Bread and Cheese Hall

Bread and Cheese Hall

by itsaboutlincoln

In 1889 Ruston, Proctor & Co accountants certified that over the previous 7 years the company had made an average profit of £50,000 per year.  The same year Joseph Ruston converted Ruston, Proctor & Company into a public company, for this he received £465,000 and he rewarded his most senior employees with shares to the value of £10,000.

The following year demand was made by his workers for a pay rise, he refused the request with the reply:

“I hope you’ll let me get bread and cheese out of my business!”  After this Joseph Ruston was nicknamed ‘Mr Bread and Cheese'.

 In the same year, he paid for a new Drill Hall for the First Lincoln Volunteer Company to be built at Broadgate, on the site of Newsum's fire-damaged woodyard. Inevitably the new building became known as ‘Bread and Cheese Hall’.  He could afford the cost as in 1890 the business made a profit of £96,000!  

The Drill Hall was opened by Edward Stanhope, Secretary of State for War on 24th May

1890.  The building was designed by Major F H Goddard of Goddard and Son, Lincoln.  Built by H S & W Close of Lincoln of brick and Ancaster stone, with embattlements and watchtower, it provided a military aspect to its 55 ft frontage.

The gateway is 10 ft wide with the Royal Arms carved out of stone above.  On the right was the officers’ room with an apartment 24 ft by 18 ft, to the left was the Adjutant’s apartment of the same dimensions with an office for the Sergeant Major.  The hall beyond was 140 ft long by 50 ft wide.  The floor of the hall was specially constructed to deaden the noise of drilling men, made of blocks 10in by 2.5 in by 1.5 in, laid in pitch on a solid concrete foundation.

There was also a soup kitchen with coppers and appliances of every type for use at times of need, no doubt it came in useful for the typhoid epidemic of 1904/5.

Above the hall was a balcony for 150 people and a recreation room.

There was an armoury of sufficient size to store the arms of the whole battalion.  On the north side of the hall was a 50 ft by 50 ft gymnasium.

It had been suggested that Ruston knew that to give his employees an increase in wages to his employees would probably put other local engineering companies out of business!   But is that too kind to an entrepreneur who was well known for his hard business head and tough negotiating style?  

A Lonely Marshland Church

It's hard to believe that St Botolph's church, Skidbrooke was once at the centre of a large populated farming community and a thriving port. Botolph was a Christian Saxon nobleman who built a monastery at what is now Boston (Botolph's Town). St Botolph became the patron saint of wayfarers and travellers.

1855 entry in the Post Office directory

SKIDBROOK, with SALTFLEET.

Skidbrook is a scattered village and parish, on the sea coast, in the Marsh division of the Hundred of Louth Eske, Louth Union, and diocese of Lincoln, 10 miles east-northeast from Louth station, and containing, with Saltfleet, in 1851, 404 inhabitants, and about 2,400 acres of land, of which 300 acres is an unenclosed marsh. The living is a vicarage, of the annual value of £271, having a yearly rent-charge of £337, in lieu of tithes, and in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. John Michael Phillips, M. A. The Church of St. Botolph is an old building, with a nave, chancel, and tower. Lord Willoughby d'Eresby is lord of the manor.

Skidbrooke is known as Shitebroc in the Domesday Book, the name means 'dirty brook'

The church is built in Ancaster stone, unusual for this part of Lincolnshire and dates from the early 13th century, with additions in the 15th century, alterations in 1854 (slate roof) and 1871, and during the 20th century, the tower was built in the mid 14th century.  The church was declared redundant in November 1973 and is now in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust, a charity that looks after redundant, historic churches.

In 1978 the church was stripped of all its fittings, windows and doors, and now it is a shelter for wildlife during the cold and windy nights of the flat, open countryside.  

St Botolph's church has stood here through wind and storm for over 800 years, and served the local community until it was declared redundant.  The Saxon settlement was west and north of the church.

The approach in Winter

St Botolph's Bells

At Saltfleetby All Saints

© Copyright Richard Croft and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Merchant Navy War Graves