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85 Sykes Lane

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  Saxilby Health Centre opened in July 2001. The site it stands on has an interesting industrial heritage stretching back over 100 years. In the late nineteenth century, the field was owned by John Semper. John Semper was born in North Scarle in 1844. He was working as a joiner in Sheffield, where he married Eliza Blundy in 1866. They are still in Sheffield on the 1871 census. Living with them is their 15-year-old nephew George Broughton, who would later become the landlord of the Ship Inn in Saxilby. By 1881, John Semper is working as a farmer at Hardwick Wood Farm. He would live there until 1902 when he moved to the Manor Farmhouse on Church Lane. He was very active in the local community. A member of the National Agricultural Union and the Torksey, Saxilby, Kettlethorpe, Doddington and Newton Agricultural Association, he became one of the first councillors when the parish council was formed in 1894 and was a school governor. The legacy he left our village were the houses h...
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Flooding

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Bridge Street 1947 I put out an appeal on social media in October 2023 asking for topics for our monthly Foss Focus article (after 23 years of monthly articles, you do tend to run out of ideas occasionally). There were several good suggestions, some of which will be featured in future articles. However, by far the most popular subject was flooding! I shouldn’t have been surprised I suppose, as my question was posed following an exceptional downpour of the 20th October. The village has been subject to flooding over the centuries, particularly in areas by the canal and on Sykes Lane. Perhaps former architects and builders should have noted that ‘Sykes’ is a Viking word meaning ‘marsh’! The area from the Health Centre to Sykes Junction is known as Saxilby Sykes and was an area of marshland. Our first recorded, and most serious flood was reported by James Sanby Padley in the Lincoln Times in 1858. The Spalford bank on the River Trent, between Girton and South Clifton, broke at Candlemas (F...
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Saxilby and District's Doctors

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The first recorded village doctor we can find is Edward Allen Wilson, who was born in 1800. Listed on the 1841 census as a Surgeon, he is living in the village with his wife, Rebecca, and their three children, Lavinia, William, and Adelaide.I have found a newspaper report from September 1840. Mr Wilson, Surgeon, of Saxilby, on Thursday week narrowly escaped a shocking death. He was visiting a patient at the new engine close by Hodda [now Odda] Bridge, and was going round to the engine-house door, when his pony backed into a well which had been incautiously left uncovered. With difficulty he was rescued from his perilous situation: the pony was much hurt. Odda Engine House Edward died at the age of 45, and is buried in Saxilby Churchyard, together with his wife and their son Samuel, who died at the age of 1 in 1834. He was succeeded as the village doctor by George Bromhead Lic. Soc. Apoth. The Medical Act of 1858 established the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of t...
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Saxilby Parish Magazine 1909

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Amongst the pieces of memorabilia we have in our archives is this Parish Magazine from March 1909. Printed by Ernest Stebbings of Saxilby, it features two pages of local advertisements. As many of you are aware, the Group has an extensive collection of photographs dating from the time, and I thought it may be possible to match a photo with the advertisement. Two of the adverts are for piano teachers.    Mr Scarborough of Lincoln was also St Botolph’s organist. I have searched both the 1901 and 1911 censuses for Mrs Gubbins and Portland House. A widow, she moved to Saxilby some time after 1901. I am unable to identify Portland House. By 1911 she is living with her widowed sister in cottages located on the Skellingthorpe Road by the side of the chemical works. She died in 1914, and is buried at St Botolph’s Church. There were two advertisers I could not locate. I can only find Robert Hardwick on the 1911 Census. He is living with his wife and five children on the High Street bet...
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