Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s symposium to explore Merchants and Traders: Medieval and Early Modern Trade in the Wash

The rich and ‘amazing’ history of the region will be celebrated as the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society’s hold its first symposium since the Covid pandemic.

Run in conjunction with the Fenland Heritage Network, Merchants and Traders: Medieval and Early Modern Trade in the Wash will be the title of the day’s talks.

A varied program of speakers delivering talks on a wide-range of subjects which played their part in shaping life in and around the region can be expected for those in attendance.

​Alison Fairman, of the Boston Hanse Group, will be the keynote speaker at the event, held at Spalding’s South Holland Centre.

Mrs Fairman described the medieval and early modern period - where Boston, and later King’s Lynn, became major English ports - as ‘an exciting time’.

Riches arrived in Lincolnshire via Boston, at one point the second largest port in the nation behind London, courtesy of the wool trade.

But Spalding and the surrounding areas also played their part in the boom.

“Spalding had the waterways and the monks who reared the sheep that produced the wool for the area,” Mrs Fairman explained.

“Historically, Crowland was also an important area at the time with the monks who dug the ditches.

“Historically it’s the most amazing area.”

Further talks at the symposium will be The Rise and Fall of Medieval Boston (Professor Stephen Rigby), King’s Lynn and the German Hanse (Dr Paul Richards).

Also on the agenda will be Merchants and Port Books in Jacobean King’s Lynn (Dr Alan Metters), East Anglian Women and Trade in the Fifteenth Century (Dr Dustin Frazier Wood), Medieval Fenland Merchants: John Masse and Nicholas Alwyn (Dr Michael Gilbert).

Petronella Keeling, chairman of the Spalding Gentleman’s Society, will provide the closing remarks.

The Boston Hanse Group, represented by Mrs Fairman, celebrates the town’s longstanding association with the Hanseatic League, a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe.

The New Hanse - which includes both Boston and King’s Lynn - is an organisation of more 197 towns and cities seeking better economic, social and cultural ties in the spirit of the original League.

The symposium runs from 10am until 4pm on October 15.

Entry costs £20 per person and includes a buffet lunch and a Maritime Wash exhibition.

Tickets are available directly from the society or online at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sgs-symposium-2022-merchants-and-traders-tickets-399532972877