Industrial Heritage

The Tank on the roundabout, Tritton Road, Lincoln.  There are many people who don’t actually realise that Lincoln is where the first tank was produced, and many will be unaware that it was built by William Foster and Co who specialised in agricultural machinery, building steam engines, threshing drums and tractors and whose managing director was William Tritton. Theirs is just one name from a long list of great engineering firms that used to dominate the City and provide employment for many of its residents. To acknowledge the part that Lincoln played in the development of the tank a memorial has been constructed on Tritton Road which formed part of the original factory site and testing ground. The design depicts model of a tank being constructed by a workforce consisting of male and female workers dressed in their work wear with spanners and paintbrushes in their hands.  The memorial also includes the figures of Tritton, Rigby and Wilson who were the designers, developers and manufacturers of the tank.  The purpose of the Tank Memorial is to educate people and commemorative Lincoln’s great engineering history. The memorial also recognises the huge effort made by civilian men and women in Lincoln during both World Wars when the majority of production in the city was switched to war work. The first tanks were used in battle on the Western Front on the 15^th September 1916 and without their invention the First World War would have dragged on considerably longer and many thousands more men on both sides would have lost their lives

War Memorials

Lincolnshire has just under 300 external war memorials to the Great War with many having names added following the Second World War.  A comprehensive book and Gazeteer lists them all with photos, many of which are from original postcards, and stories of their unveilings and much more (The First World War Memorials of Lincolnshire, by Michael Credland).  These memorials take many different forms and designs, from crosses to clocks, gardens to gates, hospitals to halls. They are all special in their own right and mark the tragic loss of so many of the young men from Lincolnshire. Some of the more striking examples can be found in nearby Metheringham – an evocative statue of a soldier, and further afield in Spalding where there is a remarkable memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens who also designed the Cenotaph in London.  And don’t forget to look at our own memorials in Martin and Timberland.  We have been researching the names of the lads on these two memorials which you can read more about in our little exhibition space.

The Railways

The most interesting is the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway in Ludborough, situated in beautiful countryside between the Wolds and the coast, a short distance from Grimsby,  Cleethorpes and the historic market town of Louth.  Here you can see the only standard gauge steam railway in Lincolnshire open to the public. The railway operates on a stretch of line that was once part of the Great Northern route from Boston to Grimsby which opened in 1848. After the last section of line was closed by BR in 1980, a preservation society was formed with the aim of restoring it. Heritage steam trains once again run between Ludborough and North Thoresby and work is in progress to extend the line southwards towards Louth.