For the time being the site is closed to all visitors following the tragic result of the latest storm damage Obviously we have been overtaken by a greater threat We now anticipate a total closure for the majority of 2020 while work is concluded to make the building safe

for more information contact enquiries@burghlemarshwindmill.co.uk We are in limbo for the time being as County Council personnel are working from home and all sites are closed. If you want something to read we have begun to transfer Frank Dobson’s hand- written autobiography to an electronic copy. The early part (up to 1906) can be found here

Live History Theatre

Monday Meetings

In 1975 a group of enthusiasts set up Burgh le Marsh History Group. This group continued until it merged with the Friends of Burgh le Marsh Windmill and the newly formed Heritage Group in 2014. Meetings had been held regularly on Monday evenings during the winter months. To boost attendance, the meetings are now held on a Monday afternoon. The current programme is displayed below.

THE LINCOLNSHIRE WINDMILLER: Frank Dobson (These notes, mainly unabridged apart from the removal of ‘and’ in lengthy sentences, were the basis of a much shorter article written by Frank Dobson for the Lincolnshire Life magazine. In some places the time scale seems a little disjointed but it has been left in deference to authenticity. I understand that the famous author, Margaret Dickinson, used these as a research document for her novel about a windmill – ‘Plough the Furrow’ and possibly subsequent books.) Before 1906 Family History My mother was born: November 22nd 1859 Married: February 21st 1879 Died: February 27th 1929 (would have been 70 if she had lived until November) Her parents were named Graves and there was a family of 14 children. Her father was a farmworker. Once, when work was scarce in a ‘wet time’ he had to bring the whole family to the workhouse having no money or allowance to keep them. It was the time when each parish had to maintain their own poor. The farmer soon fetched them out and found them some work. They lived in a village called Farlesthorpe near Alford. My father was born: August 8th 1860 Married: February 21st 1879 Died: January 1st 1920 (aged 60) My great grandfather had a mill at the Riverhead at Louth. So we come from a very long line of millers. My father had two sisters, one of which I used to stay with at Louth during my summer holidays. Up to 1900 my father was working for a big firm of flour millers at Goole in Yorkshire, coming back to Lincolnshire to Huttoft Mills about 1900. I was born February 17th 1901. At Huttoft, there was a windmill with four sails and it had a gallery round, also a big three storey high steam mill (that was what they called them in those days). It had an enormous brick chimney and had been run by a Cornish steam engine. They stood upright with fire at the bottom with a steam gauge not like the traction engines. When my father went there, they had built a Blackstone paraffin engine and done away with the old steam boiler. I remember it didn’t go right at first and used to backfire with a loud explosion that could be heard all over the village. My father had the job of sorting it out as the builders had gone home. The mills were owned by Mr & Mrs Lowe. The windmill had been moved from a farm further in the village. Mrs Lowe’s maiden name was Willson. Her father farmed in Huttoft, ran the mill and baked as well. Her father had a brother called John Willson who was an auctioneer at Hogsthorpe and that was when the firm of John Willson and Son was formed. His son moved to Burgh in 1930, the same time as I did. Family Life I started school at Huttoft and my first teacher was Miss White and the headmaster was called Mr Plant who later became headmaster at Burgh when I lived there. I remember playing in a sand heap at midday break and being late. I was sent into a big room to see the master and he thrashed his cane on the floor to impress me. I also remember going with the coastguard boys to Huttoft Bank after school and my brother, Alf, had to come and look for me. My brother made a truck out of a box and four old wheels from a pram and he put me in it on some cushions. There was a horse and reaper going down the road and he tied the truck with me in it to the rear. Unfortunately, it tipped up and threw me out. He bundled me back into it and didn’t say anything about it. A Mrs Twigg came past on horseback and her horse shied at the truck. She said it was only a box on wheels! There were four in our family, three boys and one girl, John, Alice Alfred and Frank. It was a family with a lot of difference in ages. My brother, John, was 24 years older than me and Alice 19 years older than me. Alf was only 4 years older than me. I remember my father kept doves and they used to walk across the road from the shed to the house. One day a dog killed them. Alf used to keep white mice that he won at bagatelle. At that time there was a farmer in the village, Arthur Pain, and he had two or three boys who were always up to something and always got blamed for everything. The Royal Mail was delivered and collected by a horse-drawn mail cart from Alford and these boys put a rope across the road to stop the Royal Mail. I believe they were taken before the Magistrates’ Bench at Alford and severely warned. There was a very poor old man, called Ancient, just outside the village centre who lived in a low parlour house and when anyone in the village killed a pig, he would fetch the insides. He used to put them in tubs and old baths outside his back yard. The boys told him someone had killed a pig several miles away and would he fetch the insides. He duly set off and, while he was away, they strung the insides that he already had all round the back yard. Another time they climbed on his roof and dropped a loaf down his chimney and stood listening at his window to hear what he would say, which was, “If the Devil has brought it, the Lord has sent it.” Mrs Lowe was Plymouth Brethren and Mr Lowe had been a butler or servant in gentleman’s service. At nine o’clock each morning all work in the mill, and bakehouse had to stop while all the men went into the house for morning prayers. I never did know why my father left Huttoft unless he couldn’t get on with the two bakers and roundsmen, two brothers – Henry and Billy Peacock, who took on the bakery side of the business when Mrs Lowe died. Mr Lowe sold out and went to live right out in the country at Langham. The milling business was sold to Mr Edmund Davey of Dalby, who also had the farm in Huttoft. I was living in Burgh at the time and was told it went for £500. Mr Scott, who later came to live at Spilsby, managed it for him. I don’t think they did very well though at the mill. The Peacock brothers split up after a few years and Billy took a business at Hogsthorpe. After we left Mrs Lowe always sent us 1 lb of groats and a calendar at Christmas. At that time people creed (steamed) the groats and added raisins, currants and spices and that was their Christmas pudding. Mrs Sowerby who lived opposite used to bring me a plate of bullet sago pudding and when we went to Trusthorpe I cried. I wanted to go back for Mrs Sowerby’s pudding.

The 5 sailed windmill that turns clockwise

THE LINCOLNSHIRE WINDMILLER: Frank Dobson PART TWO

1909 to 1915 We went to live in Chauntry Road, Alford not far from the Congregational Chapel. In Chauntry Road was an old gentleman called Ludlow. He had been a joiner and he made my mother a paste board for keeping her eye on him. His daughter used to bring him bread cut into squares for his broth but he always washed it in hot water, afraid they might have ‘put something in it’. We later moved to Hamilton Road, just around the corner. My father worked for Mr C W Myers at a six sailed mill which also had a steam mill attached to it. It had been run by a steam engine that had a huge chimney that was still there. Then it had been changed over to a Hornsby engine, 16 BHP. In the steam mill were two storeys both connected to the windmill as the two floors were not the same level. There was a run down from the windmill to the steam mill. The children would get a mill barrow and sit on it to ride down the slope. There were three pairs of stones in the steam mill on the ground floor, two pairs of grey stones which came from Bakewell in the Derbyshire Peak District and one pair of French stones for grinding wheat for flour. On the second floor were the corn bins that were fed from the ground floor by elevators. Also on the second floor was a flour dressing machine. It was very special as it had silk partitions to dress the flour, most mills only had wire sieves. My father’s wage was £1 per week and he had his own rent to pay for the cottage, £8 a year. My mother did the washing for the bakers in Myer’s bakehouse and also went to work at Mr Richard Corey’s who had tailor shops in Horncastle, Boston, Louth and Sleaford. They were very good to mother and she often brought some food that had been left. I started school at the National School in West Street. It was just for boys, only the headmaster had his own daughter there called Kathleen. He was called Hadfield and was also a captain in the Territorials. He was called up in 1914 to go to France. He was wounded in the leg and I believe he was given an artificial leg. A man called Mr Richards came to take his place. He was a nice old gentleman. In 1913 I saw an advert in the paper that a County Scholarship was vacant at the Grammar School (Alford). I bought an Atlas for 1 shilling and read that. I applied to go in for the examination which was held at the Grammar School. There were thirteen boys entered for three places. Fortunately, I came out top with a boy from Maltby second and a boy from Beesby third: 1st Dobson, 2nd Graves, 3rd Jackson. Unfortunately, if I had tried the year before there was a Spendlove Scholarship that found all books. My mother had to buy mine but there was a lot of second hand books from other boys. It was hard work for mother to clothe me and buy books. She bought a football shirt from Ted Tomlinson for 1 shilling. There was always rivalry between National School and Grammar School. National School ones were called ‘Gnats’ and Grammar school were called ‘Bugs’. I liked being at school and worked hard. All the time I was there I won 5 prizes out of 6 first year and 4 out of 6 second year. My father was a Primitive Methodist preacher and we went to chapel in South Street but he would also preach for Wesleyan and Free Methodists and the Congregational Chapel. He would also go to the Salvation Army. The Primitives formed a brass band. I played second cornet and my father beat the big drum. We used to go to the Primitive chapels in the villages around Alford to play at their camp meetings which they used to hold once a year in a field with a wagon drawn in the field for a pulpit and a tea afterwards in the school room. Of course, they were held on Sunday afternoons. We were marching down the High Street in Alford when the drumstick head came off and my father had to run after it, put it on again and continued beating time all the while on the big drum. We went and played in the big houses around Alford in various villages on Boxing Day and the people gave us cake and coffee. We weren’t allowed to drink beer etc as it was a Temperance Band. The Grammar School masters were Mr J A Staley, Head, who was very strict, and the second master was a Mr Riches who was very nice. His two boys went to the Bluecoat School in London. There was a younger master named Mr Evans who was called up for National Service in the Army and he returned after the war. We went to school on Saturday mornings as well. We had Wednesday afternoon off but we were expected to attend for games. The headmaster was a keen cricketer and he liked having the boys bowl at him in the nets for practice. In the winter he formed a football league, 6-a-side, and called the teams by professional football teams at that time. I remember mine was called Sunderland. The captain of our team was called William Belton and he got killed in the 1914/18 War. The boy called Graves, a scholarship boy with me, had a habit of saying, “I nobbut.” A word I cannot find in any dictionary and the master was always telling him about it. One of the boys from the National School was called Cockerel Hornby because his father was a huckster which meant a poultry dealer and he had crates built into his cart. For some reason the boy and me had a fight near the Congregation Chapel. I don’t know who won but we were good friends afterwards. He married one of Harry Wholey’s daughters from Burgh station and worked for years at Carnleys Solicitors office in Alford. 1915 to 1930 I n October 1915 my brother, Alf, had been invalided out of the army having been gassed at Mons. My father decided to take a business on his own at Theddlethorpe belonging to Joseph Hoyles of Maltby. At Alford my father had worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. on a Saturday. He had to go to the shop on a Saturday to collect his money. He said to the boss there is 4 hours overtime that will be 1 shilling. When we flitted to Grebby in April 1916 our (delivery) round ran into theirs at Willoughby and we got a lot of their trade with being first there on flitting day which was April 6th each year. I paid for a trap from Richardson’s of Louth for eight pounds out of my Post Office Savings Book. My father started at Theddlethorpe by borrowing fifty pounds on a life insurance. The landlord let him a cart, weighing machine, dough bins and a lot more utensils. My uncle, James Smith, made one hundred bread tins for six pence each which we used for years at Grebby to make plain bread in. He borrowed a horse from a small holder at Theddlethorpe work for meat and he used to buy oat sheaves from the man at one penny each. The oven was an old brick oven and too large for us to use. It used to burn the bread. So my father got a living by grinding corn for the surrounding farmers. I remember that one cottage sent a grinding and they hadn’t paid for something else so the sack of corn was kept in pawn till they paid. The house wasn’t any good. It had been kept added to as some previous miller’s family had increased. It had two staircases but you could get through upstairs by a half door as the roof came down to your adjoining room. They said it was so the maid could get to the room without going downstairs. There were some lovely marble fireplaces. The mill sails weren’t very good and my father put a plough trace to the sail from top to bottom to help to hold the shades in. so he decided to try for something else. In spring 1916 he went to look at a watermill at Barrowden, near Grantham. It was on a river. They had an eel trap there and used to send eels to London each day but the inventory was too much for him to take. He went to look at Withern water mill in the adjoining parish belonging to Mr Tickler, a jam manufacturer from Grimsby who made a lot of jam for the troops in France. It would have been very suitable as we could have taken the trade we were already doing with us. It was a turbine water mill with the water wheel on the flat fed by a spout which didn’t waste so much water. Mr Tickler was at London and he didn’t get the letter but a letter came from him the same morning as my father had been accepted as tenant at Grebby. From October to December 1915, I stayed at Grammar School and my father paid five shillings per week to some friends of ours called George Hoyles, brother to Joseph Hoyles at Maltby, and they had a baker’s shop with a small café and sweet shop and a grocer’s shop just opposite. They also had an ice cream stall on the market. I used to help them in the school holiday time, either at the grocer’s shop or on the ice cream stall by myself. There were first and second cornets and we mixed it by hand in the morning by packing ice around a tub which we turned by hand. I used to cycle home at weekends from Alford to Theddlethorpe and it was often bad weather at that time of year. We could go to school at night and do prep. The masters would take it in turns to supervise and you could use the school library. You could also buy a book of answers to the mathematics books from the newsagents only some of the boys would put the answers down without any workings, which would cause trouble. My father went to take over the Grebby Mill the last week in March and on the Tuesday, about March 26th 1916, it came an awful storm and blew about fifty fir trees down on Welton wood side. My brother and I were left to square up for leaving and that Tuesday we had got all the corn ground and had to leave the mil running on bare poles. A mill is safer in a gale if it is moving. Anyway, moving day came and Captain Hoff sent his wagoner, Jonny Southwell, the night before and put his horses up at Hodgson’s farm, a friend of my fathers. We got the wagon loaded up with my father, mother and Alf following later after they had cleaned up. My father said you will have to go with Jonny Southwell as he said he did not know the road. So I had to walk. They caught us up at Willoughby and then I got a ride in the trap. We had to start the rounds and bake bread next day. Mr Pycock, the previous tenant, went to Alford and kept some of the Willoughby trade so we had some bread to spare first time round, but we gradually picked some trade up and managed to make a living. I was 15 when we went to Grebby and soon had to go on the round by myself. It was very hilly there and the roads were slippery in the winter time. We used to put special studs in the horses’ shoes. Miriam Smith was maid at Grebby Hall. On a Monday, when the housekeeper and Captain Hoff went to Spilsby market and it was my first call with bread, the maids would ask me in for strawberries and cream when they were in season - also a tune on the piano. That was when I actually started courting Miriam, which was mostly meeting her on the way home to the Hall for a few minutes after I had got the dough made for the next day’s bread. I started rearing chicks. I bought a second-hand incubator and set some hens at the same time. I sold twelve chicks at sixpence each and a hen for four shillings, making ten shillings in all. One day I delivered a clutch of live chicks while on my round. I had a horse called Bartoft. I had put the chicks in one basket and the hen in another. The hen kept calling to the chicks and poor old Bartoft couldn’t make out what was going on. So, when I stopped at a call, he would spin round. Wasn’t I pleased when I got them delivered and paid for! My father used to go to Spilsby market on a Monday to meet the travellers of flour, maize corn and offal so I got well trained into buying corn and flour at the best rate. The travellers worked for different firms such as Messrs Rank, Spillers (formerly Marshall from Grimsby) and Howsams, who were just corn merchants. He would bring flour back from Spilsby station. The merchants had stock in the goods shed. We had got extra horses by that time. My horse was called Daisy and had been bought at Pycock’s sale for forty-four guineas. She was a nice old mare and we had three foals by her. The first one was a horse which we had to castrate. He wasn’t much good though he was what we called a crib sucker. He would get hold of the crib and it made him have wind so he did not put much flesh on. The second one was a mare and we called her Lady. She was a beauty. When she got to five years old she wen to the blacksmith shop and got a loose nail in her hoof. We didn’t know at the time and she died of lockjaw in three days. I can’t remember much about the third foal. Daisy would only drink out of a clean bucket. In one or two places on the Willoughby round there were springs running into a stone trough and she used to like to draw up there for that water. Often, when she was in foal and I couldn’t take her on the rounds, I had to take an old kicking mare called Kit. She wouldn’t let me get into the cart. She would squeal and kick every time I put my foot on the step. So I walked all round Skendleby and led her. When I got to Bolton’s farm yard I had to go about a mile to the next farm. The men in the farmyard were stacking hay. I got into the cart over the tailboard. They said, “What are you getting in like that for?” I said it was good exercise, I wouldn’t let on that I was frightened. Another time I was going up Bassingham Hill and got nearly to the top and the throat band broke. I jumped off clear. Kit started kicking and kicked herself clear of everything except bridle and reins, which were broken and the remains of the collar. Fortunately, she spun round and the cart landed in the hedge bottom. I had a box of buns on the top of the cart boards with bread underneath. The buns slid off but didn’t damage any goods. I took the mare, Kit, and saw the foreman at Bass Yard. I left her with him and walked home. My brother bought me Daisy that day and I had to be very careful with her and not back her into the cart with all the weight on. Eventually my father said take Kit in a cart and sell her at Louth Fair. Alf took her. When he got there the gipsies said take her out of the cart. My brother said he had to sell them both together. They made a ring like they used to do when selling horses and he had to run her up and down in the ring. The gipsies started to prod her with sticks so after a time or two he got to the end of the ring, drove straight through and came home. She was turned out into a field and supposed to be sold for meat but we heard afterwards that she had been sold to someone else for work. My father bought a cow. Alf used to milk it at first until he went to Rhodesia. One Monday he got all dressed up to go to Spilsby market and the cow kicked the bucket over him. We had a kicking strap made for safety. Later on, I used to have to milk it. I used to have to come home on a Sunday from courting to milk the cow. She was a red cow and cost £50 and gave 14 pounds of butter when she first calved. Folow the story so far:

The 5 sailed windmill that turns clockwise

Continuing Frank dobson’s autobiography. there is now a lot more information for this period which has been split into two web pages. the second will be added soon.

Continuing the unabridged autobiography of Frank Dobson The pages may seem to be long. It is difficult to split down any further without the narrative being lost. Grebby Mill The windmill was six storeys high with two pairs of grey stones and one pair of French stones. It had four sails and was well blown in three quarters, east, north and south. On the west there was a belt of trees near. In the house there was a stove on the second floor that we used to light at night in the winter. I remember once in a gale my nephew, Jack, and myself ran three pairs of stones and the dressing machine for making flour. It kept us busy. And so on until 1920 when my father died on January 1st. My brother John who worked on the railway at Goole decided to come home and help with the business. He sold his house in Goole and bought out my mother’s share of the business which was a third of £1000. My other brother, Alf, had married in 1919. His wife, Elsie, was my wife’s sister. She was also living and working at Grebby Hall for a time. My brother’s health was not good so he decided to go to Northern Rhodesia to an orange farm which was owned by Major Rawnsley from Well Hall near Alford. Elsie moved in with her mother and Betty was born in 1922. Owing to the farm being 150 miles from the nearest doctor, Alf decided to move down to the Transvaal so Elsie and the baby could join him out there. He didn’t settle very well there being a different race of people, the Africanders (Afrikaners), there to him. He moved up into Southern Rhodesia and took a government section which was 250 acres. He went into dairy farming. They all came to England just before the Second World War, about 1937. In 1939 he was producing milk for our forces stationed in Rhodesia. I was married at Scremby Church to Miriam Smith, Elsie’s sister, on April 17th 1923 and stopped at Grebby Mill until 1930. Edwin Dobson, my first son, called after his grandfather, was born at Grebby on November 3rd 1924 and in the year 1929 Marjorie was born. In May 1935 Kathleen Mary was born in the Grace Swann Hospital at Spilsby. This being advised by Dr Wright owing to complications with Marjorie’s birth at Grebby. Before my father died, he arranged to have a lorry made. He bought it through L S Dodds of Spilsby. We got it in 1920 at a cost of £300. It was a 1912 Ford car with a brass radiator front. They took two rear wheels off and put sprockets on and bolted a Boico attachment to it with solid tyres and ancillary wooden wheels driven by a Reynolds chain from the sprockets. We kept it four years but it was useless on the roads when it was frosty. We decided to buy a horse dray in 1924 but it needed at least five horses to get it up Bassingham Hill. Burgh le Marsh Mill One of the travellers told me that Martin Barker of the five-sailed windmill at Burgh le Marsh was retiring so my brother and I decided to go into partnership and keep both businesses going. We paid £1400 for property, Mr Barker leaving £800 at 5% which we paid off in 2 years. All the other inventory we paid for at once. Mr Barker had two one-ton Ford trucks. One was left hand drive but they were more modern than the one we had. In 1938 we did improvements to the house and replaced the old brick oven with a Patent Oven from Bristol Steam Ovens which used coke instead of coal. We had a boiler put in over the fireplace to supply hot water to the house and the bakehouse. Unfortunately, when Bill Smith came to make the bread in the morning, he used all of the hot water and Miriam did not have any for washing. So we had a Beatrix stove put in the stokehole and when Bill came he took some fire off the oven and started the Beatrix oven. We had a special pipe put in to connect. It worked very well and Miriam could keep it going all during the day for all purposes. My brother, John, retired from Grebby in April 1939, just before the Second World War broke out and I paid him out. Just after the war I had an extension built onto the bakehouse. We kept the trade on in the Grebby area and one of John’s men, Leslie Borman, came to live in Burgh. From Grebby Mill Captain Hoff used to let his men have half a stone of flour per week, so many potatoes and ‘kids’ which were ash twigs done into bundles for firewood and a 30 stone pig once a year. In 1932 Captain Hoff gave up farming and Miriam’s father went to work for a Mr Dixon at Candlesby Top, only Mr Dixon died that year. The farm belonged to Magdalen College Oxford. I had a word with Miriam’s father and he said he could manage the farm if I could look after the money side. That was in 1933. The farm was about £1 per acre but produce was not making very good prices and for six years I lost £600. Then the Government brought in a wheat quota and I retrieved my loss in the first year. In 1935 I took some more land at Burgh belonging to the College. I eventually had about 70 acres there. In 1937 I took College Farm, Candlesby, from them so it made quite a large holding, about 300 acres. Lincoln Red cattle were bought from Mr Robinson at Anderby. He had a wonderful breed of cattle. I bought two cows and three heifer calves. I did a bit of showing at agricultural shows at Lincoln and Peterborough and got a second prize with Candlesby Bob, which was an A1 calf, at Peterborough. I went for Lincoln red cattle and quite a lot of pigs. We farmed through the NFU and Lincolnshire Quality Bacon Association with a factory, Roberts and Birch, at Burton on Trent. It did very well, we were each allotted a district and persuaded a grocer to sell it in that area. Afterwards I had a lot of poultry on free range in huts on wheels which we kept moving when the grass got stale. Later we went into deep litter method and battery cafes at the Hollies at Burgh which I had bought. It was a five bedroomed house. I made it into two. One for Marjorie and one for the poultryman at a cost of £1200.

Continuing the story: Farming Changes and World War 2 Changes in Farming Methods Farming was on the old methods in 1930 with horses and implements usually many years old. It was on the four-field system of crop rotation, cropping wheat, turnips, barley and grass or clover – crops for growing or mowing. On the strong land they would have a bare fallow which meant ploughing land over about every fortnight. It was mixed farming with stock and crops so there was work all the year round. The smaller farms would keep poultry running around in the stock yard, a milk cow and a fat pig to kill for bacon each year. The farmer’s wife’s only means of money for groceries etc was from the sale of eggs and butter. When first we got tractors, we used to pull the old horse implements behind. There were steam cultivators which had an engine on each side of the field and with a wire cable that pulled a plough or drag across the field with a man riding on it to steer the implement. The first tractor I bought was an International 10/20, second-hand costing £200. It was on spade lugs with a road rim to bolt on to go on the roads. I eventually bought two trucks, one with a 100 gallon tank on for paraffin and one with a little shed on to carry oil and spares such as plough points and drag teeth and with a draw bar to pull the implements behind while moving from one field to another. There was also a hook on the shed to carry the tractor driver’s bicycle for him to get home between operations each night. The trucks were made at Messrs Cawthorpe and Sons at Ulceby, near Alford, and proved very satisfactory at that time. We were a few years before we got tractors with rubber tyres. Ford Ferguson brought out a power lift draw bar which was a bar for fixing implements on. The tractor driver could move from field to field with implements attached. Also, he was able to use the tractor like a motor car to get home from work. Then came the combine harvester. We used to sack the corn off on a platform like with the older threshing machine and drop the sacks off all around the field to be picked up again. Next came the tanker combine, running the corn through a spout into farm trailers which would pull alongside. With that came the problems of storing and drying grain. We had to build corn dryers with the corn on ducts and a big fan driven by electricity to dry the corn. Also we had to have a moisture tester to ascertain when corn was ready for combining. It took a lot of the heavy work out of harvesting. The combines were very dusty machines for the men driving them at first. Then of course you had to bail the straw. Nowadays a lot of it is burnt to the detriment of people living nearby. The weights of sacks of corn were different: oats - 12 stone, barley – 16 stone, wheat – 18 stone, beans and peas – 19 stone (a stone equals 14 lbs). In the old days corn was measured by the bushel. There were 4 bushels to the sack, hence the different weights of various sorts of corn. The miller didn’t use to charge for grinding but he had a system of tolling so much out of each sack to pay for grinding. Going back to windmills, both Grebby and Burgh had a wooden floor on the ground floor which was four feet from ground level to facilitate loading of vehicles. You could wheel the bags of meal straight out of the mill onto the dray. We got rats under the floor so we had both mills filled up with chalk and then concreted. At Grebby, when you started the mill from the outside and went inside up the ladder, a rat would come from the top of the mill and jump over your shoulder and down the ladder. When we were doing Grebby mill floor, we fastened our trouser bottom up. We fetched Captain Hoff’s two dogs. The groom and gardener brought them up. The mill chain that we used for pulling sacks up was down and the rats started to run up the chain. We got twenty-six rats killed that day. My brother made a block of wood and covered it with tin so that the rats outside would not knarl through it. We used to put it down every night and fasten the doors to it and so we dealt with the rats. Burgh mill was a bit different. We had to leave a pit in the floor because of the elevator carrying the corn to the steam stones. Anyway, it all worked out very well. In 1938, Anne Elizabeth was born at Burgh. Miriam stopped at home and Mrs Dawson came and looked after her. In the same year we did the oven replacement. In 1940 Michael was born at Burgh and Mrs Dawson looked after Mother as before. The Second World War broke out in September 1939. We were soon on rationing both for feeding stuffs for cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry and ration books were distributed for household commodities. Howard and Norah came to Burgh and took Marjorie and Kathleen back to Gloucester to stay with them as it was considered a safer area than the Lincolnshire coast. In fact I got the first bombs dropped at Burgh in my field down the Green Lane at the rear of the Red Lion. One was an unexploded one and we saw the round hole in the field about nine inches across. We reported it to the military that were stationed at Burgh and they came and exploded it. I had to hire a bulldozer to fill the holes in but got paid for it by the Government. Jim Cox and Johnny Johnson who were baker’s roundsmen were called up for military service. I replaced them by three girls, Kathleen Simpson, Eva Baxter and Margaret Chester. Eddie joined the navy as soon as he was old enough. Wartime Service I had various voluntary positions during the war. One was Leading Fireman in the AFS (later the NFS) with about 12 men. We had Farmer’s Garage opposite (the Mill) to keep a tractor and trailer fire engine and we used to get all the air raid warnings by phone which was ‘Air raid warning Red’ and then ‘All Clear’. We had a warning buzzer in the garage which we could use if necessary and the firemen had to take it in turns to fire-watch all night with the Air Raid Wardens. It was quite interesting. We had a pump that we used to pull about with a truck. We attended lectures at Boston or Skegness either at weekends or at night. We would train with the Skegness Fire Brigade and along with other village fire brigades we would meet at the boating lake in Skegness. We would practise with the turntable ladder over the lake. We had several call outs with bombs being dropped in the neighbourhood and once to a farm stack fire at Halton Fen to relieve Skegness Fire Brigade. The first job I had was to fetch a gallon of beer from The Three Tuns at Thorpe. The landlady put it into a gallon chamber jug full to the top and I had to drive with one hand and hold the jug to stop spilling it. I kept having a drink so it wasn’t wasted. It was hard work pulling a stack to pieces. We had a room in Burgh and used to play darts to fill the time in. I was also on the War Agricultural Committee to supervise the wellbeing of the land and order the cutting down of thistles. I had to supervise a farm at Well for Bob Allis who was not farming it very well. I used to go every Thursday afternoon. The first time I was going, Mrs Allis phoned me and shouted at me for doing the work. I told her to wait until I got there and see. Anyway, after that we never had an angry word. Bob was £3000 in the red at the bank. With the help of Bill Needham’s father of Bilsby who farmed at Thurlby we got him £3000 in the black but he did not live long enough to enjoy it.

The concluding part After 1945 The War was over in 1945 and we soon got back to normal. The men came back from the services. As I was taken ill with a burst blood vessel in my inside and laid up for six weeks, Eddie was given a discharge from the navy by The Welfare Officer. In 1947 I put an entirely new ogee cap on Burgh mill which is a Lincolnshire name and some of it was paid for by return of Income Tax. It was called Excess Profit Tax and was allowed for different repairs. It was in the region of £5000 and I also put a new oil engine in. A Ruston from Lincoln. It ran on diesel instead of paraffin. I built a new section on to the bakehouse with new steam ovens in place of the old flash oven. It made it into a very up to date bakehouse. I also installed a lot of electric machines in it to make the work easier. Community Involvement I was a member of Burgh Parish Council 1934 to 1971, being Chairman from 1956 to 1971. I was also a member of Spilsby Rural District Council for 28 years from 1946, being Chairman of Public Health, 1955 to 1960, Chairman of The Council from 1960 to 1963 (during this time I was also a Justice of the Peace) and Chairman of Planning from 1971 to 1974. I retired when the new district was called East Lindsey District Council. I was on two charities in Burgh, 1942 to 1987. One was Thomas E Walls’ Bequest. Walls had been a brewer. He left £500, the interest to be given each year to any unmarried mothers. Eventually we gave it to the needy at Christmas. The other charity was Jane Palmer’s Charity (from 1938 to 1987). It was land left in Burgh le Marsh, the rent to go towards the education of children at the Skegness Grammar School, but when the state scholarship was formed, we gave a grant to older children such as nurses when first starting, any students at university and apprentices. They had to be living in Burgh. Sometimes it was £100 each, paid in three terms which helped them get home more frequently. We formed Burgh Bowling Club in 1932 out of some land that had been tennis courts. I was a member for 50 years. Tom Willson bought the land and when he died his sister gave it to the Bowling Club. My first lot of bowls were lignum vita and cost 21 shillings. After Burgh le Marsh In 1955 I went to live at College Farm, Candlesby, and let Eddie take over the business for which I charged him 30 shillings a week rent. He carried on until 1965 when I sold the mill and premises to Hansons of Skegness. It was too costly delivering bread to all the places in the country. The supermarkets had spoiled the trade. Eventually Lincolnshire County Council bought the mill and premises and turned the bakehouse into a restaurant. In 1966 I took over Park Farm at Candlesby which belonged to Major Owen, solicitor at Spilsby, making my full acreage to 550. Major Owen let me have the farm for £5 per acre. In the meantime, Michael had got married and worked on the farm. He lived next to the grocer’s shop in Candlesby. 1966 Miller’s Rest I bought 72 Boston Road, Spilsby, a very nice bungalow which Mother liked very much. It cost nearly £5000. I retired in 1971 and kept doing a few jobs on the farm until 1972, my being 71 years of age. Church Involvement I was confirmed at Burgh church by the Bishop of Grimsby about 1938. I was elected Vicar’s Warden from 1942 to 1947 until we went to live at Candlesby where I was church warden for Candlesby Church for a period of thirty years from 1947. Miriam was electing member for The Mothers Union and, for most of our time at Candlesby, did all of the cleaning etc in the church. I had been President of Spilsby Master Bakers Association in 1937, Chairman of Spilsby National Farmers Union from 1951 to 1953 Masonic Lodge Involvement In 1964 I was invited to become a member of the Masons at Spilsby, Shakespeare Lodge, and a member of Royal Arch in 1965. I was a member of Mark Masons and Royal Ark Mariners in 1972 and 1973. A founder member of Eccles Lodge in 1975, I was Worshipful Master of Eccles in 1976 and the Chair of the Royal Arch Chapter in 1979. I got two promotions in Eccles Lodge - first to Past Provincial Standard Bearer in 1979 and a further promotion to Past Provincial Junior Deacon in 1985. In the Royal Arch Chapter I was promoted to Past Provincial Grand First Assistant Sojourner in 1983. At this point the journal stops. it is now our intention to try to complete the story with a few updates and reminiscences

On behalf of Burgh le Marsh Heritage Group based at Dobson’s Mill, I wish to draw your attention to the following developments in the life of Lincolnshire’s Heritage as it affects our group. History Timeline The Burgh le Marsh Heritage Group has been in existence since 2011 and in 2013 merged with The History Group and the Friends of Burgh Windmill, both longstanding local groups. In 2013 The History Group’s ‘museum’ was relocated to the Mill Granary from the old school buildings where the items were stored in boxes, no longer on display, and retitled a Heritage Trail to avoid the constraints and expense of museum authentication. This has been regularly updated with the assistance of grants from various sources and is now almost completely up to date with new signage, information boards and display cases. Local people regularly provide us with fresh items which we try to incorporate into our displays. Alongside this we have just revamped the tea room layout, having recently replaced the utility furniture and, through grants from the Marsh Heritage Project, the other display areas have been a ‘work in progress’ - this is taking some time to get right but is now almost reaching its conclusion. Throughout this time, we have duly brought about the restoration of the mill to provide a working example of a unique Victorian building. As the mill site is owned by Lincolnshire County Council, this has not been easy, and more recently almost impossible, as the County Council finances have been stretched to the point that the rate of even general maintenance costs has proven too much for the shrinking budget. Historically, our mill has always been the last to be repaired due in some measure to a minimal input from previous groups responsible for running the mill. We now have a membership approaching 100 as we have taken measures to increase the use of the outbuildings surrounding the mill by 500%, and, as a result of our maintaining an all-year-round presence, we have expanded the footfall of visitors (tourists and regulars) to the site.