heckington and Great Hale (Lincolnshire) and at Wharram Percy (Yorkshire, East Riding).

The paper suggested that observation in fields of study that are often thought of as distinct, such as the architectural and documentary history of churches and the plan forms of medieval settlements, can sometimes cast important light on understandings in related fields.

This lecture presented and contextualised the results of archaeological test pit excavation carried in two communities in Lincolnshire in the last year, extending a ten-year programme in East Anglia which has been very successful in reconstructing the development of historic settlements and measuring the impact of major events such as the Black Death.

The Lincolnshire results have thus been given added value by being compared with patterns from elsewhere. Professor Lewis outlined the different aims of the two projects, presented their results, and considered the potential for similar work to be carried out more extensively across the county in the future.

Recent Research and Excavations at the Middle Saxon Site at Little Carlton
Dr Hugh Willmott
Following the discovery of an hitherto unknown Middle Saxon productive site by responsible metal detecting, the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, has been undertaking a programme of survey and excavation at Little Carlton since 2015.

Dr Willmott's talk provided an overview of this research, outlining the range of detected finds and presented for the first time the results of the archaeological investigations into what has turned out to be one of the most important early Christian settlements to have been investigated in recent years. 

SLHA vice-chairman Nigel Burn delivered the 2016 Hosford Memorial Lecture to an appreciative audience at Sleaford. Taking as his theme "Magna Carta; the Lincolnshire Connections" he started by covering the background to the charter and the events leading up to its creation, which he described as the watershed between lawless and lawful rule by an English monarch.

King John himself was familiar with the county, visiting no less than 20 different locations during his reign but two Lincolnshire men, Stephen Langton (Archbishop of Canterbury) and Hugh of Wells (Bishop of Lincoln), played key roles in editing the charter and bringing it back to Lincoln from Runnymede, respectively. Stephen Langton's role was particularly critical in that the Pope had to be appeased without the charter being weakened.

The annual Brackenbury Lecture was given by Professor Valerie Purton of Anglia Ruskin University on 9 July to an audience of 43 in the historic Raithby Methodist Chapel.  Her theme was "Tennyson and the Spirit of Place".

Using short extracts from his poems - some familiar, some relatively unknown - Prof Purton showed how Tennyson early poems related to familiar places in Lincolnshire (his home, the Lincolnshire Wolds, Mablethorpe). Later work brought in a consideration of gardens, of travelling, of space and celestial images.

Tennyson's monumental "In Memoriam", in which he expresses his grief at the loss of Arthur Hallam, concludes that his late friend cannot be tied down to a particular place but was to be found in many experiences of life.

On 18 May an enthusiastic audience enjoyed a talk by William Sergeant about the two principal styles of vernacular chairs made in Lincolnshire, ie the rush-seated ladder-back chair and the Windsor, or hoop-backed, chair.

These chairs were made with whatever local timbers were available and some makers employed journeymen chair-makers to augment their production.

No rush-seated chairs have ever been found bearing a maker's name but information about local differences (such as the style of leg) is slowly being built up by examination of chairs with known provenance. On the other hand, some Windsor chairs bear makers' signatures and it has been possible to identify 'clusters' of manufacturers in such places as Caistor, Sleaford and Grantham.

The talk was illustrated with examples of both types of chair and members of the audience brought photographs of their own chairs for identification and comment. The speaker gleaned valuable information from this two-way dialogue which will contribute to the understanding of this important activity.

The recently formed SLHA Buildings Recording Team welcomed over 80 members of the Vernacular Architecture Group to Lincoln for a 4-day conference from 29 March to 1 April. All the local arrangements for the conference, including the extensive site visits, were made by the team.

The first visit embraced buildings of varied types and of various periods on the lower part of Lincoln's High Street (Stonebow, High Bridge, 195 High Street, Whitefriars, Unitarian Chapel, John of Gaunt's Palace, St Mary's Guildhall and St Andrew's Row).

The second day began at Stamford Stone Company sites in Clipsham and Helpston where premium grade Clipsham Stone is quarried and then fabricated for a wide range of functional and decorative items. This was followed by visits to properties in Stamford (12 Barn Hill, All Saints Church, 6 Red Lion Square, St John Baptist Church, 10 High Street, 16/17 St Paul's Street and Browne's Hospital) and the opportunity to follow a trail around the town centre featuring the varieties of stone in use.

Thursday morning offered visits to buildings in uphill Lincoln (Deloraine Court, No.6 Eastgate, Nos 1, 3 and 10 Bailgate, Nos 29, 39 and 46/47 Steep Hill) - some of the oldest domestic structures in the city.

Hackthorn, six miles north of Lincoln, was the focus of the afternoon's visit. Late 18th-century stables and farm buildings, the church of St Michael and the core of the village were examined.

The final day took conference members to the east of the county to view mud-and-stud cottages in Thimbleby and Mareham le Fen and also the remarkable timber-framed parsonage house at Coningsby.

During the week evening lectures were presented on Lincolnshire's building stone (by Steve Parry. British Geological Survey) and the Lincolnshire Farm Building Survey (Alastair MacIntosh, Lincoln City Archaeologist). The newly published book on Lincoln's ancient buildings "Steep, Strait and High" by Chris Johnson and Stanley Jones was launched by Lord Patrick Cormack on a third evening, and the conference was wound up with a lively evening of entertainment based on Lincolnshire folk traditions and songs presented by Tom Lane and colleagues.

Photos above (l to r): St Michael's Church, Hackthorn; The Cabin, Thimbleby; Beecroft Cottage, Mareham le Fen
Photos right (from top): Stonebow, Lincoln; Clipsham Quarry; Browne's Hospital, Stamford; 1 Bailgate, Lincoln

On Friday 18 March 14 members of the 60-strong Ukulele Orchestra of Spalding presented a lively evening of entertainment interspersed with an account of the history of the instrument.

The ukulele ("dancing flea") was developed in the 19th century by Portuguese migrants in Hawaii, where they worked in the sugar plantations. Today there are five standard sizes of instrument starting with the tiny Piccolo ukulele rising to the largest, the Baritone instrument.

All five types were demonstrated and the large audience enjoyed samples of the orchestra's extensive repertoire.

The evening reached a climax when four members of the audience, including SLHA's President, Rod Ambler, joined-in using instruments borrowed from the players.
In summary "a good time was had by all".

The Revd David Boutle gave a talk to the SLHA group at Sleaford on Thursday 17 March on vanished churches in Lincolnshire.

Following a comprehensive introduction to some of the reasons why churches flourished and died, David described many of the lost churches of the county commencing with the ruins of the Witham abbeys.

There is a surprising number of lost churches in the towns and cities, often caused by changing employment patterns but, equally, there are many in rural areas caused by shrinking populations and a lack of maintenance.

Some churches were replaced, such as the thatched church in Horsington, whilst many more were simply demolished. Others survive today because of architectural interest.

The speaker's extensive knowledge of this topic was much appreciated by the audience.

Structures and artefacts from the Roman period have ranged from hypocaust and fountain to relatively simple houses and a plethora of objects.

This material, much of national significance, has added greatly to our understanding of this early period. Later periods of occupation - Saxon, Viking, Norman, Medieval - are also represented in an area that has been heavily populated for 2000 years.

In his talk to SLHA members on 13 March Mick Jones gave a brief overview of this area and the related investigations in the past 50 years.

Mick's talk closely follows the launch of the book "The Archaeology of the Lower City and Adjacent Suburbs" published by Oxbow. (Copies are available from Jews' Court Bookshop.)

John Manterfield has been the driving force behind the recent publication and interpretation of the records of Grantham's Borough Council (so called Hall Book) for the 17th century. The original manuscript documents together with accompanying transcriptions have been published on the Lincs to the Past website; there has also been an accompanying book about the town based on these records.

This was the theme of John's talk to SLHA members on 13 March. Grantham, population c.2000, was governed by a small group of aldermen and burgesses who maintained steady and consistent government of local affairs despite the huge political pressures of the Civil War.

The Hall Book throws up valuable - and often amusing - insights into Grantham life in the mid-1600s.

The Alford firm of millwrights, Thompsons, was the theme of an illustrated talk given by Jon Sass, the Lincolnshire mill historian, to a large audience at Jews' Court on 13 March.

This small firm, based in Parsons Lane, operated from 1877 to 2014, repairing, renewing and maintaining windmills across the county and beyond. Their specialist skills were constantly in demand, especially in the modern era of windmill restoration.

The records of the firm are currently being digitised and there are proposals to create a local display of their unique tools and patterns.

Thompsons' workshop in Alford

Alf Ludlam, writer and railway enthusiast, entertained SLHA members at St Hugh's Hall Lincoln on 17 February with an illustrated talk on three former railway lines in east Lincolnshire.

The single line from Bardney to Louth, opened 1876, closed 1960, was a very scenic route via Wragby and Donington on Bain which included two short tunnels as it crossed the Wolds. Short branch lines between Horncastle and Woodhall Junction and between Spilsby and Firsby gave important trade and passenger links for two Lincolnshire market towns for around 100 years.

A few buildings and other structures survive on these routes long after their closure but the heyday of the lines was most vividly illustrated in the outstanding range of contemporary photographs shown by Alf Ludlam in his talk and also used in the range of his books recently published by the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway Society.

Illustrations: Above: The cover of one of Alf Ludlam's recent books. Below: Woodhall Junction station in 1969 shortly before final closure of the Horncastle branch line to goods traffic (Peter Grey Archive)

Dr Duncan Wright of Bishop Grosseteste University has studied this early castle and town which are situated near Reston in the Middle Marsh area of east Lincolnshire. He gave an illustrated talk about the fieldwork investigation to a large audience at Jews' Court on 24 January.

The castle is a large motte (8m high) and bailey structure probably of the 11th or 12th century. The nearby town was established in the early 13th century; it had a church (demolished in 1902) but it was never successful as a trading centre.

The form of the motte and its orientation raise discussion about its date and purpose in relation to the nearby salt route.

Jenne Pape of the SLHA Building Recording Group gave a talk on this topic as part of the "Sunday Special" at Jews' Court on 24 January.

Very few buildings with obvious timber-framing survive in the county but is has become apparent that medieval timber has survived - or been reused - in buildings that were later clad in bricks or substantial re-built in the area between Lincoln and the Trent.

Old Church Cottage at Aubourn, formerly the vicarage of only two ground-floor rooms, has been examined in some detail.  Documents show that it almost certainly pre-dates the Dissolution; its survival is partly due to the relocation of both church and vicarage in the village.

One of the three short talks at Jews' Court on Sunday 24 January was given by Dr Mike Rogers. He outlined the wide range of documents at Lincolnshire Archives concerned with law and order.

Records of Quarter Sessions from medieval times to the twentieth century are a rich and varied source, and in similar fashion Petty Sessions deal with lesser crimes in the county.

A wide range of information about prisons and prisoners is found in the documents of the County Committee.  Other useful and interesting sources include County Courts, Manorial Courts and Police Records.

Tealby Sandstone, Spilsby Greenstone and Ancaster Limestone are just three of the many distinctive local stones used in Lincolnshire buildings. These and several other stones were described by Steve Parry of the British Geological Survey to a large audience of SLHA members in Lincoln on 20 January.

The stone used in churches and other structures is usually related to the underlying geology of the local area, though there are unexpected examples of building stone appearing in vernacular buildings many miles from its source. Stone from other UK sources is also found, often for aesthetic effect and usually in buildings of higher status.

Steve Parry also mentioned the Strategic Stone Study which offers a national database of building stone types and related quarries (see the BGS website).