The Lincoln Electric Trams

Following Lincoln Corporations takeover of the tramway system it was decided that the horse trams would be replaced with electric trams, but which system to use? The choice was between overhead power lines and track-based power, the elected members of the Corporation, in common with many other corporations, decided that overhead wires would be ugly and plumped for the Griffiths-Bedell surface contact system.

The Opening of the Electric Tramway

There were certain supposed advantages using the G-B stud contact system; apart from being more aesthetically pleasing than overhead wires, it was cheaper to install and maintain.

The laying of the new track cost £18,000, eight electric double deck tramcars (6 open top and 2 roofed) were supplied by Brush of Loughborough at a cost of almost £5,000. The total cost of purchasing the tramway, electrifying and new tramcars was £40,000.

The operation of the electric tramway commenced on 23rd November 1905 with George Pimp at the controls. The journey from terminus to terminus took 15 minutes compared to 20 minutes for the horse trams. The number of stops en route were increased from one to seventee.

Unfortunately the first day's operation was not accident free: John Parish of Bargate ignored the notice that passengers should not alight until the tram had stopped, he fell heavily and dislocated his shoulder. Mr Parish stated that the tram was running so smoothly that he thought it had stopped.

The Griffiths-Bedell system wasn't entirely successful: sometimes the tram would not make contact with the stud in the road surface and the tram would have to be pushed to make contact, more concerning was the escaping of gases from the sewers which occasionally exploded when the tram caused a spark from the stud and manhole covers were known to lift several feet in the air. On one occasion in 1908 a Mrs Blatherwick was injured due to an explosion and claimed compensation from the Corporation.

It seems that Lincoln was the only adopter of the Griffiths-Bedell system, it was removed in 1920 and replaced with overhead power lines. By this time the new council estate, St Giles, and the Swanpool Garden Estate were in the course of being built and the trams could only service a limited part of the city. Buses joined the Corporations fleet of passenger vehicles by 1921. The trams continued until the 4th March 1929 when the last tram was driven by Charles Hill (born 1876), the oldest tram driver.

Some Lincoln Tramway Company employees 1919

​Stanley Clegg, manager  -   Harry Hutson, tram driver - Herbert Syson, tram driver

Samuel Jefferies, tramway worker - Charles Speed, tram driver -  George Stiff, tram inspector

The Tram Sheds at Bracebridge

The end of the Trams

The Griffiths-Bedell surface contact system

"Perhaps most interest will be attracted by the less known Griffiths-Bedell surface-contact system, shown by a full-size section of railway by Messrs. William Griffiths and Co., Limited. This system is about to be adopted at Lincoln, and possesses several novel features, not the least of which is that the stud bead is laid flush with the paving, the current being collected from it by a chain which is brought down by magnetic influence, rising again clear of the surface as the car proceeds. The studs are placed 9ft. apart, and their heads measure 10in. by 2 1/2in. They are energised by a cable of iron wire laid in a closed stoneware duct beneath the track, contact being made only when the car is immediately over a stud and ceasing as soon as it has passed, when the stud is " dead." Whatever the actual working of this system may prove, it has the decided commercial advantage of being inexpensive in first cost, and we shall wait with interest the test to which it will soon be submitted at Lincoln."

ELECTRIC TRAMWAY AND RAILWAY EXHIBITION. - The Engineer 7 July 1905.

From https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/William_Griffiths_and_Co​

Benjamin Harry Bedell was an engineer and the inventor of the surface contact system. His patents were one-half assigned to William Griffiths, a stone merchant , who it is thought paid for patents and development.

A recent image of the Tram Sheds

Click here to read about the Horse Trams

Lincolnshire's First Balloon Flight?

Charles Green By Hilaire Ledru (1769-1840)
© National Portrait Gallery NPG 2557 

Charles Green, born 31 January 1785, was the United Kingdom's most famous balloonist of the 19th century.  His first ascent was in a coal gas balloon on 19 July 1821. He became a professional balloonist and by the time he retired in 1852, he had flown in a balloon 527 times.

This is an account of a flight from Boston to Grantham:

Mr Green's ascent from the gasworks at Boston on Thursday afternoon, the eighth inst was a very fine one and afforded the greatest gratification to between 20,000 and 30,000 persons who were assembled in the town to witness it.

About 600 persons purchased admission to the gas yard, Mr. Green was not accompanied by any person in the car of the balloon. The descent took place at Allington near Grantham as appears by the following statement supplied by the aeronaut himself. 

“On first leaving the earth the car of the balloon was west by south, But in about five minutes it changed to nearly due west passing between Swineshead and Heckington, and proceeding in a direct line for Grantham until nearly over Sir John Thorold’s park.  Boston then resembled a mass of rubbish, covering about an acre of land, and knowing that its inhabitants must have lost sight of the balloon. I commenced descending, which I calculated on effecting a little to the east of Grantham, but when about 4000 feet from the earth, the balloon fell into a current of air from the south east which conveyed it in the direction of Newark. The country still being favourable for the purpose I continued descending and landed at five minutes past five o'clock in the parish of Allington near Bottesford at the seat of T Earle Welby Esq., eight miles from Newark, and six from Grantham, about half an hour after the descent several gentlemen arrived from Grantham, one of whom lent me his horse, and the balloon being packed on another belonging to Mr J B Tunnard of the Blue Lion in Grantham. It was conveyed by that gentleman to the George where I received the congratulations of a large party of gentlemen. Shortly afterwards, T Earle Welby Esq. sent me an invitation which I accepted and partook of a sumptuous dinner. A chaise and four being obtained I set out from Grantham between nine and 10 o'clock and arrived at the Peacock about three in the morning.  My view of the Earth was grand in the extreme having on no former occasion had a more extensive one. My greatest elevation indicated by the barometer was nearly two miles and a quarter. Mercury having fallen 30 to 20.2.” 

Stamford Mercury, 16th of June 1826.

Green is credited with the invention of the trail rope as an aid to steering and landing a balloon.

Charles Green died suddenly at his home on 26 March 1870

The Lincoln Horse-Drawn Trams

The Lincoln Tramways Company Limited was formed in 1880 with a capital of £20,000. The first directors of the company were William John Warrener, JP; George Bainbridge; Francis Jonathan Clarke; Joseph Maltby, JP; Edwin Pratt; Henry Pratt; Edward Waterhouse.

Plans were put before the Board of Trade in November 1880 for three routes, "

"Tramway No. 1, commencing in the Parish of Bracebridge, in the Division of Kesteven, in the County of Lincoln, at or near a point 20 yards north (the Gatehouse Hotel) of the Board School on the Newark-road, and passing thence along the said Newark-road from Bracebridge ... and terminating in the High Street at a point about 120 yards south of the Stonebow, in the parish of St. Benedict

" Tramway No. 2, commencing by a junction with Tramway No. 1, at the point of termination of that tramway in the High-street aforesaid, in the parish of St..Benedict, and passing thence along the High-street in the parishes of St. Benedict and St. Peter-at-Arches, and terminating in the said High-street, at a point about 22 yards north of the Stonebow, in the said parish of St. Peter-at-Arches

"Tramway No. 3, commencing by a junction with Tramway No. 2, at the point of termination of that tramway in the High-street aforesaid, in the parish of St. Peter-at-Arches, and passing thence along the High-street and Silver-street by the junction between Broadgate and the New-road, and thence along Monks'-road, in the parishes of St. Peter-at-Arches, St. Martin, and St. Swithin, and terminating °in Monks'-road aforesaid, at a point opposite or nearly opposite to the entrance of the Arboretum, in the said parish of St. Swithin

"A Tramway No. 4, commencing in the Saxilby or Carholme-road at a point about 22 yards from the north-eastern corner of the iron railings separating the Grand Stand Inclosure from the West Common, in the parish of St. Mary-leWigford, and passing thence along Saxilby or Carholme-road, Gas-street, Far Newland, Newland, Guildhall-street, and High-street, in the parishes of St. Mary-le-Wigford, St. Martin, and St. Peter-at-Arches, and terminating by a junction •with Tramway No. 2 at or near a point about 140 yards from, the commencement of the said Tramway No. 2 in the High-street aforesaid, in the parish of St. Peter-at-Arches."

These were grand plans for a tramway system to cover the most populated parts of below-hill Lincoln, but Tramway 1 was the only route built. It was single track with double track passing places.

The tramway was opened on 6 September 1882, the trams were horse-drawn and an immediate success. The route was 1.75 miles long and the total journey took 20 minutes. The two original trams were too heavy when full for one horse to pull, smaller trams were acquired and the larger trams were used at peak times and drawn by two horses. Season tickets were introduced for regular users in 1882. There was an intermediate stop near Cranwell Street. The fare was 1d (0.42p) for each section of the route, a total of 2d (0.84p) for the whole route from Bracebridge to St Benedicts.

In September 1883 workmen's cars were introduced and the fare was 1p per journey irrespective of distance. The cost of season tickets was reduced at the same time from 25 shillings (£1.25) to £1.

In 1882/3, the first year of trading, the trams covered 44,103 miles, carried 247,513 passengers and returned a profit of £848-0s-5d.

1897 Horse Tram timetable

In 1899 the City Corporation were interested in building an electric tram system and adding a route from the West Common to the Monks Road Recreation Ground, Lincoln Tramways Company had approached the Corporation some months before with an offer to sell the tramway to the Corporation.

Lincoln Tramways had a total of 10 trams in 1903, eight single horse and two double horse.

​After several months of acrimonious negotiations and letters to newspapers the Corporation agreed to purchase the tramway for £10,437.10s. in February 1904.

​The last horse tram operated on 22nd July 1905, the system then being closed for reconstruction. The running of the last horse tram attracted a large crowd and the tramcar was specially decorated for the occasion.


Some employees of Lincoln Tramway Company

1891
Charles Lister, Manager
Edward Turner, tram driver
​Arthur Smith, tram conductor
Edward Laurence, labourer
Frederick Fortescue, labourer
George Pimp, groom
John Taterson, tram conductor
Osbourn Gibson tram driver
William Frecklington, tram conductor


1894
Amos Crawshaw, Manager


1897
​Amos Crawshaw, Manager
Charles W Harris, tram driver


1901
F C Peel, Manager
Robert Moore, tram driver
Fred E Kilner, tram driver


Click here to read about Lincoln's Electric Trams

More about Transport in Lincoln

The Foss Dyke Navigation
Lincolnshire's First Balloon Flight?
Lincoln Joins the Railway Age
By Mail Coach to London

Lincoln Companies - W Rainforth & Sons

William Rainforth was born in Gainsborough about 1817 to a family of sailmakers. He moved to Lincoln in 1837 working at 11 Waterside South.  In 1857 he was described as “Sail, Rope, Sack and Waterproof Cover Maker, Sailing Vessels to and from Hull, Sleaford and Horncastle”​By 1861 he was employing 19 men and 16 boys. In 1872 the firm operated from premises on Waterside North and Broadgate/St Rumbold's Lane.

​The firm's main product was corn screens. Other products offered were corn and flour dressing machines, barn machinery, seed drills, cultivators, harrows, rollers, sheep dipping equipment, wagons, carts and drays. ​

On 27th February 1884 one of Rainforth’s keels, Waterwitch, carrying lime for Richardson, Son and Doughty was lost in the Humber.  Waterwitch left Hull at about 3 a.m. towed by the steam tug Heela with several other vessels, within a short distance Waterwitch collided with a fishing smack and heeled over, the captain and mate were thrown into the water but were rescued

In 1887 the firm moved to Monks Road, the drawing in the advert is of this building, which is now part of Lincoln College.

After the death of William Rainforth in 1893 his sons continued the business, adding commercial refrigerators for dairies to the existing product range. 

Rainforths built single-decker bus bodies onto Leyland chassis for Lincolnshire Roadcar in 1932

The firm went into voluntary liquidation in 1933, the stock and other assets of the business were sold by auction on 16th August 1933.  The name W Rainforth & Son under the ownership of W. Thorne on Waterside North into the 1950s.

 By 1937 the Monks Road showroom was A R Hill's garage, J R J Mansbridge took over Hill's business in the 1950s.

The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Monk's Tower

Monk's Tower was designed by the Scottish country house architect William Burn, he was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style. The house was built before 1868 for F S J Foljambe, Liberal MP for Retford and Master of the Burton Hunt, at a cost of £6,000. He lived here for a short time while some alterations were being made at Osberton Hall in Nottinghamshire.

Foljambe relinquished his position of Mastership of the Burton Hunt and the house was auctioned, the following is a description of the house from the auction catalogue:

The residence is stone-built and of a striking and pleasing elevation; it stands on the boundary of Lincoln, within a mile of the Cathedral, upon the highest part of the city, and thus commands extensive views of the surrounding country.

The accommodation afforded comprises on the 

• GROUND FLOOR, Large Drawing-room, Dining-room (with a lift from the basement).
• FIRST FLOOR, Four spacious Bedrooms and Dressing rooms and two closets.
• SECOND FLOOR, Four bedrooms and one Dressing room.
• THE TOWER, Two Bedrooms and One Boxroom.
• The principal stairs are of stone, and there are also backstairs.  Gas and Water are laid on and the house throughout is heated with hot water.
• In the BASEMENT is every requisite accommodation, including Kitchens, Pantry, Larder, two Storerooms, Servants' Hall, Still-room, Butler's room, Housekeeper's room, and above a portion of these, ample and very excellent accommodation for servants.

The auction took place on the 13th October 1881, the highest bid was £1,200 from Theodore Trotter, the house cost £6,000 to build and was withdrawn from the auction.  Trotter later negotiated a price to buy the house.

Theodore Trotter moved to the Dell on Wragby Road 1885 and leased the house to Mr R E Wemyss, Master of the Burton Hunt, and later to Colonel Rudge. Colonel Rudge left Lincoln in 1895.

Trotter died in 1897 and Monk's Tower was offered for sale at auction, only reaching £`1,000 and was withdrawn from sale. The house was eventually sold in 1900 to Henry Elsey, a Lincoln corn merchant.

Henry Elsey was an owner of racehorses and had four stables built in 1901. Elsey moved to Eastcliffe House in about 1902.

The next tenant was Henry Charles Hynman Allanby, fomerly Major of the 3rd battalion Seaforth Highlanders. Allanby had two houses built for his gardener and his chauffeur in the grounds of the house in 1903 and a motor house (garage) in 1908.

Monk's Tower was offered for auction on 28th May 1920, unfortunately no bids were received. Lord Charles Bentinck was resident at Monk's Tower by 1921.

The house was empty for many years, and, like so many other grand houses, there were no buyers for the house and it was demolished in 1935. The stone was sent to the RAF Waddington and Scampton airfields for road building.

The Monk's Tower grounds were offered for sale by auction but was unsold, in August 1937 Lincoln Corporation bought the land for the building of initially 122 houses at what became Monk's Tower Estate (later just Tower Estate).

Other Lincoln Houses

The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Boultham Hall
The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Hartsholme Hall
The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Eastgate House
The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Monk's Manor

The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Cold Bath House

The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Sibthorp House

The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Eastcliffe House

The Old House on Corporation Street

The Crooked House and the Harlequin

Grand House Built on the Sale of Drugs

The Battle of Bunker('s) Hill

The regiment that was known until 1960 as the Lincolnshire Regiment was formed in 1685 as The Earl of Bath’s Regiment, in 1751 it was renamed the 10th Regiment of Foot.

In 1767 the Regiment sailed to the British Colonies in America. While they were there the “Boston Tea Party”, otherwise known as “The Destruction of the Tea”, occurred, as a protest over the Tea Tax instituted by the British Government in London.

The escalation of the crisis resulted in the start of the American Revolutionary War on 19th April 1775 near Boston with the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The British forces suffered a defeat and marched to Bunker and Breeds Hills to prevent the colonists from bombarding Boston from Breeds Hill which stands on a peninsular overlooking the City. Although it was seen as a victory for the British armies, their numbers of killed and wounded were far higher than those of the colonists, of which officer casualties were disproportionately high.

The result was seen as a victory at home and to commemorate it a hill on Wragby Road, Lincoln was named Bunker’s Hill, in honour of the Lincolnshire forces that fought at the battle – a name it retains to this day.

The 10th had the name “North Lincolnshire Regiment” added in 1782, in 1881 it was renamed as the “Lincolnshire Regiment” and in 1946 became the “Royal Lincolnshire Regiment”. Following a series of amalgamations, the regiment became the “Second Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment ‘The Poacher’s ” in 1992.

Incidentally, the term “Yeller-Belly” is said to come from the yellow waistcoats of the 10th Regiment of Foot soldiers, there are also other explanations.

The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Eastgate House

Eastgate House was built about 1750 for Sir Cecil Wray, the man who had the Roman east gate demolished in 1763 because it was partly in his garden!

Arthur Trollope, stamp distributor, a member of the Lincolnshire Trollope family lived here from about 1840 for 30 years 

Robert Gardiner Hill, of the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum, used part of the house for private mental health treatment.

Lincolnshire Chronicle 30th December 1853

Septimus Lowe, the Lincoln Coroner, bought the house in about 1880. Michael Drury designed alterations and additions to the house. Tenders ranged in price from £2,134 to £3,666, the lowest tender was accepted.

​Alfred Shuttleworth, the son of Joseph Shuttleworth bought the house in August 1888 and made several additions and improvements to Eastgate House: William Watkins designed additions in 1888, possibly the west wing; Otter and Broughton erected an engine house in 1890; Mortimer and Sons designed a billiard room in 1896.

The Dolphin*, one of the oldest inns in Lincoln, stood at the corner of Eastgate and Priorygate. Alfred Shuttleworth purchased it in about 1892 and had it demolished as it spoilt his view of the Cathedral from his home, Eastgate House, now the Lincoln Hotel. Although the demolition of the Dolphins caused much distress among the people of Lincoln at the time, it is obvious that the northeast view of the Cathedral was considerably improved. It also left room for the erection of Tennyson's statue in 1905. 

Alfred Shuttleworth paid for the restoration and half-timbering of the 17th century building on the opposite side of Priorygate. It became known as "Shuttleworth's Rest" and "The Rest". The interior of the ground floor was fitted out with fixed benches so that those who had walked up the hill from lower Lincoln could have a rest.

It now houses the property department of Lincoln Cathedral.

There was a robbery at the house on 17th December 1909, Shuttleworth offered a £100 reward for the conviction of the culprits and recovery of his 27 snuff boxes, valued at over £1,000.

Eastgate House
from Northgate

Alfred Shuttleworth passed away in 1925.  Alfred Shuttleworth's executors offered the house for sale in July 1926 with J D Wood & Co of London and J Peacock Rayner of Lincoln. The description included: "Four spacious reception rooms, billiard room, five principal bedrooms, four secondary bedrooms, seven servants' bedrooms. Electric light, central heating, stabling, garage, outbuildings. Delightful pleasure gardens. Fruit and kitchen gardens, glasshouses, etc. in all about 4 1/2 acres.

Alfred Shuttleworth's pictures and art treasures were sold at Christie's in London. The first day's sale on 3rd February 1926 included old French and English snuff boxes, bonbonnieres, scent, seals, etc. On the Thursday Chippendale, Sheraton and other English furniture, Persian carpets and rugs. On the 5th February modern pictures and watercolours by many well-known English artists of birds landscapes and Cathedral cities.

Eastgate House became home to Thomas Maynard-Page (1854-1941), a Lincoln solicitor. Part of the house was The Eastgate Court Cafe, operated by "the Misses Green", the cafe was still in business in 1959.

Part of the house became an officer's club during World War 2. The Page family lived in the west wing adjoining East Bight.

Alfred Shuttleworth's west wing,
the only surviving part of Eastgate House.

The main part of the house was demolished in the early 1960s and the reinforced concrete Eastgate Hotel was constructed. The wing that Alfred Shuttleworth built was retained and a new section was built to join the two halves together. Trust Houses bought the hotel when it was completed.

* See also The Castle, the King of France and the Dolphins

Other Lincoln Houses

The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Boultham Hall
The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Hartsholme Hall
The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Monk's Tower
The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Monk's Manor

The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Cold Bath House

The Lost Houses of Lincoln  - Sibthorp House

The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Eastcliffe House

The Old House on Corporation Street

The Crooked House and the Harlequin

Grand House Built on the Sale of Drugs

Lincoln Companies - Henry Poppleton & Sons Ltd

Henry Poppleton was born in Hull in 1829.  Within a few months of his birth the family moved to Lincoln, living in Sincil Street. William Poppleton, Henry’s father, was a shoemaker and Henry followed him, as an apprentice, into the trade, but realising it was not for him he worked for Thomas Hibbert at 36 Sincil Street as a baker at a wage of 4/- (20p) per week.

Henry worked for Hibbert for a number of years, eventually running the shop in his own name from about 1850, as a baker and flour dealer, when Hibbert moved to Canwick windmill as a miller. Henry married Thomas Hibbert’s daughter, Elizabeth Sarah, on Christmas Day 1851 at St Swithin’s church.

Henry was appointed secretary of a local bakers organisation in 1855 with the aim “that some uniform understanding should be come to respecting the retail price of flour, in order that something like unity should prevail in our charges to the public”. By 1859 Thomas Hibbert was back running the shop in his name, as a baker and biscuit maker, and Henry moved to 9 Guildhall Street, the Yorkshire Bank now stands here at numbers 8 to 10. He set himself up as a baker at Guildhall Street but soon saw confectionery as a more profitable business.

He was a Victorian entrepreneur, seeing the advantages of expanding the range and breadth of products offered in his shop, but this involved another move, this time to 198 High Street; confectionery included cakes and biscuits, bride (wedding?) cakes; pound, sponge and tea cakes; pastry; Rich Mixed Biscuits; Keiller’s marmalade; jams, jellies, Little John’s Rusks. Poppleton’s Butterscotch and Penny Cough packets. Number 198 was in a prominent position opposite the Cornhill and next to the Black Bull Hotel, it was demolished for the building of the British Home Stores department store

His ambitions soon outgrew the High Street shop, and in 1885 he bought premises, behind the shop, at Brayford Head to expand production of his range of sweets, the shop continued as a retail and trade outlet until it came into the possession of Samuel Patton, another confectioner, in the early 1890s. (There is an interesting and tragic post about Samuel Patton on the It's About Lincoln group page, click this link to view http://bit.ly/s-patton

At about the same time a John Chynoweth and Giles Jory Lockwood Lang (brother-in-law of George Poppleton) became partners with Henry Poppleton and his sons, George and Henry William, and company became: Chynoweth, Poppleton & Co. The partners needed land to build a factory and the Ellison family were selling land at the northern part of their estate for industrial development. Their new factory was built on the north side of Beevor Street, New Boultham in the early 1890s, there was a railway line on the south-side of the factory connected to the Midland Railway, giving the factory access to the rest of the UK. The architect was James Whitton and the builder, Crosby and Sons.

The partnership was dissolved in 1901 and the name of the business returned to H Poppleton & Sons. The business was turned into a limited liability company in 1910, becoming Lindum Confectionery Ltd; Henry Poppleton was Chairman, Henry William Poppleton was manager of the works and George and Frederick Lister Poppleton were commercial travellers selling to retail shops.

Henry Poppleton died on 21st September 1912. He was a Free Methodist preacher for over 60 years only retiring a year before his death. Henry and Elizabeth had eight children, four sons and four daughters, of the sons George (1855-1921), Henry William (1861-1932) and Frederick Lister (1869-1927) joined their father in the business, Charles Herbert (1857-1940) was a Methodist minister.
In the 1920s the address of the works became Rich Pasture Works, New Boultham, Lincoln.

Edward Ernest Tweed, solicitor, was chairman of the company from 1917 to 1933, he was succeeded by George Thomas Lawrence.

The business continued until 1936, when the company was voluntarily liquidated. Poppleton’s buildings stood until the 1970s and the site is now occupied by James Dawson's offices, car park and the west side of Tritton Road.

Why was such a successful company wound up? I speculate that after the death of Henry's three sons who worked in the business there were no family members interested in managing it, or it may be that Dawson's made an offer for the factory that was too good to pass up. Who knows, do you?

The research of the Poppleton's has been very interesting, do you have any photos of the factory, interior and exterior, of the people who worked there? Did you have relations who worked there? I have built a family tree from William Poppleton (1796-1867), Henry's father, are you researching the family? Please contact me via comments at the bottom of the page.