Sleaford Heritage Trail

13 ECHOES

Location: Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom

The market town of Sleaford in Lincolnshire dates back to the Iron Age. It was later occupied by the Romans and Anglo-Saxons. In the Middle Ages it belonged to the Bishops of Lincoln. It is now an administrative centre for the surrounding parts of Lincolnshire.

With this app you will join Sleaford’s ECHOES trail which will introduce you to characters from the town’s past. ECHOES of the town’s history will be heard as you approach buildings and sites on the trail. At each location you will find a green Heritage Trail plaque with NFC and a QR code linking to the audio- visual presentation from which the trail ECHOES are taken.

In several locations you will also find a bronze Art and Heritage plaque.

Sleaford Castle

Sleaford’s Castle grounds are a popular area of public open space and now the subject of a major research project coordinated by the Sleaford Castle Heritage Group. Archaeological and historical research is expected to continue for several years.

Sleaford Castle was built by the Bishop of Lincoln, Alexander de Blois between 1123 and 1139 and held by the Church for over 400 years. The castle fell out of use in the mid-1500’s and into disrepair. It was substantially demolished in the following century. Little remains to be seen today apart from earthworks and a small remnant of a tower in the north-eastern corner of the riverside castle site.

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Sleaford Station

The first approval of a railway line to Sleaford was granted by Parliament in 1846, but the line only reached Grantham. Proposals for a new line emerged in 1852 and were approved by Parliament in 1853. The station offices were opened on the 15th June 1857 by the Boston, Sleaford and Midland Countries Railway.

The building was extended in 1882, when the line had been taken over by the Great Northern and Great Eastern joint railway.

1870, The Station Office – Josiah Medcalfe

Josiah Medcalfe moved to Sleaford with his wife Sophia in 1859 to take up the post of Senior Booking Clerk in Sleaford station. Almost immediately he took over as Station Master following the departure of Mr Brittain and pending the arrival in 1861 of John Lewin, the new Station Master. Josiah continued to act as senior booking clerk at Sleaford until 1877, completing 17 years of service in Sleaford before taking over as Station Master at Algarkirk. Close neighbours of the Medcalfes would have been the grocer, James Brewitt, his wife Letitia and their six children.

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The White Hart

The hotel was built upon the site of the old White Hart in 1840s; there has been an inn or hostelry on the site for centuries. The yard at the rear of the hotel once held the Sleaford wool market and hosted Lincoln Cathedral’s famous bell, Great Tom, for a night on its journey to be installed. The shop to the side of the archway has been at times a jewellers, a café, a men-and-boys’ clothing shop and a jewellers again. In the early 21st century, the now somewhat dilapidated building was restored to its current condition.

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The Mansion House

Sleaford and Kesteven High School Ltd. was founded by a group of local businessmen and housed in 62 Southgate, a town-house constructed by local architect and builder Charles Kirk for himself in 1850. When teaching commenced, on 5 May 1902, the headmistress, Margaret Kate Lewer, presided over 23 pupils, including 8 boarders; by 1909, 62 girls were on roll and over the next quarter of a century, the numbers at the school increased to 350. Run by a board of nine directors with W. V. R. Fane of Fulbeck Hall as chair, the school operated independently until it was taken over by the local education authority in 1919.

As the school increased in size, buildings were added to its grounds. The first were wooden huts, installed shortly after the end of the First World War, which provided the school with an assembly hall, office space and classrooms. A brick block was completed in 1924, followed by an extension to the original house three years later. Kesteven County Council planned to rebuild the school in 1930, but this never came to fruition; instead, the school had to wait for prefabricated classrooms to be added in 1946–7.

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Sleaford Playhouse

The Playhouse, erected by Joseph Smedley of Market Rasen is one of the last active Georgian Theatres in the country. It opened its doors on the 27th of March 1826. Some thirty years later, the building was converted into a school by Kirk and Parry. In the mid-to-late 20th century it was used as a Department of Social Services benefits office. In 1994, it was purchased by Sleaford Little Theatre and, after undergoing major refurbishment, reopened as a theatre in the year 2000.

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The Carre Gallery

Built in the early 1800s as an outbuilding to the former George Hotel. Later, a shop front was constructed in what was the rear of the building that faced on to the newly created Carre Street. This operated as a bakery, with a bakehouse to what was originally the front but had now become the rear, for more than 100 years. After the closure of the bakery in the 1970’s the building was restored and became the head office of Estate Computer Systems which has since grown into a leading international software company. More recently, the building was converted to an art gallery by the Sleaford Gallery Arts Trust.

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Lafford Terrace

By 1856, local builders Kirk and Parry had commenced work on Lafford Terrace and ten years later they had created 3 homes, probably numbers 5, 6 and 7. They were of Palladian style, which could be associated with properties in Cheltenham and Bath; the dwellings were very much for the middle classes. Today, they are used as the headquarters on North Kesteven District Council.

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The Temple

In 1862, Edward Samuel, a Polish Jew who had converted to Christianity moved to Sleaford. Aged 50, e had until this point lead a somewhat nomadic life, preaching in towns around the country. However, he finally settled in Sleaford, preaching first at the Providence Chapel and subsequently at a chapel built for him, The Temple. It is thought that the Particular Calvinist congregation moved here in 1881. In 1996, White and Sentence opened their piano showroom here and have remained since.

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Navigation Yard

This building was constructed on the site of an original wharf building forming parts of the Sleaford Navigation infrastructure at the beginning of the 19th Century.

The building incorporates materials salvaged from the original structure and is now the home of Sleaford Town Council.

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