Lincoln is filled with strange and ancient buildings hiding in plain sight among the modern structures of the city. These buildings hold clues to the impressive history of our city, and St. Mary’s Guildhall down Lincoln High Street is one such example. Beyond its old, noble exterior lies the story of Lincoln’s medieval power, when the city boasted not one, but two royal dwellings.
St. Mary’s Guildhall on Lincoln High Street. Richard Croft
In the high-medieval period, Lincoln was a major centre of political power, both in terms of economic might, population and strategic military importance. This was particularly the case during not only the Anarchy, when the Battle of Lincoln nearly altered the course of English history, but also in the reign of Henry II, which immediately followed the death of Stephen, the King at the centre of the civil war.
Henry, the new king, spent a considerable amount of time in the city. He had wintered in the city in 1172 and two years prior even had his son, the young Henry, crowned joint monarch in Lincoln. There is some confusion as to where he was crowned, as it is often noted that he was invested with the crown at ‘St. Mary’s,’ though whether this refers to St. Mary-le-Wigford church or the Cathedral is unknown.
For a stay of considerable length (an entire winter season), Henry II required suitably comfortable lodgings. Fortunately for the king, a suitable location had already been constructed by Henry some fifteen years earlier: what is now known as St. Mary’s Guildhall, on the High Street.
The building was constructed as a town house for the King, one of several in key cities across the realm. Built at the beginning of his reign, these dwellings (referred to as ‘town houses on a palatial scale’) enabled him to travel his realm and live in opulence while doing it; such was the case in 1170 when his son was crowned and again in 1172 when he spent the Christmas period there.
With the addition of a new king in young Henry, these regional houses took on increased significance. Having been given no lands to rule over himself and with a distinct lack of desire for political power, the young King Henry often resided at these ‘palaces,’ including St. Mary’s, where he would partake in jousting competitions and revelry; preferring partying to politics; he would later show some ambition and rebel against his father, though would be unsuccessful and died in 1182 in Martel, France.
The buildings usefulness as a royal dwelling was short-lived, however. By the 1230s, the building was used not a royal residence, but as wine storage for the King and twenty years following that, was purchased as a guildhall by the Great Guild of St. Mary, (from which it gained its present name) who would hold it for another three centuries. Later, it would have even more uses, including a maltings, shops, a school and a church.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
Oddly enough, this site on the High Street was not Lincoln’s last brush with royalty and their palaces. Some 250 years after the construction of St. Mary’s Guildhall, another palace was constructed, this time by John of Gaunt, directly across the street from where the Guildhall sits.
John of Gaunt (Gaunt is and anglicized form of Ghent, in modern Belgium, where he was born) was a powerful figure in 14th century England. The son of Edward III and brother of the Black Prince, Edward, Prince of Wales, John of Gaunt (known as the Duke of Lancaster) was a key figure in the regency of the young King Richard II, father of future king Henry IV, and ancestor to all English monarchs to the present day.
A very powerful and extremely wealthy man — a modern assessment of his wealth, taking into account inflation, has put his net-worth around £110 billion — John had several palatial compounds constructed in literally every county of England and dozens more throughout France.
As a city of great importance, it was essential for John of Gaunt to maintain a home in Lincoln, which he did. The history of the site, however, is unknown after his death and was only discovered by archaeologists in 1960.
It is interesting to note, however, that the guildhall at St. Mary’s was at one point known as ‘Jon O’Gaunt’s stables,’ possibly referring to the integration of parts of the previous royal palace of Henry II during the period.
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Cory Santos is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Lincoln who specialises in the social history of Britain during the Second World War. Besides his main research focuses, he also enjoys local history and the interesting tales it often turns up.
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A father was mistakenly mailed hundreds of addresses of parents with young children by North Lincolnshire Council.
The man received more than 200 letters intended for families with three-year-old children.
Instead of being sent separately to the correct addresses, all 208 letters were sent to his home.
They were all for parents with three-year-old children informing them they were eligible for funding, and had the intended addresses printed on them.
The North Lincolnshire dad is worried the details of so many people with young children could have accidentally ended up in the wrong hands.
He said: “I couldn’t believe that little kids’ information was sent out by mistake like this.
“I have two young girls, and I would hate to know that their information had been sent to someone else.
“The envelope was a huge package with my address on, so I assumed it was from work.
“I couldn’t believe when I opened it up and saw the identical letters with over 200 addresses on them.
“As soon as I realised what it was, I considered shredding it. In the end, I contacted North Lincolnshire Council to report it.
“How could a mistake like this happen? I dread to think if it has happened before.”
Letters with addresses of over 200 parents with three-year-old children were mistakenly sent to one home Credit: Submitted Approved for use by all partners
He has arranged to hand the letters back to North Lincolnshire Council to ensure that they are disposed of properly.
A spokesperson has promised that the way letters are posted has been changed to ensure it can’t happen again.
They said: “We take data protection very seriously and successfully send hundreds of thousands of letters each year.
“Changes have been made to the post system to ensure no such technical issues happen again and all the correspondence was eventually returned.”
The discussion was almost scuppered by a complaint, however progressed only to be deferred as members wished to visit the site.
Recommending approval, officers said the plans, which will include a mix of houses as well as bungalows for over 55s along with 12 homes classed as affordable, would provide “effective” use of the land and not create “unacceptable harm”.
The site is allocated for housing in the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan.
Mark Foster, land and planning director at Lindum Homes told the previous meeting the quality of houses was “vitally important” and the layout of the development was “extremely low density – incorporating more open space than required by planning policy”.
How the site could be laid out.
Objectors to the plans, however, said they presented a risk of overdevelopment and would have a long-term risk to the village infrastructure as well as biodiversity, residential amenity, the character of the village and highway safety.
Resident Nigel Heward, said existing infrastructure was “not fit for purpose” and that a lack of footpath provision at the proposed entry was “an accident waiting to happen”.
Lincolnshire County Council, as statutory consultees on highways, had not lodged any objections, but councillors wanted to see the situation for themselves.
As part of the plans the developers will be asked to make a £30,992.50 contribution to Welton Surgery so it can reconfigure its existing layout to create a larger clinical space and more flexibility to manage the projected patient increase.
A man accused of murdering Sam Davies in Lincoln has denied any involvement in the fatal stabbing, a trial heard on Friday.
The prosecution case is that Eimantas Gochman, who was 19 at the time of the attack on May 27 last year, was hired to carry out the hit on Mr Davies. Gochman is one of seven defendants on trial for murder.
The 23-year-old victim was stabbed twice in a park between Coleridge Gardens and Browning Drive at about 10.45pm and died hours later in hospital.
In police interviews read out to the jury at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, January 28, detectives put to Gochman that there was a lot of contact between a mobile number associated with him and co-defendant Joe Jameson’s mobile in the minutes after the stabbing.
Earlier that day, Jameson had demanded to know from Mr Davies’ partner where he was because he wanted to kill him.
A detective said to Gochman: “We’re saying that after the stabbing, you’ve contacted Joe Jameson.”
Gochman, who denied the number was his, said: “Yeah, but you believe I killed someone, which is not true.”
In a later interview on May 31, Gochman is told that Mr Davies’ mobile phone had been found a few feet away from a knife they believe was used in the attack.
“Is it likely your DNA will be on that phone?” the suspect is asked. Gochman replied: “There’s no way.”
It was put to him that co-defendant Eric Kesel told detectives that he’d heard Gochman dumped the knife.
Gochman said: “I’m just labelled as this ****ing killer and it’s completely not me. It’s just not nice, it’s not nice.”
A message with a bunch of flowers left at the scene reads “Too young to be gone. RIP”. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Gochman said he had been at The Lincoln Imp pub with friends until about 9pm, then went home to get changed and on to co-defendant Charlie Wakefield’s.
He’d then spent the whole night there before having to contact his mum in the morning to get him to work in Newark.
He said he was late to work, felt rough and got his mum to pick him up before lunchtime.
Police interviews with Wakefield were also read out to the court on Friday. He told detectives that he was on a curfew tag so had to be at home between 7pm and 7am.
He said Gochman had called him from the pub at about 8.45pm on the day of the stabbing to ask if could come round for a spliff. Wakefield had said that was fine.
Wakefield said Gochman called again about ten minutes later to say he was leaving the pub at that point and was going home first to get changed.
Gochman called one further time to check it was still ok, about a minute before he arrived at Wakefield’s home in Broxholme Gardens.
According to Wakefield, neither of them left the house again before Gochman’s mum picked up her son at about 8am the following morning to take him to work.
Wakefield said in the interviews that a 17-year-old co-defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also spent the night with them and was sent out in a taxi to buy weed from a friend of Wakefield’s.
Flowers left in tribute of Lincoln stabbing victim Sam Davies. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Wakefield said co-defendant Eric Kesel told him on May 28 there was “armed police, CID, forensics, everything” on Browning Drive.
The detectives were told by Wakefield he went for a look and was told by a police officer at a cordon that there had been a stabbing. Kesel had arrived there moments later, jokingly calling him “PC Wakefield” and the police officer made a comment about the surname.
Then, later in the day, when Wakefield found out Kesel had been arrested, he said he started “panicking” that he would be “dragged into it”. He admitted making a quick internet search about being an accessory to a crime.
Wakefield said Gochman had been “calm” when he arrived and they had drunk beer, smoked and played Fifa.
He said: “I’m not being funny but if he came round my yard and said ‘Oh, I’ve just done this murder’, I’ll go in the next room and I’ll ring the ****ing police myself. **** that.”
All seven defendants face one count of murder, which they all deny. They are Billy Gill, 21, of Hatcliffe Gardens; Daniel Heydari, 25, of Chestnut Street; Joe Jameson, 24, of Whitehall Terrace; Eimantas Gochman, 20, of Sturton Close; Eric Kesel, 19, of Browning Drive; and Charlie Wakefield, 21, of Broxholme Gardens. A 17-year-old boy cannot be legally identified due to his age. Jameson is also accused of making a threat to kill, which he denies.
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