West Deeping remembers 1914 – 1919

Visit St Andrew’s Church in West Deeping during the next week (until 20th November) to view a display made up of some of the research for “West Deeping remembers 1914 to 1918”, a display put on four years ago In 2018.  That was when we held a Service of Remembrance for descendants of West Deeping men who served in the Great War and re-dedicated a scroll which recorded the names of all the men who had served in the Armed Forces during the Great War.

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One of the display panels tells the story of the restoration of the scroll. Included in the display are the Commonwealth War Graves certificates for each of the 12 men born or bred in West Deeping who were killed in the war.  There’s also a series of posters – stories of some of the men (and a woman!) who served in the Great War. Find out about Joseph Anstee (the miller’s son), Albert Hemsill (a baker, from 1, King Street), George Henson, (a rural postman and keen cyclist, from May Cottages), Lilian Marriott (who enlisted with Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps), “The boys from The Row” (Frederick and George  Beehoo, Edwin Black, Searle Randall, Jim Smart, James Bertie Wright, Charlie and Jack Wright) and others.

 

To find out more about the Great War period and its aftermath, get a copy of West Deeping Remembers 1919.  It contains nearly 200 pages, numerous illustrations including old postcards of the village in the early 1900s and a Roll of Honour of all those who had a part to play in the Great War.  There are details of many more characters who played a part in the life of the village, and details of where they lived, as far as can be discovered from village documents, census records and newspaper archives.

The book is on sale at the Deepings Community Library, or from 32, King Street, West Deeping – for £18.50 (plus postage and packing if required). Email wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk

 

Heritage volunteers needed!

We are honoured and privileged to have been given a collection of ledgers – account books and copy estimates – some more than 100 years old.  But we need some help to discover and record what they contain.

Have you a little time to spare? What about spending an autumn afternoon each week at the pub, with tea and biscuits, helping to finding out about our village history?

George Barber and William Ackland’s ledgers

George Barber was the village blacksmith, wheelwright and carpenter and his “Bill book” dates back to 1889. It appears that after he died in 1904, brothers John and William Ackland ran the business together before William took it over, having completed his apprenticeship in Uffington. He later became the Clerk to West Deeping Burial Board as well as the Parish Council.  He and his wife Susie lived opposite the cemetery (now 29 King Street) but from 1930 until his death in 1969 at the age of 82, he lived at Stoneleigh, 1 King Street, which we know today as Wheatsheaf Cottage.

His letters, estimates and bills have a wealth of detail to reveal about his customers, the jobs he undertook and the price of materials and labour – covering 50 years of business as a “Carpenter,Wheelwright and Undertaker”. 

Can you help – perhaps just by reading through, maybe making an index or perhaps looking for a particular customer or a particular building where William Ackland did some work?

Give it a try and come along to this FREE event at The Red Lion, King Street, West Deeping on Wednesday afternoons, from 2 pm to 3.30 pm, starting on Wednesday 2nd November. Complimentary tea and biscuits provided

 

Celebrating 2021 and looking forward to 2022

The end of the year is fast approaching; it’s an ideal opportunity –

• to thank everyone who has supported West Deeping Heritage Group during 2021
• to reflect on what’s been achieved
• to look forward to the new year ahead
• to wish everyone all the best for 2022

There were just two talks in the last year  – in September and November – both well supported, perhaps because they were held in the afternoon rather than the evening.

Lady of Depyng, Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII was presented by local historian and re-enactor Chris Carr.

Margaret Fletcher and Dorothy Halfhide of the Thorney Society gave an illustrated talk on Strangers in Thorney.

Two more talks are planned for 2022 – the first on Tuesday 18th January, when David Mainwaring will present Pease, Puter and Piggs –  a picture of a Lincolnshire village during the Tudor and Stuart period compiled from contemporary inventories and wills. The next talk will be on Tuesday 1st March, Exploring the history of education in West Deeping.

Archaeology has been one of the most popular topics in our programme so it was no surprise that a post about the discovery of a Bronze Age spearhead by archaeologists at the Rectory Farm site caused a flurry of excitement for those who follow the website. In July, the opportunity to get digging and find out more about the site was a sell-out.

The good news is that more visits are planned for 2022, when it is hoped to have an open day along with an outreach programme for local schools.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a Heritage Group outing, but in December, there was a fascinating trip to the Loughborough-based Taylor’s Bell Foundry with the group of ladies who have recently taken up hand bell ringing. Our own village hand bells were bought from Taylor’s in 1904 and have been played by many generations for many different occasions.

A group of us gave a performance (follow the link for a video recording) at a concert to celebrate the installation of disabled facilities and a servery at the village church in October. For the village archivist, it has been most interesting to discover original documents at the Bell Foundry Museum relating to the  tower bells as well as our hand bells.  Expect another website post in the New Year!

There may not have been much face-to-face contact in the last two years, but the number of visitors on the West Deeping Heritage website, since it started in May 2013,  has grown to a total of 14,500 and the number of page views is getting on for 45,000.  There are 77 “followers”, who get automatic updates every time something is posted. As well as the News and Programme postings, the most popular pages by far are the ones about the Stamford Canal, the Welland Navigation and Molecey’s Mill.

A positive effect of the lockdowns imposed during the COVID pandemic has been the increasing number of people have made personal contact through the website and the Facebook page during the last year.

Particular thanks must go to Dale Burton, descended from families in the Deepings but now living in Australia. He has found a whole list of names to be added to the Roll of Honour of servicemen linked with the Deepings who fought in the Great War. He has discovered not only his own relatives, William and Frank Geeves, Thomas Howitt Lambert and Algernon Edwin Lambert, but also two men who had left England before the war began.  Both Walter Templeman and Robert Waltham  served with the Australian Imperial Force and lost their lives in France.  Dale’s research also found service records for William Jibb, the latest name to be added to the Deepings Roll of Honour. 

Thanks also to everyone who responded to a question about a photograph of pupils at West Deeping village school taken before its closure in 1971. All the children have now been identified, although we have still to find the first names of the nephews of former headmistress, Miss Day, who attended the school for a short period.  The talk in March 2022 will be combined with a display of photographs and information about the history of schooling in West Deeping and hopefully attract former pupils for a school reunion!

Thanks to descendants of village families – including the Figg-Smiths, the Masons, the Merrishaws, the Neals, the  Coopers, the Hemsills – and to people who have recently come to the village, who have asked what there is to know about where they live.  Their queries have all provided an excuse for sifting through the village archives and their contributions have helped to put pieces of the historical jigsaw together! Watch out for future additions to the Family History and Buildings web pages.

West Deeping remembers 1919

A personal “thank-you” to everyone who has bought and commented so favourably on the book West Deeping remembers 1919.  It even got a press review in the Western Front Association Bulletin earlier this year.  The book title implies that it covers a relatively short time frame but with a cast of over two hundred characters and a village trail of more than fifty buildings, it serves not only as a Roll of Honour but as a record of life in this small South Lincolnshire village a hundred years ago.

That’s enough history and heritage news for 2021, although there’s sure to be something I’ve forgotten to mention.

Finally, it remains to wish everyone, past present and future supporters of West Deeping Heritage, all the very best for 2022.

 

 

 

Remembrance: research uncovers more local links for WW1 Roll of Honour

 

As it has done for over a hundred years, West Deeping recently commemorated its fallen servicemen on Remembrance Sunday.

On November 14th 2021, the list of their names was read by Allan Crowson at the outdoor service in the churchyard of St Andrew’s Church led by Canon David McCormack.

There was two minutes’ silence, just as there was on 11th November 1920 when the headmistress Miss Grassam led the school-children in “a general cessation of all activities” and a two-minute silence “in honour and remembrance of those who fell in the war”.

Stamford & Rutland News 17th Nov 1920

A war memorial was erected in St Andrew’s Church in February 1920 – a brass plaque listing just eight names.  Every year since then, the names of Joseph Anstee. Tom Lunn, Charles Lunn, George Neal, Richard Roffe, Walter Skerritt, Sidney Stokes and John T Wright have been read out during the Remembrance Day service at St Andrew’s, West Deeping or one of the other churches in the Uffington group of parishes.

In 2014, the centenary of the First World War prompted a district-wide collaborative project – The Deepings remember 1914 to 1918 –  to research and put on record the Roll of Honour for the Deepings area.   Many more servicemen’s names, including casualties, were discovered.

For West Deeping alone, researchers found another eight men who were killed in action or who died as a direct result of the war, all with links to the village by birth, upbringing, residence or family associations.  Daniel Lunn was buried and already commemorated locally (at Deeping St James) as were Samuel Wilson (at Market Deeping) and Arthur Skerritt (at Tallington, our neighbouring village).  Bertram Brannon had only a very tenuous connection with West Deeping and never lived in the village, but nevertheless had reason to be included as he was the middle son of Mrs Mary Brannon, the tenant of Cromwell House in 1919.

The other four men – Sapper G W F Fallodown, Rifleman J C Groom, Privates  J H Harrison and A H Hicks  – are admittedly already commemorated in other Rolls of Honour, but further afield, so their names were added to West Deeping’s list to be read out each year at the Remembrance Day service.

There was no room to add their names to the original brass plaque in the church, but commemorative blocks are on display nearby.

It was as important to commemorate servicemen who survived the Great War as those who died.  Thirty- two names  were already recorded on a hand-written scroll compiled in the 1920s and displayed in the church.

But further research for the book West Deeping remembers 1919 uncovered the names and stories of many more servicemen linked to the village, even though they might not have been living here when they enlisted or come back here after the war. Since the book was published in 2020, several more names have come to light – fourteen need to be added.

One of the most recent additions is Joseph Mason. The Mason family lived in one of the cottages in The Row, at the end of The Lane.  Joseph and his four siblings were brought up and must have gone to school in the village, but by the age of 18 – at the time of the 1891 Census –  he had moved out and was working at The Cavendish Arms in Tallington.

West Deeping remembers 1919 includes quite a lot of information about the war years for other members of the Mason family.   Joseph’s father (also named Joseph) had died in 1911, and his mother in 1918.  HIs married sisters – Alice Sefton, Ethel Randall and  Annie Hemsill – all lived in West Deeping around 1919/1920, But Joseph Mason junior wasn’t even mentioned.

It wasn’t until September 2021 that his granddaughter got in touch with more information, which explained why he was no longer in West Deeping in the years leading up to the Great War and why his name would not have been included on the commemorative scroll.

………Pte Joseph Mason

Family archives provide the evidence that he had enlisted in the army and served in South Africa with the 16th Lancers in the Second Boer War between 1899 and 1901. He came back to England and married Annie Croud in Kent in 1902.  Presumably they lived not far from West Deeping as the births of four of the couple’s children were registered locally between 1904 and 1907.  But by 1908 the family must have moved south again, to Folkestone in Kent, where five more children were born before the outbreak of the Great War. At the age of 42, Joseph enlisted with the East Kent Buffs and went on to serve in France with the Labour Corps.

He returned to his family in Ramsgate and set up in business as a second-hand furniture dealer, but he had suffered shrapnel wounds during his time in France, from which he never fully recovered, and died in 1931. A photograph taken after his death shows his wife Annie  wearing his five medals – two clasps for his military service in South Africa between 1899 and 1902 alongside his Great War medals.

This story is just one of the family histories that can now added to West Deeping’s Roll of Honour because a 21st century descendant took the time and trouble to go back to their photographs and family records and to make contact through this website.

There are many more personal stories to be found in the book “West Deeping remembers 1919” (isbn 978-1-9162670-0-8, 2019 available to order from wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk at £18.50 (+ P&P) or to buy direct from Deepings Community Library and Market Deeping Antiques and Craft Centre)

The online and most up-to-date version of the Deepings Roll of Honour – listing those who lost their lives as well as those who survived – includes 442 names, as it stands In November 2021.  Although their  stories are not recorded on the Roll of Honour, it is possible to access the personal profiles compiled by researchers for the Deepings remember 1914 to 1918 project. Contact either Deepings Heritage or “Leave a reply” below to request more information or to share your family archives and forge yet more local links.

 

West Deeping Heritage Group makes a comeback!

on Tuesday 14th September 2.30 p.m. at West Deeping Village Hall

“Lady of Depyng: Margaret Beaufort on the local stage“

Chris Carr as Lady Margaret Beaufort

We will be the first-ever audience for this talk in which Chris Carr takes on the role of one of the most significant female personalities in British history during the late Middle Ages. “Lady of Depyng, Margaret Beaufort” will concentrate on her role locally rather than on the national stage.

Lady Margaret Beaufort was the mother of King Henry VII, grandmother of Henry VIII, founder of St John’s College and Christ’s College, Cambridge. As well as being closely involved with her family, matters of state and her religious devotion, she took a keen interest in her properties and affairs in Lincolnshire – “the local stage”. Although she never lived at West Deeping Manor house, she owned the Manor of East and West Deeping and visited the area on many occasions – staying at her family’s castles at Bourne and Maxey and her palace at Collyweston.

West Deeping Heritage Group first met Chris Carr at one of our talks in 2018, telling us about the medieval wall paintings in Longthorpe Tower. Tour guide and costumed interpreter with the Peterborough-based Medieval Sokemen Living History Group, she has a fascinating repertoire of talks and workshops on many subjects, including food, medicines and textiles, and spanning historical periods as wide apart as the Bronze Age to the Second World War.

We look forward to seeing you at the Village Hall, King Street, West Deeping, from 2.30 pm for light refreshments, and for the talk starting at 3 pm.  The timing is different, but as always, everybody is welcome; £2.50 at the door.

Bronze Age spearhead found in a West Deeping ditch

Local residents are fed-up with reports of fly-tipping in lay-bys and ditches – but here is a different story! 

Bronze Age spearhead from Rectory Farm, West Deeping

This spearhead has recently been found in a ditch – by archaeologists from PCAS working  at Rectory Farm, West Deeping before the quarry operators, Breedon Aggregates, extract gravel from the site.

The ditch is believed to be part of a prehistoric droveway -one of many earthworks in the multi-period field landscape which has been progressively discovered by archaeologists since the early 1990s when quarrying for sand and gravel began. 

It can’t have been very far away from where ‘would-be’ amateur  archaeologists were digging last year, when Breedon Quarry organised an Outreach event for West Deeping Heritage Group. (See the October 2020 post for a report and photographs.) 

Ruby Neales (PCAS Finds and Archives Officer) describes the find: “Complete cast copper alloy spearhead, with leaf-shaped blade and a pronounced rib on both sides. It shows very little wear and tear, aside from a few nicks on the edges of the blade. No decoration is present beyond the loops on the socket. The socket is complete and x-rays suggest that there is organic material remaining within the socket.  This means there may be a part of the wooden shaft present, although this has not been confirmed because of the risk of damage to the spearhead itself. Evidence of the casting can be seen on either side of the socket, where the molten metal leaked between the mould. The spearhead is likely to date from the middle Bronze Age with similar spearheads dated to 1600 – 1150BC.” 

From a quick trawl of online resources, it appears that the Bronze Age in Britain is generally agreed to have taken place from around 2500 to 800 BC. Copper was used more frequently in the earlier stages of the Bronze Age, but by mixing copper with a small amount of tin, the prehistoric Britons discovered how to make bronze – much harder and more effective for tools and weapons such as spearheads, knife blades and axe heads.  It is presumably the design of this spearhead – with loops for the bindings to secure the head to the wooden shaft, rather than holes for wooden or bronze pegs – which date it to the middle rather than the late Bronze Age period .

Bronze Age spears were for practical use as weapons in war and hunting, but archaeologists believe that some were used and even designed as ritual offerings, to be thrown into rivers or lakes – or ditches.  It is thought that the Rectory Farm spear was either lost, left accidentally by a passer-by, or else ritually deposited, perhaps when the ditch was closed.

Ian Meadows at Rectory Farm site in  October 2020

Archaeologist Ian Meadows is impressed: “This piece is a significant find for several reasons. Firstly, it is in amazing condition – unusually good – considering it was found buried in a ditch.  Secondly, it may preserve traces of the original wooden haft in the socket – telling us more about how this type of object would have looked in life. The most important is however that here we have an item made from the material of the moment, bronze, which would have been of some prestige value and yet it was recovered from a ditch.  So was it a casual loss or was it deliberately buried?

Many thanks to Gary Bannister,  Breedon’s West Deeping Quarry Manager, for flagging up this interesting discovery. We eagerly look forward to another opportunity for local amateur archaeologists to visit the Rectory Farm site later this year.  Watch this website for further announcements!

 

West Deeping remembers them … and 1919

Remembrance Sunday, 8th November 2020, will be marked in the churchyard of St Andrew’s at West Deeping in circumstances very different from anything anyone would be familiar with in 1919, even at the peak of the Spanish ‘flu pandemic – an invitation on social media, masks to be worn, ‘social distancing’ to be observed and contact details to be given! But the purpose – “to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom, to give thanks for their sacrifice, and to pray for those who are suffering today as a result of wars“-  is exactly the same as it was at a ceremony a hundred years ago. This plaque – commemorating eight young men of West Deeping who died in the Great War – was unveiled in St Andrew’s Church on February 22nd, 1920. A scroll listing the 32 villagers who also served in the war was displayed nearby.

“The Bishop of Lincoln said it was well that the people of future generations should know who were the men of the village who gave their lives … We can never be sufficiently grateful to the men, who by their unsurpassable gallantry, steadiness and heroism kept our dear land free from invasion and maintained its liberty.  He concluded a fine address with the words “May the memory of the sacrifice made by the brave men whose names are written on the tablet hallow and bless all your village life”.          

(Stamford & Rutland News 25/2/1920)

In 2014, members of West Deeping Heritage Group began researching the names on the plaque and the scroll.  The stories of some of our village men were written up as posters for The Deepings Remember 1914 to 1918 exhibition and all their names were included in a Roll of Honour [updated in December 2021] for all the Deepings.

WW1 commemorative blocks

With further research over the next few years, it was discovered that several more men with links to West Deeping – by birth, upbringing, marriage, residence or family associations –  could have been included! 

In 2018 four West Deeping names – Sapper G W F Fallodown, Rifleman J C Groom, Privates  J H Harrison and A H Hicks – were added to the list of casualties that is read out each year at the Remembrance Day service in the Uffington group of parishes. There was no room to add their names to the original brass plaque, but commemorative blocks are on display nearby. 

In 2018 there was an extra and special Service of Remembrance and Rededication at West Deeping – to mark the restoration and re-siting of the commemorative scroll.   Descendants of several West Deeping servicemen were in the congregation and it was an ideal opportunity for a display of all the research findings – enough for a book!

West Deeping remembers 1919

That book – West Deeping remembers 1919 – is now available, on sale at £18.50 (plus postage and packing) at Deepings Community Library or direct from the author, Maggie Ashcroft.  (Email wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk to place an order.)

West Deeping remembers 1919 covers a relatively short time frame in the long history of a small South Lincolnshire community but tries to give as wide a context as possible with the evidence that’s available. It includes a directory of more than fifty places of interest in the village and a cast of over two hundred characters, with personal profiles of all the servicemen who have so far come to light.  At the end of the book is a revised Roll of Honour – another 20 names have been added to those recorded on the memorials in the church – bringing the total number to 60.  This book represents another act of commemoration so that we –  twenty-first century successors – recognise, understand and appreciate West Deeping’s heritage.

Casting light on West Deeping’s 250 years-old chandelier

August 1st 2020 is Lammas Day – and on this day, two hundred and fifty years ago, St Andrew’s Church in West Deeping was presented with the magnificent brass chandelier or candelabrum which hangs above the centre aisle of the nave.

Brass chandelier at West Deeping

With two tiers, each with twelve branches, the chandelier measures about 48 inches/ 122 cms across and 40 inches/ 101 cms in height.

It was commissioned in 1770, when farmer Robert White tenant to Charles Bertie of Uffington, donated £31 to Richard Figg for the benefit of the church, to show his gratitude for being allowed to leave crops standing in the fields for 24 days after Lammas.  August 1st was the date of the festival of the First Fruits, when the grain harvest began.  It was the start of the period during which villagers would normally have been allowed to graze their livestock in the fields once the crops were harvested.

(Read more about Robert White’s candelabrum and similar ones in the local area, the origins of Lammas, Charles Bertie, Robert White and Richard Figg.)

Despite restrictions on access to the church during the COVID-19 pandemic,  the church is open for private prayer so you can still view the chandelier – but from a distance!  You might wonder why it has what looks like a shower cap over the top and cardboard saucers on each of the candle holders – they are to protect the brass from bat droppings.

But once the church is fully in use again and the bats have gone into hibernation,  it will look even more splendid than before the lockdown – due to several tins of Brasso, many hours of polishing and the efforts of Allan Crowson, former churchwarden for 36 years and resident in the village since 1972.

He writes: “It has been the practice in the past to polish the candelabrum before the Easter and Christmas celebrations. This has been particularly important after the summer months, when the resident bat population is very active!

With a view to celebrating the 250th year of our candelabrum this year, I decided to give it a thorough clean.  I commenced the task at the end of February, intending to have it completed for Easter Sunday, 12^th April.  But with the Covid19 lockdown and closure of church buildings I was able to spend more time on it. To achieve this, I removed the branches in pairs and cleaned them at home and then finally took down the main structure and cleaned it on the church floor.

On close inspection I could see the extent of the corrosion and pitting, mostly on upward facing surfaces, particularly on the saucers under the candle holders. There was also a small amount of damage. Two of the branches had been broken off and repaired, (probably many generations ago), some of the saucers were slightly bent and there is a dent in the orb that bears the inscription relating to the gift.

Each branch, including the saucer and candle holder took at least one and a half hours to clean to a standard that I considered to be acceptable. I achieved this by immersing the saucers in vinegar, melting the candle wax with boiling water and vigorously rubbing the surfaces with washing-up sponges soaked with Brasso and then polishing with a soft cloth.

There are twelve upper branches and twelve lower branches. Each is stamped with a number from 1 to 12, near the inner end of the branch. The square end fits vertically into a square hole in the hub, which is stamped with the same number. Due to variations in size each one must be matched with its own number. It may be because some of the stamped numbers on the branches had been hidden by dirt that an alternative numbering system using filed notches was introduced. I suggest that this has caused some confusion when reassembling after cleaning sessions, as three of the branches had been filed to make them fit into different holes. By adding solder where brass had been removed, I have been able to return each to its original position. The stamped number was missing from one of the repaired branches, but by process of elimination I was able to return it to its original position. I also improved the edges of the saucers that were bent. The dent in the orb remains as evidence of its long history.

I completed it on 4^th May. Hopefully, it will glow with lighted candles this Christmas.

Allan Crowson. 13.07.2020

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101 years ago – 21st July 1919

The school holidays hadn’t started yet; it would be another few weeks before the children of West Deeping had a month off, to coincide with the harvest – when many of the older children would be helping local farmers to bring in the crops. So on Monday 21st July, the children must have been thrilled to find they had an unexpected half-holiday!

Saturday July 19th had been a public holiday across the whole country – celebrating the proclamation of peace, the official end of the Great War of 1914 to 1918. The villagers of West Deeping had gone to great efforts (as they still always do!) to put on a suitable event.  An outdoor tea party was organised for the children – in a field belonging to Mr Porter from the Manor.  But as is so often the case on these occasions, “the clouds burst“, “the rain fell unceasingly during the evening” and everyone “sought shelter in the schoolroom“.  But  “the rain did not pour cold water on the rejoicings” and the entertainment arranged by the headmistress, Miss Grassam, was “tip-top“. But the children’s sports had to be postponed until the Monday – hence the half-day holiday from school!

It was that summer, or early autumn,  that this photograph was taken of all the school children and teachers outside the village church.

1919 West Deeping school children and teachers, in original mount

The photo has been amongst the village archives for many years but it’s only recently that an accurate date has been established for this photograph.   Maggie Ashcroft was doing some research at Stamford Mercury Archives for her book West Deeping remembers 1919  when she came across a very brief news item in The Stamford & Rutland News for October 10th 1919. “The schoolchildren and teachers were recently photographed outside the church.   A mounted copy has been presented to each child in commemoration of signing the Peace, this course being adopted instead of giving mugs or other souvenirs.”  The amateur photographer was George Henson,  who had only recently been de-mobilised from the Royal Flying Corps where he had served as an Air Mechanic.

Only two surviving original copies of the photograph have been discovered, but there would presumably have been at least fifty more. Many of the fifty-one children have been identified – the key is on page 85 of West Deeping remembers 1919, to be published in August 2020.

For more details about the book and how to obtain your copy, contact wdheritage@hotmail.co.uk

Best wishes for Christmas

 

With best wishes to all supporters of West Deeping Heritage Group for Christmas 2018 and for the New Year

The old empty telephone box in West Deeping has been bringing Christmas cheer to passers-by, especially when the sparkling lights come on at  dusk. It’s even helped to slow the traffic down along King Street as people take photographs!

Historic England has given our phone box a Grade 2 listing, so when British Telecom disconnected the payphone last year, it could not be removed.  It was agreed with the Parish Council that West Deeping Heritage Group would look after it.

It’s known as a ‘K6’ telephone box. The K6, one of the eight kiosk types introduced by the General Post Office between 1926 and 1983, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the coronation of King George V in 1935.

West Deeping residents first put in a request for a public telephone at a Parish meeting in 1938. Despite several reminders to the post master, there was still no kiosk in 1942. The matter became urgent when the village Post Office was threatened with closure, which would have left the village without a telephone for public use.

The minutes for West Deeping Parish Council don’t say when our phone box was actually installed but it has probably been there for over 75 years. In 1987 it was proposed to replace it with a ‘modern’ glass version, but the Parish Council voted to keep the original one and have it listed as a ‘historic site’.

It was in frequent use over the years for both outgoing and incoming calls – on 01778 343109. (Has the number been re-allocated, we wonder!)

Who remembers having to carry 4d (old pennies) in case you needed to make a phone call? A Brownie or a Girl Guide wouldn’t pass inspection if she didn’t have the right money in her pocket! Does anyone still remember the procedure? (Once you’d put in the right coins and dialled the number, you waited to get connected before pressed Button A to speak, or Button B to disconnect and get your money back. The pips always went before you had finished the conversation!) Who, as a child, never passed a ‘phone box without pressing Button B to see if money had been left by the last caller? The cash box here was often broken into, until cards were introduced. Living opposite the phone box, the police called on several occasions to see if we had seen or heard anything!

Less and less callers used the public phone as mobile phones came into use. By 2017 use of payphones had declined, in the country as a whole, by 90%. When British Telecom proposed removal of many local payphones, the Parish Council had the option of buying our kiosk – for just £1! The Heritage Group saw their opportunity for a display space and offered to take on responsibility for refurbishing the phone box and putting it to use.

When we have got the approval of the Planning Department for our plans, we will have the door repaired, the inside fitted out with see-through display boxes and an information panel mounted where the telephone used to be. Watch this space! West Deeping no longer has a public ‘phone but it does still have plenty of heritage of which to be proud!