Holbeach is a fenland market town in the South Holland district of south Lincolnshire. It is 8 miles from Spalding, 17 from Boston, and 43 from Lincoln.
The town’s market charter was awarded in 1252 to Thomas de Moulton, a local baron. All Saints Church, was built in the 14th century and the porch, which was built around 1700, possibly incorporated parts of Moulton Castle. The associated All Saints’ Hospital, for a warden and fifteen poor persons, was founded by Sir John of Kirton, in 1351.
The image below is the meridian marker here.
Until the beginning of the 17th century, the sea came to within 2 miles of the town and there were severe floods recorded in the 13th and 16th centuries. The land drainage programmes that followed moved the coastline of the Wash to 9 miles away, leaving Holbeach surrounded by more than 23,000 acres (93 km2) of reclaimed land. In 1615,
Further enclosure of marshes were recorded in 1660, in Gedney, Whaplode, Holbeach and Moulton. The work included the building of an embankment, and resulted in 9,798 acres being added to Holbeach parish. You can see part of this embankment below.
Holbeach also had a workhouse (as did most places) – and only read the following if you have a strong stomach… !!!
In April 1882 the master of Holbeach Workhouse, Walter Brydges Waterer, was accused of the manslaughter of a workhouse inmate, 22-year-old Thomas Bingham.
Poor Thomas suffered from a skin disease, and therefore to treat him, Waterer had left the man in a sulphur-burning cabinet, which was used as a treatment for what was known as “the itch”, or scabies.
The patient stood naked inside the cabinet with his head poking out of the top. The sulphur was then placed on an iron tray at the bottom of the cabinet, beneath a grating, and ignited by a piece of hot iron.
On this fateful day, though, Waterer had left Bingham encased in the cabinet and disappeared to attend to a matter elsewhere, but then completely forgot about his patient.
Others were eventually alerted by Bingham’s cries for help, and he was released…but on stepping out of the cabinet, he had been so hideously burned that skin and flesh appeared to just slide away from his body. Thomas Bingham died a few hours later. Waterer was found not guilty of manslaughter.
And sadly also, here ends my trip around Lincolnshire – I’ll be doing one more post – following on a trip to Greenwich, which seems to be to be a logical final step.
I’m busy now putting the talk together which will accompany the photographs taken on my journey. In the meantime. Onwards to Greenwich…….
Photographic Musings......... Or 