Pyewipe Cottages or Railway Cottages, Skellingthorpe

[linnet27]

A little more information!  The cottage in the photo was Ferry House, Skellingthorpe, taken in 1941.  William Bourne was a railway worker and also ran the ferry across the Fosdyke Navigation to the Pyewipe Inn on Saxilby Road.

Mum thinks the Smallpox Hospital and public baths were in the area now occupied by Carholme golf course.

Lynne

[Geoff-E]

Mum thinks the Smallpox Hospital and public baths were in the area now occupied by Carholme golf course.

Yes, that's right

[GerryS]

Hi,
Yes I think that is correct, if you look at Geoff's links to tinyurl above and zoom out and go east you will see a large field (also east of where is marked 'Carholme Golf Course'.), and this is where the smallpox hospital and baths were. You can also see them marked on the map. From the discussions that have gone before I believe that the Pyewipe cottages lie at the bottom west corner of the triangular portion bounded by the old railway, A46 and the waterway/railway. So the hospital is not so close to the cottages in fact the other side of the waterway and railway.
I have found a reference to the land of the old cottages being compulsorily purchased for the A46 in 2006 (presumably the cottages had been already demolished by then)  http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/documents/Lands_Fixed_Asset_Stock_26_June_2006.pdf
Thanks
Gerard

[Geoff-E]

I have found a reference to the land of the old cottages being compulsorily purchased for the A46 in 2006 (presumably the cottages had been already demolished by then)  http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/documents/Lands_Fixed_Asset_Stock_26_June_2006.pdf
Thanks
Gerard

If you scroll further across, you see that the purchase date was 1993 for a nominal £1.  This may have been a "tidying up exercise" as I think the A46 relief road opened in the 2nd half of the 1980s.  It was opened by Lynda Chalker MP who became Transport Secretary in 1986.

[Redroger]

A few observations, the Smallpox hospital would fit very nicely into what was then an isolated rural location. There would have been no mains services in the cottages when built, in common with most dwellings in rural and suburban areas. Where they were added they were added considerably later (Usually 1930s in towns) The house where I was brought up in Boston had a large water storage cistern in the back yard. Prior to the installation of mains water this had been the only water supply. The toilet was outdoor though attached to the end of the house. By comparison with similar houses in the general area this had once been an earth closet. Mains gas was installed pre war, when we moved in in 1940 my parents had a bath and electricity installed. Most of the street still had gas lighting until after the end of the war. My guess is that the lack of modern basic amenities was one cause of the demolition of the cottages at Pywipe.

[linnet27]

Thankyou all for your comments on this post.  Although I didn't start it, I have discovered a lot of interesting information about the area.  I had no idea about Pyewipe Junction.

William and Mary Bourne would certainly be surprised to see it now!

Lynne

[Geoff-E]

I remember visiting the house of a grandmother of a school friend in Saxilby village in the late 1950s.  There was a large oil lamp hanging over the living room table and a primitive closet outside.  I suspect many rural houses of the time had equally limited "facilities".

[linnet27]

My Nan lived on Brant Road, just over the border in Waddington (before they built all the modern boxes!).

She had an outside loo and a range in the living room until Dad had a gas cooker installed for her in the late 50s.

[Geoff-E]

The house in which my grandparents lived (and I was born), in Scorer St, Lincoln, sprang up in time for the 1901 census.  Coincidental to the origin of this thread, it was occupied in 1901 by an immigrant engine driver.

It had an outside lav - I never heard the word "loo" until the late 1960s - which was still the case in 1961. 

My dad (also born there, 1921) could remember when they got electricity - light sockets and one wall socket^*.  I remember there was a geyser above the kitchen sink but for bath nights it would be a matter of lighting a fire under the copper in the washhouse at the bottom of the back yard.

^* I wonder what their first electrical appliance was?  Perhaps a radio wireless, it would have meant they didn't have to take the accumulator to be recharged.