Skegness Through The Years: Part 6
This is an extract from the book "Skegness Through The Years"
The Earls of Scarbrough
By Carrol Morris, Kenneth Wilkinson and James Mackley
The early years
The interest of the Earl of Scarbrough’s ancestors in Skegness goes back a long way. Winston Kime refers to Nicholas Saunderson (later Viscount Castleton) as owning land in Skegness in the time of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In 1631 Nicholas Saunderson, Viscount Castleton owned half the land in Skegness. The Scarborough Earldom was created in 1681 in favour of Richard, Viscount Lumley, who commanded the forces of James II at the Battle of Sedgmoor, the last large battle fought on English soil. He was also one of the seven men (the Immortal Seven) who signed the invitation to William of Orange to secure the liberties of England, by intervention against the Government of James II in 1688.
In 1690, Skegness came into the possession of the Saunderson family who had settled north of Lincoln at Saxby-by-Spital.
In 1723 James Saunderson of Saxby who had become Earl of Castleton died without heir, leaving his great estates to his cousin, Thomas Lumley the 3rd Earl of Scarborough. The land around Skegness was prosperous and in 1739, it provided 17% of the Earl’s total income.
According to a plaque in St. Clement’s Church, Viscount Castleton was patron of the Skegness living at the time of the arrival of Thomas Thompson as rector in 1667. The patronage passed to Thomas Lumley-Saunderson, who became the third Earl of Scarbrough, in 1739. The living remained under the patronage of the Earls of Scarbrough until the death of the 12th Earl in 2004.
The 9th and 10th Earls: 1856 to 1945
Richard George became the 9th Earl of Scarborough on 25 October 1856; he had married Frederica the younger daughter of Andrew Drummond during October 1846. It was during the latter part of the 9th Earl’s life that he conceived the idea of developing Skegness.
In the 1870s, the 9th Earl had a Grand Plan (see Map 4) for Skegness. The first stage of this plan involved the building of new houses between Roman Bank and the sea. As development spread, tenant farmers were forced to leave the land. Church Farm suffered lightly and the first effects of the development were when the Earl had to sell a small part of a field to make way for the railway in 1873.
The work was continued by the 10th Earl, who succeeded his father in 1884. Although the major part of the Grand Plan had been set into motion, the Marine Gardens were opened in 1888 and the Clock Tower was built to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (completed in 1899).
After the First World War, with peace and change, the Earl decided the time had come for him to get back to his main interests: agriculture and land ownership. The seaside was no longer to be part of his activities, so he offered to sell the whole of the foreshore to Skegness Urban District Council at a bargain price of £15,100. This was referred to at the time as “The Sale of the Century”.
School and Street names
Until recently, the largest secondary school in Skegness was called the “Earl of Scarbrough School” (now St. Clement’s).
Many of the roads in Skegness are named after the Earl of Scarbrough’s family. Scarbrough Avenue was designed to be the main street in Skegness under the 9th Earl’s Grand Plan. The shopkeepers had other ideas and set up in Lumley Road, which was on the main route from the station to the beach. As has already been mentioned, Lumley was the family name of the first Earl of Scarbrough. In addition to Lumley Road, the family gave its name to Lumley Avenue, Lumley Crescent and Lumley Square (and also the Lumley Hotel).
The 9th Earl was the son of Charlotte Mary Beresford, who gave her name to Beresford Avenue, Close and Crescent. He married Frederica, youngest daughter of Andrew Drummond, grandson of the Duke of Rutland, and both father and daughter are commemorated by roads in Seacroft. His four daughters were named Algitha, Ida, Lilian and Sibell Lumley. Algitha Road and Ida Road were built in the 1880s. Lilian Road and Sibell Road were the names given on the Grand Plan to the two roads to the north and parallel to Scarbrough Avenue, which were never built.
The 10th Earl married Cecilia whose father was Cecil Gardiner. Cecil Avenue was named after them. Their daughter, Serena Mary Barbara, born 1901, gives her names to two short roads leading from South Parade to Drummond Road. She was the first daughter born to a reigning Earl for 150 years.
Castleton (first Viscount Castleton and then Earl of Castleton) was the titular name of the Saunderson family, the ancestors of the Earls of Scarbrough, who owned the land in Skegness. Nicholas, son of George, Viscount Castleton, the first of the family to be the patron of the Skegness living, married Elizabeth Wray of Glentworth, after which Glentworth Crescent is named.
The family seat is Sandbeck House near Rotherham. Firbeck is the nearest village to it. Sandbeck and Firbeck Avenue are the names of avenues in the south of the town.
Mr Henry Vivian Tippet and his contribution to the development of Skegness
By Kenneth Wilkinson
The man chiefly responsible for the development of Skegness as a resort town in the late nineteenth century was the estate agent of the 9th Earl of Scarbrough, Mr H.V. Tippet.
Richard George became the 9th Earl of Scarborough on 25 October 1856. It was during the latter part of the Earl’s life that he conceived the idea of developing Skegness. It was his agent, Mr Henry Vivian Tippet, who, in 1876, assisted by Mr Gilbert J Dashper, Clerk to the Local Board, had plans drawn up for changing the village of Skegness into a popular resort.
The development included Lumley Road, Algitha Road, Ida Road, Scarbrough Avenue, Lumley Avenue, Rutland Road, the Pleasure Gardens, Pier, Cricket Ground, the Seafront and Marine Gardens.
Mr Tippet arranged to let the lands on building leases of 99 years. Several shops in Lumley Road were let at a ground rent of 18/4d per annum and houses on the Grand Parade for 10/- per annum.
As early as June of 1876, smallholders were building on their land and on 4 December 1876, Mr Tippet wrote to his Lordship: “Everything now bids fair I think for Skegness to go forward”.
As well as the road building, the water supply and sewage disposal were the responsibility of the Earl of Scarbrough and Mr Tippet.
It was important for the development of the town that the railway came to Skegness and Mr Tippet did his utmost to ensure that it did so. In an effort to boost the sale of building plots, copies of the Skegness Town Plans were appearing on the following railway stations: Boston, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Doncaster, Peterborough, Grantham, Retford, Grimsby, as well as King’s Cross Station.
A new hotel was opened on Good Friday 1880 opposite the Railway Station. It was named the Lumley Hotel. Other hotels in the town at that time were the Sea View, the Vine, the Ship, the Lion and the Hildreds, previously known as the New Inn.
The Skegness Pier was opened to the public in 1881. Thanks again to Mr Tippet, a Skegness market scheme was established off Roman Bank between Ida Road and Algitha Road, but when shopkeepers set up stalls in front of their shops on the main street Mr Tippet disapproved, because he wanted to preserve the appearance of the town; he received many complaints for his strict ruling on this.
Mr Tippet had left his home in Yorkshire to live in Skegness and an estate office was set up in the town at a cost of £1,400. Later he sat on the Local Board.
In 1887, work began on a sea wall to protect the town. This stretched from north of Sea View Lane to Derby Avenue. Stone for the wall came mainly from a quarry near to the ruins of Roche Abbey and some from the Abbey itself. Both are near to the mining village of Maltby, South Yorkshire. Transportation was by Traction Engine.
Mr Tippet died in 1902 aged 68. His son, also Vivien, was for many years assistant town clerk of the town council.
Skegness Local Board 1887: Mr Tippet seated second from the right
Mr Rowland Henry Jenkins and his contribution to the development of the Skegness Foreshore
By Kenneth Wilkinson
Born in Kent, Mr Jenkins came to Skegness in 1912 as Engineer and Surveyor to the Skegness Urban District Council. He was commissioned as a Captain in the Royal Engineers during the war, but continued to hold his post until retirement in December 1952, when he moved to Lymington in Hampshire then later to High Wycombe.
After a referendum in which the town’s rate-payers voted in 1919, the Skegness Urban District Council bought the following from the Earl of Scarborough in 1922: the Pleasure Gardens, (later known as the Tower Gardens), for £8,600; the Marine Gardens and Seashore for £3,500; also the Sands Pavilion situated on the south side of the Clock Tower Pullover for £3,000. The total figure including legal costs came to £15,750.
Mr Jenkins already had a development scheme prepared for the foreshore and had it approved by the town councillors, and during the next 15 years he transformed bare sands and dunes into one of the leading resorts on the east coast. The amenities included an open air Bathing Pool, Boating Lake, Waterway, Tennis Courts, Bowling Greens, the Suncastle with Solarium and many rose gardens. To open up the foreshore, the old sand pullover (a gap in the dunes where the fishing boats were pulled through) leading from the Clock Tower was replaced by a wide asphalt road and footway. This was christened “Jenkins Pier” by local humorists. The Tower Esplanade paved the way for new seaward development.
Mr Jenkins could not only see what had to be done to put the town on a holiday map, but also had the ability to put his plans into effect, quickly and efficiently. He inspired others with his enthusiasm and in the years that were to follow was often not only leading the Councillors along the path he had planned, but was frequently giving them a helpful push in the desired direction.
Not without some misgivings, the Council approved the draft plan. Some of the smaller jobs were put in hand at once, but it was a year or two later that they came to consider the first really big item in the scheme: the boating lake was to cost a fearful lot of money and the Council had never spent that amount before, or at least not on a luxury like a boating lake. At a meeting seven wanted to build a boating lake, seven wanted the idea to be dropped. The chairman was called upon to give his casting vote and it was obvious that he was much undecided. In the seconds of painful silence whilst the scheme hung in the balance, up popped the Surveyor; he said that whilst it was not his business to influence the Council either way, he did have to mention that he had already placed substantial orders for materials in connection with the construction of the boating lake. This made up the chairman’s mind and he voted for the work to begin. Mr Jenkins opened up the site straightaway in case there was any change of heart. Work went ahead at great speed and the first section of the lake was opened in the late summer of 1924. The Boating Lake was a great success with first year takings six times the estimate.
The outdoor Bathing Pool opened along with the Piazza building, later known as the Embassy, on Whit Monday 1928.
Mr Jenkins also formed the 1st Skegness Company of the Boys’ Brigade and, as Captain, organized annual trips abroad. He was also a member of the Baptist Church and President of the Skegness Rotary Club in 1945/46. He resided in South View Close, before moving later to a house on Drummond Road overlooking the Golf Course.
He died aged seventy-five in 1962.
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