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Gordon Boswell Romany Museum

Agriculture museums in the United KingdomCarriage museums in EnglandEthnic museums in the United KingdomMuseums in LincolnshireRomani in England
Romani museumsSpalding, LincolnshireTransport museums in EnglandUnited Kingdom museum stubsUse British English from August 2012

The Gordon Boswell Romany Museum is the lifetime's work of Gordon Boswell (died 27 August 2016, aged 76), who amassed a collection of artefacts, photographs, and several examples of the characteristic Gypsy wagon or Vardo. The museum also operates a number of non-Romany vehicles, including a horse-drawn hearse. The collection is housed at Clay Lake, Spalding in Lincolnshire, England.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Gordon Boswell Romany Museum (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Gordon Boswell Romany Museum
Spalding Drove, South Holland

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N 52.77238 ° E -0.14314 °
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Spalding Drove
PE12 6AZ South Holland
England, United Kingdom
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Spalding War Memorial
Spalding War Memorial

Spalding War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the gardens of Ayscoughfee Hall (pronounced ) in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in eastern England. It was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. The proposal for a memorial to Spalding's war dead originated in January 1918 with Barbara McLaren, whose husband and the town's Member of Parliament, Francis McLaren, was killed in a flying accident during the war. She engaged Lutyens via a family connection and the architect produced a plan for a grand memorial cloister surrounding a circular pond, in the middle of which would be a cross. The memorial was to be built in the formal gardens of Ayscoughfee Hall, which was owned by the local district council. When McLaren approached the council with her proposal, it generated considerable debate within the community and several alternative schemes were suggested. After a public meeting and a vote in 1919, a reduced-scale version of McLaren's proposal emerged as the preferred option, in conjunction with a clock on the town's corn exchange building. The total cost of the memorial was £3,500, of which McLaren and her father-in-law contributed £1,000 each; her brother-in-law donated a pair of painted stone flags and the remainder was raised from voluntary subscription, which took until 1922. The memorial consists of a brick pavilion at the south end of the garden and a Stone of Remembrance, both at the head of a long reflecting pool, which incorporates the remains of an 18th-century canal. It was unveiled at a ceremony on 9 June 1922. Lutyens went on to use the style of the pavilion for shelter buildings in several war cemeteries on the Western Front, though none of his other war memorials follow the design and the memorial became relatively obscure. Spalding War Memorial is today a Grade I listed building, having been upgraded when Lutyens's war memorials were declared a "national collection" and all were granted listed building status or had their listing renewed.

New River (Fens)
New River (Fens)

The New River is a drainage system in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Rising just east of Sisson's Farm near Crowland it flows very roughly eastwards, following the general line of the River Welland but a little to the south. It skirts the settlements of Crowland and Cowbit before flowing into the Welland at Cradge Bank near Little London. The land enclosed between the Welland and the New River is referred to as Washland, Crowland Wash and Cowbit Wash being the principal areas. Washland was designed to be sacrificially flooded as a relief of high river levels. The current land usage, and the rights of the drainage authorities to flood it can be traced back at least to an act of parliament of George III, and amended in 1847. The arrangement is not theoretical. Cowbit Wash was flooded annually to protect Spalding until the creation of the Coronation Channel allowed excess water to bypass the town. Even now the option to overspill onto the Wash is available.Although it is customary to say the washes lie between the Welland and the New River, it is more accurate to say that there is an extra bank to the Welland to the south of the New River. It is this bank that restrains the spreading floodwaters: the New River lies in the bottom of this basin to remove the waters. This earthen bank can be seen on the left of the Cloot House photograph above. The availability of a suitable geological feature on which to build this bank determined the shape of the washes, and its location can be traced back through antiquity. To quote Wheeler: The right bank of the Welland between Crowland and Spalding is placed at a distance from the channel of the river varying from a quarter to half a mile leaving an area of about 2500 acres which is covered with water whenever the Welland is in flood. The depth of water in this land in high floods is as much as 5 feet. Originally, no doubt, the land by the side of the Wellland was little better than a Morass, and the banks were placed on the nearest firm ground.

Chain Bridge Forge, Spalding
Chain Bridge Forge, Spalding

Chain Bridge Forge is an early 19th-century blacksmith's workshop, on High Street, Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. The forge, on the south bank of the River Welland, has been transformed into a living museum, where visitors can learn about Spalding's history, blacksmithing and the Forge through displays, guides and videos. There are also opportunities to try blacksmithing, watch demonstrations and buy iron-forged products. The Forge is believed to have been purpose-built as a blacksmith's forge in the first half of the 19th century, when it was owned and run by Francis South. The Forge derives its name from the foot-bridge which crosses the Welland next to the building, and which was originally made of chains. Watercolours by Hilkiah Burgess in the Spalding Gentlemen's Society collection indicate that it was a draw bridge, designed to enable boats and barges to navigate up river from the Wash. At this time there was a working port at Spalding, and the accounts for the period 1850-1860 show that the blacksmith of Chain Bridge Forge was servicing the boats here.In 1899, the forge came into the possession of George Dodd and remained in the family for three generations. During this period, it predominately serviced the community by shoeing horses and doing agricultural repairs. The twentieth century saw a steady decline in the blacksmith's role, and adapting to this change Geoffery Dodd, George Dodd's grandson, spent much of his career designing and building the frames for floats in Spalding's Flower Parade. In the 1980s, as Dodd neared retirement and with the building in a poor state of repair, he approached the South Holland District Council. After two years of discussions, the site was purchased from him by the council for the nominal fee of £1, on 20 September 1988. The building was restored in 1991 with the assistance of English Heritage, by the Spalding builders R. G. Sharman, on behalf of the District Council.In 2011, the Friends of Chain Bridge Forge were formed to lead a new project to turn the Forge into a museum and heritage centre. As part of a campaign to raise awareness of the building and the project, the Friends, with the assistance of South Holland District Council who still own and manage the property, opened the Forge to the public during the Spalding Flower Parade in 2011.