When did Lincoln become a city?

I came across this question on Google when I was researching something else.  There were several answers, 1072, 1350, 1660, 1837, so I had to find out.

Lincoln had been a port since the time of the Roman Empire, shipping grain and produce to other parts of Roman Britain via the Foss dyke canal (it is not known if the Roman's built the whole of the canal, but they may have built the canal from Torksey to Hardwick near Saxilby) and the River Witham.

The population of Roman Lincoln is believed to be between 6,000 and 8,000.

Within a century of the Roman's departure Lincoln was virtually deserted, it wasn't until the Viking conquest in the late 9th century that Lincoln started to grow again.  By the Norman Conquest Lincoln was a important Viking town.  William I, built his castle here not just because of its superb defensive position but also to subdue the Viking population.  Four years after the building of the castle the building of bishop Remigius' cathedral commenced, enhancing Lincoln's (known as Nicole by the Normans) status even further.  Estimates based on the Domesday Book give a population in Lincoln at that time of about 6,000.

Lincoln grew rapidly in the 12th century, the main driver of this was cloth-making, the famous Lincoln Green used by Robin Hood, and Lincoln Scarlet, for those that could afford it.  By 1150, Lincoln was one of the wealthiest towns in England.  Lincoln cloth-makers travelled to fairs throughout England; Flanders, Castile and Portugal were important export markets. English Kings bought Lincoln Scarlet.

Lincoln became a Staple Town in 1291, exporting wool and cloth to mainland Europe.  Many landowners changed at this time from arable farming to rearing sheep, the Lincolnshire Wolds had been one of the most densely populated areas of the country, the change in farming brought about a decline in the population of the wolds.

Over the years the River Witham became more and more impassable, so much so that in 1369 the Staple was moved to Boston, this on top of the Black Death of 20 years earlier, had a devastating effect on the prosperity of Lincoln.

In an attempt to improve Lincoln's prosperity, Henry IV, by a charter of 1409, raised Lincoln to the status of a county, "The County of the City of Lincoln", this allowed the city to elect two sheriffs, and to receive the taxes previously paid to the county.  Henry also granted a 31 day fair to be held 15 days before and 15 days after 17 November, St Hugh's Feast Day (a 31-day market! Can you imagine Lincoln Christmas Market lasting that long?).

Even after this charter, Lincoln continued to deteriorate and depopulate and in 1461 Edward IV granted a charter that removed the villages Branston, Waddington, Bracebridge and Canwick from the county and added them to "The County of the City of Lincoln".

Lincoln had city status conferred on it by letters patent in 1540, along with 19 other cities, but Lincoln had been known as a city since "time immemorial", in fact since the year 1072.  All the places qualified for city status due to them having a diocesan cathedral

Marwood and His Long Drop

Until 1815 the place of execution in Lincoln was at the corner of Burton Road and Westgate where the convenience store and adjoining cottages now stand, known as Hangman’s Ditch.

Mary Johnson murdered her husband and, as was normal practice at that time, she was burned at the stake, before her burning in April 1747 she was garroted by the executioner.  Another woman received the same punishment in 1722,

In those days prisoners sentenced to be hanged were often executed in batches, often for very minor offences.  On 18th March 1785, nine prisoners were hanged at one time, three for highway robbery, two for sheep-stealing, two for cattle stealing, one for horse stealing and one for housebreaking.  It was reported that a crowd of 20,000 watched the executions.

The last person hanged on the old gallows was William Ward, for shop breaking at Mareham, on 1st April 1814.

From 1815 to the passing of the Act abolishing public executions in 1868, the tower in the northeast corner of the castle, known as Cobb Hall, was the place where those sentenced to death were hanged.  The gallows was erected on the lead flat roof at the top of the tower.

The Strugglers Inn

Hanging was once a crude affair, those being hanged died of strangulation which meant that they took a long time to die, they struggled on the gallows, hence the name of the inn at the north-west corner of the castle:  The Strugglers.

The Strugglers is said to be haunted by a lurcher that belonged to William Clark who was executed on 26th March 1877 for the murder of Henry Walker, a gamekeeper.

William Marwood had developed a method of hanging called the “long drop”.  Using the prisoner's height and weight he calculated the length of rope required to instantly break the prisoner's neck at the end of the drop and cause instant death.

William Marwood was born at Goulceby in 1820, about six miles from Horncastle, and lived for some years in Old Bolingbroke, moving to Horncastle about 1860; where he was a shoemaker in Church Street.

Marwood began his career as a hangman assisting his predecessor, William Calcraft, succeeding him in 1872; continuing the duties until his death on 4th September 1883.

Marwood was appointed the official Crown Executioner in 1874 and carried out 178 executions in his 9-year career, His first official act was to hang a man named William Francis Horry, at Lincoln, who murdered his wife at Boston, in 1872; his last was to hang a man, James Burton, at Durham, who murdered his young wife, aged only 18, from jealousy. On this occasion, the man fainted on the scaffold and got entangled with the rope under his arm, and Marwood had to lift him in his arms to get him disentangled, and then drop the unconscious man down - a painful scene.

He hanged the "Irish Invincibles" at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin between 14th May and 9th June 1883, five Irish nationalists who murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Under-Secretary for Ireland, with surgical knives in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

Marwood’s wife was unaware of her husband’s official occupation, he would tell her that he had to go away to settle some legal question. 

Locations of Hangings in Lincoln:

The image on the left shows the gallows location 1784, hangings were moved to Cobb Hall in 1815.  From 1868 hanging took place in the county prison in the castle.  Only crimes committed in the county were dealt with in Lincoln, the city gallows was at the top of Canwick Road (Hill)

Drawing by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm.

Lincoln's Caroline Martyn - "the leading socialist of her day"

Caroline Eliza Derecourt Martyn (3 May 1867 – 23 July 1896), was born in Lincoln, the eldest child of Superintendent James William Martyn, who later became Deputy Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, and his wife Kate Eleanor (née Hewitt). Her parents were devout High Anglicans and active in the Conservative Party. She was educated at Miss Roome's Beaumont House School on Asylum Road (now Spring Hill) and at the age of eighteen began work as a governess.

Caroline joined the Conservative Primrose League, but while working as a teacher in Reading she lodged with her maternal aunt, Mrs Annie Bailey, who held strong left-wing views. She briefly became a radical and then a socialist. In 1891, she was appointed a governess at the Royal Orphanage Asylum in Wandsworth, London, and joined the London Fabian Society. 

The following year, ill-health forced her to give up work and she began to devote herself full-time to the socialist cause. However, this was tempered by the devout religious views she had inherited from her parents, and she strongly disagreed with the Marxist principles of many of her contemporaries. She gained a reputation as one of the foremost social orators of her day, large crowds turning up to hear her speak as she travelled the country. The Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, described her as ‘one of the most indefatigable lecturers of the Independent Labour Party.’ The Aberdeen Weekly journal considered Caroline to be ‘endowed with rare intelligence matured by a liberal education and close study’ and ‘one of the few female public speakers whose enthusiasm for their subjects is such that they seem to drop their identity for the time being and become thrilling mouthpieces for the arguments they adduce.’

​For a while, in 1893, she was a sub-editor on the Christian Weekly.

Although she had many articles published in journals, Martyn was predominantly known as a lecturer. She became nationally recognised and large crowds turned up to hear her speak as she travelled round the country, predominantly in Lancashire and Scotland. In 1896, she was elected to the National Administrative Council of the Independent Labour Party and became editor of Fraternity, the journal of the International Society for the Brotherhood of Man, and ILP trades union organiser for the North of Scotland.  Due to her rapid rise in the ILP many spoke of her as a future leader of the Party, even though Keir Hardie called her a middle-class woman.

The work and travel, however, undermined her already fragile health, Caroline had arrived in Dundee on the 13th July 1896 to encourage female workers to join the Dundee Textile Workers Union.  She collapsed after a meeting on the 22nd July, a telegram was sent to her mother to go to Dundee. Caroline died of pleurisy in the late evening of the 23rd July at 107 Murraygate. She was buried in Balgay Cemetery in the city on the 24th July, her funeral was attended by her mother and her brother.

Keir Hardie wrote that she was the leading socialist of her day, with 'a power of intellect and moral-force'

The History of the Usher Gallery & Temple Gardens

Temple Gardens

Temple Gardens is in one of the most historic parts of the City. On the eastern side of the Gardens is a Roman defensive ditch, and on the western side once stood the Roman wall and rampart of the lower city. In the northern part of the Gardens is the site of St Andrew's-under-Palace church, established during the 11th century; it was one of the 40 Lincoln churches pulled down in the early 16th century. 

Joseph Moore, a Lincoln solicitor, named the area Temple Gardens and opened it to visitors for an annual fee of 10s. (50p), payable in April of every year, in 1824 as a pleasure ground. The Gardens were laid out with plants and antiquities. Moore had built a copy of ​the Greek Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus. Band concerts and exhibitions were held in the Gardens.

The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the choregos Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyramb contest of the City Dionysia in 335/334 BCE, of which performance he was liturgist.

The monument is known as the first use of the Corinthian order on the exterior of a building. It has been reproduced widely in modern monuments and building elements.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5239070

The second annual "Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire Grand Brass Band Contest and Peoples Festival" was held on 6 June 1859 at Temple Gardens, total prize money was £50.  Sixteen bands had entered and the public could attend on the payment of 1 shilling (5p) the event ended with a "grand display of fireworks.  Cheap train tickets were made available throughout the area covered by the contest.

Band concerts and fetes were regular attractions at Temple Gardens.

Joseph Moore died on 21st May 1863, and the Gardens were closed. The plants and equipment were sold at auction by Brogden & Co on 4th April 1864.

The Gardens were left to become overgrown, and were eventually bought by the Collingham family of Mawer & Collingham, the Lincoln department store on the corner of High Street and Mint Street, and added to their house at 7 Lindum Road. The house and Temple Gardens were sold in the early 1920s to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

7 Lindum Road, the Collingham family home

Usher Gallery

The Usher Art Gallery (as it was once known) came about due to a bequest from James Ward Usher, a Lincoln jeweller. James was an avid collector of ceramics, watches, clocks, coins, silver, miniatures, and paintings. 

James never married and left his collection to the City of Lincoln together with almost £60,000 (equivalent to £3,447,000.00 based on the retail price index) to design and erect a suitable building to house it. 

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners imposed certain conditions when the land was sold to Lincoln Corporation; one of these conditions was that the building should stand in the north western corner of Temple Gardens; eventually it was agreed that the Gallery should be built on the tennis courts where it now stands. Sir Reginald Blomfield was commissioned to design the building; he also designed the Central Library and Westgate Water Tower, and William Wright and Son (Lincoln) Ltd. were engaged to erect the building, which began in August 1925. Two foundation stones were laid on 10th March 1926, by the Mayor of Lincoln, Councillor Miss M E Neville, the stones were left plain at the request of Miss Neville.  A total of 119 piles from 14 to 25 feet long were used to stabilise the ground. The cost of the building was in the region of £34,000.

1899 Advert

The Gallery was officially opened on the 25th May 1927 by the then Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) with a solid gold key.

The Collection archaeology museum is located on Danes Terrace near to the Usher Gallery, visit the Collection website: https://www.thecollectionmuseum.com/

Lincoln's Rarest Gem

​

The Grey or Franciscan Friars were founded by St Francis in 1210, arriving in England about 1224, and Lincoln in about 1230. 

​In 1237 land was given to the Greyfriars by William de Benningworth, subdean of Lincoln Cathedral and the Corporation gave land "adjoining the Guildhall". The priory covered an area bordered by Broadgate, the river, Free School Lane and spread almost to Silver Street. ​

The building now known as "Greyfriars" was the ambulatory with a chapel above.

In 1535 the Greyfriars built a water supply to feed their friary. Water was taken from a spring on a hill near the end of what is now Monks Road; from here it was carried by lead pipes to St Swithin's Square. Grey Friars conduit stood in the north west corner of the square. 

Following the dissolution the city corporation took over the operation of the water supply, eventually extending it as far as St Peter at Gowts The priory was surrendered in 1538/9. The property was given to John Pope, who sold it to Justice Robert Monson. Monson established a free school in 1568 and in 1574 gave it to the Corporation in exchange for a forty years lease of the parsonage at Hanslope, Buckinghamshire.

​In 1612 the undercroft became a House of Correction until the 1620s when the Jersey School, for the teaching of spinning and knitting of wool was established.

​

In 1833 the Mechanics’ Institute moved into the undercroft, adding a library and newspaper room to the first floor. The Mechanics Institute moved to new premises in 1862 when the Free School was extended into the undercroft. George Boole, a Lincoln man and the inventor of Boolean Algebra was a member of the Lincoln Mechanics Institute. The free School closed in 1900 and by 1905 the building was vacant and, following restoration under the supervision of William Watkins, it opened in 1907 as the City Museum. The first curator was Arthur Smith who remained in the post until 1935, when he retired. Greyfriars was the location of the museum until 2001 when it was moved to the Collection on Danes Terrace.

The building has been mostly unused since the museum moved to new premises.  In 2006 it was estimated the cost of repairs to the building would exceed £100,000, rather than spending a reasonable amount of each years budget to improve the building little has been done apart from making the building water tight.  City of Lincoln Council and Heritage Lincolnshire have spent the passed few years looking for uses for the building but so far nothing has been decided.  It is an outrage that this unique Grade 1 listed building should be allowed to deteriorate.  

Click here to see the Buildings at Risk entry

If you feel strongly, as I do, about this neglect please contact your local Lincoln councillor

Lincoln Companies - H Newsum & Sons Ltd

The company of H Newsum, Sons & Co was established as a steam mill in 1856 by Henry Newsum (1833-1901) of Rotherham in Broadgate, Lincoln. These works were destroyed by fire in 1874, the Drill Hall was later built on the site, and Newsum moved to 17 Pelham Street. 

By 1881 Newsums employed 121 men and 12 boys. It was realised after World War I that the

joinery works there were too small for the Company’s expansion plans and a green field site next to the West Common south of Carholme Road was acquired. This was a large site complete with its own railway. Newsums expanded opening works in Gainsborough, Hull and Manchester.

The company continued to prosper until after World War II, exporting 1,000 wooden prefabricated houses to South Australia and also to Ajax in Ontario, Canada in the early 1950s.  In 1956 the company recorded a trading loss of £151,106, leading to the closure of the Lincoln site and a move to its site in Gainsborough.

Gainsborough closed in 1968 bringing to an end a company of over 100 years old.

Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), later English Electric Valves, moved onto the site and remained there until 2007 when the site was sold for housing. This was the end of manufacturing in this area of Carholme Road, Fisons having closed many years before.

Newsum's Villa

Newsum Villas were built in 1920 on the northern perimeter of Newsum's new joinery works.  One detached and eight 3 bedroom semi-detached houses were built for senior staff at the works.

Designed in a pseudo-Georgian style, the houses are well built in brick and well proportioned.  Sadly all the houses except one have had their Georgian proportioned sash windows replaced with upvc double-glazed units that detract from the design of the houses.  The house in the photograph was in the process of being renovated when I photographed it and has had its beautiful wooden windows replaced. 

The Lost Houses of Lincoln - Hartsholme Hall

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