Spalding's history and development laid bare in new map project

A new map project has charted how Spalding has changed over the centuries.

Life initially focussed around the town’s Priory but it wasn’t until the construction of the Coronation Channel that things really changed.

Acres of land which had previously been flooded suddenly became available for housing and industry.

Lincolnshire County Council has charted the town’s history during the final stages of its Extensive Urban Survey.

This national programme has been running since 1992 – with the aim of telling the story of how places have changed and to shape their future planning and development. Not only has the project charted the history of the town in maps but has also looked at the events that shaped the changes.

Nicola Grayson, the county’s Extensive Urban Survey Project Officer, said: “It is really important to understand the heritage of each town so that when we want to make changes we should be aware of the things that are unique.

“It is not a silver bullet to change the planning system but it another piece of the armour to protect what is special about our towns.

“It is really important to understand their history and uniqueness.”

Using information from the county council’s historical environment records - which includes everything from archaeological finds to a schedule of monuments - Ms Grayson was able to piece together the town’s history over a two month period.

People had begun to live in Spalding from the Iron Age with evidence of farmsteads and salt production being recorded.

The report states: “ This evidence suggests that settlement spread north in the early-medieval and medieval period. Land and water management infrastructure is also seen across the periods with the construction of large drainage ditches. One of the most well known during the Roman period, the Westlode, also probably served as a route of navigation.

“Since the Roman period, the connection between Spalding and water is highly legible, be this in the form of ditches and landscape management or through the trade facilitated by the River Welland.”

Three estates were recorded within the Doomsday Book but it was not until the establishment of the Priory that things moved on.

The report states: “In 1051, Spalding Priory was established; its extent covered much of the present-day town centre and for much of the medieval period contributed a great deal to the organisation and prosperity of the town.

“The town’s layout, including the market areas were established during this period. In the post-medieval period, a short period of decline was followed by a surge in prosperity for the town as a consequence of its growth as a port which encouraged development along the river in the 18th and 19th centuries.

“This has resulted in a townscape of a very distinct character. The river trade declined in the later part of the 19th century following the introduction of the railway, which resulted in the concentration of new development in the town to its west side as industries sought to be close to the station.”

During the modern period, the town’s growth expanded further.

It states: “In 1947, Spalding suffered a large amount of damage following a series of floods. As a result of this, new flood defences were constructed including the Coronation Channel in 1955-56 along the eastern side of the town.

“This allowed a greater amount of development to the east of the River Welland and created a new boundary up to which development has taken place.

“As a result, in the mid 20th century, the majority of the development which took place in the town occurred to the east between the River Welland and the Coronation Channel.”

The document has been welcomed by Dr John Cleary.

He said: “When as an incomer in 1988 I started local history research I had to use outdated history books such as EH Gooch (1940) with no index, and the local library’s newspaper cutting files until I was told about the Spalding Gentlemens Society Library and archives ( limited availability to nonmembers,full access to members).

“Now thanks to the county council and Heritage England Urban Survey it is all in the public domain in one place for any budding local historian. It is not perfect but a very good start.

“My own special interest in Ivo and Lucy Taillebois foundation of Spalding Priory with the charter of William the Conqueror in 1085 and Guy de Craon’s Manor House in Castlefields are still not completely freed from Ingulph’s fable of Crowland Abbey but slow progress is being made towards archeology.

“Whilst ancient history is only a small part of the value of this exercise I am sure those with more modern interests will share my gratitude to the hard working authors.”

Curator of Archaeology at Spalding Gentlemen’s Society Dr Richard Buck also welcomed the document.

He said: “With the renovations to The Castle Sports Complex, it might be possible that a rare archaeological dig may be justified to that site in order to locate even more historical knowledge and information to those scholars, both amateur and professional, who have been diligently studying the town’s history.

“Archaeology is a very important tool for discovering aspects of the past. Sadly there have been very few archaeological digs in and around Spalding in the last few years.

“The main problem with Spalding is that being a fenland town, deposition of silts and man made areas of habitation cause problems when digging in an urban environment. Hence Spalding Priory for example may never be excavated given what has been either naturally deposited or built on top over the last few centuries.

“This impedes our attempts to get down even further to the Roman/Iron Age, Bronze Age or even the prehistoric!

“What we do know is that Spalding was perhaps once part of a series of dry islands in the Fens, where our ancestors retreated to for safety, latterly, by the time the Anglo Saxons arrived after the Roman withdrawal.

“The land around Spalding had become ‘unsettleable’ again and would not be reclaimed until the early Medieval period.

“So far we have found only very tantalizingly pieces of Archaeology relating to Spalding’s early past.

“Spalding’s general good fortune and wealth can be seen represented in its architecture. I was amazed at just how many places in the town were now listed, from houses to walls to archways, Spalding is an unbelievable concoction of many time periods.

“From the time of the great Priory to the great importance of its port and latterly the arrival of the railways, Spalding has survived whatever the country threw at it... maybe its last hey-day being the success of the tulip bulb industry in the 1970s and of course the famous Tulip Parade.

“But even so, just to make people even aware of our valuable heritage is often enough to encourage a new generation to search for more answers.”