-
Sleaford is polite about most things. It does not shout. It does not pose. It gets on with it. Then, right at the south end of the town centre, it places a dramatic stone spire in your line of sight and pretends this is normal. That is the Handley Monument. It rises above Southgate like…
-
Spalding sits on the River Welland in South Holland, Lincolnshire. It is a market town, and it behaves like one. It is practical. It is tidy in places. It is busy at the right times, and calm when it is allowed to be. The main town had a population of 30,556 at the 2021 census.…
-
The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society (often shortened to SGS) is one of those organisations that sounds like it should come with a hat, a hush, and a strict rule about not touching anything. It does come with a museum collection, a library, and a deep sense of place. It also comes with a much more modern…
-
The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England. It runs for about 65 miles (105 km). It starts in the Hothorpe Hills near Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire. Then it heads east and north-east, passing places like Market Harborough, Stamford, Crowland, and Spalding, before reaching The Wash near Fosdyke. That route sounds simple.…
-
Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens sits right in the middle of Spalding, yet it feels like a small escape hatch from the modern world. One moment we are near shops and roads. The next, we are under old trees, beside clipped hedges, and facing a medieval hall that looks politely unimpressed by the last few…
-
Right in the middle of Spalding, tucked into Market Place, the South Holland Centre does a neat trick. It feels modern enough to host big touring acts, but local enough to feel like part of everyday town life. It is a theatre, a cinema, and a flexible events venue, all in one building. In a…
-
Arts Council England, often shortened to ACE, is one of those bodies that most of us do not think about until we really, really have to. It sits behind a huge amount of what we see, hear, read, visit, and enjoy across England. It does this by investing public money from government and money raised…
-
“The Tatler” is one of those names that still sounds busy. It hints at chatter. It hints at manners. It hints at people who know what everyone else is doing, and feel a mild duty to report it. In Britain, The Tatler first meant a London periodical launched by Richard Steele in April 1709. It…
-
Some places celebrate spring with a polite nod and a cup of tea. Spalding, in South Holland, Lincolnshire, chose the louder option: a full parade of floats covered in flowers, rolling through town like a moving garden. The Spalding Flower Parade was held every year from 1959 to 2013, then returned in 2022 and has…
-
Tulip bulbs look unimpressive. They are dry. They are papery. They are shaped like an onion that has been to a bad meeting. Then spring arrives, and they do what they do best. In the UK, tulip bulbs are one of the simplest ways to get big colour with very little fuss. We plant them…
