1

Residents Researching & Recording Village History

Newsletter No.5

August 2015

Cherry Willingham Heritage Society

You are warmly invited to an evening with

Charles Atkinson “Metal Detecting and Me” Tuesday 8 September 2015 at the Church Hall at 7.30 p.m. Charles is Lincoln born & bred, brought up in Reepham,

attended Cherry Willingham School in the late sixties and now lives in Cherry. He is a member of the Lincoln Historical Search Society which meets monthly in Cherry.

He will bring original finds to show from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Roman, Saxon, Viking & Medieval periods through to modern day.

ALL WELCOME - NO BOOKING REQUIRED

From Our Chair Anne Welburn Our Community School are celebrating their 50th anniversary this October. They have seen many changes as chronicled by our researcher Annette Gregory, ranging from changes in education legislation to changes of name but one thing remains steady their goal which is quality education for our children. The Society is only in its infancy by comparison but our aims are the same to educate our residents, of all ages, to the richness of our history, which up until now has been largely hidden from the majority and to ensure that the youngsters growing up in our community have access to and gain understanding from the context in which our village exists.

Over the coming years we hope to continue to add to our collection of memories and artefacts as well as the family research which has been completed

by Sue Bailey. Sue & Pete will be sadly missed having relocated to Yorkshire. We want also to improve our web site and create a virtual museum.

We already have the making of an historical walk but it would be good to make it permanent in the future with information boards at strategic sites - see later article.

The oral archives library is growing but we need a volunteer to transcribe the work and someone with electronic skill to make sound bites suitable for using in the virtual museum. Many of you will be aware of our latest acquisition the 1901 Silver Salver but where can we display our ever increasing collection of materials?

We would also hope to undertake some metal detecting e.g. on the Bowser Land before any further developments take place.

Why not come and join us in this vital and fascinating work?

2

From Our Secretary/Editor Welcome to our latest newsletter. Our apologies for the delay in its production but much has been going on! However, better late than never and it will hopefully update you on the work of the Society since last October’s newsletter.

We are looking forward to a fascinating evening with Charles Atkinson on 8 September. Charles has many years experience of metal detecting in partnership with the professional archaeologists and museums. Why not come and join us?

Below is information about two great evenings when current and previous residents of the village have shared their memories of life. Can I please remind you that we are very keen to hear your memories of life in Cherry Willingham and to receive any photos or other items which go along with them. As a ‘newcomer’ to the village, I have heard long-term residents say that they have nothing interesting to say but then share some real

snippets. So please make contact with us.

Inside you will find articles about our open meetings through which we are building up the picture of the history of the village. If you have a topic that interests you, or a suggestion for a speaker, please let us know.

Since the Society was formed, we have become increasingly aware of the amount of history which has been buried by massive housing development. In the light of this we recognise the need to understand the village in its context in the Witham Valley and its proximity to Lincoln. Much of the work recorded in this newsletter reflects this.

Why not come and join us in this vital and fascinating work?

For more information about any of these or the activities of the Society, please see our web site: http://community.lincolnshire.gov.uk/cherrywillinghamheritage or use the contact details on the back page.

Many people hearing the word ‘history’ think about events that took place many years ago - the kind of thing we were taught at school! But history is not just what happened hundreds of years ago for we are all making it every day i.e. within our own lifetimes. So, as part of our ‘Residents Researching & Recording Village History’ project, we continue to record the more recent history of Cherry Willingham. This is very relevant given the absolutely dramatic changes in the village since World War 2 - from not much more than a hamlet to a very large village of nearly 4,000 residents. As part of this we have held two evenings in which we have listened to people’s memories.

The first on 11 November 2014 heard from Marcus Stead & Ken Shackleton about their personal memories of growing up/living in the village and Hazel Larcombe read a statement of memories from Sheila Grayson nee Grey (and part of the Piper family) who was unable to be present.

Marcus’ memories included tales about Mr Smith the Croft Lane crossing keeper - in the days of steam - who also repaired their bicycles; about walking to Reepham Junior School come rain or

shine; he remembered the ‘coos’ in the crew yard at Bowser’s Farm who were then walked down the road to their pasture – which meant shutting your gate to prevent them using your garden instead.

He fondly recalled village events hosted in their large family garden.

Ken reported that he had moved to the area when he was four. During the war he lived in Reepham on the edge of Fiskerton airdrome with a grandstand view of the Lancaster bombers taking off and landing. He talked about the pig farm on Croft Lane near today’s entrance to Minster Drive and the ‘smelly’ chicken farm at the junction of High Street/Church Lane. He also indicated that it didn’t pay to upset Mr Smith, the crossing keeper, otherwise you might wait a long time for him to open the gate so you could cross!

On 2 June 2015 Alan Andrews talked about the development of the playing fields/sports clubs with specific reference to his major passion cricket. Ian Lacy, recently retired local GP, spoke the changing life of a village GP based on his own experience and that of his father before him. On both evenings other people joined in with their own memories.

Alan arrived in 1960, alongside many other younger families, as the village began to grow and develop a real sense of community. He talked about a pre-war tennis club which used a court on Stan Bowser’s farm. This closed when Reepham Tennis Club was established. There was a football club - which Eric Brocklesby knows all about – which used several fields prior to the present. The Bowls Club was formed when the green was created at the time the Laburnum playing fields were complete.

……. continued at bottom of page 3

“Memories of life in Cherry Willingham over the last 80+ years”

Crossing and co�age

3

Visit to The Collection, Lincoln On Saturday 18 April 11 members of the Society enjoyed a conducted tour of The Collection in Lincoln. The tour focussed particularly on the Witham Valley finds, especially the wooden causeway, the Fiskerton boat and the famous Witham Shield (The exhibit in Lincoln is a replica as the original is of national importance so it is in the British Museum - see below.) This brought to life some of the items that Naomi Field covered in her talk at the Society in 2013. This subject occupies a considerable area in the museum and it has been displayed extremely well.

We looked also at the part of the exhibition that covers the Roman occupation of this area. This was an extremely interesting event as our guide was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic and as we already knew the background to some of the exhibits we were able to discuss these in some depth. Thanks to Paul Gilbert of The Collection for leading such an interesting visit.

Charles Parker, Committee Member

PS: If you are not familiar with The Collection (www.thecollectionmuseum.com), it is well worth a visit - children love it! We might think about a return group visit some time to tackle the periods after the Romans in more detail!! Editor

Witham Valley Shield - Iron Age, 400-300 BC The finest example of Early La Tène Celtic Art from Britain

This shield was made at the same time as the Chertsey Shield. In common with the Chertsey and also the Battersea Shield, the Witham Shield was found in a river. It was found in 1826 in the River Witham, near the village of Washingborough, outside the city of Lincoln. When the shield was first found, archaeologists could clearly see the shape of a wild boar on the front. In fact, the shape was cut from a piece of leather and fixed to the shield. The leather has rotted away, but its shadow remains as a different colour in the bronze. Today, the image of the boar has faded, but can still be seen if you look carefully. Small rivet holes across the centre of the shield show where the boar was fixed to the front.

This is not a complete shield. It is a decorative front fixed to a wooden back. The wooden back rotted away in the river long ago, just leaving the metal front. The decoration on the shield is one of the best examples of the way British craftspeople adopted the new style of La Tène art. The red colour on the shield's boss are small pieces of red coral from the Mediterranean. Coral decoration was rare on objects made in Iron Age Britain. Usually, red glass was used, as on the Battersea Shield.

NB: This artefact was found in the river very close to Cherry Willingham. This information and the pictures on this page come from the British Museum web-site. Editor

The Cricket Club was initiated by Alan and Colin Taylor in 1962 with a public meeting and the club is still going strong today. Alan explained how residents banded together to raise funds for the creation of Laburnum Drive playing fields – opened in October 1968 and still enjoyed today by residents young and old.

Ian, a retired GP, moved to Reepham in 1959 when his father became the local GP. Before the NHS there was a practice which covered the area of the

present Nettleham and Welton practices – with two GPs instead of the present fifteen. In 1952 a house was built in Reepham – opposite the Methodist Church – which included a surgery. It was here that Ian’s father became the GP - Ian contrasted his father’s work based ‘at home’ and his as part of a large surgery.

All had much more to say – along with audience members - and we hope to find someone to transcribe their talks to make them accessible to all.

4

Roman Lincoln in its hinterland On 21 April 2015 Dr Mick Jones gave us a talk under the above title and looking at the Archaeology of the Romano-British Countryside around Lincoln. This was intended to help us to understand Roman finds made in Cherry Willingham.

Dr Jones is the former City of Lincoln Archaeologist and now Visiting Reader in Archaeology at Bishop Grossteste University. He is current President of the Society for Lincolnshire History & Archaeology. Vice-Chair Ian Lacy reports:

Mick Jones’ talk reminded us that although we think of Roman Britain in terms of the legions and the urban centres people needed to

eat: 80% of the population of Roman Britain was rural. As Lincoln developed from a legionary fortress to a colonia for retired veterans and increased in size, spilling downhill to the Witham it would have needed more and more local produce to feed the population, as well as imports from further afield (such as wine). Some imports could have been brought in on the river or along the Fossdyke (see below **) (and perhaps the Car Dyke, stretching south to Cambridgeshire) but much would have been grown locally.

There is some evidence of land planning with blocks lying in a SE-NW alignment

using the road we now know as the A158 as a baseline. The 1 in 25,000 map shows the field boundaries still run in this direction. Rural settlements that were the basis of agriculture are still being identified: Navenby and Spilsby were probably local market centres and of course we think there was a settlement in Cherry itself. By the fourth century the route to Cherry ran past the huge Roman villa that is now overlain by the Tower estate (and which was only exceeded in size in Britain by the villa at Fishbourne). This may well have been the provincial governor’s home after Britain has been divided into 4 provinces.

The fens stretching up to Lincoln may have been an Imperial estate for mass production of grain.

The talk broadened our understanding of how the Roman system worked in practice and helped us develop a sense of continuity with those who lived and worked here nearly 2000 years ago.

The Roman villa at Greetwell is one of the most important archaeological sites in Lincolnshire, but sadly one that is now lost. The remains, built on a palatial scale, were discovered during ironstone mining in 1884, on a site close to Lincoln Hospital and now covered by housing. Sadly, the mining destroyed the physical remains, and a few finds and illustrations made at the time are all that we have left to try and reconstruct this magnificent structure. The scale of the villa, which includes (if the drawings are accurate) the longest corridor known from any villa in Roman Britain, has led to suggestions that it may have been the residence of the governor when Lincoln became the capital of the province of Flavia Caesariensis in the 4th Century AD.

From Society for Lincolnshire History &

Archaeology photo galleries Remains of Roman silver coin found in Cherry

** There are different opinions amongst experts about who built the Fossdye and

we are looking further into this!!

5

“The Landscape of our Village from Pre-history to 2020”

This was the title for an open morning on Saturday 20 June 2015 which we held jointly with members of the Witham Valley Access Project (WVAP). Our aims were to:

Demonstrate how the landscape has affected life in the village over the millennia and to hear from WVAP about dreams for its future use (display alongside).

Offer an experimental Heritage Walking Trail to illustrate both hidden and visible signs of the past.

Inform residents about our latest activities.

We offered light refreshments and provided an opportunity for residents to share their memories of life in the village and to bring along their photos and memorabilia. We were pleased to be joined by a good number of visitors and an interesting morning was enjoyed by all!

Among other things WVAP is committed to working towards better footpaths and cycleways in and around the village. If you wish to learn more about their work, please contact the Secretary, Helen McCowan at helenmac@ntlworld.com.

Our web-site - address on final page - includes a document containing the display produced for our open event on 20 June 2015 which was entitled: Housing and Feeding the Population and which sought to explore the question. “Why did people settle in this particular place?” (See box overleaf for a sample from the display.)

Since we started out to research the history of the village we have been very aware that much of this has been lost in recent housing developments and so we need to learn it from its wider context in the Witham Valley and proximity to Lincoln. This material has been partly gleaned from various talks which we have had over the last couple of years and we are very grateful to speakers who give up their time for this purpose. To this we have added further research of our own. We apologise if there are errors in it and would be grateful to hear from anyone who notices these/has further information.

On our web-site you will find another document containing the Cherry

Willingham Heritage Trails which we developed for the day (extract overleaf). Much of the visible history and heritage of the village has been lost in the major expansion of housing in the village over the last 60 plus years but we still hope to build a heritage trail from what is still visible. These two short walks hopefully provide at least a small insight into this history. We would be pleased to hear from anyone who walks them - your comments will help us to improve them and move towards a more formal and signposted trail in future.

Some of the

displays used on 20 June

6

There are clues in the geography/landscape of any particular location. Early work done by the Society indicates key features for Cherry include the following:

River Witham originally as a normal river and then in its present canalised form for fresh water/food/fish, travel for people to other settlements and trade with other communities

Large number of springs along a line from the area of Gilbert’s Pond, across the top of the playing field and through Fern Grove - providing fresh water for washing/drinking/etc

The marshy fens and the river’s flood plain - before and after canalisation of the Witham/draining of the fens

Good quality agricultural land on a south-facing slope just above the flood plain

Flat nature of the land making it suitable for agriculture and e.g. a wartime airfield

Proximity to other human settlements especially Lincoln with its own history of settlement, the abbeys and estates of the Witham Valley e.g. Barlings and Bardney and relationship to Reepham and Fiskerton

Cherry Willingham Heritage Society with Witham Valley Access Group - Heritage Trail 1 (Extract)

(At the end of Green Lane) Head towards the railway crossing.

Cross the tracks with care - at the end of the lane, cross Waterford Lane - turn right. Stop to view number 55 (Birchenleas) the only original bungalow left of the pre-fabs built after World War 1 under an Act of Parliament intended to address a critical housing situation. These lined Waterford Lane and Croft Lane but most have been built around or demolished to be replaced by newer properties.

Retrace your steps and head back towards the Church Hall There is a line of the stream which runs behind the bungalows and is an extension of the sheep dip. This would have originally been a part of the ford hence the name Waterford Lane and joins the spring line from the ponds on

Lady Meers through the top of the playing fields and Fern Grove where more ponds lay. This is the root of many of the flooding problems we experience in this village. Follow the road back to the rise.

At the top stop to view the original post office called the White House (No.2) (above right). Note No 24 - Seeley’s Cottage (left) built for Robert Seeley, a high class grocer in Bailgate and a devout Methodist.

This is another display produced by Vice-Chair

Ian Lacy for 20 June. These lovely hand-painted

pictures illustrate the topography of the valley

and the location of Cherry within it. It reinforces some

of the information in the box above about why

people originally chose to settle here. We realise that it is not possible to see the detail here but we plan to

upload this also to our web-site when time permits. Thanks Ian for a great

piece of work!

Why did people settle/live in a particular place? (Extract)

7

Cherry Willingham Community School

History Club in partnership with

Cherry Willingham Heritage Society

Since our last newsletter, the main focus of the Club has been on collecting information for the School’s 50th Anniversary celebrations in October 2015. To this end we have had talks from current and former residents about their experiences at the School. Annette Gregory has also shared with us her extensive research about changes in education over these years and where village children have been educated before and since the start of the School.

The School is planning celebratory events around the middle of October to fit in with other School activities. In addition there they intend to create a mural on the rear wall of the main hall showing a timeline based on members’ research.

Members of the Club were present at the Community Gala on 4 July to seek further information from residents. The picture above shows Headteacher, Mrs Elaine Stiles, chatting to some of them about what they have discovered.

These pictures are of the displays that the members had produced for the gala.

If you have any further information relating to the history of the School including photos, event programmes and press cuttings, Please either send them direct to the School or via Mike.

October 2015 - 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Community School

Earlier on the year we were able to make a start on running a history club at the Primary School. We had an enthusiastic group of children from Years 5 & 6 who were very interested in what had previously occupied the land on which their own houses had been built. For various reasons this only lasted a few weeks but we will be working with the School in the new school year to see how we might pursue this further.

8

If you are reading this outside the local area, you may like to know that Cherry Willingham is a large village some 2 miles north-east of the City of Lincoln. Records date back to the Domesday Book but for most of the intervening centuries it was a relatively small village. Even immediately after World War 2, there were only some 87 houses and 300 residents. Major development in the years since has seen the village grow to c1,800 houses and approaching 4,000 people in 2015.

Programme for 2016: The Committee is currently working on this and would welcome any suggestions for inclusion in it. Getting Involved: The ultimate success of the Society depends on more people getting involved in its work. If any of the items in this newsletter interest you, if you have any information, photos or records that tell a story about the history of the village, or you have another area of interest you would like to do some work on, please contact us - we shall be delighted to hear from you. Membership of the Society: Voting membership of the Society is open to individuals over eighteen and is by annual donation. However, we are pleased to include other residents of all ages in our mailing lists and to encourage them to join in our activities. Please contact us if you would like to become a member or go on our mailing list. Contacting the Society: For more information about the Society, or to ‘get involved’ in our work, please contact our Secretary Mike on 01522 823857 or by e-mail mike.mason4@ntlworld.com. Web site: http://community.lincolnshire.gov.uk/cherrywillinghamheritage

Some years ago a hand-drawn map/plan of the village was produced by Mr G K Wilkins. Recently our Committee felt that it would be good to update it to reflect the considerable growth in the village. Committee Member Jim Blyth agreed to approach his friend Roy Gillings to see if he would be willing to carry out this work. Roy very kindly agreed and we are very grateful to him for the careful way in which he has produced the new plan see alongside.

You will note a number of letters and numbers in small squares dotted around the plan. These are significant historical and/or key village buildings There is not room here to include the key but we will shortly load the plan and key on to the Society’s web-site if you wish to access it further.