Spalding, Lincolnshire

Description
Spalding, a market and union town and parish in Lincolnshire. The town stands on the Welland river, and on the G.N., G.E. (joint), and Midland (joint) systems, at a radiation of lines in seven directions, 10 miles E from Bourn, 14 S from Boston, 17 N from Peterborough, and 93 from London It is an ancient place, the embankments of the Welland here having been erected by the Romans. During the Mercian era it was the seat of a castle and Benedictine monastery, and it was given by William the Conqueror to Ivo Taillebois, his nephew, and Earl of Angers, who resided here, and dying about 1114: was buried in the conventual church. Some 10th century remains of the monastery have been converted into dwelling-houses. The town is not incorporated, but is governed by an urban district council of fifteen members, has a good supply of water, derived from bore wells at Bourne, one of which is reputed to yield more water than any other well of the same kind in England. There are two bridges over the Welland for ordinary traffic, built in 1838 and in 1895, and two other bridges for foot passengers only. The Corn Exchange is a building in the Tudor style, which was erected in 1855-56 by the Improvement Commissioners at a cost of about £3000. It is filled with stands for the corn merchants; and is used also for public meetings. A drill hall was built in 1889 for the rifle corps and for holding public meetings and entertainments. The Sessions House is in the Sheep Market, and was erected in 1842 at a cost of £6000. The Police Station was erected in 1858 at a cost of £1400. The Johnson Hospital, built in 1881 at a cost of £4000, is an edifice of red brick, in the Domestic Gothic style, with accommodation for 24 in-patients. The workhouse stands on the road to Pinchbeck, about half a mile from the town, is a large building of red brick, erected in 1835, with accommodation for about 400 inmates. Other public buildings are the Christian Association and Literary Institute in Spring Gardens, a mechanics' institute in Red Lion Street, a masonic hall in Pinchbeck Street, the Gentlemen's Club in Broad Street, the Constitutional Club in the New Road, the Liberal Club in the Crescent, and the Workmen's Institute in Holbeach Road. The Spalding Gentlemen's Society was founded in 1710 by Maurice Johnson, one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and holds its meetings in the board room of the Johnson Hospital. A farmhouse, known as Fulney Farm, 1 1/4 mile SE from the town, is supposed to have originally been the dairy farm of the monastery, and to have been built about 1080. The land around the town is well cultivated, and produces large quantities of corn, roots, beans, pease, fruit, bulbs, and market garden produce, and the town carries on a good trade in corn, meal, flour, timber, and cake. A weekly market is held on Tuesday, and five fairs are held for cattle and merchandise on the first Tuesday after Lincoln fair (April), last Tuesday in June and August, September 25, and on the Friday before the London great Christmas market. There is also a statute or hiring fair in May. The town has a head post office, three banks, and a savings bank, two chief hotels, and it publishes two newspapers. The parish church, dedicated to St Mary and St Nicholas, is a large building, originally Early English, but with many alterations in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The ground plan is cruciform, but with so many additions as to be perplexing at first sight, and the building now consists of a nave of 6 bays, with N and S aisles of the same length, additional outer aisles as far west as the porches, transepts with double aisles not projecting beyond the outer aisles of the nave, a narrow chancel with an organ chamber, a large chantry chapel leading out of the S transept, N and S porches, and a tower at the west end of the outer S aisle. It contains some memorials of the Johnson and other families, and most of its windows are stained. In 1865 it was restored under the direction of the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott, R.A., at a cost of £10,000. The church of St Peter stands in the Priory Road, and is a building of red brick in the Early English style, which was erected in 1875 from designs by the above-mentioned architect. The living of St Mary and St Nicholas, with St Peter, is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln; net yearly value, £650 with residence. The ecclesiastical parish of St John the Baptist was formed in 1875 from the civil parishes of Spalding and Pinchbeck. The living is a vicarage of the net value of £380 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Lincoln. The church, erected in 1875, is a building of stone in the Gothic style. The ecclesiastical parish of St Paul, Fulney, was formed in 1877 from the civil parish of Spalding. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln, of the gross value of £350 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Lincoln and the Vicar of Spalding alternately. The church, which together with a vicarage and Sunday school, was erected in 1880 from designs by the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott, R.A., is a building of red brick and Ancaster stone, in the Early English style. The Roman Catholic-church of the Immaculate Conception and St Norbert stands in Henrietta Street, and is a building of red brick, in the Early English style. There are also three Baptist and two Congregational chapels, a Friends' meeting-house, a Free Methodist chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and places of worship for Christadelphians and Plymouth Brethren. There is an endowed grammar school, originally founded in 1588, with an income of about £300 a year. Area of Spalding parish, 10,752 acres; population, 9014; of the ecclesiastical parishes of St Mary and St Nicholas, 6554; of St John the Baptist, 1819; and of St Paul, 570.Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1894-5