Lincoln's Libraries

Prior to The Public Libraries Act of 1850 libraries were only available to subscribers, often in stationery and book shops.

The Public Libraries Act was eventually adopted by Lincoln Corporation on 21st January 1892.  The Corporation formed a Library Authority for 3 years from 9 May 1894.  To help with the costs of setting up the library  Sir Charles Seely, MP gave £1,200., The Corporation, £200 and William Crosfield, MP, £100.

The Buttermarket is the stone fronted building on the right

The City Assembly Rooms, above the Buttermarket as St Peter at Arches was converted to the library at a cost of £1,272 17s. under the supervision of the City Surveyor, Mr R A MacBrair.

Lincoln's Public Library opened on 9th May 1895 with 7,000 books and news and reading rooms with about 100 newspapers and periodicals.

By this time the Mechanics' Institute had moved from Greyfriars to Guild Court, Danesgate Terrace where they provided about 20,000 books but many of these were only available to subscribers.

Within 15 years the library had outgrown the former Assembly Rooms and a committee was formed with the aim of building a new Public Library.  Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American industrialist, gave the City a grant of £10,000 toward the cost of building the new library.  Sir Reginald Bloomfield was appointed to design  the new library, he also designed the Usher Gallery

The new Library, on Free School Lane, was opened on 24th February 1914.

Lincoln Central Library on Free School Lane

By the 1990s the library had again outgrown its location and it was decided to rebuild the library, retaining the Bloomfield designed front part of the building.  Melvyn Bragg officially opened the new library on 30th October 1996.

The library continues to serve the people of Lincoln and district, as a source of information for the researcher and entertainment for the reader of novels.  Whereas, years ago you would see older people in the Reading Rooms with newspapers and magazines now you will see younger people on computers updating their Facebook status.

Who knows what the future may bring?

 

The Inventor "Blackmailed by the Government"

41 to 55 Westgate

I have walked passed this row of fairly unremarkable houses many times, but today I noticed something remarkable: no UPVC!!  Each house still has its original doors and windows painted black with white frames.  Although there is some deterioration of the bricks, the houses are generally in good condition.  We all crave increased comfort and lower bills so most older houses have had windows and doors unsympathetically replaced – not these houses though.  The reason for such for this may be that the houses stand in front of Lincoln Castle and planning permission for such modernisation is not granted but I prefer to believe that the owners like to keep their houses totally original.

These are the only residential houses still standing on the south side of Westgate, number

Detail showing numbers 47 to 53

11 to 35 disappeared beneath a car park over 80 years ago.

Whilst researching these houses, I searched in the 1911 census and it seems that certain members of the population were as unhappy with the Government as many of us are now. Frank Aspland Cooper put his occupation as “Inventor blackmailed by the government”, Industry “ruination”, Employer status “sufferer”, born in Cincinnati, USA.
He published a book, “Occupation Charges” in 1887, it may be worth a read.  Mr Cooper lived at number 43, the second house from the left.  He lived there until his death in 1932 at the age of 78

The census form can be viewed here: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBC%2F1911%2FRG14%2F19748%2F0619&parentid=GBC%2F1911%2FRG14%2F19748%2F0619%2F1

This is a list of householders of the above houses in 1913:

Previously published  September 15, 2012

When Lincoln's Greatest Roman Treasure was Almost Lost

 

From the original blogpost 31 May 2012

Newport Arch was the north gate of the upper Roman town of Lindum Colonia.  It is now the only Roman arch in the country still open to traffic.  It is the entrance to Lincoln's historic centre that includes most of Roman and Medieval Lincoln.

Newport Arch probably got its name in the medieval period, many houses were demolished for the building of Lincoln castle in the late 11^th century and the displaced residents moved to an area north of what is now known as Newport.  At the time it was open country but soon grew and eventually had its own market.

Built in the 3rd century, Ermine Street passed through it to link Lincoln to another major Roman provincial centre, York.  The arch was enlarged when the city became capital of the province Flavie Caesariensis in the 4th century.  The remains we see today are of the inner arch and a footway on the east side of the arch, the outer arch was demolished in the late 18^th century.  The arch was much higher in Roman times, approximately 2.4 metres of it are below today’s ground level.

More about the design of the gateway was discovered in 1954 when the north-west bastion, a semi-circular  structure, was excavated, the remains of which are still visible.  There would have been another bastion on the north-east side of the gateway, the remains of that are now below the adjoining cottage.

The modern age has brought damage from motor vehicles, the worst of which happened in 1964 when a lorry carrying peas severely damaged the upper part of the arch.  This resulted in its dismantling and rebuilding.  To see an image of the accident please click here.

Lincoln’s Stonebow now stands on the site of the Roman south gate of the lower city

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The Cross on the Hill

 The first of the twelve Eleanor Cross’s stood on Swine Green at the junction of High Street and St Catherines, not far from the present St Catherine’s Priory Centre and the foot of Cross o’ Cliff Hill.  At the top  of the hill  stood another cross, this cross marked the boundary of the southern limits of the City of Lincoln.  By 1600 this cross had been removed “by some evil-disposed person”. The Corporation ordered that a stone should be erected in its place as a landmark.

It was at this spot that the dignitaries of the  Corporation met distinguished visitors arriving from the South.  In 1445, the Mayor, the Sheriffs and aldermen, on bended knees, here received Henry VI and his young bride, Margaret of Anjou.

Mayoral Party, led by trumpeters and javelin men, leaving the Guildhall

Here 172 years later, on March 17th, 1617, the civic authorities all “in long cloth clothes of purple in grain”, the Sheriffs with white staves of office, the others carrying javelins fringed with red and white, waited to meet James I, who had been hunting along the Heath on his way from Grantham; it appears that the king took a different route and missed the civic party.

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When Lincoln Was Numbered

19 to 23 Minster Yard are known as the Number Houses, so-called because they are thought to be the first numbered houses in Lincoln; but why start at 19?

Standing at the north-west corner of Lincoln Cathedral, which they complement.  The houses were built in the early to mid 18th century with 19th century modifications and are, as you would expect, Grade II and Grade II* listed.

Over the years many of the houses have been updated but still retain their character.  The curve of bay windows and the regularity of the Georgian windows place these houses among the finest in the city.    

When house numbering first began, under the Postage Act of 1765, buildings were often numbered in sequence, 1 to x on the left-hand side from a main road, and x+1 (opposite x) to the last number on the other side - a clockwise sequence (Lincoln's High Street retains this numbering sequence).  Later buildings on the left would usually be odd numbers and the opposite side would be even. 

At first sight, nothing remarkable about this mid-19th century row of terraced houses built for the better-off professional classes, in need of tender loving care and blighted by poorly designed double-glazed windows and the ubiquitous wheelie bin.

These seemingly two double-fronted houses are. in fact, four single-fronted houses.  The plaque to the left of the right-hand door shows number 67, and it can be seen from the wheelie bins that the houses are numbered 65 to 71.

This is the artificial stone lintel above the right-hand door:

From this lintel, it can be clearly seen that the houses were previously numbered from 43 to 46.  All the houses were unoccupied in the 1861 census, so they must have been newly built, or in the course of being built at that time.

In 1871 number 43 was still unoccupied, but the others were lived in:

• 44 - John Heywood, age 42, a cashier at an engineering works.  Under where born: "travelling on the continent", his son, Edward, was born at Heywood, Lancashire. 
• 45 - Elizabeth Bullivant, 65, living on her own means, born in Aisthorpe.  
• 46 - George Williamson, 48, Manager Steam Engineer, born Gainsborough.

Sometime between 1891 and 1894, the houses were renumbered to the current sequence.

In the case of Monks Road buildings were numbered sequentially on what would be the right, and when the numbering changed number 1 was still on the right.  I believe the reason for this is that the first houses were built on the south side of the road as Monks Leys Common was on the north side.

When these four houses were built, behind them would be many of the major engineering works of the City, but in front would be a pleasant view of the countryside leading up the hill. To the left would be the recently opened cattle market with a great view of the Cathedral above it.

Many other roads, including High Street, have been re-numbered.

Monks Road Numbering 1894 - New Numbers

Monks Road Numbering 1894 - Old Numbers

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Over 100 more posts @  https://itsaboutlincoln.blogspot.com/p/index-to-blogposts.html

The Lost Houses of Lincolnshire - Bayons Manor

• Why is the manor called "Bayons"?

• At the Conquest the manor became the property of the William the Conqueror’s half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, it was then named Bayeux Manor later corrupted to Bayons, it became the baronial inheritance of the family of De Bayeux till the reign of Edward II., subsequent owners were Beaumont, and then, by inheritance, into the hands of Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell and d'Eyncourt, who forfeited it, with his other vast possessions to Henry VII, due to his involvement in the battle of Stoke, 1487. This powerful nobleman avoided capture, he was said to have lived for years afterwards in a cave or vault. The only person who knew of his presence was a faithful servant who locked him into the secret room at Minster Lovell Hall and brought him his food. According to legend, the servant died unexpectedly, leaving Lovell to starve to death.  In 1718 a vault was said to have been discovered, containing the skeleton of a man in rich attire, with a cap, book, paper, pens, etc sitting at a table with a skeleton dog at his feet.

• Bayons Manor came into the possession of the Crown, and was granted by Henry VIII to Sir Henry Norris, who was later decapitated for his friendship with Queen Anne Boleyn following her fall from grace with Henry VIII.  Bayons was again forfeited, but afterwards, by grant and repurchase, came back to, and continued the property of, the descendants of William, second son of, Alice, Baroness D’Eyncourt, and male heir of the Lord Lovell and D’Eyncourt. 

• George Clayton Tennyson, Alfred's grandfather, descended from a long line of south Yorkshire yeoman farmers and professional men, who moved to Lincolnshire in the eighteenth century. George’s father, Michael, was a surgeon in Market Rasen, and married, Elizabeth Clayton, whose family owned much of Grimsby. The Claytons were co-heirs of the Earls of Scarsdale and descendants of the medieval family of d’Eyncourt. George became the most successful solicitor in Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire. The profits of his business, combined with shrewd purchase of farm land at slump prices, made him a rich man.

• At the end of the eighteenth century he bought Tealby Lodge, and built a property around it. The original bay-fronted Regency building was the size of a thatched cottage, but it was in a beautiful position on the west slope of the Wolds, and there were traces of a medieval castle about 100 yards from the house. He enlarged the existing buildings, planted trees and formed a park.  It was about this time that Tealby Lodge was renamed Bayons Manor.

• George died in 1835, his eldest son was also George Clayton Tennyson, Alfred’s father, George senior had decided his eldest son was unfit to succeed him. He disinherited him, supplied him with a family living at Somersby and properties in the growing town of Grimsby, and concentrated his energies and money on his second son, Charles.  George, the son, predeceased his father by 4 years.

• Charles was left Bayons Manor and the bulk of his father's property, plus an allowance of £7,000 a year. Almost immediately Charles added d’Eyncourt to his name; they were ancestors of Elizabeth Clayton, his grandmother.

• Charles was Tory MP for Grimsby from 1816 to 1822, he remained MP at other constituencies until 1852.  Charles married Francis Mary Hutton at All Saints Church, Gainsborough in 1808.

• Between 1818 and 1825 he had been busily engaged in advising and helping his brother-in-law, the millionaire Durham coal owner Matthew Russell, in the task of resurrecting one of the most magnificent modern castles in England from the scant ruins of medieval Brancepeth Castle. With this experience behind him and with considerably increased antiquarian knowledge, he embarked on a similar task at Bayons.

  • Lincoln architect W A Nicholson was employed to design Bayons Manor, but most of the design was down to Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt; when he was in London weekly, sometimes daily, writing letters with changes including drawings and plans.  Nicholson was noted for designing fairly boring buildings but with the aid of Charles produced an extravagant neo-Gothic manor.

  • Charles employed a small army of workmen, several from Italy.

  In 1836 the foundations of the Great Hall were laid, and a little later the Library wing was built to the north. The hall faced south. The two neo-Tudor Regency bays remained. In the centre of the north front, the massive tower was built. The date is about 1839. At this stage Bayons was still only a medium-sized manor house. Then the mood changed and the works began to get theatric. Inner and outer defensive walls were erected, a moat dug, and an embattled barbican with a mock drawbridge provided.   Bayons Manor was almost finished but the design was thought to be incomplete, a tower was suggested as the necessary central point, a flag was hoisted at the site of the intended tower, to give idea of its effect, it was approved and the tower was built.  Later the house was surrounded by fake fortifications.  The manor comprised of 60 rooms, twelve battlemented towers, a keep, a moat, and a great hall that would seat 150 guests.  It was completed by 1842.  Among the fine fittings and furniture installed in the Great Hall were heavy bronze chandeliers that previously hung in the Palace of Westminster, and were removed after the fire of 1834 and statues of two English kings (one being Edward the Confessor), the statues were returned to the Palace of Westminster when Bayons was abandoned.  There was also a dining table made for Burghley House too big for there, but not for the Great Hall. The main framework of the interior was Gothic, with open timber roofs and elaborate Gothic chimneypieces in the hall and others of the main rooms. Crace & Sons of London installed painted decorations and wallpapers by Pugin.  Armour, weapons, heraldry and stained glass abounded. But there were also busts of Napoleon and Byron, classical tapestries, Etruscan vases, and pictures by Van der Neer and Guardi.
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  • The literary equivalents of Bayons are the novels of Walter Scott and still more of Charles d’Eyncourt’s friend Bulwer-Lytton, who wrote Harold the Last of the Saxon Kings (1848) during a stay there.  Charles was himself a bad poet.  He considered his nephew’s poetry ‘horrid rubbish’ and was disgusted when he was made Poet Laureate.

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    Keeping the tenants happy

    This lithograph shows the tenants being entertained in the hall of Bayons Manor in 1842.  The formula was found to work remarkably well; with the squire and his tenant farmers in the hall, the rest of the gentry in the dining room and the labourers in a marquee in the park, the Victorian countryside sailed out of agrarian discontent into the calm waters of mid-Victorian deference.

    
    
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    Bayons Manor in 1887

    
    

  • Mrs Charlotte Ruth Tennyson d'Eyncourt was the last resident of Bayons Manor, she had lived there for 40 years, in 1944 she moved into the Garden Cottage in the park.  She claimed in an interview that Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt built Bayons Manor because his brother in law, Matthew Russell, spent £80,000 a year on his Co. Durham castle.

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    Mock Drawbridge and Barbican Gatehouse
    
    

  • Bayons wasn't only a romantic interpretation of a medieval manor house; it was also a demonstration of the social status of the recently wealthy Tennyson family.   

  • There is a story related by members of the family that Charles in old age was being driven in a carriage through park looking back at Bayons Manor and saying "I must have been mad."

  
  Charles Tennyson-d'Eyncourt died 21 July 1861, one day after his 77th birthday.  Charles' eldest son, George Hildyard Tennyson D'Eyncourt, inherited Bayons Manor, he died 23 March 1871 and was succeeded by his brother Admiral Edwin C Tennyson d'Eyncourt CB RN.  Edwin C Tennyson-d'Eyncourt died 14 Jan 1903, he was succeeded by his nephew Edmund Charles Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, The last lord of the manor of Tealby.  
  
  
  There was a fundamental flaw in the construction of Bayons Manor, the local stone that was used in the main structure had deteriorated but the cappings were of Portland Stone which is much heavier and was crushing the local stone.  The cost of rectifying this flaw was estimated at £90,000 in the 1960s, about £1.7 million today (Bank of England figures).
  Bayons Manor was taken over by the army in the Second World War.
  The Tennyson-d'Eyncourts sold the manor house and park to local farmer, Reginald W Drakes in January 1944

  • In 1956 trees were growing out of curtain walls, the adjacent buildings had collapsed in a jumble of timbers, and the whole looked ready to return to nature. It was truly the enchanted palace of the Sleeping Beauty, ‘a fairy-tale invention’ wrote Mark Girouard. I wandered through room after room, Pugin papers fluttering off the walls, the hammerbeamed Great Hall a wreck, panelling ripped off and splintered, wonderful carved stone Puginesque chimney-pieces defaced. Geoffrey Houghton Brown’s antique dealer from Grantham had carted off a load of Gothic furniture some years before. Upstairs, birds fluttered and cawed at my presence. I thought then, and later wrote: ‘Bayons is now in total decay, and never looked better.’ In 1959 the situation had changed little since my first visit, the decay simply more picturesque,

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    Aerial view of Bayons Manor c.1960

  • The Bayons Manor Estate was sold to E A Sheardown Ltd of Marston, Lincolnshire for £162,000 in 1964.  The manor house had been subject to theft of lead, wood panelling, and damage since the Second World War.  The Manor had become a white elephant, World War One had changed peoples views of employment, women found they could do other jobs apart from domestic service, and the new ambitions brought higher wages.  Sixty rooms took a great deal of work, cleaning, lighting and maintaining fires in rooms.  Add to that the cost of maintaining the buildings and it's obvious impossible to keep going.  

  • The Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1964 suggested to the Lindsey County Council that the buildings be left as a "Monumental Ruin", the cost of clearing rubble and making the buildings was deemed too expensive.

  • The demolition of Bayons Manor began in September 1964, The main tower which housed the principal drawing room and staterooms above was blown up.  In October the remaining parts of the building and walls were blown up.

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Lincoln Companies - R M Wright & Co Ltd

 William Dyke was the licensee of the George and Fox in Penkridge in Staffordshire 1869 to 1880, he then became a beerseller, his assets were liquidated in December 1881.  By 1891 he was living in Orchard Street, Lincoln and employed a corn merchants labourer, probably for Henry Elsey who was a lodger in his home.

William and his wife had two of their children living with them in 1891.  Their oldest child, Albert George Dyke, worked as a confectioner. 

Albert was a successful racing cyclist, gaining many cups, statuettes, vases, shields during his racing career.  He began racing in 1880 when he lived in Staffordshire.  Albert was asked by a Lincolnshire Echo reporter why he was not racing under his own name, his response "... when I started racing I raced under my own name I was then 16 and was apprenticed at Wolverhampton.  In 1881, I had a bad smash, and my employer then said he would not allow me to race, but I thought I could do something, so I decided I would try.  I wrote to the NCU* and the AAA*, stating my case, and asking that I be allowed to ride in a family name R M Wright.  I was granted permission, but with the condition that I never ride in any other name so long as I live."  He rode under his brother in laws name, Ralph Montague Wright.

Albert started his business by selling Sunbeam bicycles from his home in Orchard Street in 1892

He married local woman Rose Emma Horner in 1894. Between 1895 and 1902 they had 3 children, the last was Ralph Montague (R M) Wright Dyke, named obviously with intention of taking over the business later, sadly Ralph died in 1903.

Wrights launched the "Stonebow Autocar" made by Payne and Bates of Coventry in 1900.  R M Wright & Co were the first motor dealers in Lincoln

Wrights also sold a range of Stonebow Cycles.

In the 1901 Census Albert and Rose were living at 88 Bailgate, Lincoln,his occupation was shown as ”Cycle & Motor Manufacturers Agent”. By 1911 they were living close to the business at 12 Newland .

He was a keen motorist involved with motoring clubs in Lincoln and Nottingham, this led to the early success of his business; he entered competitions in the name of R M Wright to give publicity to his business. To prove the reliability of the Humber car he organised a 5,000 mile trial. He also took part in other trials.

Albert was what we would today call a "boy racer", convicted many time of riding a bicycle (even in a race) or driving a car "furiously" and driving at excess speed, ranging from 7 to 27 mph.

Their showroom on Newland featured a vehicle lift so that cars could be raised to the first floor showroom.  This showroom would accommodate over 30 cars.

Incorporated as R M Wright & Co Ltd before 1919.

R M Wright became Austin distributors in 1922

Albert’s wife died in Lincoln in1927.

The company was taken over in 1927 and became R M Wright (1927) Ltd., the directors were Frederick Arthur Cox, Margaret A Cox and John Charles Ivens; F A Cox was managing director of the company. Frederick Cox died in November 1938, he had been ill for over 5 years. John Ivens became managing director.  1953 entry from www.gracesguide.co.uk R. M. Wright & Co. (1927) Ltd. Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Stockists. Newland, Lincoln. Telephone: 397. Directors: J. C. Ivens (Managing). M. A. Cox. F. R. Cox. Peter J. C. Ivens (Sales Manager). Managers: S. Pinder (Service—Repairs). F. H. Kirby (Spares).

Albert Dyke died in Oswestry in 1940

R M Wright (1986) Ltd was acquired by the Lincolnshire Co-operative Society Limited in1986

Wrights remained as distributors for Austin motor vehicles, continuing through British Motor Corporation, the nationalised British Leyland Motor Holdings, British Leyland and the Rover Group.  Unfortunately, financial health of the company was closely linked to that of its supplier.  It was obvious to the owners of the company that the Rover Group was in trouble so it was decided that R M Wright, after nearly 100 years of trading, would be wound up and the Lincoln premises on Outer Circle Road would be re-branded as Holland Bros and the more appealing Jaguar products would be retailed.

In early 2012 Lincolnshire Co-operative Ltd sold Holland Bros to the Marshall Motor Group.  

*National Cyclists Union

*Amateur Athletics Association