William Oswald Massingberd

“ The utility of the various rivers for commerce is undoubted. But a word seems necessary about the Witham. It was the great water-way between Lincoln and Boston in the palmiest days of those towns. There were two places on the Witham, Calscroft and Dogdyke, where the bailiffs of the city of Lincoln used to collect tolls in aid of the farm of the city. ”

“ From near South Witham, past Grantham to Lincoln and thence to Boston, was the Witham. In South Lincolnshire the Welland runs from Stamford to Spalding and thence to Boston. And there were the Glen and several natural streams. Nor was that all; there was the Fosse Dyke, an artificial canal, made for trade purposes, from Lincoln to Torksey on the Trent, and the Car Dyke, a catch-water drain, which was also used for boats and small ships. And it seems almost certain that drains made to carry off the water in the low districts were often used for the carriage of corn and merchandise. ”

“ In two years it has become the foremost industry of the town, the busiest time being the winter months. The work, which attracts the rougher class of girls and women, consists in separating the good from the bad, discoloured, or shrivelled peas, all of which are fieldgrown, and in order to suit the buyers must be fairly uniform in size and colour. In some factories the best are packed in small boxes and packets for sale. ”

“ In 1365 the citizens of Lincoln made great complaint to the king in Parliament concerning the damage they suffered because ships and boats could not pass to and fro in the Fosse Dyke with merchandise and victuals as they were wont to do, and judges were commissioned to view the channel, and inquire by the oaths of honest and lawful men of the county who ought to cleanse the same, and to distrain those found liable and compel them to make good defects. ”

“ So there was not much occasion to go to markets or fairs, the groceries which are now in every house did not exist, and if a man wanted to go he had better opportunities than now, for there were markets in several places where now there are none. Gradually, however, such a fair as that at Boston declined in importance. ”

“ In 1787 the well-known Stuff Ball was established for the encouragement of native woollen manufacture, and held for two years at Alford, and afterwards at Lincoln. The ladies used to wear stuff gowns, and the gentlemen stuff coats, waistcoats, and breeches. [21]
Amongst other craft-guilds at Lincoln were those of the fullers and the tailors. A provision of the Fullers' Guild in 1297 was that none of the craft should work in the trough, and none should work at the wooden bar with a woman, unless with the wife of a master or her handmaid. ”

“ Specimens of the 'Torksey Ware' were to be found for many years after in the collections of various persons scattered up and down the country. [78]
Feather factories are a distinctive Lincolnshire industry at the present time. The feathers are received at the factories in enormous sacks from the farmers and poultry dealers. By means of cyclone machinery the fine feathers are separated from the coarse, the former being then purified by condensed steam in special ovens. The waste material, which is yielded in very considerable quantities, is sold to the fruit-growers as manure for their land. ”

“ But the citizens, if they could not set up a profitable manufactory, would attempt to keep the poor employed, so in 1591–2 a knitting school was established, and John Cheseman, the knitter, undertook to set on work in his science all such as were willing to come to him or were sent to him by the aldermen, and to hide nothing from them 'that belongeth to the knowledge of the said science.' Spinning, dressing of wool, and keeping a mill were included, as well as knitting, and Cheseman provided ten wheels for which he was paid 4s. ”

“ At the end of the eighteenth century a good deal of enterprise was shown in constructing canals in Lincolnshire. In 1794 an Act was obtained for making a canal from the Witham near Chapel Hill, along the course of the Kyme Eau and the River Slea, to Sleaford. In 1792 an Act was obtained for a canal from Horncastle to the Witham near Tattershall Ferry. [40] In 1781 an Act was obtained for the improvement of the navigation of the Bourne Eau, [41] from Bourne to the River Glen. ”

“ Most necessaries of life were produced on the manor, and villagers purchased things they wanted of one another. Thus at Ingoldmells in the fourteenth century, while we read of bakers and 'tipplers,' as on every manor, we find the tenants purchasing of one another malt, beans, flour, corn, timber, nails, and divers 'merchandise'. ”

“ For the causes which led to the gradual decay and final extinction of certain other local industries we must look to the working of the two great factors which have been of supreme importance in shaping the economic destinies of the county—namely, the drainage of the fens, and the introduction of steam as a motive power. ”

“ The geese were plucked five times a year to increase their feathers—namely, at Lady Day, for quills and feathers; at Midsummer, Lammas, Michaelmas, and Martinmas, for feathers only. Those taken from the live birds were esteemed of better value, yielding at the rate of 3d. per head a year, whereas the yield from the feathers of a dead bird was only 6d., three giving a pound. In some places the geese were winged each quarter only, ten feathers being taken from each goose, which sold at 5s. ”

“ Plucked geese on Wildmore Fen paid in feathers 1s. a head. In 1813 goose-quills were selling at 20s. per thousand. Young records an instance of one man on the Fens whom he met in the course of his survey of the county whose stock of geese was 160. From these he reared, in good years 700, in a bad season 500, an average brood being 8. These sold at 2s., the feathers bringing 1s. 8d. The cost of keep for each bird was 2s. 6d., half of which was spent in corn, but his net profit every year amounted to £40. [65]
The trade in rabbits was no less lucrative. ”

“ The markets and fairs for horses, cattle, and sheep continued, but clothing, groceries, &c., were purchased at the shops as now. Hence the increase in the population of the market towns, followed by an increase also in the larger villages where there was custom enough for more than one small shop. ”

“ It was an exceedingly valuable specimen of a mediaeval bridge of which the county ought to have been proud. ↑ Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 1340–3, p. 137. ↑ Ibid. 1334–8, pp. 3, 11. ↑ Cal. of Pat. Rolls, 1334–8, p. 449. In 1580 there was a suit concerning the right of the queen as lady of the manor of Deeping to levy tolls from persons passing along the bank by the water of Welland leading from Deeping to Crowland; there were three bars at three several places on the bank: at Waldron Hall, 'at ye crosse in the Eaye,' and at Crowland Hurne. [Excheq. K. R. Depos. 22 Eliz. Trin. 1, Lincoln.] ”