Changing Landscapes WHEN ROBERT WAND left Hacconby in September, 1914 he could scarcely have imagined that, two years later, the war that pundits considered would be ‘over by Christmas’ would continue to consume men at an unimaginable rate. Expected to last only a few months, the conflict had become one of endurance, measured not in …
From Farm Labourer to NCO SOMEWHERE AMONG THE rolling farmland of northern France, not far from a place called Vaurolet Farm, Sergeant Edward Ellis disappeared. There was no final letter home. No comrade was able to tell his parents exactly what befell him. And no grave marked the place where he met his end. 'Somewhere …
A Horseman of Hacconby AMONG THE NAMES carved upon the memorials of south Lincolnshire are men whose potentials were never realised, their lives cut short by war. Private Tom Hutchins was one such man. Tom was a young horseman working on one of the farms in the fen-edge village of Hacconby. He answered his country's …
Remembering the Men who Never Came Home OUTSIDE VILLAGE HALLS, beside churches, on roadside verges and in market squares, steel silhouettes of a First World War soldier stand in silent vigil. The familiar figure of 'Tommy Atkins' has become an increasingly common feature of remembrance throughout our towns and villages. He is often accompanied by …
Wills and Continuity in the Sandall Family WHEN WE THINK of inheritance in eighteenth-century rural England, we often imagine little more than the passing of possessions after death. But the wills left behind by members of the Sandal family of Rippingale suggest something altogether more deliberate. These highly-informative documents reveal ordinary villagers thinking strategically about …
The Story of Jack Wand MBE I WAS BORN in the same south Lincolnshire village in which Jack Wand opened his first shop. As a child, I must have passed that modest storefront countless times — on my way to junior school, or when accompanying my mum on errands to the nearby Co-op — never …
IN THE COURSE of tracing my paternal family through the fenland parishes of south Lincolnshire, one crude, recurrent declaration stood out above all others: Occupation: Ag-Lab. Two blunt syllables. Generation after generation, the same entry appears in parish registers and census returns. Agricultural labourer. Not farmer. Not landowner. Not even cottager. But labourer. It is …
THE NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE landscape is quiet now—the fields of Stallingborough stretch calmly toward the Humber, as its lanes wind sedately through the village. It is hard to imagine that this peaceful parish once gave rise to a woman whose unflinching courage challenged the very foundations of Tudor power. Anne Askew, born not far from these …
The UK is rightly known throughout the world for its rich and varied patterns of hedgerows, a part of our cultural and landscape heritage which ranks alongside great cathedrals, quaint villages and spectacular coastlines. Hedgelink.org.uk Since discovering the Pickwalks Facebook page recently, aside from prompting me to up my litter-picking game in and around my …
Among the recent posts on the Canoe River Cleaner's Facebook page - all of which are notable in some measure - one in particular has been especially emotive. In keeping with the overriding mission of Jim Elliott (Mr Canoe himself) the subject was wayside litter and its removal. The post centred on one local volunteer …
RAVEN MOON 