News

I Felt Like Alice in Wonderland (Italian & English) Irene Regolo [*We are delighted to have many international members, volunteers and correspondents. To ensure their voices are captured, we present their posts in their own words, followed by a translation where necessary.] Durante il mio viaggio attraverso l’Inghilterra, casualmente scoprii la SGS e il suo…

Combat Over the Trenches Alistair Goodrum Their donor sadly unknown; tucked away among the treasures in our Library are two unique books that, to an aviation historian, are little gems.  These are a pair of Log Books – not of the more familiar, personal, aircrew type – but of two individual aeroplanes that flew during…

U3A Shared Learning Projects with the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society Dr Mandy Topp The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society holds some thirty plus boxes of documents relating to Sir Joseph Banks and the Stanhope family who inherited his Revesby estate. Over the last few months members of Sleaford U3A have been working with the SGS, in a Shared…

Discovering the SGS Archives Dr. Michael Honeybone As I’m a historian, I will start with a date.  In 1992 I had just moved from school-teaching to educating adults and was teaching a course in the History of Science and Technology for the Open University.  I was in search of local historical material which could make…

Lordships of Manors – The Manor of Crowland -Freya Trotman Following a visit to the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society in Broad Street, after a very long absence. Ian Hoult very kindly showed me round and introduced me to one of the “stars” of the vast collection. The Crowland Cartulary. This early medieval manuscript was just astonishing…

Family Memories Ed Oetting Terra Nova, Pinchbeck My first visit to the Society was in 1960 when my mother, sister and I were spending the summer with my grandparents, Cecil F. and Patience Turner.  We were staying at Terra Nova, Pinchbeck — the house my grandparents built after they moved from their Northgate Mill house.…

Villein Pedigrees -Dr Michael Gilbert (michael.gilbert@woadman.co.uk) In the Society’s archives there are many surviving medieval documents that contain a wealth of information for the local historian. The best known are the Crowland Cartulary (a detailed account of the rights and privileges of Crowland Abbey in the middle ages) and the Myntling Register (a collection of…

The Fun of Chasing a Mystery Object -Patty Harris As a fairly new member of the SGS, I cannot tell you the joy it brings me to be a member, from the first day of being shown round I felt welcomed despite being completely non-academic. When I enter the building, the 21st century slips from…

Puffer Fish, Dolphins and substance abuse. -Phil Clay I am a volunteer assistant curator and steward at the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, one of my other duties is organising visits to the museum. I came to the Society with no museum experience at all but have gained a considerable amount of knowledge since joining the SGS.…