Spilsby

Infobox UK place
official_name= Spilsby
country= England
region= East Midlands
population= 2,336 (Parish)
os_grid_reference= TF4066
latitude= 53.17270
longitude= 0.09310
post_town= SPILSBY
postcode_area= PE
postcode_district= PE23
dial_code=
constituency_westminster=
shire_district= East Lindsey
shire_county= Lincolnshire
map_type= Lincolnshire
static_

static_image_caption=Market Place and Old Town Hall.

Spilsby is a market town and civil parish in Lincolnshire. England. The town is situated adjacent to the main A16 Trunk Road at the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds north of the Fenlands, 33 miles (53 kilometers) east of the county town of Lincoln, 17 miles (27.4 kilometers) north east of Boston and 13 miles (21 kilometers) north west from Skegness.

The town has been a rural market town for over seven hundred years and has changed little in size or character since the beginning of the 19th century, retaining much of its Victorian charm. The town centre features a range of small supermarkets, traditional newsagents, baker, butchers and clothing stores together with several cafes and ethnic fast food takeaways although many local residents choose to shop on a weekly basis at the larger commercial shopping centres of nearby Boston and Skegness.

At the centre of town is an open square or traditional market place, from which the four main town streets radiate. Markets take place on a Monday. Spilsby is located within a predominantly agricultural area and much of the market produce consists of locally grown vegetables and meat.

The population of the town was 2,336 in the 2001 census, although as the census is nearly eight years ago some minor changes will have taken place since then.

History

Early history and a medieval market town

The area has been occupied by man since pre-historic times. Evidence for this can be found at nearby West Keal where an Iron Age hill fort and defensive terraced earthworks stood at the tip of the Wolds promentory overlooking the present village. The early fortified stronghold had a commanding view of the Wash and almost as far as modern day Spalding across the flat marsh and boglands below.

The Spilby area was visited and occupied by the Romans during the first century until the fourth century AD. An archeological dig and field walk, during the 1960s at nearby Keal Cotes in a large field to the south of the village in the corner where the A16 meets the Hagnaby Lane, discovered many tessellated mosaic floor tiles and roof tiles indicating that a substantial Roman villa or high status Romano-British farmhouse had once stood on the site. Several centuries of agricultural activity had plowed out any possibility of further excavations. The recorded finds from the site are stored at the "Museum of Lincolnshire Life" in Lincoln. In 1849, six Roman funeral urns were dug up in the nearby Fulletby.

Spilsby was probably named before or no later than the 9th century Dane rule period and literally translates from the phrase "Spila's-by" where "by" is old Norse for "place of dwelling" hence "Spila's village" or more accurately "Spila lives here", Spila (pronounced "Spiller") being the local Viking warlord or chieftain who acted as head of the immediate area. The town was recorded in the Domesday book as Spilesbei but was not much more than a large farmstead and few surrounding crofts under the squireship of the Bishop of Durham in 1082. According to historian Graham Platts in his 1985 book "Land and People in Medieval Lincolnshire" (History of Lincolnshire.Vol. 5.1985) a charter was granted to a John de Beke (or John Beck) in 1255 to hold a weekly market in Spilsby each Monday and a three day annual fair in July. Four years later, in 1259, the same John de Beke was granted a further charter to hold a three day Christmas fair on 5-8 December. This would make Spilsby one of the earliest Lincolnshire towns to establish a regular weekly market. The next recorded charter to hold a weekly Monday market in the town and an annual fair in July was granted in 1302 to the Lord of the Manor, Norman noble Robert de Willoughby. A copy of this charter is displayed in the parish church.

At the east end of the town centre’s market place stands a medieval Buttercross monument. In his book “Buildings of England – Lincolnshire” the historian Nikolaus Pevsner suggests that the Spilsby Buttercross dates from as early as the 1300s and certainly no later than the 1500s. The stepped bases of these monuments were used by early traders to display their goods on market day, usually milk, cheeses and of course butter. Standing in the centre of the market place is the building originally known as the Town Hall, later called the Old Town Hall and more recently The Archways store and petrol station. In the 1700s the town civic offices, a small courtroom and the town gaol were in the upstairs level supported by the arches and the ground level was an open covered space used as the local Corn Exchange and by market traders to protect their stalls from the rain.

The Manor of Eresby

The manor of Eresby, including the lands and parish of Spilsby, was awarded to Baron Walter de Beke in 1083 by William the Conqueror and remained in his family for over two hundred years. In the 1290s the male line of the de Beke family died out and the manor passed to Robert de Willoughby by marriage. [ [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/Spilsby/#Census Eresby Manor] ] The Willoughy family originated in nearby Willoughby in the Marsh. in 1313 Robert was appointed 1st Baron Robert Willoughby de Eresby a family line that continues to the present day's 28th Baroness. The original manor house from the 1300s had stood near to the site of the later mansion and would have been demolished when the new manor was built. However, fragments of this earlier dwelling have been discovered during excavations in the mid 1960s. Many examples of medieval and post medieval pottery shards were recovered from the site of the Eresby Manor’s moat by the archeologist E H Rudkin in 1966. [ [http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/events.aspx?a=0&hob_id=354061&criteria=fort&search=all&pnt=y Pottery Finds at Eresby] ]

The fine new Eresby manor house was built by Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk in 1535 after his marriage to his ward, the fifteen year old Lady Catherine Willoughby, daughter and heiress to the 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby. Sadly the manor was destroyed by fire just over two hundred years later in 1769 during the stewardship of the 19th Baron. It is believed that a carpenter accidentally started a fire with his candle while he was working in the roof space. The fire was devastating and today very little remains of the manor except for a few short stretches of wall, one of the grand estate gate posts and the traditional avenue of trees that once led to the mansion and are now bisected by the A16 bypass. Today nobody knows what the house actually looked like, as no paintings or sketches have survived, although a 1771 plan shows that the house was built in the basic ‘H’ shape that was popular in the Elizabethan period. The plan also shows details of the grounds that contained an orangery, cherry orchard, bowling green, dove cote and an ash grove which were all near to the house. The manor had been originally moated, a common feature of many fortified medieval and Elizabethan manor houses, but by 1771 the moat had been adapted as an ornamental fishing lake.

The Anglican parish church of St James is built of the unusual local Spilsby green sandstone and probably dates from the late 1300s, although it has been much added to and amended over the centuries. The greenstone looks attractive but it is a soft and porous stone that absorbs water and creates damp interiors while degrading quickly. The church has been recased in Lancaster stone at some stage in the past. Capable of seating a congregation of around 750 it gives a measure of how just many people were employed in local agriculture and on the Eresby estate when the church was first built. The parish churchyard was closed to further burials when it ran out of available space in 1884.

To mark his inheritance of the title in 1349 the 3rd Baron, Sir John de Willoughby, had built a private chapel on his estate, dedicated to the Holy Trinity and endowed with collegiate status for a master and up to twelve priests. When the King Edward VI grammar school was founded by the family in 1550 the school initially had no school building and the twenty or so children were taught in the Eresby chapel building for the next sixty years until a dedicated school house was provided in 1611 by converting an existing range of agricultural buildings on the edge of the estate. In 1839 the 1611 school was replaced by a new school building that was built on its current site, with funds provided by the 25th Baron.

Bolingbroke Castle

Bolingbroke Castle was built in the parish of Spilsby around 1220 by Ranulph de Blondeville, Earl of Chester and Earl of Lincoln. Much damaged during its involvement in the English Civil War, after the nearby Battle of Winceby in October 1643, only the lower sections of the outer walls remain. The last standing section of the castle, the gatehouse, had finally collapsed in 1815. Henry de Bolingbroke, later to become King Henry IV of England at the age of thirty two, was born at Bolingbroke Castle in 1366.

Bolingbroke was an unusual and innovative design for its day as the original walls, also constructed of Spilsby greenstone, were in an irregular hexagon with round towers on five of the corners. The gatehouse consists of two towers built about three metres apart. Leading to a portcullis further inside, was a drawbridge that spanned the moat. The moat encircled an area about 80 metres in diameter. The six walls were two metres wide and varied in length from 15 to 30 metres long. There was a small 'priest' door in the rear wall just above the moat water line. The castle garrison was supported and supplied by a small settlement outside the castle walls including several small farms, a friary and salmon lakes.

Gunby Hall

According to the dated keystone on the west doorway Gunby Hall was built in 1700 by Sir Henry Massingberd. The mansion still stands in several acres of landscaped and wooded parkland. There is a blue gazebo stood amid well kept gardens. Locally born Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson described it as "an English home... all things in order stored and a haunt of peace". The original words, written in his own hand, are framed and preserved in the Hall's library.

During the Second World War the Air Ministry attempted to build an airfield at Gunby that would have covered the estate and necessitated the demolition of the magnificent mansion. The then owner, Field Marshall Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd personally appealed to King George VI and the Air Ministry relented, redrawing the plans that resulted in the building of the resited RAF Spilsby two miles further south at Great Steeping, although the runway would eventually end only a few yards short of the Gunby estate boundary hedge.

Gunby Hall was one of the first major British mansion houses and estates to be presented to the National Trust in 1944 and is today open to the public on a few limited days of the week during the summer, while remaining a private family residence for the remainder of the year.

Hundleby

Hundleby was an ancient parish that fell within Spilsby and has not changed greatly in size or layout for the past two hundred years. The village population in 1801 was 218 and in 1901 it reached a peak of 528, mostly agricultural farm workers and their families. By 1971 the population had fallen to 439 and it has remained fairly static ever since with only minor fluctuations. [ [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10426364 Hundleby] ]

Hundleby’s Anglican St Mary’s parish church was rebuilt between 1853 and 1855 and seated around two hundred parishioners. The parish had a long standing right to send three children to the Raithby parish free school. Hundleby’s own elementary school was built around 1860 and was enlarged in 1884 to accommodate up to 120 children.

The Grace Swan Memorial Cottage Hospital was built in Hundleby during the late 1800s as a twenty five bed in-patient facility, split between charity and private fee paying wards, with its own operating theatre, maternity unit and resident surgeon. Closed by the local health authority as part of a rationalisation programme during the 1990s, the building is now a local health centre.

The Spilsby Poor Law Union group of parishes had a workhouse located in Hundleby and built in 1838. The workhouse was recorded in 1870 as having 280 residents. [ [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/descriptions/entry_page.jsp;jsessionid=6829109629DD4EE87DCD435610FCDF68?text_id=927260&word=NULL Gazeteer entry 1870] ] Inmates were free to enter and leave as they liked and would receive free food and accommodation. However, the concern was that too liberal a regime would lead to many people who could easily work taking it easy in the workhouse. This would lead not only to an excessive charge on charitable funds but a dilution of the work ethic. To counter this the principle of less eligibility was developed. Workhouse life was deliberately made as harsh and degrading as possible so that only the truly destitute would apply. Attempts were also made to provide moral guidance, training and education to the poor but it would be fair to say that the principle of less eligibility combined with the ever present desire to save money scuppered any real chance of success in this area. The workhouse was later converted into Spilsby's Gables Hospital, demolished in recent years for the building of new housing. [ [http://www.skegnessstandard.co.uk/spilsby-companion-2005/SPILSBY-AREA-VILLAGE-GUIDE.1233432.jp Gables] ]

pilsby in the 19th century

In 1833 a new cemetery of approximately one acre was established on the main Boston Road. White's 1842 Directory described Spilsby as being "a small, but thriving and well-built market town, pleasantly seated on an eminence, which overlooks an extensive tract of marshes and fens. Eresby is a small hamlet just south of town" [ [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/Spilsby/#Census Spilby History] ]

In 1839 the King Edward VI grammar school had relocated from its original 17th century school building to a new school that was built on its current site in Spilsby. The grammar school building was abandoned during the 1990s after the two Spilsby secondary schools had amalgamated as Spilsby High School. The grammar school premises now stand empty.

In the mid 19th century non-conformist Methodism arrived in a big way and several denominations built chapels in the town. The Wesleyan, Primitive and Independent Methodists each had their places of worship. The Independents built a brand new chapel in 1866 and converted their original chapel into a dedicated Sunday school. The Wesleyans built a chapel opposite the Buttercross, in Market Place, during 1878.

A major ‘House of Corrections’ prison for the area was built in Spilsby between 1824-26 and occupied a site where Spence Street and West End now stand. The prison covered just over two acres surrounded by a high brick wall and fronted by a classical sessions courthouse. It was enlarged even further in 1869 to provide eighty five individual prisoner cells. The prison was demolished in 1876, except for the small front area that contained the sessions house with its elegant Greek doric pillared portico, police station and town lockup. The stately and elegantly classical Sessions House of 1826, where court quarter sessions for the district of Lindsey were held until 1878, is now home to the Spilsby Theatre and arts centre. The town gasworks were constructed in 1853, opening in 1854 on Ashby Road, bringing street and house lighting to the town for the first time. In 1908 the North East Lincolnshire Water Company opened a pumping station in Hundleby, with a 75,000 gallon reservoir on Raithby Hill, bringing tap water to homes in Spilsby for the first time.

In 1892 Spilsby Pavilion opened with a further room opened in 1896, each room accommodating 300 to 400 people. At the time the Pavilion was advertised as providing accommodation for "dancing parties and smoking concerts". The Masonic Lodge and Hall opened on Halton Road in 1913.

The parish had twenty two acres set aside as ‘’Poor Land’’, owning many tenements and the Red Lion Public House. Annual rental revenue from these properties, £76 5s 0d (£76.25) in 1842, was distributed half-yearly among any poor in the parish that did not receive any other financial aid from the town’s poor rates. As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Spilsby Poor Law Union which covered thirty three local parishes.

Railway connections

A small local railway company built a branch line from Firsby junction to Spilsby and it opened on 1 May 1868. The branch was just over four miles long and connected Spilsby to the Kings Cross London to Cleethorpes main line. The only other station on the branch line was Halton Holegate Halt. The necessary parliamentary permission had been obtained by an Act in July 1865 which incorporated The Spilsby & Firsby Railway Company with an authorised capital of £20,000 and loans of £8,333 for the construction of the four mile long single track branch.

Construction of the railway began in March 1867 with the ceremonial cutting of the first turf performed by local rector, The Reverend Rawnsley who was standing in for the railway company's chairman Lord Willoughby de Eresby the 25th Baron. The Railway was expected to be opened quickly but disputes with the contractors arose over the quality of their work and several lengths of track had to be replaced. With these problems finally fixed the official opening took place. Initial traffic levels and income were promising, however by 1885 rail traffic had slumped badly leading to the Great Northern Railway buying out the Spilsby & Firsby Railway Company for £20,000 through an Act of Parliament on July 25, 1890. In 1920 there was a major accident when the Spilsby engine was derailed and passengers had to be taken on by road. When the locomotive was returned to the tracks it managed to reach Firsby in a record eight and a half minutes instead of the normal thirteen minutes. Unfortunately, just a few days later, the train ran hard into the buffers of another stationery train at Firsby and several passengers were badly shaken. A 71 year old local business man, Mr. Welch, died the following day from the delayed effects of the accident.

Falling usage caused passenger services to be suspended in 1939 just as the Second World War started and they were never reinstated. A goods service for grain, potatoes, livestock and other agricultural products continued for almost a further twenty years. Goods including petrol, paraffin and coal continued to come into Spilsby via the rail link up to its final closure on 30 November 1958. The main station building was demolished in 1965 but the engine shed still stands and in recent years it has been used by an agricultural suppliers as a shop and store with new sections added. The original trackbed within the town has been built on, with most of it covered by the Vale Industrial Estate. Outside of the town most of the old track route to Firsby can still be seen in aerial photographs, marked by the avenue of trees and bushes, with only 5% ploughed out into fields.

The town’s army connections

The British Army’s ‘’Seventh Spilsby Rifle Volunteer Corps’’, an early part time army detachment, was formed in the town during 1860. At its height the corps contained about 100 members. It is recorded that in 1872 Captain J. W. Preston was the officer in charge, supported by Lt George Walker, Ensign Robert MacKinder and drill master Sergeant Thomas Ward.

In 1889, the Rifle Volunteer Corps renamed as F Company of the First Volunteer Battalion and was based in Spilsby. Its commandant was the now promoted Major George Walker. He was aided by Lt G. B. Walker and Lt W. Hoff, Acting Surgeon Lieutenant Francis John Walker and the acting chaplain Rev. Pownoll Kendall.

In 1899, Spilsby’s Territorial Force Drill Hall was completed in Halton Road, built of solid red brick. The site also contained housing and quarters for the resident professional army sergeant instructors.

In 1912, C Company of the 5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment (Territorial Force) was formed in the town. The company’s commandant was Captain H. S. Scorer, Surgeon Colonel Francis John Walker was the chief medical officer and the regular army drill instructor was Colour Sergeant Wallace Cowling.

The Royal Air Force in Spilsby

During the second world war RAF Spilsby a bomber airfield, designed for Lancaster bombers was built at Great Steeping and opened for operations on 20 September 1943. Later used by the United States Air Force as a strategic bomber base until 1958 the airfield was finally demolished in the late 1970s when the runways and perimeter track were torn up, with most of the crushed aggregate being used in the construction of the new Humber Bridge.

RAF Spilsby is commemorated by an Airfield Memorial standing just outside Great Steeping and by plaques in the All Saints' Church Great Steeping. The ghost cropmarks showing the airfield's runway layout is still visible on aerial photographs. [ [http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/Spilsby.html Aerial photo of RAF Spilsby today - runways showing as cropmarks in the fields] ]

The Spilsby Air Training Corps formed in 1950 initially as a detached flight of the established Skegness squadron, becoming the 2266 Spilsby Squadron ATC in 1952. Falling membership resulted in the squadron's disbandment in 2005 after over fifty years of successful operations. Several members of the squadron have now formed 2266 Spilsby Venture Scout Group and meet on a weekly basis in the town.

Governance

Historical governance

Spilsby parish was traditionally in the East division of the ancient Bollingbroke Wapentake in the East Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.

The parish was also in the Bollingbroke Soke. Kelly's 1913 Directory of Lincolnshire places the parish in the South Lindsey division of the county.

Today

Spilsby falls under the Louth and Horncastle Westminster parliamentary constituency and the sitting MP is Sir Peter Tapsell.

Spilsby is governed locally by Spilsby Town Council

Spilsby is within East Lindsey District Council at Manby

The area’s European MEPs are: Derek Clark, Bill Newton Dunn, Chris Heaton-Harris, Roger Helmer, Robert Kilroy-Silk and Glenys Wilmott

Geography

The town is situated upon slightly elevated ground at the south western rim of the attractive rolling Lincolnshire Wolds. Spilsby benefits from an extensive south-east view of a tract of marsh and fen land, bounded by Boston deeps and the North Sea and is within twelve miles inland from the holiday centre of Skegness, on what many consider is the best part of the Lincolnshire coast.

The Wolds comprise a series of low hills and steep valleys underlain by calcareous chalk, green limestone and sandstone rock, laid down in the Cretaceous period under a shallow warm sea. The characteristic open valleys of the Wolds were created during the last ice age through the action of glaciation and meltwater.

Geographically, the Lincolnshire Wolds are a continuation of the Yorkshire Wolds which run up through the East Riding of Yorkshire, the Wolds as a whole having been bisected by the tremendous erosive power of the waters of the Humber. The Fenlands that stretch down as far as Norfolk are former wetlands consisted both of peat bogs and tidal silt marshes which were virtually all drained by the end of the nineteenth century when Spilsby had its longest period of Victorian expansion. The former peat fens and silt marshes provided a rich loamy soil that was ideal for the growing of cereal and vegetable crops and gave Lincolnshire its reputation as being the 'bread basket' of England. The resulting flat lands also made an ideal environment for the later mechanisation of farming in the mid 20th century.

The drainage was organized into river drainage, the passing of upland water through the region and internal drainage of the land between the rivers. The internal drainage was designed to be organized by levels or districts each of which includes the fen parts of one or several parishes. The details of the organization vary with the history of their development but Spilsby falls within the Witham Fourth District: (East, West and Wildmore Fens and the Townland from Boston to Wainfleet).

Demography

Previous population counts

Historical population sizes for the town include:

1801 – 932

1821 – 1,234

1841 – 1,434

1861 – 1,467

1881 – 1,423

1911 – 1,464

1931 – 1,654

Most recent demography

The latest figures are drawn from the 2001 census. It should be noted that these figures are nearly eight years out of date: [ [http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:W84aLIYctdAJ:www.research-lincs.org.uk/lro/documents_lro/Site_Text/2001_Census/Parish_Profiles/PDF/32UC145.pdf+Spilsby+2001+census+details&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk 2001 Census] ]

Population in 2001: 2,336

47.3% male and 52.7% female

26.3% single and never married, 47.8% married, the remainder split between separated, divorced and widowed.

98.6% White with 0.4% spread between Asian, British Asian, Indian and Chinese.

81.4% Christian, with 11% indicating no religion and the remainder split between minority religions.

56.1% employed, 20.3% retired and 3% unemployed, remainder in full time education.

60.1% of households were owner occupied, significantly below the national average.

Economy

The area is predominantly a rural agricultural economy. There is little in the way of major employers in the area and the majority of employed residents commute to the commercial centres of Lincoln, Boston and Skegness.

Landmarks and attractions

* The Buttercross monument

* Sir John Franklin statue

* Spilsby Theatre and Arts centre

* Bolingbroke Castle

* Gunby Hall, a national trust property open on selected days during summer months [ [http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-gunbyhall/ Gunby Hall Opening] ]

* The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at nearby RAF Coningsby with its historic flying collection of a Lancaster bomber plus five Spitfire and two Hurricane fighters plus a DC47 Dakota transport and two Chipmunk trainers.

* The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre is in East Kirkby, Spilsby on the site of RAF East Kirkby. The museum, which is open daily except Sundays, commemorates the RAF's presence in Lincolnshire during World War II, with notable airfields such as RAF Scampton being located in the flat Lincolnshire countryside. The museum contains one of the world's two remaining Lancaster bombers still capable of flying (although it does not fly, as the museum cannot afford the £2,000,000 cost of an air worthiness certificate).

* The popular Spilsby Show takes place on the town playing fields on Ancaster Avenue off Boston Road. The event is held every July and proceeds support several local charities.

* Northcote Heavy Horse Centre

* Snipedales Nature Reserve and Country Park next to the historic Civil War battlefield at nearby Winceby

Education

Pre school facilities

Bright Sparks Kindergarten – Fen Road Spilsby – a rural pre school

Nestlings Nursery – Rookery Farm Little Steeping – a rural pre school

Skendleby Play School – Gunby – a rural pre school

Spilsby and Skegness Portage – Eresby Avenue Spilsby – an urban pre school

Spilsby Playgroup – Woodlands Road Spilsby – an urban pre school

Totschool Playgroup – Halton Road Spilsby – an urban pre school

Primary Education

Great Steeping Primary School - This is a mixed sex rural primary school and has approx 115 pupils with 67 boys and 48 girls

Halton Holegate C of E Primary School - This is a mixed sex rural primary school and has approx 56 pupils with 24 boys and 32 girls

Spilsby Primary School - This is a mixed sex urban primary school and has approx 254 pupils with 132 boys and 122 girls

Partney C of E Primary School - This is a mixed sex rural primary school and has approx 83 pupils with 46 boys and 37 girls

Toynton All Saints Primary School - This is a mixed sex rural primary school and has approx 92 pupils with 42 boys and 50 girls

econdary Education

King Edward VI Humanities College, is a coeducational bi-lateral secondary school and specialist Humanities College for children between the ages of eleven and sixteen.

* The school is an amalagamation of two separate institutions, the King Edward VI Grammar School opened in 1550 and the Sir John Franklin Secondary Modern School, which opened in 1954. These schools were originally combined in 1991 as Spilsby High School, initially retaining both sites. Since then the school has renamed twice and the original grammar school buildings have now been abandoned and stand empty. There is currently no sixth form centre in the town, with students travelling to Boston, Skegness or Horncastle to attend further education studies.

pecial Schools

Eresby School - Eresby Avenue, Spilsby - a special school for children aged between 2 and 19 [ [http://www.eresby.co.uk/home.php Eresby School Website] ]

The Lady Jane Franklin School, Spilsby - This is a mixed sex urban community special school for 11 - 16 year olds. Currently 45 pupils on roll

Religious sites

St James Church – Church of England – Church Street and Boston Road

Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs – Catholic – Church Road opposite Spilsby Theatre

Spilsby Methodist Church – opposite the Buttercross

All Saints Church – Christian Fellowship

Spilsby Christian Fellowship – Halton Road

ports and recreation

Spilsby Town FC compete in the Boston & District Premier Football League

Spilsby Sports Pavilion and Playing Fields Ancaster Avenue Spilsby

Spilsby Juniors Football Club Spilsby juniors was started during the Summer of 1998 when the Mid-Lincs youth football league accepted our application to enter a single Under 12 team in that years Division C. The club expanded and now runs four teams from Under 9's to Under 14's.

Spilsby Bowls Club

Spilsby Hockey Club

Public services and facilities

Library

The town’s library at West End Villas opens on Monday Wednesday Friday (and Sat morning).

Bus Services

Various bus services to Boston, Skegness, Horncastle, Alford and Spalding with onward connections to more distant locations are provided by:

* Lincs Roadcar

* Brylaine

* Translinc

* Hunts Coaches

Twin towns

* Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, France [fr icon [http://alpesmancelleseurope.free.fr Explanation of twinning of Spilsby and Fresay in French] .] [ [http://alpesmancelleseurope.free.fr Fresnay Twinning association] ]

Public Houses

The White Hart InnMarket SquareSpilsby

The Kings HeadGunby The Bell InnSpilsby RdHalton Holegate The Red Lion16 Market StSpilsby The Nelson Butt Inn10 Market StSpilsby

The Hundleby InnMain RoadHundleby

Notable people

* Sir John Franklin, the sea captain, governor of Tasmania, and explorer was born in Spilsby. He died during an expedition to the Canadian Arctic, while attempting to chart the Northwest Passage. Although he did not succeed, a statue of John Franklin in Spilsby erroneously bears the inscription 'Sir John Franklin - Discoverer of the North West Passage'. There is also a monument in the church and a plaque on the wall of the Franklin baker's shop in the High Street, marking Franklin's birthplace.

:Born on 16 April 1786, the fourth son of nine children and educated at Louth, he experienced his first taste of the sea aged 12 when he visited Saltfleet. He joined the Navy at the age of 14 and fought in two of the greatest sea battles: Copenhagen in 1801 and Trafalgar in 1805. He served as Midshipman to another Lincolnshire explorer, his cousin Matthew Flinders. Being shipwrecked off Australia did not deter the young John Franklin who later took part in exploration to the Arctic. He is often referred to as 'The man who ate his boots' as in 1819, while commanding his first expedition to the Arctic, he and his companions suffered incredible hardship and survived by eating lichen and leather from their boots. :In 1829, he was awarded the Geographic Society Gold Medal and was knighted by King George IV, he was also presented with a silver plate by the people of Spilsby. In 1836 he was appointed Governor of Tasmania. At the age of 59, he made his last voyage to seek the Northwest passage between Canada and the Arctic. Sadly, the entire expedition disappeared and it was 12 years before their fate was known. During these years, his widow, Lady Jane, spent all her money organizing ships to search for the missing party. Finally, she received confirmation that her husband had died on Beechy Island in July 1847. It was assumed he died from natural causes and the rest of the party by disease and starvation. Several suggestions have been put forward and one theory is that the probable cause was lead poisoning from faulty cans.

ee also

* RAF Spilsby

References

External links

* [http://www.visitlincolnshire.com/exec/104152/1138 Visit Lincolnshire]
* [http://www.aboutbritain.com/towns/spilsby.asp About Britain]
* [http://www.poacherguide.co.uk/town_information/spilsby.php Poacher Country]
* [http://www.spilsby.info Local Information]
* [http://www.spilsbygsf.org.uk/ Spilsby Grammar School Fund]
* [http://www.king-edward.lincs.sch.uk/ King Edward VI Humanities College]
* [http://www.cavillconnections.co.uk/spilsby.htm RAF Spilsby and its Squadrons]
* [http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/ 207 Squadron Royal Air Force Association]
* [http://www.spilsby.jfc.btinternet.co.uk Spilsby Junior Football Club]
* [http://www.britinfo.net/index_Spilsby.htm Spilsby Area Tourism Guide]
* [http://www.lincolnshirecoast.co.uk/Directory/XcDirSearch.asp?CMD=SEARCH&SearchBy=ALL&SearchFor=spilsby Spilsby And Lincs Coast Information]
* [http://www.northcote-horses.co.uk/ Northcote Heavy Horse Centre]