Part 3: Skegness Through The Years
This is an extract from the book "Skegness Through The Years"
Transport
The Railway
Skegness changed forever in 1873, when the East Lincolnshire Railway Company opened a branch line to Skegness. One Saturday in September of that year, 2000 trippers (6 times the population of Skegness) arrived by train. By mid-day, the shops and refreshment rooms had run out of food. In 1881, 195,671 people arrived in Skegness by rail; in 1882, the figure was 230,277, in 1883 it was 213,299 and in 1884 it was 224,225. In 1885, the last year for which these figures are given, the number fell to 118,473.
In July 1882, 17 excursion trains brought people in to watch horse racing on the north beach. On August Bank Holiday 1882 more than 20,000 visitors came by train to Skegness, the record number for a single day. Again, it is recorded that by lunchtime that day all the shops had run out of food. The last train taking the visitors home departed after 2 a.m.
In 1883, the “Skegness Herald” deplored the arrival of “shoals of labourers” on the Sabbath.
The Great Northern Railway took over the East Lincolnshire Railway in 1896. In 1904, the Council asked the railway company, without success, to defer the arrival of Sunday passenger trains until after the morning service. The Jolly Fisherman poster was first used in 1908. It was produced by the Great Northern Railway to advertise day trips from London King’s Cross to Skegness. An original is kept in Skegness Town Hall. A day trip from King’s Cross cost three shillings (15p).
Buses
In 1895, Bill Berry opened a cycle shop in the High Street. It later became High Street Motor Engineers. By 1910, a charabanc had already replaced the horse-drawn bus service from the Lion Hotel to the Royal Oak at Winthorpe. In 1922, Bill Berry started a town bus service. He sold the bus company to Tom Cary in 1925. Around 1924, Stinson’s Skegness Motor Service Company also began to run buses in Skegness. Charles Atkin, Tom Cary, R.C.F. Chown, E.C. Raynor (Chapel St. Leonards) and others operated buses to nearby villages, with Underwood’s open top double-decker buses providing a regular service to Boston. In the season, penny-all-the-way ‘toast racks’ ran between the Clock Tower and the Sea View Hotel. A bus station was built on Drummond Road in 1937.
The Layout of the Town
Up to 1873, only two roads existed. One was the present narrow and winding High Street. The other was Roman Bank, from which a road went down to the sea by the Sea View Hotel.
Two or three years after the railway reached Skegness in 1873, the Earl of Scarbrough commissioned Wainfleet surveyor, G.B. Walker to draw up a plan for the layout of the new town of Skegness. The plan shows Grand Promenade, Rutland Road, Lumley Road and Roman Bank and the projected position of the Pier. New roads were to be Lumley Avenue, Algitha Road and Ida Road, Scarbrough Avenue, Lilian Road, Sibell Road and Osbert Road. The first four were built under the guidance of Mr H. Tippett, the entrepreneurial agent of the Earl of Scarbrough. Lilian Road and Sibell Road were planned to be located – running east and west – between Scarbrough Avenue and what was later to be Castleton Boulevard. This was to be called Osbert Road, but it was not constructed until 1934.
In 1877 work began on building a sea wall from north of Sea View Lane to Derby Avenue. The Grand and South Parades were built on the western side of this wall. By 1878, Skegness had developed sufficiently for its streetlights to be visible from the sea. By 1880, most of the planned plots on Lumley Road had been sold and, by 1882, it was almost built up.
The newly formed Skegness Pier Company commissioned Clarke and Pickerell in about 1880 to design the pier. It was completed in 1881. The Gothic style entrance was retained until 1937, when a contemporary style replacement was built with balustrades on the twin ramps. This lasted until 1972, when it was replaced by the present structure. In 1898, a Venetian Fair was held on the pier with illuminated boats; the pier was decorated with twinkling lights. On the morning of 21st March 1919 a 200-ton schooner ‘Europa’ of Amsterdam dragged its anchor on spring tides and, at 8 o’clock, it was swept out of control towards the pier. This was the biggest disaster, which had ever happened to the pier superstructure up to that date, as the vessel lurched into the sides of the pier irons, cutting the deck completely in half and crashing through, eventually going aground on the south side. It was twenty years before the damage was repaired. In the meantime, a temporary gangway was constructed around the two halves so people could still walk to the pier head.
The fountain, now in the Fairy Dell, was originally situated in Lumley Square, and was moved into Marine Gardens (now the site of the Embassy building) in 1888.
In 1898, Skegness Urban District Council (UDC) leased the area between the high and low water mark from the Board of Trade. In 1922, Skegness UDC purchased the foreshore, west of the high tide mark, from the Earl of Scarbrough.
The Clock Tower was erected in 1899 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
In 1912 Rowland Henry Jenkins became town surveyor and engineer. He remained in post until he retired in 1952. In 1922, he prepared plans to develop the foreshore area into a holiday playground. The Tower Esplanade was completed in 1923. The Boating Lake opened in 1924, the first major work in the Skegness Urban District Council’s original foreshore development plan. The lake was doubled in size in 1930. His scheme for the development of the North Foreshore was put into effect around 1930. This included the waterway, tennis courts, bowling greens and walks. In 1938, the waterway was extended southward to Tower Esplanade.
In 1928, the bathing pool, the Embassy ballroom, restaurant and orchestral piazza were opened.
The first municipal car park opened in the former Marine Gardens in 1928.
In 1930, Scarbrough Avenue was finally metalled and kerbed.
The Sun Castle was opened in 1932 as a solarium with ultra-violet ray lamps for artificial sunbathing, but it did not catch on. The lamps were eventually removed and, under the efficient management of Mrs. Hanson, it became a popular spot for light refreshment and soft music.
Lumley Square in 1920 was very much a horse and cart thoroughfare. In 1934 it was reconstructed, with a gas office and public toilets replacing old cottages.
Castleton Boulevard was opened in 1934, bringing the first traffic lights to the town. It was going to be called “Castleton Road”, but, apparently, councillors went to Paris, shortly before it was due to be opened, and, after seeing the boulevards there, they decided that “Castleton Boulevard” sounded better.
Sea View Lane was changed to Sea View Road in comparatively recent times, the change taking place without any announcement.
Local Government and Public Services
Until 1885 the “Skegness Parish Vestry” administered Skegness.
In 1883, the Skegness Parish Vestry purchased the resort’s first fire engine.
A Local Government Board was elected in 1885 to take over the running of Skegness from the Parish Vestry. In the same year, Skegness became part of the newly-formed Horncastle division for parliamentary elections. In 1895, Skegness became an Urban District Council (UDC). In 1926, Winthorpe became part of the UDC.
Police and Law courts
In 1908, Skegness was allocated its own petty sessional court. It functioned only in the summer. In 1929, a new courthouse was built on Roman Bank, next to the police Headquarters. It was used all the year round. In 1931, Skegness became the divisional police Headquarters for the Spilsby, Alford and Mablethorpe area.
Library Service
From 1929, the County Library Service was run by volunteers from the old High Street Labour Exchange, 2 evenings weekly. The County Library Service moved to the Town Hall, which had been rebuilt by that time, in 1931.
Public Utilities
In 1877 a Gas Company was formed. The gasworks were built at a cost of £3,500. A sanitary system was arranged in the same year.
Waterworks were constructed in 1879. In 1904, the Earl of Scarbrough had a borehole sunk at Welton Le Marsh, with a reservoir and water main to increase the water supply. The Urban District Council bought the water company from the Earl of Scarbrough for £40,000 in 1909. The soft pure water from the boreholes at Welton had only 5 degrees of hardness.
Both the gas and waterworks were extended in the 1920s. In 1927, a concrete water tower was built on Burgh Road to replace a smaller brick one. The new water tower was a landmark, for many years, along with the gasholder. By 1935, the Urban District Council had acquired ownership of the gas works.
The Mid-Lincolnshire Electricity Supply Company supplied mains electricity in 1932.
A large sewage disposal works was built on Burgh Marsh in 1936.
Public Buildings
Churches and Chapels
The foundation stone of St. Matthew’s Church was laid in 1879. The Earl of Scarbrough donated the site, plus £3,000. The “living” was in the gift of the Earl. The stipend was £240 per annum. The nave and south aisle were consecrated in 1880. The north aisle and chancel were completed in 1885 and the final consecration performed. The Lord Lieutenant unveiled a War Memorial on the south side of the church in 1923. The choir vestry was added to St. Matthews’ Church in 1935.
A third Wesleyan chapel was opened in 1876 in the High Street. The second one (near the railway station – see Part 2) was demolished. A larger Wesleyan chapel was built on Algitha Road in 1882. The Wesleyan Manse was built on Lumley Avenue in 1899. A smaller Manse was provided for Wesleyan ministers in 1935.
A new Primitive Methodist chapel was built on the west side of Roman Bank in 1881, costing £327. In 1899 they built another new chapel on the east side of Roman Bank, at a cost, with the Sunday School, of £2040. (This is now a second-hand furniture shop.) In 1924, a church parlour was added to the rear of this chapel and a war memorial was fixed on the wall.
The inaugural meeting of Skegness Baptist Church was held in 1894 in a “tin tabernacle” in Beresford Avenue. St. Paul’s Baptist Church, built in brick, also in Beresford Avenue was opened in 1911. Before then, what is now Beresford Avenue was only a rough cart track leading up to garden nurseries and greenhouses and on to Drummond Road. As the land was developed, it was paved, surfaced and named.
The first Roman Catholic Church was opened in 1898 in Grosvenor Road and dedicated to the Sacred Heart. It cost £500 and had seating for 500. A new church on an adjoining site in Grosvenor Road was consecrated in 1950.
In 1913, the Salvation Army established a separate corps in Skegness. The Salvation Army Citadel opened on the High Street in 1929. This citadel was demolished and replaced by the present building, slightly to the west of the present site, in 1995.
Skegness and District Cottage Hospital
The first building
A meeting was held in 1906 or 1907 to consider a proposal for a Skegness hospital, but it did not materialise due to lack of support.
The project was discussed again in 1911, the year of the Coronation of George V. It was first mentioned in the Skegness News on 15 March of that year and, on 17 March, Councillor Samuel Moody, Chairman of Skegness Urban District Council, presided a first public meeting. Wards for males and females were to cost £1,000. It was anticipated that income would exceed expenditure by £100 per year. The first officers were: Drs. A.W. Allan, Benjamin Sweeten and Stanley Wallace.
On 18 March, the local Member of Parliament, Captain A.G. Weigall (later Lt. Col. Sir Archibald Weigall, KCMG) promised to give £250 to funds, provided that an additional £250 was raised by Coronation Day on 22 June.
At a further meeting on 31 March, the Earl of Scarbrough agreed to give a site: 1700 square yards of approved land to the value of £350. Sites considered included one at the end of Coronation Walk and one in the plantation on the south side of Cecil Avenue. The committee rejected both these sites on 14 July. Instead, they chose a site on Wainfleet Road, which is the site occupied by the east front of the present hospital. Although the Earl of Scarbrough gave the site, the hospital committee had to bear the cost of making up the road in front of it (the south end of the present Dorothy Avenue). The committee were also told that Her Highness Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein had expressed her willingness to assist the project and had promised to lay the foundation stone.
She laid the foundation stone on 29 September 1911. This was a great day in the history of the resort and all Skegness turned out for the occasion. The ceremony took place in a field on the north side of Wainfleet Road, a field which was then surrounded by trees, but which became part of the site of the present hospital. It was agreed that the hospital should be considered to be a permanent memorial of the Coronation of King George V and the public procession to and from the hospital site was to rival in size and colour the Coronation Procession, which had taken place on 22 June. The stone was fashioned hollow. After she had laid it, the Princess placed in its cavity an airtight leaden casket containing a copy of the programme signed by Her Highness, current issues of The Times and two local newspapers – the Skegness News and Skegness Herald – together with some coins of the year. Forty-three children presented to Her Highness purses containing money for the hospital fund, totalling £56. After tea, taken in marquees in the grounds, the Princess inspected the Fire Brigade, the Lifeboat Crew, Boy Scouts’ troops and Boys’ Brigade companies. Later, the units paraded back to the Clock Tower, until they were dismissed after the playing of the National Anthem.
A three-day Bazaar raised £533 in the Pleasure Gardens (now the Tower Gardens) on 14, 15 and 16 August 1912.
The Opening Ceremony was held on Monday 19 May 1913. The units, which had been on parade at the “Stone laying”, were there again but with some changes: the 1st Skegness Boys’ Brigade Company had become the 1st Company of the 3rd Lincoln Cadet Battalion. The Senior Boy Scout Troop had transformed itself into a Sea Scout Unit and they and their Scoutmaster had gone into Navalized Uniform. Representatives of the Territorial Army and of the Lincolnshire Yeomanry also attended in uniform. The total cost of the building was £1450. Towards this, £1000 had already been received in subscriptions and donations and a further £200 was available from the balance of the proceeds of the bazaar. This left a deficit of £250. Named Dorothy Avenue, the access road to the site had become the first stretch of the present Dorothy Avenue, on the west side of which the diminutive hospital was set like a jewel. Mr. F. J. Parkinson of Blackburn – the successful architect in a competition, for which 56 firms had entered – presented Lady Scarbrough with the key to the hospital. Miss Mollie Sweeten presented her with a bouquet.
A miniature hospital, it had three single bedded wards, a bathroom etc., a small operating theatre annex and a sterilising room. It also had a storeroom, matron’s room, kitchens and out offices on the ground floor. On the first floor there were three bedrooms for the matron, nurses and servant, with a bathroom etc. and a storeroom. It was noted that “enlargement can be made without disturbance to the original building”.
The first new wing
Soon there was need for a larger operating theatre. The hospital received a “windfall” – a bequest of £516 from the late Mr. Fred Ingle. This facilitated the new wing and ward. Messrs. Geo. Dunkley and Son of Skegness secured the contract at £455. This brought the accommodation up to eight beds, one cot and a private ward. The extension opened on 1 July 1915. A mortuary was built the same year at a cost of £45, while the Earl of Scarbrough presented a revolving roof shelter.
Extensions in the 1920s
By 1920, funds for a further extension had grown to £818. It was decided, however, that three-quarters of the estimated cost should be in hand before work was commenced. The further extension was undertaken in 1922. This comprised an additional ward, a ward kitchen, two nurses’ rooms, six extra beds and two more private wards. The cost, including the installation of hot water pipes and radiators in the public wards, was £1688. These additions brought accommodation to 15 beds and a cot in all. Hospital President, the Earl of Scarbrough, accompanied by his only daughter, Lady Serena, unveiled the tablet in the Memorial Ward to the memory of the Skegness men who fell in World War I.
The porters’ lodge was completed in 1925.
A hot and cold water supply was installed in the operating theatre in 1926 at a cost of £24.
Extensions in the 1930s
An appeal was launched in 1929 for an X-Ray installation. On 22 September 1931, Mrs. V.P. Druce of Seacroft formally opened a new operating theatre, an X-Ray Department and additional staff accommodation.
By 1934 in-patients had risen to a then record total of 391 in the year, emphasising the necessity of increasing the bed capacity with as little delay as possible. Plans were considered for two new wards and the conversion of existing buildings to administrative and staff use. A minimum outlay of £7,000 was anticipated. In 1935, plans were prepared for an ambitious scheme for a new hospital building and for the conversion of the existing premises at a cost of £20,000, including furnishings and equipment. However, only £315 remained in the building fund at the time. The full scheme was deferred and in 1936 it was decided to concentrate on the £7,000 section for which the need was most pressing. Amended plans in 1937 were for a £15,600 scheme, which included new male and female wards and a separate maternity block. These were completed in 1939.
Other Medical Facilities
The Nottinghamshire Convalescent Home was built in 1891 on Seathorne sand hills. The Derbyshire Poor Children’s Home opened in Scarbrough Avenue in the same year. The National Deposit Friendly Society’s Memorial Convalescent Home was opened in 1927. Carey House women’s convalescent home opened in 1933.
By 1935, the St. John’s Ambulance and the Red Cross had been established.
The Town Hall
In 1920, the UDC bought the Earl of Scarbrough’s estate office at the junction of Roman Bank and Algitha Road for £3000. The estate office moved to the former Council Office at 23, Algitha Road. The estate office moved again in the 1930’s – to the Hall on Roman Bank. In 1928, the Council offices on Roman Bank were destroyed by fire. Many town records were lost. The first Town Hall was built on the site of the burned-out offices in 1931. In 1964, the Council acquired a new Town Hall - the former National Deposit Friendly Society’s Memorial Convalescent Home, which by then had been closed because the introduction of the National Health Service had caused its membership to fall drastically.
The Post Office
In 1888, the Post Office moved to Lumley Road. In 1905, it moved to the corner of Algitha Road and became the General Post Office. (This is now Lloyds TSB bank.) In 1929, a new General Post Office and telephone exchange was built on Roman Bank to replace it.
Schools
A new, larger, Skegness National school was opened on Roman Bank in 1880. A County Council Infants’ School opened in Cavendish Road in 1908. A junior school was added in 1935.
Near the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, Skegness had a number of private boarding schools. The Essendon Girls’ School was at the north end of Rutland Terrace, now the Masonic Hall. There was at least one other smaller private boarding school further along Rutland Terrace on Rutland Road. Brythwen High School, established in 1899, is now the Lyndhurst Club on the corner of Lumley Avenue and Algitha Road.
Between the wars, the private Orient Girls’ School was located in what are now the Charnwood Hotel and the New Park Club. Leeson Lodge, the large bungalow next to the latter was the Orient Preparatory School for Boys, earlier based in Algitha Road. Mr. and Mrs. Boyer owned the Orient schools or colleges. The Inglewood Preparatory School was in Ida Road, under the two Miss Sweetens, daughters of Dr. Benjamin Sweeten, whose house and surgery was next door, in Lumley Avenue. The Seacroft Preparatory School for Boys was a boarding school on Seacroft Esplanade, now a nursing home. The proprietor was H.E. Sparrow. Consequently, it was usually known as Sparrow’s School. The boys wore bright red school caps and it specialised in training boys for the Royal Navy. Mr. Sparrow was, for a number of years, honorary secretary of the local lifeboat. The school closed at the outbreak of World War II and was later taken over by the RAF Recruit Centre as a sick bay. After the war it was for several years the Seacroft Special School for Girls.
In 1932, Lumley Secondary Modern School opened in Pelham Road. It was demolished in 1993. It was supplemented in 1957 by the Morris Secondary School, Church Road, now incorporated in St. Clement’s College.
In 1933, Skegness Grammar School replaced Magdalen College School, Wainfleet as the main Grammar School in the area. Before that, well over half the pupils at Magdalen College travelled from Skegness by train each day. The next nearest grammar schools were at Spilsby and Alford.
Skegness Beam Wireless Station
The skyline to the north of Skegness completely changed in the spring of 1926. It was early April of that year when eight masts were completed; they were of a lattice construction 287 feet in height, five times taller than the Clock Tower.
The first mast closest to Skegness was just to the north of Burgh Road only 150 yards from the Water Works. The next four masts were set in a straight line, the remaining three were at right angles with the last one, which was a quarter of a mile west of Winthorpe Church.
These masts were strung out covering a length of one and a half miles, and along with the control building (now converted into a bungalow) on Church Lane helped to link India and Australia by wireless to Britain.
The GPO erected the masts. The operating company was “The Imperial and International Communications Ltd.”
Communications commenced the following year. On 13 April 1927 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. L.S. Amery, sent a message from London through Skegness to Mr. Bruce, the Prime Minister of Australia, who replied the next day by wireless through Skegness, then by landline to London, a total of 10,000 miles.
The results of the 1931 Derby were telegraphed around the world in record time. From the time that the winning horse “Cameronian” passed the post to the result reaching Bombay and Alexandria was two seconds, for Cape Town and Hong Kong it was three seconds, for Australia four seconds and for South America only five seconds.
The station was in use for 12 years. During the autumn of 1938 it was decided that the masts would be dismantled within the next two years. The reason given was that Cable and Wireless Ltd were “centralising their services”. In fact, all eight masts were removed during the early part of 1940 when they had become a hazard to aircraft.
Hotels and Amenities
Hotels
As previously indicated, there were three hotels in Skegness prior to the arrival of the railway: The Vine, Hildreds and the Sea View Hotel.
The Lumley Hotel opened on Good Friday 1880. The Lion Hotel opened at the corner of Lumley Road and Roman Bank in 1881. It had a stone lion on the roof, which was was carved by Richard Winn of Grimsby and weighed about six hundredweight. The stone lion was removed from the roof of the Lion Hotel in 1904, when it became unsafe. It remained on the pavement outside until recent times, when the national brewery company, who took over the hotel, unceremoniously removed it.
The Hydro (Hotel) opened as a health establishment in 1900. It later changed its name to the Seacroft Hotel.
A new frontage up to the North Parade was built on to the Sea View Hotel in 1911. Some eight years later, the west end of the hotel was converted into flats.
Billy Lambe converted Gomersall House into the Marine Hotel in 1920. Fred Walker built the Imperial Hotel and Ballroom in 1930. The County Hotel opened in 1935. In the same year a 12-bedroomed guesthouse on Castleton Boulevard was put up for sale for £1,750.
In 1927 a public referendum was held and voted in favour of Sunday opening of eating-places. In 1932, the UDC gave approval for Sunday trading across the board, subject to compliance with the law.
In 1936, the Ship Hotel, on the northwest corner of Roman Bank and Burgh Road, was demolished.
Holiday Camps and Holiday Homes
A holiday home for Nottingham girls opened in Brunswick Drive in 1912. In 1928, Nottingham poor children’s holiday home opened in Roseberry Avenue, after several years in tents and huts.
In the 1920s the first tent and caravan parks came into fashion. The YMCA set up a canvas camp in Grosvenor Road. In 1930, this camp became the Woodside Holiday Centre.
In 1936, Billy Butlin opened Skegness Luxury Holiday Camp at Ingoldmells. There were two big fires at the camp in one week in 1939.
The Derbyshire Miners’ Welfare Holiday Camp in Winthorpe Avenue opened in 1936.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, the Royal Navy took over Butlins camp and converted it to a training unit, known as HMS Royal Arthur. In the autumn concrete bases for six-inch guns were constructed at Jackson’s corner and Gibraltar Point. The RAF requisitioned hotels, guesthouses and private residences to billet trainees at the Skegness RAF Recruit Training Centre, which opened in March 1941.
Cinemas, Theatres and Dance Halls
Fred Clements opened the Arcadia Theatre in 1911. The Lawn Theatre, later the Lawn cinema, was built by Bass, owners of the Hildred’s Hotel, at about the same time. It was closed in 1934 and the building was incorporated into Hildred’s Hotel. Also in 1911, the Alhambra Dance Hall opened on the site of Lawrence & Bircumshaw’s open air roller skating rink opposite the Figure 8 (see below). A casino opened on this site in 1922. The Central Hall, on Roman Bank, which had been built as a dance hall, was converted into a cinema in 1912. Also in 1912, the Sands Pavilion opened, mainly for tea dances. It later became known as the Café Dansant. The Skegness Urban District Council set up a new foreshore department there in 1934.
In 1920, the Tower and Lawn cinemas were allowed to give Sunday performances only on condition that half the profits were donated to Skegness Hospital.
In 1931, Louis Henshall of the Sea View Hotel built the Winter Gardens near to the hotel, originally as a roller skating rink. The Parade cinema opened in 1933 or 1934 on the Grand Parade. Fred Clements retired in 1935 and sold the Tower and Arcadia to the owners of the new Parade cinema.
Amusements and Distractions
From 1883, the paddle steamer “May” ran trips from Skegness Pier. Other boats ran similar trips in later years. Some of these paddle steamer trips went to Hunstanton, enabling people to visit Sandringham.
In 1882, warm water swimming baths were opened in Scarbrough Avenue. Enemy bombs destroyed them during the Second World War.
A switchback railway was built on a large part of the Jungle frontage on North Parade in 1885. It was dismantled in about 1912. A Figure 8 railway was built on North Parade in 1908. In 1915, a joywheel ride in front of the Figure 8 was destroyed by fire.
Lifeboats and fire engines were used in carnival processions as far back as 1907.
The Lincolnshire Agricultural Show was held in Skegness in 1912 and in 1922, in fields in Richmond Drive. Circuses also took place on the same site.
In 1923, the fairground was transferred from the central beach to the North Parade; it was called Pleasureland. In 1925, Billy Butlin set up stalls in the Park, across the road from Clement’s Happy Valley. In 1928 he obtained permission to open his amusement park on Sunday afternoons. In 1929, all amusements on the North Parade had to be removed to avoid disturbing the National Friendly Deposit Society Home. In the same year Billy Butlin built and ran a new fairground, on a site leased from the council, south of the pier.
Skegness Town Band was formed in 1923.
In 1932, the Skegness Advancement Association inaugurated the first illuminations on Lumley Road, the clock tower and the lake.
In 1932, the newly formed Skegness Aero Club staged an air pageant, attracting 15,000 spectators, on the Royal Oak aerodrome, Roman Bank, on the north side of the hotel and Royal Oak Terrace, Winthorpe.
By 1935, there were two social clubs for residents in Skegness: The Avenue in Lumley Avenue (which is still in business) and The Tennyson in Drummond Road. Skegness Amateur Operatic Society had also been established by this time, as had the St. John’s Ambulance and the Red Cross.
Sports Facilities
The Cricket Ground was acquired in 1879: it was described in publicity material, a few years later, as one of the finest in the country. In 1886, the Australian Touring Eleven Cricket Team played in Skegness: 16 excursion trains ran.
The first game of golf was played on Seacroft Golf Course in 1895. The course was later extended from 9 to 18 holes. The North Shore Golf Course was completed in 1910.
In 1931, the first open bowls tournament was held on the north shore greens.
By 1935, in addition to the two golf clubs, there were clubs for swimming, bowls, cricket, rugby, football, hockey and angling.
Shops and Services
The Skegness Steam Laundry opened on Roman Bank in 1877 to meet the needs of the new hotels and lodging houses. The Fry family took over the laundry in 1928. The Hygienic Laundry opened in the 1890s on the site of the present Kwiksave supermarket.
In 1880, a cattle market opened near the railway station. This only lasted a few years. George F. Ball, an auctioneer, started a new cattle market near the gas works in 1923. This closed in 1937.
In 1880, Croft’s Drapery shop opened on Lumley Road. It also had a frontage on to the High Street.
In 1882, no fewer than ten builders were listed in White’s Directory for Skegness. In the same year, Lord Scarbrough bought Warth & Dunkley’s brickworks on Wainfleet Road. John Cater opened a new brickworks, also on Wainfleet Road.
The 1914 Skegness Bungalow and House Seekers Guide shows the following shops and services:
Farmers Dairy, 20 Lumley Road
Crofts (Drapers)
J. T. Grey, Family Grocer, Drummond Road Stores and Post Office. (This is still a Post Office.)
Duttons, Lumley Road
J. T. Borman, Coal Merchant, Station Yard
Alfred Wrate, Photographer, 17 Lumley Road
Hiley’s Restaurant (now the National Westminster Bank).
Alfred Heyward’s peppermint rock factory opened in 1920.
In the 1920s Dutton’s Stores in Lumley Road sold almost anything from books to knitting wool and had a circulating library many years before the County Library was established in Skegness. The shop opened in the early 1890’s and closed in the 1960s.
Woolworths “nothing over sixpence” store opened in Lumley Road in 1928.
In 1930, shops were built over the front lawns of Lumley Terrace and Harrington Gardens.
Newspapers
The first edition of the Skegness Herald appeared in 1882, edited and printed by John Avery. In 1909, the first edition of the Skegness News appeared, published by Charles Henry Major. In 1915, Major took over the Skegness Herald. In 1917, the latter ceased publication. The Boston-based Lincolnshire Standard launched the Skegness Standard in 1922.
Housing
The first council houses – 100 – were built in Skegness in 1920 on Marsh Lane. It then changed its name to “Richmond Drive”.
In 1935, a small three-bedroomed semi-detached house on Wainfleet Road was put up for sale for £425.
Life and Death in Skegness
The population of Skegness increased from 349 in 1871 to 1,338 in 1881. By 1901, it had reached 2,140 and by 1931, it was 9,121 (compared with 16,809 in 1991 – see Annex 1).
A skeleton was found in the walls of the Vine Hotel in 1902 with brass buttons. It is believed to be a Customs Officer who had disappeared years earlier.
The Lifeboat
In 1816 a 24-pounder brass mortar was sent to Skegness coast guards to help with ship rescues.
There has been a lifeboat in Skegness for over one and a half centuries. In 1825 the first lifeboat in the area was placed at Gibraltar Point. This was one year after the founding of the RNLI by Sir William Hilary on 4 March 1824. The lifeboat was moved to Skegness in 1830 because it was found that, in northerly or north-easterly gales, it was too far to leeward of the sandbanks and likely to trap vessels running for the shelter of the Wash. A lifeboat house was built in the sand dunes at what is now known as Lifeboat Avenue. A new and bigger lifeboat house was built in South Parade in 1864. In 1892, the Lifeboat Station was rebuilt on the same site.
The first lifeboat was installed and maintained by the Lincolnshire Coast Shipwreck Association, which was formed in 1826 and amalgamated with RNLI in 1863. The Lincolnshire Shipwreck Association was wound up in 1911, when the RNLI took over completely.
Herbert Ingram II was the third Skegness Lifeboat in service, from 1874 to 1888. The widow of Herbert Ingram, Boston, paid for it. He was an MP and founder of The Illustrated London News. He perished in a shipping disaster on Lake Michigan. The last sailing lifeboat was decommissioned in 1932, when the first motor lifeboat, “Anne Allen”, was launched.
Winthorpe
The Parish of Winthorpe is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. It was bounded on the East by the Roman Bank; on the North by the villages of Ingoldmells and Addlethorpe; on the West by Burgh le Marsh and on the South by Skegness.
It is now almost indistinguishable from the seaside resort of Skegness and in 1926 it became a part of the Skegness Urban District.
Professor Kenneth Cameron, in his Dictionary of Lincolnshire Place-names, defines “Winthorpe” as “Wine’s thorpe – a secondary settlement of Skegness or Ingoldmells”.
The Parish contains 2,300 acres. In 1965, two thirds of the land was said to be farmed, although the holiday industry employed more people and was already far more important.
Until modern methods of drainage were introduced, the land was not suitable for arable cultivation as the land is situated below sea level and was originally in the marsh. It did, however, produce excellent grazing. It had a reputation for fattening bullocks and was keenly sought by inland farmers and graziers for finishing off their in-wintered stock.
In the reign of Elizabeth I there were 55 families living in Winthorpe. By 1881 there were 337 people and 1,650 by 1961.
The Church of St. Mary’s was built in the fifteenth century on the site of an earlier church. Much of the church was spoilt, as records show, in the frenzy that possessed England in the seventeenth century. However, the bells remain. There are four bells. The oldest ‘G’ is 35 inches in diameter and was cast in about 1370. The treble (33.5 inches in diameter) bears the date 1595. The other two bells were cast in 1604. In addition, there is a small bell known as “ting-tang” which was originally a Sanctus bell housed in the little cote that, from the outside, can be seen at the east end of the nave.
Church Farm House is the oldest house left in Winthorpe. It was built in 1765.
The Old Workhouse was built in 1820.
The Old School House (now the Charnwood Hotel) was built in 1865 for the education of 57 children.
In 1910, the present Seathorne Methodist Church replaced the Old Bank Chapel.
The Derbyshire Miners’ Convalescent Home was built in 1928.
Conclusion
The one thing we know about Skegness up to a couple of hundred years ago is that we do not know a great deal. We know that Burgh existed in Roman times and that Wainfleet was an important, if fairly modest, port until relatively recent times. We do not know whether Skegness had any significant role to play in the development of either of these places.
There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the geography of Skegness changed drastically in the sixteenth century. The “ness” part of the name suggests that there was some sort of promontory here, which could not be said to be the case now. There is written evidence too that the previous church was washed away by the sea. There is believable evidence to suggest that there was some sort of castle or fort here too. To go further and suggest that Skegness was a thriving commercial centre or port is probably pure conjecture. There are only brief references to Skegness (Tric) in the Domesday Book. The first indication we have of the population of Skegness is in the sixteenth century, when there were fourteen families. Even at ten people per family, this would only give a population of 140 – about the same as in 1801. Nevertheless it is possible that Skegness was a lively port in the Middle Ages.
From the parish records of the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth century and from the early census figures, we can build up a better picture of what life might have been like in Skegness during that period. First, it was small, with a population of less than 150. Second, it was predominantly agricultural (rather than maritime): nearly all the occupations referred to in the records are related to agriculture. There was a high infant mortality rate, but probably no higher than elsewhere in the country. Many of the people would have lived in isolated farmsteads scattered around the parish. The village (or hamlet) was very small, probably centred around the present High Street, with the church out in the fields some half a mile further inland. Roman Bank and Wainfleet Road existed and there was a lane down to the sea where Sea View Road now is, with coastguards’ cottages built nearby towards the end of this period. Much of the land north of the High Street and east of Roman Bank was “Jungle” – a mixture of trees, sand dunes, marsh and scrubland, with at least one stream running through it.
Tourism began to develop towards the end of the eighteenth century, the first visible sign of which was the building of the Skegness Hotel (later the Vine). Until 1873, this tourism was apparently very genteel and of modest proportions. Everything changed with the arrival of the railway. We have not been able to show, in these notes, what negotiations took place prior to the arrival of the railway. We have, however, been able to illustrate the vision and enterprise of the men and women who were responsible for the development of the town since then, in particular in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and in the two decades after the First World War. By any standards Skegness is well laid out. The maps of Skegness at the turn of the century, which can be viewed in Skegness Library, show an elegant and harmonious design, which was complemented by the development of the Castleton Boulevard area in the 1930’s. The development of the Foreshore area from the Waterway in the north to the boating lake and beyond in the south has also stood the test of time.
We have concluded this study in 1939. The war years, which followed immediately and the floods of 1953, were low points in the recent history of Skegness, though, mercifully, Skegness itself suffered less than many of the neighbouring towns and villages from the floods. There have been many developments since the war, some good, some not so good, but the basic structure and “raison d’être” of the town remain. It is still a popular family holiday resort, which attracts large numbers of visitors each year. The challenge for the next generation will be to continue to promote positive developments, without destroying the natural attractions of the resort.
Acknowledgements
With thanks, in particular, to Winston Kime and Ruth Neller
This is an extract from the book Skegness Through The Years available on Amazon
Comments