THE LOCAL AREA A local Roman Pottery The remains of what is thought to be a Roman Pottery has been discovered near Well, between Well and Willoughby. A small booklet dated 1902 was found by a local potter and some pages are reproduced below. Click here to see the front page of the article and click here to read about the Roman pottery. Information from Michel Ducos, Alford Pottery, Alford LN13 9EY www.alfordpottery.co.uk The Hop Fields There is an area called ‘The Hop Fields’ shown on a map. When it was used for Hops we don’t know, but it was probably used to make a safe and pleasant drink when water could be dangerous. From the British Hop Association web site: The modern hop has been developed from a wild plant as ancient as history itself. As far back as the first century AD they were described as a salad plant and are believed to originate from Egypt. Today, the words beer and ale mean much the same, but the word ‘ale’ was originally reserved for brews produced from malt without hops. This was the original drink of the Anglo-Saxons and English, whereas ‘beer’, a brew using hops, probably originated in Germany. Hops were cultivated in the Low Countries (modern Belgium and Holland) from the 13th century. Above: A Hop Field in Kent by Samuel Palmer 1735 The cultivation of hops was probably introduced from Flanders to England in the Maidstone area of Kent at the end of the 15th century. Our national drink until then had been ale, unhopped and sometimes flavoured with herbs such as wormwood. Brewers started to import dried Flemish hops but these contained so much extraneous matter that an Act of Parliament was passed in 1603 imposing penalties on merchants and brewers found dealing in hops adulterated with ‘leaves, stalks, powder, sand, straw and with loggetts of wood dross’. In those early days, the sole reason for using hops was to preserve the beer in good condition: the bittering effect was reluctantly accepted by Englishmen. By the 17th century ale (i.e.: un-hopped beer) was no longer popular and beer was the established drink and by 1655 hop cultivation grew rapidly in fourteen counties. In a successful year, an acre of good hops could be more profitable than fifty acres of arable land, but some farmers would not grow hops due to the erratic yields caused by drought, wet periods and mildew. Duty was imposed in 1710 and the Act prohibited the use of any bettering agent other than hops in beer, as hops were far more wholesome. The duty varied from year to year and speculation on the tax became a popular form of betting. Customers began to ask for a drink that was mixed from two or more casks. This was a slow process and in 1722 a new beer was brewed that was a combination of three beers. It was an immediate success and became known as ‘porter’ due to its popularity with London labourers and porters. This was the first beer that was ideal for mass production and massive investment was required. Immense profits could be made and porter brewing spread throughout the country. Paler beer was coming into fashion in 1750 with the middle class and to prevent fraud, a further Act was passed requiring the bags or ‘pockets’ in which the hops were packed to be stencilled with the year, place of growth and the grower’s name; a tradition that continues to this day. From the British Hop Association web site Alford Two miles north east of Well is the town of Alford. A bustling town with independant shops, apart from one small Co-op that sells local produce. There are Antique shops, Galleries, Craft shops (which also run craft courses), butchers, bakers, petrol stations, although no bank any more, but there is a cash point at the Co-op. They have Craft Fairs during the Spring & Autumn Bank Holidays and in the period just before Christmas. Recently there were Bike events, 1940s weekends and Steam Engine events. The cricket club in Well serves Alford and the surrounding area; its ground holds cricket matches and summer car boot sales, auctions and Guy Fawkes Night celebrations in November. Dunston Pillar Driving on the A15 between Sleaford and Lincoln you may have come across a peculiar looking Lincolnshire pillar close to where RAF Coleby Grange was once located. The original land lighthouse was commissioned by Sir Francis Dashwood (better known as the founder of the Knights of St Francis, which became the Monks of Medmenham, later called a Hellfire Club) in 1751 as a gift to his wife Sarah (Ellys) Dashwood, who feared crossing the dark heath near her childhood home, Nocton. The purpose of the land lighthouse was to improve the safety of 18th-century travellers crossing a particularly treacherous area of the county known for its many incidents of robbery by highwaymen. In the 1843 Journal of the Agricultural Society it was described as the "only land light-house ever raised". The structure originally stood 92 feet (28 metres) high, with a staircase inside the tower and a large octagonal lantern on top to aid travellers crossing the wild heathland south of Lincoln. The lantern was regularly lit until 1788 and was used for the last time in 1808 by which time improvements in the local road network had made it effectively obsolete. Sir Francis landscaped the base of Dunston Tower with a plantation of trees and a bowling green. It became a popular gathering place for picnics, tea parties, quoits and cards. A two-storey dining hall was later added. The vicar of Welbourn called it "the Vauxhall" of Lincolnshire, and the Lincoln Club was formed to arrange entertainments there. In 1808, the lantern was destroyed in a storm and was replaced in 1810 by the 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, in celebration of fifty years of the king's reign, with a Coade stone (lithodipyra) statue of King George III sculpted by Joseph Panzetta for Eleanor Coade. In 1940, the pillar was considered to be a hazard to low-flying aircraft approaching nearby RAF Coleby Grange, and the tower's height was lowered by 40 feet (12 metres) to reduce the risk of accident. At this time the oversize statue of George III was removed and broken up; the surviving bust can be seen in the grounds of Lincoln Castle. The statue is a listed building in its own right. The tower remains a well-known landmark and to this day is clearly visible beside the busy road at grid reference TF008620. Dunston Tower from Bartholomew Howlett's A Selection of Views in the County of Lincoln (1801)