LOUTH

Louth, home to both Georgian and Victorian architecture, is an old market town, its name is derived from the River Lud. The town was once a manufacturing port for wool and the Navigation Warehouse is the place to find out more of the canal's history.Pinpointing Louth from miles around stands the hexagonal spire of St James's Church. The spire was built between 1501 and 1515, while the rest of the church's late gothic design is mainly 15th century. Inside the church, a modern alabaster font can be seen and in the north aisle an early 15th century font.The streets of Louth are a variety of Georgian and early Victorian architecture.Louth Park holds the remains of a Cistercian abbey which was built in 1139 by the monks.

The abbey inspired the Lincolnshire rising and although the Black Death almost wiped out the inmates, it was not finally destroyed until after the Dissolution.The Louth Museum began in 1884 when four town gentlemen met to form a Naturalists' Club. Their collection grew to such proportions that is new museum opened in 1910. The collection houses bygones including locally made 19th century carpets and tapestries. Local history can be seen using old newspapers and photographs. The museum also holds an interesting scrapbook about the poet Lord Tennyson, who attended his brothers. He so hated the headmaster's floggings at King Edward VI Grammar School, that his time was spent with the 'wild weeds' on a wall in the lane - a blue plaque remains there today. As a footnote, Jackson's Printers, in the Market place of Louth published Tennyson's first work in 1827, 'Poems by Two Brothers', written with his brother Charles. Now the site is a Shop in the market place, but a plaque to this effect remains there.In 1920 the lower town flooded due to the River Lud overflowing. Within half an hour the level had risen fifteen feet. By early evening two hundred houses were uninhabitable, over a thousand people were homeless and twenty three were dead. Accommodation was found via public buildings, and a relief fund was opened by the Mayor of Louth which raised £90,000 to help the worst-stricken families. On Bridge Street today a plaque is on the former mill-house wall showing the flood levels reached, whilst in the London Road cemetery the names and ages of the dead are recorded on a memorial obelisk.

The Hallington Toll House was built around 1770 when the Louth-Horncastle road was turnpiked. Constructed of slate and brick it still retains the original windows and a door on a corner. The original collector's box is still there inside the door. Only a few toll houses still exist, so this one is well worth a detour.