It is perhaps bizarre that in the middle of Spalding down the road from the house I was raised in, in Stonegate was a house that relied entirely on gas for it had no electricity until the 21st century. In it lived Edna Basam and her elderly mother when I was young and they had gas lamps on the walls for lighting. I remember asking them what they were as I hadn’t seen gaslight before and Edna lit one to show me.# The electricity grid to supply the whole country with electric

The Wash had its share of shipwrecks with Samuel Plimsol M.P. fighting hard to reduce the mortality of sailors

It is hard to believe today that Wainfleet was considered as a bridgehead port to serve Lincoln with coal.

2022 saw Centre Port propose a Wash Dam project. Here I look at the history of this concept first proposed by the engineer John Rennie in 1837.

A court decision on 1st January 1824 in favour of Lord Yarborough established rights to marsh land that would later scupper a proposal to dam part of the Wash.

. As I stood on a balcony looking down I marvelled at the simple ingenuity of what was before me. A lorry laden with carrots from the field entered at one end of the line. They were washed in chilled water to start the chilling process, topped, tailed, washed again, chilled and bagged ready to exit on another lorry to be distributed across the country usually via supermarket hubs. All this happened in minutes rather than hours from entry to exit. It is hard to believe that a

As I sat in the White Pheasant Clem Tompsett explained how asparagus was one of his first crops.

As a child it was a treat to go "down the marsh" to Shep White's to pick samphire. Here I look at some of the history behind this plant.

Several weeks ago I finished reading Rory Stewart’s book Middleland, here I compare some of his writing and thoughts and opinions and compare them to my own writing, thoughts and opinions. “Such remoteness is not necessarily physical remoteness, but rather social, economic and temporal remoteness.” – these are my words when writing about urban bias in my book Marsh Fen and Town- South Lincolnshire and Beyond. To this I would add cultural remoteness and I guess Rory Stewart wo

A short tale from the Fens

In this third post on Lincolnshire cattle I take a brief look at the famous Lincolnshire Red. If you enjoy this post please consider buying my book Marsh Fen and Town South Lincolnshire and Beyond available on Amazon.

In this second of three posts about Lincolnshire livestock I look at the short-horn

This is the first of three posts looking at Lincolnshire cattle - starting with the famous Lincolnshire Ox of 1790

The Lincolnshire Curly Coat Pig - its downfall and its potential origins

Here I review some of the past history of hunting and eating golden plover and consider whether it should be removed from the quarry list. I also consider how such decisions are usually based upon emotion rather than science.

“The Heron of Oblivion hovers over the drinker; he steals the mind of men.” Here I explore the heronries in South Lincolnshire, the hunting and eating of herons and folklore surrounding this wonderful bird.

In this 8th and last piece about Marsh Fen and Town and Class I comment on where we are in 2026.

"Working hard used to get you something. It got you a house, a nice life, holidays. It got you somewhere....." Hannah Spencer MP Here I allow my thoughts to meander, try and consider where I fit in with class; acknowledge there are many pretenders; and finally consider whether it should be a legally protected characteristic.

My great-grandfather was known by everyone as Frank Elsden, although his birth name was Frederick, who moved to Spalding as a “man from the Pru” – an insurance agent for the Prudential Assurance Company in 1932, with his wife Ada and his son Cyril Frank Elsden. As such his was a story of social mobility from working class to middle class.

ASPIRATION is the most misused and abused term when referring to working class people. Here is the problem of our time in that we have a university educated class that see the world through their values, standards and experiences in a very narrow view. This dominates in politics and business to the detriment of all in an age where stepping stones of social mobility are being removed.