A House in Skirbeck

[pamthomas]

The enumerator's walk for the piece which contains Drainside North begins here
http://g.co/maps/shhy7
on Bargate Bridge. The building which is Carr Funeral Service stands on the site of the Queens Head pub.

Continue ahead down Spilsby Road.
The houses listed on the census are all on the left-hand side of the road. (Since those days the numbers have been changed on the ones on the left have even numbers.)
Go past Holy Trinity church, and the pedestrian lights.
I have always been told that 59 Spilsby Road is the last house before the junction with Hospital Lane. Therefore 59a must be just the other side of the junction.
Logically, the walk would turn left into Hospital Lane, but it doesn't; it starts at Drainside North.
I am convinced that this is what is now Willoughby Road,
So go back to Bargate Bridge, and turn left at the traffic lights just past Carr Funeral Service. You are now in Willoughby Road.
Go past the Maud Foster Mill, and then you'll see these
http://g.co/maps/rc6te
which are the Bede Cottages mentioned on RG13/3045 folio 58 page 14 onwards
Kitlings might be houses which stood where Johnsons Motors now is, before the enumerator retraced his steps to the Bede Cottages, and then turned left into Hosoital Lane.

Ruskie - the Maud Foster is a Drain, not a canal.

Redroger -  that area is in the civil parish of Skirbeck, but the ecclesiastical parish of Holy Trinity. (Or Skirbeck Holy Trinity if you wish.)
The overhead view will show you just how close the church is to the Maud Foster Draiin. (I was surprised myself!  )
http://g.co/maps/3fvut
Bob & Helen  - The church is where the Rd of Spilsby Rd is written (southwest of the letter A.  )

The enumerator's walk on the census begins at RG13/3045 folio 52 page 1

[Rochdalian]

Wow, thanks Pam thats terrific

It certainly is in that area so we will certainly visit and look over the place, it looks a nice clean tidy town on Google!

Cheers

Bob & Helen

[Ruskie]

That's a great walk through Pam. It was kindof what I was attempting to do, but I didn't quite manage it, but it looks like I was on the right track.  It can be difficult to trace the enumerator's walk as they often seem to back track and double up.

Ok, The Maud Foster is a drain not a canal. It looks like a canal though. It's navigable too isn't it? I did a bit of googling about it and it's been there for centuries. Interesting stuff.

It does look like a nice area - with some quaint old houses still standing.

B & H - you have quite a puzzle to solve about old John Cooper - sounds like a bit of a lad. I hope you have a wonderful trip - I'm sure you will. And you'll notice how cheap everything is over there compared to Australia. 

[Rochdalian]

Thanks Ruskie, and you are right he was apparently quite a lad, a very interesting life

And yes, we were over there last June and know exactly what things cost

B & H

[Redroger]

I think Pam is right, and that what was Drainside North in 1901 has been renamed Willoughby Road, if available electoral registers should confirm this.

Pam, I was looking at the small scale parish maps in Phillimore's guide, it seemed as though an early northern boundary of Boston did in fact follow the line of the Maud Foster Drain, which makes a lot of sense, but when was the parish of Skirbeck (or that part of Sibsey) incorporated into Boston borough?
In an attempt to answer my own question I did a search and found "The Bourne archive" Boston map, which refers to the boundary review of 1831. It is interesting to any Bostonian current or old, in that the only contigous entity was the parish of  Skirbeck, divided by the river in to Skirbeck and Skirbeck Quarter. The borough of Boston was in three parts, however, the southern boundary was now defined as the line of the South Forty Foot drain, thus all the land previously in Skirbeck quarter divided by the drain was now incorporated into the borough. The line of the Maud Foster drain is shown as is the unamed road on its east bank, which eventually became Willoughby Road, as the road is unamed in 1831 I do wonder whether the title "Drainside North" was an invention of the census enumerator? I shall search further.

[pamthomas]

The line of the Maud Foster drain is shown as is the unamed road on its east bank, which eventually became Willoughby Road, as the road is unamed in 1831 I do wonder whether the title "Drainside North" was an invention of the census enumerator? I shall search further.

No invention.    That was its official name as it's on two birth certificates I have from the 1890s.

[Rochdalian]

I've been looking at the 1906 OS Map of Skirbeck on the Lincs to the Past website and I am now officially confused

The road that runs north along the east side of the Maud Foster Drain between Spilsby Road and Hospital Bridge Lane, which is now called Willoughby Road, is I take it the section that you Pam and Roger are saying was Drainside North?  At least that's what I'm getting from your excellent walk through Pam.  On the 1906 map it is called Cowbridge Road and it starts at Spilsby Road then runs north past Hospital Lane and off the map.  Strange thing is that the address in question is on the 1901 & 1911 census.  I looked at the enumerator's list on the 1911 census and found 45 dwellings, one of which was a dairy and the rest were private houses.  Half way through the list was a flour mill (saw that on the tour Pam).  They all have the official looking generic address of Drain Side North with no house numbers, however I looked at a sample of images and some people wrote there own version of their address in the bottom right corner.  Samples were; Bede Houses Hospital Bridge, Willoughby Row, Willoughby House and just Drain Side.  When following the list down the next address after Drain Side North is Bargate End.  I don't quite know what to make of it all???

As the drain runs north south I have wondered why Drain Side NORTH when the road is on the east side.  This is my idea, maybe the road that runs along the east side of the drain south of Spilsby Road was called Drain Side or Drain Side South??  On the 1906 map this is called Mainridge Bank.

Cheers

B & H

[Ruskie]

B&H, that is exactly what I was wondering, as there was no road named as Drainside on the maps of the time. That's why I was initially thinking that I had the location of Drainside wrong.

I am now wondering if Drainside was the name that the locals knew the road by but it was 'officially' Cowbridge Road?  It was definitely Cowbridge on the 1906 map on Old Maps. 

I also wondered why it was Drainside North but came to the conclusion that the drain is very long and continues a lot further south than Spilsby Road, so this in fact is the northern end of the drain.

I just checked in case there was a name change which the locals didn't adopt, but the 1889 map shows (Willoughby Road) as Cowbridge Rd rather than Drainside North.

[Ruskie]

San Francisco Tce is mentioned on the 1901 enumerator's walk, and this is located on the south side of Spilsby Rd. THe terrace is just to the north of what looks like the back of where the Tower Rd Primary School's playing fields is today.