St Botolph’s Church sits on the river in Boston, Lincolnshire, and does not really bother with modesty. The tower climbs to about 266 feet, one of the tallest medieval parish church towers in England, and it rises from flat fenland so that it looks even taller again. Locals call it the Boston Stump. The nickname…
Boston in Lincolnshire looks, at first, like a typical fenland town. You see the big church, the flat fields, the muddy river, and you expect a modest local story. Then the names start to surface. Pilgrim Fathers. John Cotton. Boston, Massachusetts. Suddenly the quiet town on the Witham has a much longer shadow. You and…
Along the Maud Foster Drain in Boston, Lincolnshire, a seven-storey brick tower sits among houses and sheds, pretending to be ordinary. Then you look up. The white sails cut across the sky, the ogee cap gleams, and the balcony wraps the tower like a belt. This is Maud Foster Windmill – over 80 feet to…
Boston Guildhall sits on South Street, a short walk from the river and the Stump. From the pavement it looks like a neat slice of late-medieval Boston wrapped in some tidy later brickwork. Inside, it turns out to be a quiet overachiever: merchant HQ, religious powerhouse, courtroom, jail, museum, wedding venue, and a footnote in…
Scunthorpe does not arrive with theatrical fanfare. It sits on the north Lincolnshire ridge, between Lincoln, Grimsby and Doncaster, with the Humber Bridge and Hull not too far over the water. It is the largest town in North Lincolnshire, home to a little over 81,000 people, and it quietly carries the weight of being both…
Ashby Ville Nature Reserve sits just off Mortal Ash Hill on the southern edge of Scunthorpe. It looks, at first glance, like a simple lake with some scrubby banks and a few dog walkers. In other words, it hides its best features quite well. Under the surface, both literal and metaphorical, it is one of…
The Plowright Theatre sits on Laneham Street in Scunthorpe, a compact brick-fronted venue that has seen everything from Shakespeare and school concerts to touring comics and local am-dram. It is one of North Lincolnshire’s main live entertainment spaces and a core part of the town’s cultural spine, alongside The Baths Hall, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre…