Step back in time to Victorian Lincolnshire

Heritage Open Days activities will take place all over England from 8th-11th September 2011 as part of European Heritage Days. In Lincolnshire we have the chance to celebrate the county’s rich Victorian heritage.
Heritage Lincolnshire has been the champion of this annual programme in our county since 1994 and this year’s promises to be the largest yet.

Over 100 special openings and events have been arranged across the county and all are free of charge. It is a unique opportunity to gain access to places that are not normally open to the public. Events include visits to churches built and restored during Victoria’s reign as well as guided walks around county market towns and living history depicting the life of Victorians and talks on the industry and technology of the period.

Welbourn Forge, near Lincoln, will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 2pm to show the complete blacksmith’s forge and farrier’s workshop built in 1864. There will be demonstrations and photographs and memorabilia on display. Visitors will even be able to see the earth privy!

Costumed guides will conduct tours of the Old Nick Theatre in Gainsborough on Saturday and Sunday only from 11am to 4pm. This former Victorian Police Station and Magistrates Court was built in 1859 and is now home to the Gainsborough Theatre Company. Pre-booking is essential for this event.

Lincolnshire’s oldest domestic dwelling, 51 Fleetgate, Barton upon Humber, dates from 1325 and will be open for the weekend for visitors to see how people lived in the Georgian/Victorian periods.

This year’s packed programme offers events county wide so there is bound to be something of interest near to you.

You can get full details of Heritage Open Days activities from the websites: www.heritageopendays.org.uk and www.lincsheritage.org

VICTORIAN CROWLE: WHAT SECRETS CAN WE UNEARTH?
A Heritage Walk around Crowle to seek out evidence of what it was like to live in Victorian Crowle will take place on Thursday 8th September at 7:30pm and on Saturday 10th September at 2pm. Meet in the Market Place. Organised by the Crowle & Ealand Heritage Society.

By 1871, Crowle was booming and had become the most important town in the Isle of Axholme. Its prosperity was built on agriculture but there was industry in the form of the steam flax mill, brick and tile works and breweries. Come along and find out what made Crowle ‘tick’ and what led to its decline.

Where was the workhouse? How important was the flax industry? What markets and fairs were held? When were the schools built? Who were the Victorian ‘movers and shakers’?

Betsy Lutz, Chair of the Crowle and Ealand Heritage Society: “This is the second time we have organised a Heritage Open Days event. I am sure that residents and visitors alike will find much of interest on this heritage walk.”

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