Spalding Common

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Spalding Common
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Spalding Common
Location within the United Kingdom
•  London 95 mi (153 km)  S
Civil parish
  • Unparished
District
Shire county
Region
Post town SPALDING
Postcode district PE11
Police  
Fire  
Ambulance 
UK Parliament
List of places
United Kingdom
52°45′42″N0°10′50″W / 52.761744°N 0.180551°W / 52.761744; -0.180551

Spalding Common is an area south-west of Spalding in Lincolnshire, England, near Little London. Part of Deeping Fen, it includes farmland that was drained following parliamentary enclosure in 1801. Along its eastern edge, suburban housing has emerged since the late 19th century. Residents are served by a community hall, which opened in 1956. A primary school, Goodfellows School, operated from 1871 to 2004, and there was a baptist chapel at the Common from 1870 to 1966.

Contents

History

Prehistory

Remains of an Iron Age and Roman settlement, including a small cemetery, were discovered on a site at Spalding Common during housing development in 2024. [1]

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, over 20 homes were built on a site off Spalding Common, known as Fantail Close. [14] A development of 135 homes at the former Millfield Nursery commenced in 2022 and is due to be finished in 2025. [15]

Spalding Common Baptist Church opened in 1870, but closed in 1966; the building has since been demolished. [16] [17] 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. [18] By 1921, there was a Post Office at Spalding Common. [19] Spalding Common Community Hall opened in March 1956 [20] on land purchased in 1955 by the Spalding Common Community Fund, which had been founded in 1953 to raise money for the project; [21] in 1975 the hall was destroyed in an arson attack, [22] and a replacement opened in December 1976 at a cost of £20,000. [23]

Transport and community

Residents are served by the buses between Spalding and Peterborough [24] , Bourne, Market Deeping and Stamford. [25] The Spalding Western Relief Road is also proposed to run to a roundabout nearby if built. [26] [27]

As of 2025, Spalding Common Community Hall operates at 25 Spalding Common. [28]

There is also a local volunteer group who litterpick around Spalding named "The Wombles of Spalding Common". [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Welland</span> Lowland river in the east of England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinchbeck Engine</span> 1833 beam engine, Lincolnshire, England

The Pinchbeck Engine is a drainage engine, a rotative beam engine built in 1833 to drain Pinchbeck Marsh, to the north of Spalding, Lincolnshire, in England. Until it was shut down in 1952, the engine discharged into the Blue Gowt which joins the River Glen at Surfleet Seas End.

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Deeping Fen is a low-lying area in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England, which covers approximately 47 square miles (120 km2). It is bounded by the River Welland and the River Glen, and is extensively drained, but the efficient drainage of the land exercised the minds of several of the great civil engineers of the 17th and 18th centuries.

John Grundy Jr. (1719–1783) was an English civil engineer, who worked on a number of drainage schemes, canal projects and dock works. He lived in Spalding, Lincolnshire, from 1739. Part of his legacy was his Report Books, seventeen volumes containing copies of his reports and other supporting documents from most of his projects, which in some cases are the only surviving records of major civil engineering projects. They were re-discovered in 1988.

References

  1. ↑ Rush, Richard (7 August 2024). "'Small cemetery' among Iron Age and Roman discoveries at new build site - The Voice" . Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Neil Wright, Spalding: An Industrial History, 2nd ed. (Lincoln: Society of Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, 1975), pp. 25–26.
  3. ↑ W. H. Wheeler, A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (Boston : J.M. Newcomb; 1868; repr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 121.
  4. ↑ David Grigg, The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire, Cambridge Studies in Economic History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), p. 30.
  5. ↑ W. H. Wheeler, A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (Boston : J.M. Newcomb; 1868; repr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 36.
  6. ↑ "Spalding–Spexhall", in A Topographical Dictionary of England, 7th ed. (London: S. Lewis, 1848), pp. 156–159.
  7. ↑ Ordnance Survey, "Lincolnshire Sheet CXLII.NW", Six-Inch Map of England and Wales, Surveyed: 1887, Published: 1888. Retrieved 28 January 2024 – via National Library of Scotland.
  8. ↑ Pratt, Edwin A. (1906). The Transition in Agriculture. London: John Murray. p. 280.
  9. ↑ "Housing at Spalding". Spalding Guardian. 5 January 1924. p. 6. Retrieved 28 January 2025. Sanction has been received for the erection of thirty houses, and this week the Council decided to purchase land at Spalding Common from Coun. J. J. Chilvers. Plans have not yet been presented, but it is hoped that the twenty-two houses to be erected will be let at a rental which will not impose a very heavy burden upon the tenants.
  10. ↑ "'Chancellor's' Lucid Statement and Review". Spalding Guardian. 9 May 1925. p. 5. Retrieved 28 January 2025. I think that when we remember the Spalding Common Scheme is nearing completion that we may claim to be progressive in housing matters...
  11. ↑ "Danger Signals for Spalding Common". Spalding Guardian. 4 July 1925. p. 7. Retrieved 28 January 2025. Coun. Chilvers called attention to an important matter at Spalding Common, where there were twenty new houses built,...
  12. ↑ "Tenders Accepted". Spalding Guardian. 7 January 1938. p. 9. Retrieved 28 January 2025. The Spalding Urban District Council accepted on Wednesday night the following tenders: Erection of houses on Goodfellows-road site and the construction of roads, sewers and appurtenant works, there, Messrs. G. Thurston and Son, Pinchbeck.
  13. ↑ "'Unnecessary and Extravagant Public Expenditure'". Spalding Guardian. 21 April 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  14. ↑ Planning permission was granted to P. L. Ely (Contractors) Ltd in 1985 and 1987 for the development of the homes; see South Kesteven District Council, Planning Applications: H16-0243-85 (documents). Retrieved 28 January 2025. For construction, see, e.g. The Spalding Guardian , 17 March 1989, p. 31. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  15. ↑ "Fantail Views/Millfield Nursery". Seagate Homes. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  16. ↑ "The Baptist Church at Spalding Common". South Holland Life Heritage and Crafts including Chain Bridge Forge. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  17. ↑ East Midland Baptist Association (1986). It all began here : the story of the East Midland Baptist Association. Internet Archive. London : The Association. ISBN   978-0-9502582-4-9.
  18. ↑ "Last Look at School for a Former Pupil". Spalding Voice. 6 February 2019. Archived from the original on 28 January 2025. Retrieved 28 January 2025. The former Goodfellows School in Spalding Common which opened in 1871 is making way for a new care home. ... It closed in 2004 ... [it became] solely a Church of England primary school in 1941.
  19. ↑ Post Office, Supplement to Post Office Guide: Amending Post Office Guide, No. 244, Published in July 1920 (London: HMSO, January 1921), p. 45.
  20. ↑ "(no title)". Spalding Guardian. 9 March 1956. p. 3. Retrieved 28 January 2025.{{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  21. ↑ "Community Centre Plans for Spalding Common". Spalding Guardian. 11 March 1955. p. 3. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  22. ↑ "Temporary Loan for Hall Scheme". Lincolnshire Free Press. 4 May 1976. p. 9. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  23. ↑ "New Hall is Opened by 'Auntie Lil'". Lincolnshire Free Press. 21 December 1976. p. 1. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  24. ↑ "37 - Peterborough - Spalding". bustimes.org. 5 December 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  25. ↑ "301 - Bourne / Spalding - The Deepings / Stamford". bustimes.org. 12 December 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  26. ↑ Rush, Richard (13 March 2019). "Planning application for first parts of Spalding Western Relief Road submitted - The Voice" . Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  27. ↑ Griffin, Joe (9 January 2023). "Relief road latest progress and plans as road closures continue". Lincolnshire Live. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  28. ↑ "Spalding Common Community Hall". YMCA Lincolnshire. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
  29. ↑ "Spalding volunteer group warns of worsening litter crisis". www.bbc.com. 14 August 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  30. ↑ Clucas, Andrew (26 January 2022). "Military help for the Wombles of Spalding Common - The Voice" . Retrieved 28 January 2025.
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