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Markets, manors and mills

An ancient marsh settlement has become an attractive market town and a delightful place to live and visit

Words: Judy Theobald Photographs: John Whitaker

 

 

With its windmill, thatched manor house and attractive Georgian and Victorian buildings lining a partly cobbled market place, Alford is one of the county's prettiest market towns. With one or two exceptions, it has managed to escape the ravages of war and invasion and maintains an atmosphere of calm to this day, despite its position on the coast road.

 

Situated six miles from the sea to the east and an equal distance from the centre of the rolling wolds to the west, Alford has been inhabited since the Neolithic era and the Bronze age. There is some evidence of a Roman settlement, Viking raiders left it comparatively unharmed and by the time of Domesday, it was a tiny village of about fifty inhabitants. It is possible a Norman church was erected on the site of the present parish church, St Wilfrid's, built in 1350. This is the highest land in Alford and could have been the location of the earliest settlements. Another such settlement could have been situated on land where the John Spendluffe School now stands.

 

In the early medieval period, the village was divided into four manors – Tothby, Ailby, Rigsby and Well. William of Well did much to enable the area to grow in importance and in 1283 Alford's market charter was granted.

 

During the twelfth century the population increased to 780 but poor harvests and sheep disease meant there was too little food for too many people. However, the Black Death was to take its toll. Alford's worst months were between June and September, 1349, after which the population stood at just 140.

 

This led to a complete alteration in the power balance. Shortage of labour meant workers were able to charge more for their services and even work for themselves. They in turn needed support from people such as smiths, carpenters and bakers and the village's population began to rise.

 

After a comparatively long period of peace and prosperity, forty men from Alford took part in the 1536 Lincolnshire Rising against Henry VIII's policy of suppressing the monasteries. Several of the leaders and troublemakers, including three Alford men, were executed. The abolition of the monasteries left a gap in education provision and in 1566, Francis Spanning, a wealthy wool merchant, founded Alford Grammar School. Its patrons were William Cecil (Lord Burghley) and his son Thomas Cecil. The charter legally recognising it as a grammar school was signed by Queen Elizabeth I from whom the school takes its name.

 

By the early seventeenth century, Alford's population stood at 600 and the village was a centre of Puritanism. Disillusioned by the established church's attitude towards them, in 1634 a band of Alfordians set sail from London for Boston, Massachusetts. One resident who had already preceded them was the intrepid John Smith, born in nearby Willoughby and educated in Alford and Louth. By the time he was twenty-five he had already fought his way across Europe, been seriously wounded and sold into slavery from which he escaped by riding across the Russian steppes. After his return to England he became impressed with the idea of a new life in America and travelled there in 1606. He and his companions founded Jamestown in Chesapeake Bay.

 

He is perhaps best known for his friendship with Pocahontas, the teenage daughter of a tribal chief. Smith returned to England when he was twenty-nine but made several more trips to America where he explored the north-east coast, naming the area New England. He finally returned to Lincolnshire where he farmed until his death at the age of fifty-two. He is commemorated on a plaque in the church.

 

In 1630, plague yet again visited Alford and within six months ninety-eight people had died, forty of them children. The following Civil War had little effect on Alford and by the eighteenth century, the town we know today began to take shape. The market was now well established and also featured cock fighting and horse racing.

 

During this time Alford became a centre for smuggling. The wealth gap created by the Industrial Revolution left farm workers substantially worse off than their counterparts in manufacturing jobs. In addition, to pay the national debt accrued during the Napoleonic wars, wines, spirits and tobacco were heavily taxed.

 

With its shelving beaches, sand dunes and inlets, the county's coast was ideal for smuggling and a two-way traffic in Lincolnshire fleeces and Dutch gin was soon set up.

 

It is known that Alford had a network of underground passages connecting the cellars between buildings and contraband brought in at nearby coastal villages could be stored there until it was safe to move it further inland. These were harsh times and many night-raids led to shoot-outs between smugglers and excise-men.

 

Excavations in town pubs have also revealed skeletons of unfortunate individuals who became victims of this dark trade.

 

Alford's legitimate trade received its biggest boost when the railway arrived in September 1848. The town expanded and had four windmills, a brewery and countless shops to serve all needs. In 1867 the church was considerably restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott who also added the north aisle and raised the tower by six feet.

 

However, there was still no good link with the coast and in 1884, at a cost of £30,000, a steam tramway opened connecting Alford with Sutton on Sea, just over eight miles away. Passengers could board or leave the tram anywhere en route and the service also carried parcels, newspapers and luggage. Sadly, although originally very popular, this tramway was soon overtaken by the railways and lasted just five years.

 

Most of the buildings in the centre of present-day Alford date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries but one of the most imposing is the town's attractive thatched Manor House. Parts of it date from approximately 1540, its mud-and-stud exterior was encased in brick in 1661 and other additions date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was built by Thomas Tothby and then passed to a lawyer, William Cawley, who sold it in 1661 to Robert Christopher who was knighted and became a governor of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School. When he died he left his estates to his daughter who passed it on to her daughter, Lucy, wife of the Second Duke of Rutland. The Alford Estates were taken over by their son, Lord Robert Manners and his son, also Robert, took over until his death in 1822. The estate then passed to the Dundas family but the conditions of the legacy required them to change their name to Christopher. It stayed with the Christopher family until 1915 when it was sold to Walter Rawnsley of Well House. In 1967, it was bought by Miss Dorothy Higgins, granddaughter of a well-respected land agent, John Higgins, who had lived in the manor house in the nineteenth century. Miss Higgins then gave it to Alford Civic Trust and it is now an attractive museum. Every year, it is the focal point of the town's craft market which takes place on the August Bank Holiday weekend. This year's is from 24th to 26th August.

 

The town is also holding a Jazz Festival this month on the weekend of 13th and 14th July. For tickets and details of this and the craft market, please contact the Tourist Information Centre on 01507 462143. Alford has plenty to offer visitors, many of whom are holidaymakers travelling inland from the coast. As well as the Manor House, church and windmill, it has a working pottery where shoppers can see the items being made, and there are plenty of galleries, restaurants, cafés, tearooms and pubs.

 

For more information about Alford's historic past, please see 'Alford Town' and 'Alford 2' by S M Cooke and P E Crome.