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Andrew Elsden - stories, tales , rural and social and business issues past and present as I see them.


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Epilogue on Sarah Chandler
As I researched and wrote this I couldn’t help but think this story is worthy of a theatrical drama, or a film, or even, as is the trend...
Mar 72 min read
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50. One of the first cinemas in Lincolnshire
In In 1912 one of the first cinemas in Spalding opened – The Spalding Picture House. There were concerns for the moral impact on...
Mar 61 min read
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49. Spalding’s Isolation Hospital sold for £35
In 1937 Spalding sold its Isolation Hospital for £35. It had been built in 1896 at the cost of £340 with a contingency fund of £60 that...
Mar 52 min read
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48. Bananas
For several decades Spalding was famous for its bananas thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of the Geest family that provided...
Mar 41 min read
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47. Spalding’s Hooters
1989 saw the local bar called The Courtyard announce that it would have topless bars on a Sunday. Letters to the press ensued expressing...
Mar 31 min read
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46. A Rare Piece of Architecture
The Victorian architect George Gilbert Scott designed over 800 buildings including St Pancras Station in London and numerous churches....
Mar 21 min read
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45. Did Cricket originate in Spalding ?
A teaser for cricket loving Mark Steel - it's all Dutch to me!
Mar 11 min read
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44. William Cartwright’s description of Spalding
In 1846 local lawyer William Cartwright described Spalding with each letter of its name as follows: Since first I knew thy muddy lakes...
Feb 281 min read
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43. The Tulip Parade Exclusion and Subtle Protest
1972 saw the exclusion of a local gypsy from the flower parade in what many locals felt was an act of bigotry: “A Spalding man who took...
Feb 271 min read
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42. Spalding Cyclists
Being flat it is possibly of no surprise that Spalding was very popular for cyclists from the 1880’s onwards. However the death of Mrs...
Feb 261 min read
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41. The Election Day Riot 1868
The Reform Act of 1867 gave many more Spalding householders the vote increasing the electorate more than three fold in many areas. There...
Feb 252 min read
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40. That Wonderful Ship of the Line
If you look up at the roof of Spalding Gentlemen’s Society museum you will see an old ship weather vane. For years this sat derelict in a...
Feb 242 min read
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39. The Mutiny of Spalding Fire Brigade of 1858
In 1858 the town Improvement Commissioners broke up the Spalding Fire Brigade and formed a new one due to a disagreement between the men...
Feb 231 min read
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38. The Haley Brothers
When I attended Spalding Grammer School in the early 1980’s the woodwork lessons were often accompanied by the background noise of...
Feb 221 min read
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37. William Tyler the last man to be gibbeted in Spalding
William Tyler committed a ruthless murder for which he hung.
Feb 212 min read
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36. Captain John Perry – the Saviour of London
Captain Perry had committed a dereliction of duty by not setting fire to his ship
Feb 203 min read
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35. Dan Morgan
Few realise that he wrote and sold the best-selling guitar playing book of its day that outsold Bert Weedon's famous, " Play in a Day".
Feb 193 min read
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33. The Fountain of Controversy
This rather shit fountain has courted controversy in the town centre for decades.
Feb 172 min read
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32. The day the Railway came to town.
Not in itself unique to Spalding in the “Golden Age of Rail” on the 18th October 1848 Spalding’s railway station opened for the first...
Feb 162 min read
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31. The legacy of Jack Cooper
Rendered patterns of birds, shells, hobby horses and boats that he duly painted are the work of local handyman Jack Cooper.
Feb 151 min read
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