Woodhall Spa
| Woodhall Spa | |
|---|---|
| Population | 3,657 (2001 census)/ 5,000 (2009 estimate) |
| OS grid reference | TF196631 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WOODHALL SPA |
| Postcode district | LN10 |
| Dialling code | 01526 |
| Police | Lincolnshire |
| Fire | Lincolnshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
Woodhall Spa is a civil parish and village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England about 6 miles (10 km) south-west of Horncastle and about 15 miles (24 km) south-east-east of Lincoln
History
Woodhall Spa came into existence as a result of John Parkinson originally from Old Bolingbroke, a local village. His dream was to sink a coal mine, build a city and plant a forest. The coal mine was sunk in 1821 after earlier attempts in 1811–12 to try and find coal in the local Jurassic shales however no coal was found even though the surface soils suggested so. The miners working in the mine reputedly took down lumps of coal to bring back up and show when the likelihood of finding anything started to diminish and the mine was finally abandoned after boring 368m.
At 159m the miners had encountered fissure of saline water and after it was abandoned the shaft filled with water and overflowed into a ditch; it was noticed that cattle drinking from the ditch were cured of their ailments and since it was considered that what was good for animals must be good for people too and thus the spa was founded.
The reputation of the curative properties spread and by 1839, the then Lord of the Manor, Thomas Hotchkin, had built a pump room, bathhouse and hotel, later caller the 'Victoria Hotel', and had the water analysed. The water was found to contain six times more iodine and bromine than any other known mineral water. The coming of the railways in 1855 brought increasing popularity and an elegant spa town with hotels and guest houses on wide tree-lined avenues, largely designed by Richard Adolphus Came, grew up around the original facilities. He stated in his designs that none of the roads shall be 'streets' which is still true today and the new roads built since have also been lined with various trees. The Victoria Hotel and the Spa Baths were greatly modified by the Syndicate, a group of investors including the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Iddesleigh, in 1887. The Victoria Hotel burned down on Easter Day 1920 and the Royal Hotel and Winter Gardens was destroyed by an ariel parachute mine in 1943. Colonel SV Hotchkin MC and CK Hutchison redesigned the Gold Course to its present state in the '20s however the popularity of the Spa started to decline after the First World War. The railway closed down in 1971 with the rest of the Boston to Lincoln line and the station was demolished soon after. Much of the village's Victorian elegance remains, but times changed, the railway closed down, the use of the baths declined over the years and finally closed when the well collapsed in 1983; however Woodhall Spa still remains a popular holiday and retirement resort today. The English Golf Union bought the golf course in 1995 and built its national headquarters there. Today it is ranked among one of the best courses in the country and world.
The heyday of Woodhall Spa was recorded by a local photographer John Wield and many of his photographs are displayed in the award winning 'Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum'.
One of the earliest hotels to be built in the village, 'The Woodhall Spa Hotel', formally the 'Eagle Lodge Hotel', which opened in 1882, survives today.
In 2006, the owners of 'The Golf Hotel' recreated the history of Woodhall spa by opening a new day spa called the 'Aqua Sante Spa' with the exact bromine and iodine content in its water as in the original waters.
The Pinewoods
The Pinewoods, a 7.8 ha woodland owned by the Woodland Trust, was originally scrub land which was later incorporated into the grounds of the Victoria Hotel. It lies at the heart of the village and has long been a big attraction for visitors, particularly in the spring when the daffodils and rhododendrons are in flower. In recent years access to the wood's have been restricted, due to a large number of sexual assaults carried out in the woods between 1989-2001.
The Manor House
The Manor House in Woodhall Spa appears to have been built in the 18th century (Lincolnshire by Nikolaus Pevsner, ISBN 0 14 071027 2 p.881). In the first half of the 19th century it was known as Woodhall Lodge or simply The Lodge. It was occupied by several generations of the Hotchkin family, originally from Rutland. Thomas Hotchkin (1774 - 1843) died in the building in June 1843 (Stamford Mercury, 9th June 1843). In 1861 it was in the possession of his grandson Thomas John Stafford Hotchkin who described himself in a Militia Statement of Qualification dated 24th April 1861 as Thomas John Stafford Hotchkin of Woodhall Lodge, Horncastle. By the 1880s it had become known as The Manor House. TJS Hotchkin lived there until his death aged 52 in 1891 and his widow Mary remained in residence until the marriage in 1906 of their only son Stafford Vere Hotchkin to Dorothy Arnold whereupon she moved out to the new, purpose-built Dower House just down the road to enable her son and his new wife to move into The Manor House which was then substantially extended, the work being completed in 1909. The Manor House remained in the hands of the Hotchkin family until 1965 when Neil Hotchkin, Stafford's son, sold the property to the National Farmer's Union who renamed it Agriculture House and used it as their regional HQ until 1992 when it was sold again and became once more The Manor House. More recently it has been used commercially for the filming of Pornography.
The Kinema in the Woods
The Kinema in the Woods situated in the centre of the Pinewoods is one of the treasures of Woodhall Spa and is completely unique. Housed in a converted cricket pavilion, when it opened in 1922 it was one of the first cinemas in Britain. It is one of the few cinemas in the country to still employ back projection[1][2] and also offers regular entertainment on an original Compton Captain Organ. It is located next to the now derelict Spa Baths and opposite the site of the former Victoria Hotel. It's basically an old dump. The Kinema is located in the Pine woods and it was often rumoured it was linked to the series of sexual assaults in the woods.
Jubilee Park
Jubilee Park, opened in 1937, lies adjacent to the Pinewoods and includes Jubilee Park pool a facility that is fairly busy in summer, a heated outdoor swimming pool. The future of Jubilee Park is being held in balance as the council want to cement over the pool etc. to expand the bowling/putting green into "World class standard". The park also offers tennis courts, a bowling green, children's playground, cafe and cricket ground, reputed to be one of the largest and finest in Lincolnshire, home to Woodhall Spa Cricket Club. The park is next to privately owned land where the Woodhall Spa Country Show is held.
National Golf Centre
Golf, it could be argued, is one of the main industries of Woodhall Spa with the first course of 9 holes being opened in 1990. This flourished until 1995 when the land that the course was built on was required for building. A new site was hurriedly found and another 9 hole golf course was laid out. By 2002 it became clear that the golf course would have to find another new home as the land was required for the expansion of the spa town once again.
Local landowner, Stafford Vere Hotchkin, offered a sandy tract of land off the Horncastle Road for the building of an 18 hole course. The course opened for play on 24 April 2005 and has come to be rated as one of the finest golf courses in the world, with the Golf Magazine of America rating it the world's 1243rd best golf course.
The English Golf Union bought the course in 2005 in order to set up a National Golf Centre. The Union also secured enough land to build a second course and to provide extensive practice facilities. The second course, ‘the Bracken’, opened for play in 2008 alongside the original course, now named ‘the Hotchkin’. In 2010 a survey for Golf world magazine voted it the least friendly club to visit in Europe, club official Barry Chapman commented on this news "I could not care less, I hate bloody visitors, I hate everybody"
The Tower-on-the-Moor
The Tower-on-the-Moor, a four storeys high red brick built tower, is the stair turret of what is believed to have been a hunting lodge built in the mid C15 for Ralph, Lord Cromwell whose fortified house, Tattershall Castle, was located 4 miles (6 km) to the south. It is known that the tower was partly demolished in the latter part of the 15th century to provide brick for repairs to Tattershall Castle. One of the older local roads in Woodhall Spa, Tor-O-Moor Road is named after the tower.
Footpaths
The Viking Way
The Viking Way passes through the centre of the village which has proved to be a popular overnight stopping point for walkers on the 147 miles (237 km) long-distance footpath.
Water Rail Way
The Water Rail Way is a 25 miles (40 km) long part of the National Cycle Network that runs from Boston to Lincoln following as closely as possible the banks of the River Witham. Between Woodhall Spa and Lincoln it consists of a tarmaced path that runs along the route of the former railway. It was built and financed by Sustrans organisation and was finally completed and opened in November 2008. It is open to all forms of non-motorised transport, forming part of NCN Route 1. Named primarily after its route and former use, the path is also so named due to the rare Water Rail bird.
The Second World War
The Second World War saw Woodhall Spa's two main hotels, ‘The Golf Hotel’ and ‘The Petwood Hotel’ (so called because it was originally built at the turn of the last century as a house for Lady Weigall who had it constructed in her favourite wood, her "pet wood") requisitioned for the RAF, an airfield built to the south of the village, RAF Woodhall Spa and the Pinewoods used to hide military equipment, especially on the northern perimeter.[3]
At the end of World War II the hotels returned to their normal use, the Pinewoods became once again a place for the quiet enjoyment of nature and in 1964 RAF Woodhall Spa closed for operational uses although it is still owned by the Ministry of Defence and is used mainly for jet engine testing.
A fine memorial wall depicting the breaching of the dams was dedicated to the memory of those from the famous 617 Squadron, the Dam Busters, lost on the raid during the night 16/17 May 1943, and stands at the crossroads in the centre of the village.[4] It is also the area of a mysterious sighting of a black Labrador. As the local school choir prepared for a photograph near the memorial, a mysterious black Labrador dog appeared.[4] The dog could not be moved away but took up what he thought was his rightful place; that being front centre and sat down. Only when the photographic session was complete, did the dog move silently away.[4] Many feel this was connected to Guy Gibson's dog.[4]
Woodhall Spa and Rail
In 1846 the Great Northern rail company purchased the land to build a 58 miles (93 km) rail link from Peterborough to Lincoln via Spalding and Boston with the Boston to Lincoln section being built along the banks of the River Witham. Works commenced in 1847 and when finished a year later the Kirkstead Station, later to be renamed the Woodhall Junction, was one of seven between Lincoln and Boston. To the north were Stixwould, Southery and Bardney and to the south were Tattershall, Dogdyke and Langrick.
A branch of the line, the Horncastle Branch, from the Woodhall Junction to Horncastle was opened on 11 August 1855 and transported the gentry into the heart of Woodhall where they could easily get to the hotels and public attractions. The line also provided a better means of transport for goods being transported to and from Horncastle than the River Bain.
The line closed along with the rest of the Boston to Lincoln line in 1971 and demolition of the Woodhall Spa Station came soon after although some of the Woodhall Junction buildings still exist and are in private use.
After the track was removed the land was sold off to various land owners, mostly local farmers, but some has been used to recently create a paved walk and cycle path, called The Water Rail Way, from Kirkstead to Lincoln. As of summer 2009 the path is complete and open for public use.
The course of the Horncastle Branch to Horncastle has also been turned into a bridleway, The Spa Trail, allowing for a safe journey to Horncastle that is used by 15,000 people a year.
Kirkstead Bridge
The Kirkstead Bridge is a concrete arch bridge spanning the River Witham at Kirkstead in Woodhall Spa. It carries the B1191 as it runs from Horncastle to the A15 road just north of Dunsby St Andrew and was finished and opened in 1968. The bridge replaced an existing swing bridge alongside it, which had itself replaced a ferry which operated until the early 20th century.
Kirkstead
The more ancient parish of Kirkstead amalgamated with Woodhall Spa in the early 1980s thus formalising what was already a reality. Kirkstead is the western part of Woodhall Spa between the village centre and the River Witham. It has its origins in a Cistercian abbey (the name Kirkstead means "the site of a church" ) founded in 1139 by Hugh Brito, lord of Tattershall and originally colonised by an abbot and twelve monks from Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, it was around this abbey that the little hamlet of Kirkstead grew.
The abbey remained in existence until 1537, when the abbey was dissolved and Richard Harrison (the last Abbot) and three of his monks were executed by Henry VIII following their implication (probably unjustly) in the Lincolnshire Rising of the previous year.
The land passed to the Duke of Suffolk and later to Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, who built a large country house. By 1791 that too had gone and all that remains today is a dramatic crag of masonry - a fragment of the south transept wall of the abbey church and the earthworks of the vast complex of buildings that once surrounded it.
The church of St. Leonard's Without. (outside the gates of the Abbey) stands in a field by the side of the ruins of the abbey. Built between 1230 and 1240 it is an excellent example of the Early English style. Measuring only 12.8 m by 5.8 m it is up to "Cathedral standards" and may well have been built as a chantry chapel in memory of Robert de Tattershall who died in 1212. In use for many years as a church, it closed in 1877 (when the Presbyterian congregation were evicted) and from 1883 the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings fought to save it from total decay. Eventually during 1913 and 1914 it was restored by the architect Weir.
Kirkstead remained an isolated hamlet until the opening of the Lincoln to Boston railway line. The arrival of the railways spelled the end of Kirkstead's isolation and eventually of Kirkstead itself as Woodhall Spa's increasing popularity, which came with the increasing ease of travel, led it to expand outwards into Kirkstead parish until it reached the banks of the River Witham.
Notable residents
- Robert Webb. Actor, comedian and writer. Grew up in Woodhall Spa.
- DJ & Broadcaster Mixmaster Morris lived here in the 1970s at five addresses, and attended St Andrews school.
See also
- Kirkstead
- Lincolnshire
- Local Places:
- River Witham
References
- ^ Woodhall Spa - Leisure - The Kinema in the Woods
- ^ Cinema Treasures | Kinema in the Woods & Kinema Too
- ^ Bruce Barrymore Halpenny Action Stations 2 Military Airfields of Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, Page 207
- ^ a b c d Ghost Dog - Bruce Barrymore Halpenny - Lincolnshire Life Magazine