Acthorpe, Lincolnshire

Topliss drapers 1882-1975

I wonder if anyone remembers Topliss, 16 Mercer Row? It was there until 1975 when it was taken over by Boyes. It was probably the last shop in Britain to have a "cash railway" for taking customers' payments to the cashier and returning the change. The money travelled in a hollow wooden ball, like a croquet ball cut... [more]

My friend Betty Avis

Many years ago when I was a young girl not long out of school, I started work in Grimsby along with Betty Avis who lived in Binbrook and travelled into work every day on the bus. I remember her very well and still see her with her headscarf on when she came to work.  he and I became goood friends and... [more]

Black Horse Inn

The photograph of the High Street with the Black Horse Inn Sign in the foreground reminded me that one of my ancestors, Sims Briggs, was the landlord of the inn according to the 1881 Census. Some of the other members are interned in the churchyard including my 2x Great Grandmother Susannah Briggs, wife of John who also died in Ludford but... [more]

Henson ancestry

An ancester of mine, Edith Rebecca Henson, lived in Worlaby in the late 1800s/early 1900s in Low Road or Top Road, Worlaby. She lived with the Rusling family as a niece. She married Richard Frank Henson in 1905. They shared the same surname but were they related - maybe cousins? Richard came from Scawby. I would like to hear from anyone... [more]

Growing up

North Somercotes played a large part in my growing up, I lived with my parents, sister and brother on the Lakeside Lido in St Annes Avenue, next to my friend Cherry Mayfield. I particularly remember when we both had chickenpox and our mothers ran a line through our bedroom windows so we could play noughts and crosses back and forth. [more]

is this the watch tower

I wonder if anyone can tell me if the tall black object in the distance in this photo is the coastguard watch tower which was at the top of Sea Lane throught the war and into the sixties or seventies. My grandfather was an auxiliary coastguard at Saltfleet during the war before moving to Donna Nook. My sister and I spent... [more]

happy days

my husband and i were tenants of the old hewitts brewery at the crown inn ror about two years in the sixties we had some marvellous characters as regulars the appleby brothers what jokers, herman the butcher len the baker jim the estate agent strum the plumber whacker from the garage and lots of caravanners from sheffield and nottingham... [more]

Calceby ... my soul mate.

Calceby... I came to live here in 1947, not a country girl by birth, having lived in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, for the first fourteen years of my life. This hamlet was to become my home for the next three years, isolated and  buried in the heart of the wolds. I came to know every part of the landscape, and walking... [more]