In Spalding it was a very ancient custom for the inhabitants to watch the town by house-row, or pay 6d. to the beadle, who used to ring a bell and cry the hour; there were two watch houses, one against Pinchbeck Street and the other against the old wooden High Bridge (this was demolished in 1837 for the current stone one). There was one old Robin Barnes, a sleepy watchman in that watch house against High Bridge; it had a fire in it at the time Robin’s mates went their rounds, Robin was fallen asleep, his hut caught fire, which forced him to quit his habitation and glad he was to do so; in the morning nothing was left but the bare walls, and that put an end to that mode of watchman.
“Alas poor Robin Barnes”[1]
[1] Notices of Remarkable Events and Curious Facts with Various Interesting Scraps – Robin Harmstone 1846
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