Yesterday afternoon Dr Brian Hodgkinson returned to educate us on how to move Ancaster building stone across the county.
His talk ”The long and winding road” was an account of how limestone from quarries in Ancaster was transported to Louth to build the spire on the church. Most churches are built with local stone usually no more than 10 miles from the church. But Louth wanted better stone for their spire so they chose Ancaster stone which had to travel more than 40 or 60 miles. The tower due to politics, money and working with lime mortar took 15 years to complete. Lime mortar takes a long time to set, so you cannot build very quickly as the weight of the stone pushes out the mortar in the lower stones, you cannot use it in the winter as if it freezes it is no good. Just as well as the wagoners needed a fair amount of time to transport the stone from the quarry. There are a few entries in the Church warden’s records that give an idea of the journey the stone took to get to Louth but again the weather would be a factor as most of the way would down merely tracks. The route would be decided by the wagoners and conditions, Lincolnshire is not as flat as everybody says! Going uphill is tough but not as bad as going downhill with a load of stone, as the records show lives were lost.
A fascinating and interesting talk Brian, well done, we always enjoy listening to you.
The themed cake was as is usual supplied by The Artisan Baker of Firsby and cut by Brian.
