Whaplode, Lincolnshire

Boston - A History & Celebration

Boston was not only the largest town and the commercial capital of Lincolnshire in the early 19th century but was also the first town in the county to industrialise. There were brewers and tanners as well as shipbuilders, sailmakers, rope makers, coachbuilders and saddlers. One coachbuilder was John Mumford who had left the town but returned in 1834 and set up in business in West Street. He lapsed into drink and moved to Brixton in London in 1844, leaving his Boston business premises in the hands of his mortgagee. His daughter Catherine had seen at first hand the evils of drink in the streets of Boston and, after marrying William Booth in 1855, she and her husband became the founders of what is now the Salvation Army.

Boston - A History & Celebration

The national government also developed local offices. A central post office had been built in High Street in 1882-85, but in 1907 it was replaced by the present building in Wide Bargate which was soon extended to include the sorting office and the telephone exchange, where the author’s mother worked for a while. Later public buildings included the employment exchange in West Street, built in 1939 in place of rented accommodation, and later the tax office in Norfolk Street, with hutments out in the back including the driver testing office. Boston did not have a public supply of electricity until 1926, about 40 years after it had been available in London and elsewhere. Until then Boston Dock and some large factories had to produce their own electricity. The gas ‘Five Lamps’ in the Market Place was replaced by an electronic lamp standard (with just two lamps!) and 50 years later that was moved to its present site in Liquorpond Street. In the period from 1851 to 1881 there had been no increase in the town’s population, and after the dock was opened many newcomers could move into the stock of existing houses. From the 1890s several new streets of middle-class houses were built on remaining greenfield sites within the town and some even further out. One site on the north side (Neil Wright) This was the headquarters of Holland County Council from 1927 to 1974. The building now houses Boston Library and the Registration Service of Lincolnshire County Council.

Boston - A History & Celebration

Richard Fleming Richard Fleming (died 1431) was rector of Boston from 1408 to 1419, when he became Bishop of Lincoln. He became a leading member of the Catholic Church in England and was part of delegations to Church Councils in Europe. In 1414 he attended the Council of Constance and was appointed papal chamberlain, and returned to England as an envoy of the Pope. Fleming was in Italy again in 1419 when the Bishop of Lincoln died, and he was consecrated to the vacant post in the cathedral at Florence. He still played a part in local affairs, being Alderman of the Corpus Christi Guild in Boston in 1412-14 and in 1426. Fleming also founded Lincoln College at Oxford.