Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancient | Domesday Book | Victorian Era | Draining of the Fens | Water Taxi | Vernatt's Drain | Flowers and vegetables | Tulips | Main companies | Sport | Road | Rail

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Spalding is a market town on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. Little London is a hamlet directly south of and contiguous with Spalding on the B1172, whilst Pinchbeck is a village almost contiguous, to the north.

The town was well known for the annual Spalding Flower Parade, held from 1959 to 2013. The parade celebrated the region's vast tulip production and the cultural links between the Fens and the landscape and people of South Holland. At one time, it attracted crowds of more than 100,000. Since 2002 the town has held an annual pumpkin festival in October.

Ancient Archaeological excavations at Wygate Park in Spalding have shown that there has been occupation in this area from at least the Roman period, when this part of Lincolnshire was used for the production of salt. It was a coastal siltland. At Wygate Park salt-making seems to have come to an end by the mid-7th century BC; climatic change and flooding may have made such activities difficult, causing the practice to die out.

The settlement's name is derived from an Anglian tribe, the Spaldingas, who settled in the area during the 6th century. They may have retained their administrative independence within the Kingdom of Mercia into the late 9th century, when Stamford became one of the Five Boroughs of the East Midlands under Danish control after years of invasion and occupation.

Domesday Book Spalding was a settlement mentioned in Domesday Book, in the hundred of Elloe and the county of Lincolnshire. It had a recorded population of 91 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in Domesday, and is listed under 3 owners in Domesday Book. • Land of Crowland (St Guthlac), abbey of Households: 7 villagers. 4 smallholders. Land and resources Ploughland: 1.5 ploughlands. 3 men's plough teams. Valuation: Annual value to lord: 1 pound in 1086; 1 pound in 1066. Other information Phillimore reference: Lincolnshire 11,2 • Land of Ivo Tallboys Households: 40 villagers. 33 smallholders. Land and resources Ploughland: 9 ploughlands. 4 lord's plough teams. 13 men's plough teams. Other resources: 6 fisheries. 2 salthouses. Valuation: Annual value to lord: 30 pounds in 1086; 23 pounds 2 shillings and 7 pence in 1066. Other information Phillimore reference: Lincolnshire 14,97 • Land of Guy of Craon Households: 5 villagers. 2 smallholders. Land and resources Ploughland: 1 lord's plough teams. 1 men's plough teams. Other resources: 2 salthouses. Valuation: Annual value to lord: 2 pounds in 1086; 2 pounds in 1066. Other information Phillimore reference: Lincolnshire 57,54

Victorian Era In John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887), Spalding was described as a: market town and par. with ry. sta., Lincolnshire, on River Welland, 14 m. SW. of Boston, 12,070 ac., pop. 9260; P.O., T.O., three Banks, two newspapers. Market-day, Tuesday. Spalding is an important railway centre, while the river has been made navigable to the town for vessels of from 50 to 70 tons. It is in a rich agricultural district, and has a large trade, by river and by rail, in corn, wool, coal, and timber. It has also flour, bone, and sawmills, breweries, and coach works. There are remains of a priory of 1501, a fine old church (restored 1860), a grammar school, a corn exchange, and a spacious market place.

Draining of the Fens The River Welland flows north from Crowland, through Spalding and passing the village and port of Fosdyke before leading out to the Wash, bisecting Spalding from east to west; the town has developed as a linear settlement around the river. Land had been reclaimed from the wetlands in the area since mediaeval times, and Spalding was subject to frequent flooding. The Coronation Channel, opened in 1953, diverted the excess waters around Spalding and ended the flooding. The area around the banks has been developed for residential and business use. Although this area has become heavily built up, there is much recreational use of the river and fishing is still popular.

Water Taxi In July 2005 a "Spalding Water Taxi" service was launched, running from Easter to late October. Its route is from just off Spalding's High Street, upstream along the river, turning into the Coronation Channel, and then to Springfields Outlet Shopping & Festival Gardens, and back. It is mainly used as a recreational tourist attraction.

Vernatt's Drain Around the north-west of Spalding is a large waterway called Vernatt's Drain, named after one of the Adventurers who drained the Fens in the 17th century. Philibert Vernatti was made a baronet on 7 June 1643.

A South Holland council nature reserve is situated on part of the old Boston railway line at Vernatts Drain. The Drain runs from the pumping station at Pode Hole to Surfleet Seas End.

Fulney Lock is the point where the Welland is no longer tidal. Spalding falls within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board.

Flowers and vegetables Spalding is located at the centre of a major region of flower and vegetable cultivation, due to the rich silty soil, which mainly comprises drained, recovered marshland or estuary. There are many garden centres and plant nurseries, as well as a thriving agricultural industry and various vegetable packing plants. The main vegetables are potatoes, peas, carrots, wheat, barley, oats, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts. The vast majority of these are sold to large concerns such as supermarkets, with little being available for sale locally.

Spalding has a popular, reasonably-sized, market every Tuesday and Saturday and on the first Saturday in every month a farmers market. Local fruit and vegetable shop Booth's sells much local produce to Spalding's citizens. They sell all major fruit and vegetables ranging from the famous, locally grown 'Boston' potatoes to imported rarities such as custard apples.

Tulips Known as The Heart of the Fens, Spalding has been long famous as a centre of the bulb industry. It has had close links with the Netherlands (origin of the Geest family, who were former major local employers).

The annual Tulip Parade took place on the first Saturday in May, from 1959 and was a major tourist attraction. Its procession of floats on various themes, was each decorated with tulip petals, a by-product of the bulb industry. In years when the tulips are late, daffodils or hyacinths were sometimes used in their place. When the tulips were early, crepe paper had to be substituted. The flower industry has become less important since the early 21st century. The bands of brightly coloured tulip fields in bloom in spring that covered the fenland have decreased markedly. At its peak, the Parade attracted more than 100,000 visitors, but by 2012, fewer than 40,000 attended. That year, the Lincolnshire County Council and South Holland District Council announced they would not fund the parade beyond 2013.

Spalding was chosen to host the World Tulip Summit in 2008, alongside a broader "Tulipmania" festival which coincided with the date of the fiftieth Flower Parade.

Main companies • FESA UK Ltd: Based in Spalding since the late 1980s, are fresh produce importers and packers, part of the Spanish cooperative group Anecoop. They provide employment to a large proportion of the local population at their 130,000 square foot (12,000 m²) facilities in Clay Lake. • Greencore (formerly Unigate and Uniq Plc): factory for prepared salads. • Fowler-Welch: historically a Spalding transport company, have their UK base in the town on West Marsh Road, and were bought by the Dart Group in 1994. The company was sold on 1 June 2020 to Culina Group. • Bakkavör: purchased the main Spalding-based company Geest, for £485 million. It had an operation on West Marsh Road and factories in Holbeach and Peterborough. It began in 1935 as Geest Horticultural Products by John and Leonard van Geest who imported tulip bulbs to the UK. A salad preparation factory in Spalding opened in 1972. It launched on the London Stock Exchange in 1986. In 2010 Bakkavör moved its central operations and registered head office to their Spalding site. • EMAP: publishing company now mainly based in Orton, Peterborough. Formerly known as East Midlands Allied Press, it was started by Sir Richard Winfrey in Spalding. when he bought the Spalding Guardian in 1887. This became EMAP in 1947, and launched the Peterborough Evening Telegraph in 1961. Sir Richard Winfrey's first local newspapers were initially designed to promote his Liberal politics. • Welland Power Diesel Generators: Manufacture and build for export its range of perkins powered diesel generators. • Lloyd Loom of Spalding: situated on the Wardentree Lane estate, produces traditional handmade British furniture. • Paragon Print & Packaging: food packaging design company based in Enterprise Way. • Spalding Power Station: A 860 MW gas-fired Spalding Power Station was opened in Spalding in 2004 at West Marsh Road at an initial cost of £425 million. Has since been extended with a £100 million phase 2 300 MW expansion opening 2019.

Sport The local football team is Spalding United, who play in the Northern Premier League Division One South East.

The local rugby team is Spalding RFC, who play in Midland Division - Midlands 3 South. They play at Memorial Field.

The local cricket team is Spalding Town Cricket Club, who have three teams on a Saturday in the South Lincs and Border Leagues and a Rutland League team and a Friendly XI on a Sunday for 2012. This as well as youth teams at multiple age groups competing in the BCYCA Leagues.

The local hockey club is Spalding HC, with the men's 1st XI playing in East Division Premier Division and the women in 1N.

Road Spalding, like nearby Boston, is a regular destination of heavy goods vehicles transporting processed vegetables and other food produce. The A16 used to pass through the town until August 1995, when the Spalding-Sutterton Improvement (by-pass) was opened, built mostly on the closed Spalding to Boston railway line. The twelve-mile (19 km) A1073 between Spalding and Eye Green in Peterborough has been replaced by a completely new road classified as the A16, replacing the previous A16 that ran to Stamford. The older road has been renumbered as the A1175.

Rail Spalding railway station is situated on the Lincoln Central - Peterborough railway line, operated by East Midlands Railway. The service is irregular, and it does not run at night or on Sundays. It does provide convenient access to Peterborough for employment and shopping. The service to Peterborough was withdrawn by BR in October 1970 as part of the closure of the East Lincolnshire route from Grimsby and Boston, but reinstated in June 1971 with a grant from Spalding Urban District Council. This was one of the first examples of this type of rail support in the UK and was not advocated in the Beeching Report.

The section of the Great Northern & Great Eastern 'Joint' line from March, which carried the 'Boat Train' between Harwich and Sheffield, closed in 1982.

Spalding was also on the east–west Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, which had Bourne to the West and Holbeach to the east. It closed in February 1959, ending through passenger services from Leicester to Great Yarmouth via King's Lynn and Norwich. Local freight, mainly farm produce, continued to be carried between Bourne and Sutton Bridge until 1964.

On 4 May 2002, Spalding had the honour of having a main-line diesel locomotive named after it. Class 31 diesel No. 31106, in immaculate condition after a major works overhaul, hauled the 'St James Tripper' excursion to Peterborough from Preston via Doncaster, Lincoln and Sleaford, and made a brief stop at the station to have its 'Spalding Town' nameplates unveiled by Colin Fisher, Chairman of South Holland District Council. No. 31106 is the property of Cambridgeshire businessman and author Howard Johnston, who was born at nearby Cowbit and educated in the town. In 2012, the locomotive was still on hire to Rail Vehicle Engineering Limited and employed on Network Rail track measurement trains all over the United Kingdom. A replica 'Spalding Town' nameplate has been presented to SHDC for public display.

Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom 
<b>Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom</b>
Image: Roland Turner

Spalding has a population of over 36,737 people. Spalding also forms the centre of the wider South Holland District which has a population of over 95,019 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Spalding see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Spalding has links with:

🇫🇷 Sézanne, France 🇩🇪 Speyer, Germany
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

  • Geoffry Lucas |

    Architect Geoffry Lucas is associated with Spalding.

  • William Edmund Norman Webster |

    🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Architect William Edmund Norman Webster is associated with Spalding. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1925.

Antipodal to Spalding is: 179.847,-52.786

Locations Near: Spalding -0.1529,52.7858

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Boston -0.021,52.974 d: 22.7  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Peterborough -0.237,52.566 d: 25.1  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sleaford -0.399,52.977 d: 26.9  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 March 0.088,52.551 d: 30.7  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Huntingdon -0.184,52.333 d: 50.4  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Grantham -0.638,52.918 d: 35.7  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 King's Lynn 0.398,52.754 d: 37.2  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kings Lynn 0.415,52.757 d: 38.4  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ely 0.25,52.383 d: 52.4  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lincoln -0.533,53.217 d: 54.3  

Antipodal to: Spalding 179.847,-52.786

🇳🇿 Dunedin 170.474,-45.884 d: 18991.9  

🇳🇿 Christchurch 172.617,-43.517 d: 18854.6  

🇳🇿 Canterbury 171.58,-43.543 d: 18820.1  

🇳🇿 Masterton 175.664,-40.95 d: 18661.7  

🇳🇿 Wellington 174.767,-41.283 d: 18680.2  

🇳🇿 Hutt 174.917,-41.217 d: 18676.2  

🇳🇿 Lower Hutt 174.917,-41.217 d: 18676.2  

🇳🇿 Upper Hutt 175.05,-41.133 d: 18670  

🇳🇿 Porirua 174.84,-41.131 d: 18665.4  

🇳🇿 Invercargill 168.373,-46.413 d: 18928.3  

Bing Map

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