It's About Lincoln and Lincolnshire: edward milner

The Lincoln Commons Act of 1870 enabled Lincoln Corporation to purchase Monks Leys Common for the building of housing for Lincoln's booming population. Towns and cities throughout the country were recognising the leisure needs of their people, Lincoln was no exception in this and in 1870 undertook to provide a public park in what was to become a densely populated part of the City. Temple Gardens, although privately owned, had been used as a public park on an informal basis. Joseph Mawer Collingham, a son of the founder of the department store, Joseph Collingham, bought Temple Gardens in 1863 and built his new house on Lindum Road on the south side of Temple Gardens. Read more about Temple Gardens here.

Edward Milner (1819-84) was commissioned to design what was to become The Arboretum. Milner was responsible for the design of the grounds of Hartsholme Hall in 1862. Three acres of Monks Leys Common was sold to fund the development of The Arboretum. Milner also designed the West Gate Lodge and the Tea Room at the main entrance from Monks Road. At the first flight of steps an Edward Milner designed a pavilion was erected but, following years of neglect and vandalism, it was taken down in 1948.

The Arboretum was opened in August 1872. The importance to local people of the new attraction was the fact that 25,000 people attended the opening ceremony (Lincoln's population at the 1871 census was a little less than 27,000). The people were entertained by Professor Renzo’s Performing Dogs, Mr Emmanuel Jackson, the Midland aeronaut in his new balloon, brass band recitals and a ladies choir from Liverpool.

F J Clarke, a successful Lincoln chemist, in 1872 presented to the Arboretum a Coade stone lion by Austin & Seeley of New Road, Regent's Park.

The Arboretum Lion
Dave Hitchborne / The Lion, The Arboretum, Lincoln /

CC BY-SA 2.0

Brass Band concerts* had become a popular event in the Arboretum and in 1884 a bandstand was erected on the large lawn in front of the terrace and a cast iron shelter constructed by Lockerbie and Wilson, of Tipton, Staffordshire, was also erected about the same time.

In 1894 Nathaniel Clayton Cockburn donated land to the north west for an extension to the Arboretum. This was laid out by Edward Milner's son Henry Ernest Milner (1845-1906).

A fountain was erected in 1911 to celebrate the turning on of
the new water supply from Elkesley in Nottinghamshire.

Sister Swan's Nursing Home at Cold Bath House, stood near the Junction of Lindum Terrace and Sewell Road. During the Second World War the House was bombed and eventually demolished. The house got it's name from a spring which ran into its cellar. In 1953, to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the site was landscaped and added to the Arboretum, the spring is used to create a water feature in the Arboretum. This extension increased the area of the Arboretum to 21 acres (8.8 hectares).

The Arboretum was renovated in 2002/3 at a cost of £3 million to bring it back to its original condition.

*In 1889 over 40,000 people attended the band concerts.

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The Lincoln Waterworks Company was established in 1846 to provide fresh drinking water to the growing city of Lincoln. One of the main requirements. of a fresh water system is a reservoir: Prial Drain gave a regular supply of fresh water so the Company built a dam adjacent to the road to Skellingthorpe.

The lake covered 25 acres and held 23 million gallons of water. The water was piped to the Boultham filter beds near Altham Terrace and then pumped to a service reservoir in Lincoln. The lake supplied a total of 733 homes and was used until 1911. It was long thought that the Skellingthorpe lake was responsible for the Lincoln Typhoid outbreak of 1905 but it was caused by human waste in the upper Witham.

Joseph Shuttleworth was a successful engineer, a partner in Clayton Shuttleworth & Company, and needed a home suitable to his status. In 1861 he bought the lake and grounds, in 1862 Hartsholme Hall, designed by Major F H Goddard, was built for him. As well as the grand Hall a stable block, cottages, laundry, battery house, farmstead, lodges on Skellingthorpe Road and Doddington Road were also constructed. The interior of the Hall took a further 2 years to complete.

The grounds were designed by Edward Milner, the Victorian landscape gardener, who later designed the The Arboretum

The Doddington Road Lodge was built in 1879 and the size of the estate was increased to about 300 acres. The boathouse was built in 1881 and is the last building on the park to display the Shuttleworth crest.

Joseph died in 1883, and his widow moved to Heighington Hall. Hartsholme Hall passed to his eldest son, Alfred.

Alfred lived mainly in The Close in Lincoln, later extending Eastgate House, now part of

the Lincoln Hotel . Nathaniel Clayton Cockburn moved into the Hall in the mid 1890s.

In 1902 it was sold to Colonel Thomas Harding. Harding installed electricity in the Hall and re-erected a monument originally erected by the waterworks company to commemorate the building of the reservoir.

By 1906 the Hall was substantial, having five main ground floor rooms, a winter garden, and nineteen bedrooms as well as kitchens and servants' quarters

Lord Liverpool (Sir Arthur William de Brito Savile Foljambe (1870-1941)) bought the estate in 1909 for £16,250. Lord Liverpool was Governor, later Governor-General. of New Zealand. He died at Canwick Hall in 1941.

January 1939, J E Walter & Sons, the Lincoln estate agent, was

instructed to sell the Hartsholme Estate. The Estate comprised of 2,700 acres and included

"Hartsholme Hall with beautiful Gardens, Grounds, Ornamental Lake, with extensive Kitchen Gardens, Greenhouses, 2 Lodges, 3 Estate Cottages, 2 Keepers Cottages, Laundry Cottage, Butler's and Gardener's Cottage."

"687 Acres of Woodland", "The Most Attractive Residence known as Stones Place with choicely laid out Gardens and Greenhouses, etc.",

"15 Farms & Small Holdings. Valuable Building Frontages and Accommodation Lands, 20 Cottages & Gardens."

The Hall was purchased by Thomas Place, timber Merchant, of Northallerton. He did not take up residence in the Hall, he may have bought it for demolition and sale of the building materials: it was common practice to do this as the value of the building materials was often greater than the value of the building.

The estate was requisitioned by the Army in 1942 for military training. The Hall was an officers mess.

At the end of hostilies the Hall was used used by homeless families, by 1947 32 families were squatting in it. Thomas Place put the estate up for sale and demanded compensation from Lincoln Corporation.

The Hall and 130 acres were sold to Lincoln Corporation, the sale was eventually completed in 1951. The Hall was to be to converted to an old peoples home but the neglect and damage sustained to the structure of the building meant that there was no alternative but to demolish it at a cost of £600.00. The kitchen block and other buildings were left standing for Civil Defence use. The kitchen block was eventually demolished in 1964.

Other Lincoln Houses

The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Boultham Hall
The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Eastgate House
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