Chapter 4:  The Victorian Era  (1901 to 1837)

As stated in the introduction, the Victorian era saw a bustling expansion - in Britain itself and with regard to Britain 's place in the world.  This was when the Country reached its peak as a colonial power and truly ruled the waves.  But at home, and in such small hamlets as Skillington, the opportunities for ordinary folk, as well as the better-off, to enjoy leisure and travel suddenly exploded.

The building of a national railway network allowed reasonably priced travel to sporting events and to the coast.  Thus, the seaside holiday resort was born and crowds attending sporting and other attractions swelled.  For any villager enterprising or wealthy enough, a trip from Grantham to London in 1899 on a Workmen's Excursion cost 4 shillings to return the same day (the village's nearest station was, actually, Great Ponton).  In 1851 a trip to the capital city would have had the added attraction of seeing the Great Exhibition.  The journey to Grantham or Great Ponton may have been in the cart of the local carrier service, which usually took goods or people into town on Saturdays.

Soccer and horse-racing were only two of the sports which took off in the 1800s with the Football Association (after some reluctance) admitting professional clubs and the first FA Cup Final taking place in 1872 before a crowd of 2,000.  Horse racing (and betting) transcended class barriers and 60,000 attended the Epsom Derby in the early 1890s.

The Derbyshire travel entrepreneur Thomas Cook started up by organising a trip from Leicester to Loughborough for a party of temperance supporters in 1841 but, at this time, travel abroad was strictly for the well-to-do.  One such foreign attraction for the wealthy was the prospect of climbing the Alps, particularly the Matterhorn peak, and the nearby expanding resort of Zermatt eventually drew the Skillington vicar, Charles Hudson, to make his fateful climb.

An interest in music was another blossoming that took place in the Victorian era, ranging from sing-songs around a piano to open air (in the parks) band concerts.  Popular ' hits ' of sheet music could sell as many as 200,000 copies.  It is not likely that many, if any, Skillington villagers attended the (bawdy) music halls of the towns, however.  Or am I wrong in this surmise?

They may, without a doubt, have attended another expanding area of entertainment, though …. the Fair!  As well as the hiring fairs, where the business of a labour exchange was conducted, with men wearing in their hats some indication of their trade (a hank of wool for a shepherd or a knotted piece of rope for a waggoner), pleasure fairs became hugely popular.  Not, though, popular with that particularly prim, typically Victorian sector which succeeded in getting legislation passed to close down many of these.

In the absence of these attractions, Skillington folk would certainly have participated in some form of country sport.  Across the border in Leicestershire it is recorded that whole villages were deserted while the inhabitants followed the hounds.  Of Skillington's interest in hunting during this period I have no knowledge but we can assume it was strong.  The other attraction was shooting.  The handsome pheasant, which strolls unconcerned and almost with a death wish in front of modern cars, was introduced from China in the late 1700s.  The early 1800s saw colossal numbers of these handsome birds being killed as the beating system was introduced together with the invention of the breech-loading shotgun.  For the Lincolnshire poacher of historic fame – and Skillington must have had a few! – conditions may have improved during Victoria 's reign.  Before the 1850s, punishment could have meant transportation to Australia but this was phased out in the middle of the century.   

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The building of schools and the progressive education program saw a great thirst for reading matter.  By 1900, ninety-seven percent of males and females could sign their names in the marriage register: fifty years before this, only 69 percent of males and 55 percent of females could: they would put a cross as their mark.  Thus, in 1861 the Times newspaper sold at 3d and reached 60,000 copies a day.  The Daily Telegraph, attracting advertising, sold eight pages at 1d and reached a circulation of 200,000 a day in the 1870s.  Sales of magazines and the much-criticised  ' penny dreadfuls ' boomed.

In housing, red brick came back into fashion (though not in Skillington, I think, except in the Blue Town area) and the removal of the tax on patterned papers meant that wall-papering was in vogue.  The price of this dropped to 1/4d per yard.

In 1840 the penny post was introduced with the celebrated black stamp (it is in honour of this world "first" achievement that Great Britain is the only country which always has a silhouette of the reigning monarch on its postage stamps).

Beer houses increased in number and were popular with the working classes but it was not until 1872 that the (often-flouted) law banning children under sixteen from consuming spirits came into force, though it was another 14 years before it was extended to include beer!

Fashion note:  " Only a fast hussy would wear red, " it was said.

And what of the monarch of this famous era?   Victoria was born in 1819 and became Queen on June 20^th 1837 upon the death of her uncle, William IV.  She married Prince Albert in 1840 and he died in 1861.  She had nine children!  Queen Victoria 's 63-year reign ended when she died on the 22^nd January 1901 aged 81.

People of Skillington.    The population of Skillington reached an all-time high during the reign of Victoria – and perhaps that is a sign of the prosperity of this era.   The census figures during this period were ….  

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The birth rate was famously high during these years, although so was the mortality rate of the very young.   Nationally, 14 to 16 out of every 100 died as infants between 1840 and 1900 (this nose-dived to less than 2 per 100 by 1960).   In overall causes of death, the modern killer heart disease (which in the early 1980s stood at 39%) was only 4 per 100 between 1848 and 1872, whereas tuberculosis (almost non-existent now) was 15 per 100 people in the mid-Victorian period.

At the end of the reign of Victoria, the Earl of Dysart and Sir Hugh Arthur Henry Cholmeley, Bart of Easton Park were the Lords of the Manor of Skillington.   The other major owner of land in the parish was Edmund Turnor Esq. of Stoke Rochford Hall.   Another Turnor, Christopher Hatton Turnor who was born in 1873, was educated at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and contributed much to agricultural and social reform, using his mansion at Stoke Rochford for summer schools and conferences.  We shall see later when and how these members of the aristocracy came onto the Lincolnshire (and, hence, the Skillington) scene.

From Whites History and Gazeteer for Lincolnshire in Grantham Library, the list of people trading or conducting their own businesses in Skillington in 1856 was:

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The census of 1881, gives some jobs of the villagers – "Errand girl", "Char woman" and someone who was on "Parish relief".  The 1871 census has Richard Grandige as "National schoolmaster". In 1861 the village had a camp of gypsies incorporated into the census many of whom were not named but listed as "NK".  But in 1851 the village had a "Tea Dealer" among its occupations.

The information gathered by the "kneeler ladies" included virtually a complete list of Skillington's millers during the Victorian era.  They were … 1892, Robert Hawley Weston (also as farmer but listed in the 1891 census simply as farmer. This census lists a miller – a George Robinson, lodging with the Moulds); 1889, William Curtis (this source says he may not have been a resident in the village, as was George Robinson); 1868 and 1872, George Pickering (also baker); 1856, William Waddington (also baker); 1849, John Pickering (also baker).

Mr Fred Pogmore of Leek, who is researching his family tree about the Duffins and Dolbys, presented me with information.  Obviously the line he concentrates on is that linking up with the Pogmores but it seems likely that other Duffins, perhaps those recently living in Skillington, may also be connected. See Appendix 3 for this tree.

But the most famous inhabitant of the village during this period – and, it has been claimed, during its whole existence – was the Reverend Charles Hudson (see photographs on next two pages).   Coming to Skillington in 1859 at the age of 31, Charles Hudson was born in Ripon and educated at Cambridge University .   He married in 1862.  He was obviously a very popular vicar and his photograph shows very handsome features.   He arranged the re-casting of the existing three church bells in 1864, adding a fourth from his own pocket.  

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As well as being a very athletic walker, Charles Hudson was an extremely accomplished amateur mountaineer.  At this time of expanding travel, climbing the Alps (and in particular the tricky and unscaled Matterhorn peak) was a great attraction to climbers and the nearby town of Zermatt flourished as a climbing holiday resort.   In 1865 Hudson left Skillington to attempt this climb.   He was never to return.  The party, in which he was a member, was successful in its bid to be the first to reach the peak but tragedy struck on the way down.   A younger and more inexperienced member of the team slipped and dragged the others down with him over a precipice.  The rope joining them together snapped, saving two of the party, but Hudson was one of those to fall almost 4,000 feet.   Among the few items which later identified Hudson was his prayer book.   He was buried at Zermatt .  [I feel it a shame that this courageous young man was not buried in Skillington's own churchyard but, to paraphrase a famous later poem … "In some corner of a foreign graveyard …"].   Some of the tributes to his memory are, however, dealt with below.  

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Dwellings:   

Many of the larger stone-built houses in the village were constructed or substantially renovated during this period.  

The Vicarage (now Skillington House) was built in 1850/51 by patron C. Turnor Esq., aided by £200 from Queen Anne's Bounty.   An extension was built onto Home Farmhouse in Middle Street too and, knocking through the typically immensely thick walls of the original farmhouse, pushed the building almost up to the street itself.   This was, as stated earlier, in 1837.   Albion House on Colsterworth Road is said by its present occupier, Mrs Jean Wood, to have been built in 1850 – not as a dwelling house but as a school for young ladies.  Another construction, or rather conversion, which I believe took place in this period, was that of three(?) cottages into The Blue Horse inn.  Let us examine here the origins of the village's two pubs and their Victorian tenants.

Firstly, the Cross Swords.  The present landlady of the Cross Swords, Linda Wood, believes that this name may have been brought with a previous landlord from Grantham and, indeed, there was a Cross Swords Yard in that town in early Victorian times.  This may be proved by some detective work in the future but, if true, lies outside our present Victorian era, as the Ale House License records (at Lincoln Archives, for 1865 and earlier) show The Cross Swords functioning in Skillington c1830.  Before this date, only licensees were named, not their alehouses. (We shall look into earlier licensed alehouses in the next chapter).  Another source of information is the census records for 1851, 61, 71, 81 and 91.  These show us that at the latter two dates William Burchnall kept house, though The Cross Swords is not named directly.  This landlord also pulled in some work as one of the village blacksmiths. Before him, John Berridge, who originated from Stamford , was landlord. In 1861 Edward Atter (from Ponton) was providing ale but between these two, the license records show my surnamesake, Thomas Palmer there.  At the earliest time in this period, 1837, Edward Herring – who did a good stint of maybe 15 or more years – was the licensee, possibly taking over in that year from John Dolby.

The Blue Horse.  The landlord of the neighbouring Blue Horse (Mike Charlesworth) believed that his pub dated to about 1900.  It was, in fact, serving the thirst of Skillington well before that date.  We can deduce from the 1891 census that Arthur Wilson, "beerhouse keeper", was at The Blue Horse.  But it is John Wilson who is named as "Publican and butcher" in 1881.   The 1871 census actually names The Blue Horse and John Wilson was licensee then also.  In 1861, The Blue Horse is again named, this time with Elizabeth Johnson (a widow of 66) in charge and this good lady, as we have seen above, is named also as "beer-house keeper" in White's Gazetteer for 1856, though without the pub being named.  This first licensee of The Blue Horse appears to have taken to this profession after the death of her farmer husband (she is on the 1851 census as the wife of Richard Johnson, "Baker and farmer of 20 acres".  This seems to narrow down the origin of the conversion of cottages into The Blue Horse (if, indeed, this took place at this start of The Blue Horse's history) to the years 1851-61.    [A note here: inn signs are said to originate from the post-Roman era …. Roman people selling wine displayed the sign of a vine tree to show that this was so.  Later, Anglo-Saxons selling ale had to show that a brew was ready by displaying an ale-stake (a pole with leaves or a branch) outside their cottage.  This eventually changed to the familiar hung sign.]   And what of the strange Blue used?

It is generally accepted that The Blue Horse was named, as was Blue Town , from the colour blue of the Earl of Dysart's political favours when he sought to become an MP.  This Earl purchased some Skillington land and buildings in 1883, as we shall see later in this chapter.  But, his estate had leased land for 21-year periods from as early as 1838. It seems likely, then, that his Buckminster Estate converted what was probably an existing ale-house cottage or cottages into the present inn shortly before Elizabeth Johnson took over, but whether they were her own residence as a farmer's wife or whether she moved onto The Square is unknown.        

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The legal requirements for obtaining a license were quite strict even in those far off days.  Shortening the over-legalistic wording somewhat, they were bound to ….

"….do and shall keep the true assize in uttering and selling Bread and other Victuals, Beer, Ale and other Liquors … and shall not fraudulently Dilute or Adulterate the same.  And shall not in uttering and selling thereof in Pots or other Measures that are not of full assize and shall not wilfully or knowingly permit Drunkeness or Tipling nor get Drunk …. nor knowingly suffer Gaming with Cards, Draughts, Dice, Bagatelle or other Sedentary Game … or suffer any Bull, Bear, Badger Baiting, Cock Fighting or other such sport or amusement … or suffer or designedly and with a view to Harbour or Entertain such, permit or suffer men or women of notoriously Bad Name or Disolute Girls and Boys to assemble and meet together … nor permit or suffer any Drinking or Tipling in any part of his … Premises during the hours of Divine Service or Sundays …" etc.  As far as I could see, The Cross Swords was a good house but not so all establishments – One landlord was fined £2 for allowing Gaming and the landlord of The Sun at Colsterworth  was convicted with several men for drunkeness in 1863!!!

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Other buildings:   Probably as a direct result of the national education policy, the village school was built in 1842/43 with a (generous?) capacity for 120 children.   The cost was £600.   Many villages, Margaret Hallam informed me, had reading rooms, used mainly to educate the children of the poor.   Skillington's, in Poke Row, Church Street , was probably built during this time, though by the turn of the century, it was in occupation, though not, apparently, in 1891.  It was used as the village hall for some years but is now a private residence (just below the Rectory). 

The schism between the Church of England worshippers and a breakaway group, which was to follow the teachings of Wesleyism/Methodism, had already taken place before this period so, we shall examine the details of that event in the next chapter.   A consequence of this split was that the Methodist group originally gathered at a meeting house in Lord's Lane (I had assumed the lane's naming came from the Lord of the Manor but, was it in fact because of the location of this early meeting house?).  However, as this religious body expanded, it needed a much bigger place of worship.   This came to pass in 1847.   A plot of land, overlooking the central green and known as Blacksmith's Close, was purchased for £15 and the new building finally erected there at a cost of £643, a quite substantial sum in those days.  The very informative souvenir booklet available at the chapel gives all the details of this monumental event in Skillington's history.  It tells us that it was built of local stone given by Mr William Christian.   The interior then had ' a stepped floor with benches to the right for the Sunday-school children. '   A stove stood in the middle of the room and the pulpit was lofty.   A single-storey schoolroom was built at the side of the chapel.

Most of the fittings in St James church date to this era and, as it was a time of much building work in the village, I am sure the church's stonework would have been thoroughly renovated too.   Following the tremendous shock to the congregation – and village as a whole, no doubt – upon the untimely death of their vicar, suitable memorials were established.   These were: a fifth bell (the treble bell) was added, subscribed to by parishioners and friends; the small window in the south wall of the chancel was glazed showing a view of the Matterhorn with a rope and ice-pick and with the words "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."; the larger window in the south wall of the nave was glazed with a scene showing the Matterhorn, a rainbow, rope and ice-picks.  A plaque beneath this states that the window was "erected by brother mountaineers".

Another "landmark" building, the dovecote, had its ground floor converted into stables in 1880.

I believe it may have been in this period that the cross was moved from The Square, where it stood above the green and not far in front of the row of cottages called Front Row.   Only the stones of the two original steps accompanied the stub of the cross but the cement base later holding the shaft formed a third 'step'.   I wonder why it was moved?  Was it in the way of vehicles (farm or Fair) manoeuvring around The Square?

The church kneelers reveal two more snippets of history from this time … Skillington almost had a new feature.  Money was raised in 1852 for a clock but there was disagreement as to which time it should show, Greenwich Mean Time (which was being nationally adopted due to the increase in rail travel) or Local Time (which was set by farmers or from sundials).  Instead, the money was spent on a feast and thereafter neighbouring villages referred to Skillington people as Clock-eaters!   The second item was that the village had two windmills originally.  One was, I believe, near to where the chapel was built – note that a field name along Buckminster Lane is called Mill Pits.  Is this because stone for the mill came from that site or because this mill stood there or for both reasons?  The other mill, with a house, stables, granaries and bakehouse, stood at the Colsterworth Road/Crabtree Lane crossroads where the modern shortwave relay tower stands.  This was sold in 1859.  See photograph facing page.

Other features:  The Buckminster Estate, through  the kind co-operation of its present manager Mr R.D.Stafford, allowed me to peruse some of its early maps and documents relating to its purchase of land in the parish of Skillington.  Several items struck me as being of especial interest to the history of the village.   One old map, unfortunately undated but I believe to be from the late 1800s, showed where a field on the north side of Sproxton Road had been divided into long, thin allotment strips and 22 of these were rented to Skillington villagers (some had a double width).  Everyone who was anyone seemed to have cultivated a strip on this site at some time.  Names on the map were – Burroughs; Charlesworth; Dolby; Duffin; Goodliffe; Hand; Houghton; Kettle; Martin; Meadows; Meads; Morley; Newton; Rayson; Robinson; Selby; South(wood?); Weston; Woods.

Although most villagers may have assumed that Buckminster Estates have owned land in Skillington parish for as long as some of the other major land-owners, this is in fact not so.  In a later chapter we shall look at the enclosures of the late 1700s and discover who the major land-owners were at that time but the records I saw, maps, letters between solicitors and conveyances, show clearly when the Earl of Dysart's estate (i.e. Buckminster Estate) stepped into the history of this parish.

A total of 452 acres was purchased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England in 1883.  This comprised fields at the end of Park Lane, a field(s) at the corner of Sproxton Road and Back Lane, and a long belt of land adjoining the Viking Way to the north and

south of Sproxton Road .  The total value at the time of purchase was £16,500.  Land had been leased at 21-year periods before this, however, since 1837.

The maps show many dwellings in the village coloured pink, which I assumed to mean that Buckminster Estate owned these too.  They were - The Abbey, Elm House, Church Cottage, Top Row in The Square, Chapel Row, most of the dwellings on the south side of Lord's Lane up to and including Blue Town cottages, and the farm on the left of Grantham Road behind Far House.           

Farming:   One government measure, which had been initiated to protect the home market against the rising flood of cheap imports of corn but which had caused much hardship to ordinary people and much opposition, the iniquitous Corn Laws, was finally repealed in 1869.   The price of wheat, which had been held artificially high by withholding stocks from market, fell from 55shillings/quarter in 1870 to approx. 27s in 1901.    By the 1870s, the depression in farming was such that a big swing took place, which saw less wheat produced but more sheep being reared.   Many farm labourers were forced off the land!

I stated earlier that national diseases among livestock, necessitating drastic measures to overcome them, are not peculiar to our own times.   In 1871, rinderpest, a virulent disease affecting cattle, was finally eradicated after the compulsory slaughter of diseased animals was made law in 1866.

By the mid-1800s, mechanisation on the farms had considerably speeded up some of the previously labour-intensive work.  Before reaping machines came into use, it would take a man, using a reaping hook, 3 days to cut an acre of wheat.  [Perhaps at this stage I should elaborate on the area of land measurement used in this country over so many centuries, the acre - I have always found it hard to instantly visualise this area].  An acre is a measure of land equating to 4,840 sq yds or 4,047 sq metres.   An average house might stand on 120 sq yds so, it would take approx. x40 to equate to an acre.  It was originally a field size that a yoke of oxen could plough in a day and this was not standardised until Edward I's reign.  [Now the hectare is coming into official use, which is 2.47 acres.]

Looking at the village's farmers during this period, the census returns for 1881, 1871 and 1861 give us some useful information about these Victorian stalwarts:

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The total acreage here, 2,255, is slightly over the parish total so, perhaps some farmed fields outside the parish.  In the next census, 1871, further information given us is the number and type of employees on each farm.  

By 1861, small farmers seem to be referred to as "cottagers".  The husband of widow Mary Jane above was Thomas Jackson aged 24.  He farmed 257 acres with 4 labourers and 5 boys.

Pastimes and Leisure:  This period is the furthest back in time to yield any sporting information about Skillington's villagers and the specific item below relates to the cricket team.  On this evidence the team goes back over 150 years.  It was garnered by former league secretary Alec Lord, who was researching the history of Sproxton Cricket Club, it came from the Grantham Journal and was reproduced in Skillington's fixture list for 1997 (kindly loaned to me by Mr Gerald Goodliffe).  The Journal report, dated 1856, is as follows …..

"Sproxton v Skillington.  The first game having been rained off, the second game ended in a draw with both teams retiring to the Crown Inn after the game."  Skillington's team was; Newton , Worthington , Jackson , Bennett, Johnson, Pickering , Charlesworth, Hornbuckle, Sharp, Yeats and Williamson.      

Religion:   The vicars during this Victorian era were ….  From 1894, Charles W H Reynolds; 1882 Henry Smeeton Stevens; 1866 Andrew Wood; 1859 Charles Hudson; 1850 Sween McDonald Mackay; and from 1834, James Adcock followed on from William Pennington Thackray who was incumbent for part of that year.

Regarding the period when the Reverend Stevens was vicar … an anecdote states that he was so unpopular that his bell-ringers "rang him out of the village when he left".

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