|
WINTERINGHAM
FAMED FOR ITS BEAUTY WAS ONCE A BOROUGH
A village hall is residents' most urgent requirement
AN AMERICAN AUTHOR is quoted as saying that all English villages are the same - obviously he never visited Winteringham.
This village, nestling quietly on the bank of the River Humber, abounds in beauty which would be hard to excel throughout the district.
It was this beauty that prompted Charles Edwin
Trimmer to write of Winteringham as "One of the most beautiful of all English villages," when he compiled a guide to the northernmost part of Lincolnshire in 1912.
But
Winteringham always appeared likely to become a large port, complete with smoke and grime.
It was within half-a-mile of the village that the old Roman road Ermine-street approached the Humber, to end its undeviating passage from Lincoln.
It is believed that from this point
a Roman ferry crossed the Humber to Brough, on the Yorkshire shore.
As late as 1918 there was a firm of shipbuilders in the village that employed about 20 men. There also used to
be three brickyards, a brewery - which had been a flower mill - and salmon fishing.
Indeed, Winteringham once used to be a borough and had its own town council.
And, until about 1925, it also had a titular mayor, who, strangely enough, always had to be elected from one particular street in the village - High Burgate. [sic]
CENTENARIAN
The last man to hold this post was Mr George Slingsby, who
succeeded Mr. Edmund Cordeaux. Incidentally, Mr Cordeaux lived to be 103. [sic]
The last occasion on which there seems to be steps afoot to construct a large port was in the
latter half of the last century, when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company acquired land with that intention.
But this did not materialise. And, in recent years,
Winteringham has not looked northwards to the Humber for its future prosperity, but south to Scunthorpe.
So the village has retained its beauty.
 It is Winteringham's beauty which
one of the residents, 30-year-old Arthur Teal, has been attempting to translate on to canvas in the last few years.
A man who would probably fight shy
of describing himself as a painter, Arthur has been a member of the Art Club at Scunthorpe for the last three years, and is now chairman.
"You don't have to move far from
Winteringham to find something to paint," he says.
Most of his paintings are landscape, but one, of which he appears to be particularly proud,
is of the village church of All Saints', a building of stone in the Norman and early English styles, with a Saxon foundation.
FINDS INTEREST
Though it may not be described as beautiful - it possesses rather a squat appearance - the church, nevertheless, has drawn the interest of many architects due to its columns
and arches which are different on either side.
One memorial window is dedicated to Henry Kirke White, the brilliant Nottingham poet,
who made Winteringham famous by a short residence in 1805. His promising career ended at the age of 21, about a year after he left the village.
 Of equal interest is the rector of Winteringham, the Rev Cyril William Bailey, a native of Old Trafford, near Manchester,
who came to the village 121/2 years ago.
A bachelor, Mr Bailey can speak Spanish and French fluently and is also keen on astrology.
But it is the places in which he has served
the church which causes the most interest - Notting Hill, London and Liverpool. Any comparison between the problems of a clergyman in places like those and
Winteringham is difficult to make.
Mr Bailey is also the chaplain for the Actors Church Union, in Scunthorpe.
According to him, there are no natives of the
soil now living in Winteringham. Therefore, there is no one in the village who can claim that his ancestors knew Winteringham when it was a borough and had its own town council.
The local Methodist minister is the Rev E. W. Crew, who came to this district from Kirton Lindsey three years ago.
He, together with Mr George Hall, of Scunthorpe, and Mrs Hall, spoke at the opening of the annual garden party of the Methodist Church on Saturday.
REDECORATED
Recently, the Methodist Church has been completely redecorated, and a kitchen built for social occasions.
Another vital part of the village life - the school - has also been improved recently with glass verandas being added to the rear portion.
Under the headmastership of Mr J. Sparks, assisted by four other teachers, the school provides education for children up to the age of 11 years with the school roll totalling 98 for
the term just ended.
Of postwar construction, the school also possesses a self-contained canteen which is capable of providing upwards of 60 meals per day.
At present the playing area at the rear of the school comprises on a quarter of an acre, but this is hoped to be extended to 11/2 acres eventually.
EVERY FACILITY
"We have every facility, and we are very lucky to have such premises," comments Mr Sparks.
Other people lucky in the village are those who enjoy a game of cricket. For this there is a club that has played at The Croft for the last 30 years or so. The club itself is about 50
years old.
Originated around the well-known Sutton family, it has about 30 members. Reason for the large number of members - and why they is only one team - is because many are shift
-workers, who are not always available.
FINE PERFORMERS
The club has some very proud memories. It once held the Dinsdale League Cup for seven
successive years, being unbeaten in that period. It also won the Scunthorpe Junior Hospital competition on one occasion, and has been a finalist and semi-finalist on numerous occasions.
In addition to fielding many successful teams, it has also produced some very fine individual performers.
Notable among these are brothers, Mr Arthur and Mr Bernard Sutton, who both played for Lincolnshire. Arthur, on one occasion, completing a hat-trick for the county side with his
right arm off-spin bowling.
R. Sharman, another Winteringham club member, also captained Scunthorpe Town in later years.
Officials of the club are: President, Mr G D Sawyer; chief vice-president, Mr John Scarbrough; chairman, Mr W. J. Sutton; secretary Mr John E. Kirkby.
NOT SURPRISING
Other sterling work is done for the club by Mrs Millie Kirkby, who donates to the club all the money she earns as an agent for a well-known football pools firm; and Mrs Margaret
Burton who assists Mrs Kirkby in providing refreshments for the players.
The two remaining organisations of note in the village are both for women - which is hardly
surprising when one considers there are more females than males in the village!
 One of these - the Women's Institute - was
formed in 1927, secretary of which for the last four years has been Mrs E. K. Hattersley.
Meetings are held monthly in the local school under the presidency of Mrs Harold
Goodwin. Treasurer is Mrs Thompson.
Mrs Hattersley was secretary of the WI branch at nearby Winterton when it was first formed, but was forced to give this up when
her husband, Mr M. C. Hattersley took an overseas post.
In all, Mr and Mrs Hattersley spent 25 years in the Sudan and Nigeria before returning to
England on Mr Hattersley's retirement from his position as manager of a government research farm.
GENTLEMEN NEXT?
The other organisation which at present
caters exclusively for the ladies is the Choral Society, secretary of which is Mrs R. Bratton.
However, they are hoping to include gentlemen this year.
Formed about 14 years ago, the society did include gentlemen for the first four years of its existence. During the last 10 years, however, it has been ladies only, 18 of which were
members last winter.
The society holds a weekly session at the local school during the winter months, under the direction of Mr Philip Pape, of Barton, with Mrs Pape as accompanist.
Last year it came second in the section for ladies' choirs at the Lincoln Music Festival. Several years ago, it won the shield for ladies' choirs at the Brigg Music Festival for the
second successive year.
Though there is little industry remaining in Winteringham, a new one was established by the late Mr. Donald Carnaby two years ago.
SUPPLIES MEAT
This - an abattoir - now supplies meat to the principal parts of North Lincolnshire, and is run by Mrs Carnaby's son, 21-year-old Mr Donald Carnaby.
One thing the village desperately lacks is a village hall. This accounts, in part, for the lack of social organisations in the village.
The Temperance Hall used to be the centre of much of the village life in the past. It has now fallen into a bad state of repair and is at present unusable.
It is whispered, however, that a group of people in the village are making attempts to bring it once more into use.
|
