Our Time In Spinkhill

A Memory of Spinkhill.

When we moved to Spinkhill in 82 there were many people who had lived in the village for quite some time. Gerard Cross and his two sisters Beryl and Agnes were one family. Beryl was a teacher at Spinkhill School for many years. Gerard's dad had a horse and cart in the 40's and delivered milk on it. He also took the luggage up to Mount St Marys School for the pupils when they arrived by train at Spinkhill Station. He told us about the Home Guard sleeping in the Station waiting room during the second world war and how a munitions train was stored out of the way in the tunnel nearby. Gerard used to live in a farm opposite the Gables on Westthorpe Road but this farm was eventually covered by earth and lost forever. At the time of us moving in he and Beryl lived at the Gables and Agnes lived with her husband in a house on Green lane. They were part of the choir at Spinkhill Church.
Herbert Verdon is another village member who recounted walking to surrounding villages for a night out and walking back again, something unheard of nowadays!
The Station line was closed in the 60's under Beeching, you could go to Skegness for the day for two and sixpence. When we moved in there were two trains still running from Westthorpe pit, one in the morning and one in the evening.The miners strike put paid to the pit just after this and we had the Police camping at the top of our drive to make sure no miners got into the pit through the back entrance. We weren't too happy about this and exchanged poems with the officers about having a go at the working class and the litter that the Police left behind. They were most apologetic !
The two houses at the end of the village next to the Station contained the Signalman and his family and in the other was the Guard and his family.Mr Hunt and his family lived in the Station House from around the 60's to the 80's. he was the Stationmaster until the line closed, when he bought the house from British Rail.
Park Hall belonged to the Chandos Pole family originally, in the 80's it was a hotel. Our daughter worked there and reported that one room was definitely haunted, she saw the bottom half of a pair of legs and ran downstairs to safety. It is now a private residence.

---

---