Fenland
Spalding Common is part of Deeping Fen. [2] [3] Another section of Deeping Fen had been enclosed and partly drained in the 17th century by a group called the Adventurers, but the common lands north-east of this, by Spalding and Pinchbeck, remained undrained and unenclosed; until the beginning of the 19th century, part of Spalding Common was used as a reservoir for water drained from other parts of the Deeping Fen. [4]
Spalding Common was enclosed by an Act of Parliament in 1801. [5] This was part of a wider process of enclosure and draining of the common lands around Deeping Fen; Spalding Common was the first of these lands to be fenced and drained, with portions sold off to pay for later works. [2] On the edge of the Common, Little London emerged as a settlement along the turnpike road to Deeping. [2] In 1848 the Common was described as "a large tract of inclosed fen ... now well drained and in a profitable state of cultivation". [6] Late-19th-century Ordnance Survey maps show that Spalding Common was south-west of the built-up area of Spalding and west of the River Welland. [7]
Housing and amenities
By 1892, housing had emerged in the area. [8] In 1924, Spalding Urban District Council purchased land at Spalding Common to build 22 council houses, [9] of which 20 were completed by 1925. [10] [11] Another housing development, at Goodfellows Road, was completed in 1939. [12] [13] In the late 1980s, planning permission was granted to build over 20 homes on a site off Spalding Common; [14] the developer began advertising homes at the site, known as Fantail Close, in 1989. [15] A development of 135 homes at the former Millfield Nursery commenced in 2022 and is due to be finished in 2025. [16]
Spalding Common Baptist Church opened in 1870, but closed in 1966; the building has since been demolished. [17] [18] Goodfellows School opened at Spalding Common in 1871, and became a Church of England primary school in 1941; it closed in 2004; its buildings were demolished in 2019 and a care home was built on the site. [19] By 1921, there was a Post Office at Spalding Common. [20] Spalding Common Community Hall opened in March 1956 [21] on land purchased in 1955 by the Spalding Common Community Fund, which had been founded in 1953 to raise money for the project; [22] in 1975 the hall was destroyed in an arson attack, [23] and a replacement opened in December 1976 at a cost of £20,000. [24]
