Past Talks
Above: short video from the Trust's Summer Tea Party held on 16th July in the garden at Fydell House.
Lincolnshire’s Lichens led by Professor Seaward
Lichens are beautiful, varied and endlessly fascinating organisms. This was an introductory Talk followed by a Lichen Hunt in Westgate Woods. Joint event with Boston Woods Trust. Professor Seaward has also produced a checklist of Lincolnshire lichens and highlighted the species we saw and their habitats/sites click here.
Lincolnshire Botanists - this lecture will drew attention to the surprisingly large number of able, and in many cases eminent, botanists who have been associated with Lincolnshire over the past three centuries. Professor Mark Seaward, Universities of Bradford and Lincoln
Boston’s Forgotten Crusade – how an army from South Lincolnshire led by the future King Henry IV sailed from Boston to join the Teutonic Knights in the1390 crusade. This talk has taken place but the slideshow is available. See slides: here
Early 19th Century General Elections in Boston: jeering, lampooning and scurrilous infighting among the candidates and their supporters
Saturday 9th May Andrew Hoyle gave a talk on the 1826, 1830 and 1841 General Elections in Boston. The presentation can be viewed here: please click
‘Breakdown Britain’ or ‘the New Politics’- Again?
On Saturday 25th April Peter Dorr gave an impartial look at the general election in Boston & Skegness and what might happen on 7th May - discussing our political system; the parties fighting to gain Boston; the issues and influences; is Boston a crucial bellweather for the national campaigns; and much else.
Held on Saturday 18th April Simon Pawley talked about The Clergy of Georgian Sleaford.
We are used to thinking of the Georgian clergy as indolent, fat, and full of themselves and living carnal lives of eating, drinking and hunting. Using case studies from Sleaford (which can be applied to most other small towns in Lincolnshire) Simon Pawley demonstrated that beneath the apparent laziness and absenteeism the clergy had to cope with bad housing, poor health and multiple jobs. Often they displayed great ingenuity in assembling an adequate income from different sources. For instance the Rev Edward Waterson MA (Vicar of Sleaford 1781 to 1809) was also Master of the Grammar School, Chaplain of Carre's Hospital almshouses, and agent to Lord Bristol during the enclosure of the common lands. Simon Pawley is working on a book on this topic, and we look forward to its completion.
On Saturday 14th March John Glenn and Mary Anderson from Anderson & Glenn Conservation Architects talked about the Art Deco style with numerous illustrations including local examples of an Art Deco fireplace preserved in 116 High Street; the bay windows of the demolished Peacock and Royal Hotel; the Cammacks building in Wide Bargate; and former Boston cinemas The Quay Picture House, The Regal and The Odeon.
Talk held on Saturday 14th February 2pm "Swineshead Abbey and other Cistercian abbeys in Lincolnshire". Neil Wright gave an illuminating talk on the Cistercian Order in Lincolnshire with particular reference to Swineshead Abbey which flourished for four hundred years from 1135 to 1535. Because all Cistercian abbeys were built to a standard plan Neil Wright was able to reconstruct the Swineshead monastery from fragments that survive elsewhere. Swineshead Abbey was founded on the edge of Holland Fen and lay brothers from the establishment gradually developed and improved the area. They also founded dairy farms at Hardwick Grange and Brothertoft and a salt refining site at Bicker Haven. The architecture of the abbey had a grand but austere appearance, with only one room (the "Warming Room") having a fire, even in winter. The monks had an advanced approach to cleanliness and hygiene. Several aristocratic patrons of the abbey were buried in the abbey church (dedicated to St Mary) with the monks buried outside the east end. King John stayed there in 1216 and King Edward I also visited. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 all items of value were seized by the crown and land made over to Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. A mansion was built on the site in 1607 incorporating stone from the abbey and with the effigy of a knight incorporated into one of the walls.
Boston High Street Then and Now by Neil Wright.
During this talk on Saturday 31st January Neil Wright gave us a fascinating tour of Boston High Street and all its mysteries, oddities and architectural details. Medieval buildings hidden behind modern facades, splendid buildings now demolished, a grand mansion now split up into smaller units, the mysterious “Barracks” (seven houses with five doors!), the image of a spouting whale on an 18th century rainwater head, the forgotten scandal that closed St Aiden’s Chapel, the two statues that used to adorn the Salutation pub and are now kept in Scotland – the talk was incredibly detailed and scrupulously researched. It made you immediately want to go and walk the length of the High Street.
George Gilbert Scott and the Scott family in Boston by Andrew Hoyle
A survey of the architectural work of Sir George Gilbert Scott in Boston and the surrounding area pdf of presentation
Lincolnshire’s Lichens led by Professor Seaward
Lichens are beautiful, varied and endlessly fascinating organisms. This was an introductory Talk followed by a Lichen Hunt in Westgate Woods. Joint event with Boston Woods Trust. Professor Seaward has also produced a checklist of Lincolnshire lichens and highlighted the species we saw and their habitats/sites click here.
Lincolnshire Botanists - this lecture will drew attention to the surprisingly large number of able, and in many cases eminent, botanists who have been associated with Lincolnshire over the past three centuries. Professor Mark Seaward, Universities of Bradford and Lincoln
Boston’s Forgotten Crusade – how an army from South Lincolnshire led by the future King Henry IV sailed from Boston to join the Teutonic Knights in the1390 crusade. This talk has taken place but the slideshow is available. See slides: here
Early 19th Century General Elections in Boston: jeering, lampooning and scurrilous infighting among the candidates and their supporters
Saturday 9th May Andrew Hoyle gave a talk on the 1826, 1830 and 1841 General Elections in Boston. The presentation can be viewed here: please click
‘Breakdown Britain’ or ‘the New Politics’- Again?
On Saturday 25th April Peter Dorr gave an impartial look at the general election in Boston & Skegness and what might happen on 7th May - discussing our political system; the parties fighting to gain Boston; the issues and influences; is Boston a crucial bellweather for the national campaigns; and much else.
Held on Saturday 18th April Simon Pawley talked about The Clergy of Georgian Sleaford.
We are used to thinking of the Georgian clergy as indolent, fat, and full of themselves and living carnal lives of eating, drinking and hunting. Using case studies from Sleaford (which can be applied to most other small towns in Lincolnshire) Simon Pawley demonstrated that beneath the apparent laziness and absenteeism the clergy had to cope with bad housing, poor health and multiple jobs. Often they displayed great ingenuity in assembling an adequate income from different sources. For instance the Rev Edward Waterson MA (Vicar of Sleaford 1781 to 1809) was also Master of the Grammar School, Chaplain of Carre's Hospital almshouses, and agent to Lord Bristol during the enclosure of the common lands. Simon Pawley is working on a book on this topic, and we look forward to its completion.
On Saturday 14th March John Glenn and Mary Anderson from Anderson & Glenn Conservation Architects talked about the Art Deco style with numerous illustrations including local examples of an Art Deco fireplace preserved in 116 High Street; the bay windows of the demolished Peacock and Royal Hotel; the Cammacks building in Wide Bargate; and former Boston cinemas The Quay Picture House, The Regal and The Odeon.
Talk held on Saturday 14th February 2pm "Swineshead Abbey and other Cistercian abbeys in Lincolnshire". Neil Wright gave an illuminating talk on the Cistercian Order in Lincolnshire with particular reference to Swineshead Abbey which flourished for four hundred years from 1135 to 1535. Because all Cistercian abbeys were built to a standard plan Neil Wright was able to reconstruct the Swineshead monastery from fragments that survive elsewhere. Swineshead Abbey was founded on the edge of Holland Fen and lay brothers from the establishment gradually developed and improved the area. They also founded dairy farms at Hardwick Grange and Brothertoft and a salt refining site at Bicker Haven. The architecture of the abbey had a grand but austere appearance, with only one room (the "Warming Room") having a fire, even in winter. The monks had an advanced approach to cleanliness and hygiene. Several aristocratic patrons of the abbey were buried in the abbey church (dedicated to St Mary) with the monks buried outside the east end. King John stayed there in 1216 and King Edward I also visited. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 all items of value were seized by the crown and land made over to Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. A mansion was built on the site in 1607 incorporating stone from the abbey and with the effigy of a knight incorporated into one of the walls.
Boston High Street Then and Now by Neil Wright.
During this talk on Saturday 31st January Neil Wright gave us a fascinating tour of Boston High Street and all its mysteries, oddities and architectural details. Medieval buildings hidden behind modern facades, splendid buildings now demolished, a grand mansion now split up into smaller units, the mysterious “Barracks” (seven houses with five doors!), the image of a spouting whale on an 18th century rainwater head, the forgotten scandal that closed St Aiden’s Chapel, the two statues that used to adorn the Salutation pub and are now kept in Scotland – the talk was incredibly detailed and scrupulously researched. It made you immediately want to go and walk the length of the High Street.
George Gilbert Scott and the Scott family in Boston by Andrew Hoyle
A survey of the architectural work of Sir George Gilbert Scott in Boston and the surrounding area pdf of presentation
