< Previous60 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY CHRISTMAS evolutionary roots in our human social systems and is seen in other courting and family-oriented animals. Of the man studies into it, several things have come out similar across multiple tests. The first is that the monetary value of the gift does not often matter. When asked, gift-givers almost universally said they expected more appreciation because of the greater expense, while the majority of recipients said that the monetary value of the gift did not correlate with their appreciation. That’s not to say cheap gifts are good and expensive gifts are bad, but that you cannot rely solely on the price when expecting someone to appreciate your gift. Some studies suggest there might be an expectation threshold, essentially a “s/he will get me something of at least this value”, often set by expectation and previous gifts, but once you get past that point the value doesn’t matter. The results also favoured long-term use of the gift, though – again – the gift- giver seemed to have it the other way around. Givers were noted to want to optimise the moment of giving the gift and get the most appreciation out of it, but recipients instead value how much they can get out of the gift. If you buy someone an expensive item to try and wow them, but it only gets put away in a drawer for safekeeping, then they won’t be very impressed, but something they turn to regularly and wear or use many © stock.adobe.com/ Татьяна Креминская © stock.adobe.com/ LIGHTFIELD STUDIOSLINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 61 CHRISTMAS times in a year constantly reminds them of you and your thoughtfulness. The best thing you can do however is to get your loved one a gift that is a shared hobby or interest with yourself. Of course, it must be a truly shared hobby lest you buy a gift more for yourself than your partner, but the reasons for this are more than just so you can spend time together. Elizabeth Dunn, psychology professor and co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, says that the reason it’s better to buy gifts based on shared interests is because you can imagine what would make you happy to receive, and that we are far better at buying gifts for ourselves than we are for other people. It may sound selfish, but if you and your partner share a passion then buy them something you would love, and chances are they’ll love it too. On that same train of thought, if you don’t personally share interests with the person you’re buying for then seek out people who do. If your partner is into fashion or shoes, then visit a fashion boutique in Lincolnshire and speak to the people there. Chances are the owners at the very least will be far more into it than you, and they can offer advice on what 63 Á62 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY ,W¾V&ƬLVWPDVDW Cleethorpes Lincoln SleafordLINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 63 CHRISTMAS Thursday 23rd November 4pm - 8pm Free parking from 4pm Santa’s Grotto • Snow Globe Glow Entertainer ‘Spark’ LED Drummers As seen on The Paul O’Grady Show NEW Christmas Lights Switch on at 7pm Lighting Up at they would love to receive, which is much more likely to please your partner than you taking a stab in the dark. Similarly, if you’re buying a golf set for your partner and can’t stand the sport then visit a golf club and pick their brains. It’s obvious that they’ll want to sell to you, but you’re there to buy anyway, so trust in them to want to do right by you so you’ll become a repeat customer. You can’t get this same service through online shopping or on Amazon where half the reviews might be from bot accounts and the other half simply say “good”. The greatest benefit of going out to a shop in person isn’t just the exercise or getting to see the items there, but in being able to talk to the knowledgeable staff and get their input. Tell them about your partner, what they’re like and what they enjoy, and then ask them what they would buy for themselves. Don’t fall into the habit of thinking it’s somehow less impressive or that you’ve been lazy by asking other people for advice. There’s nothing lazy about going out there and talking to people, and your loved one will be touched by the amount of effort that went into finding them the perfect gift. © stock.adobe.com/ Юлия Завалишина64 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY W e are not looking here at the grand or important but the more humble, lesser- known curiosities that make our county unique. I have taken an imaginary line from Lincoln to the coast at Skegness, dividing the county into roughly two halves. This month its northern Lincolnshire’s turn starting in the far north at Alkborough. Alkborough overlooks the confluence of the River Trent and the Humber and here we find an intriguing 44 feet diameter grass maze. Its age is unknown, the first record of it dates from1697 but as it was probably for monks and pilgrims to walk as penance it is likely to be much older. If you follow it carefully you will walk close to a quarter of a mile. Help is at hand with a copy set in the porch floor of nearby St John Baptist. There you will also find a much-eroded churchyard cross – rather like a Henry Moore sculpture – said to have been worn away by usage for sharpening weapons. Just a few miles away, spanning the New River Ancholme is Horkstow bridge. This colourfully painted suspension bridge dates from 1836 and was designed by the famous engineer Sir John Rennie as part of his improvements to the river. Moving south the town of Caistor has its fair share of curiosities. There is a surviving fragment of the Roman wall along the southern boundary of the churchyard. Inside St Peter and St Paul’s church is the unique 13 feet long Caistor gadwhip, which until 1846 was ceremonially cracked over the head of the vicar during Palm Sunday services. Nearby in Fountain Street is one of Caistor’s famous ever flowing springs – the Sypher Spring – never known to have dried up whilst round the corner in the Horsemarket is the novel sight of the town’s underground fire station from 1869. Our next destination is across the Wolds in Louth. There outside the Louth Museum (itself full of curiosities) is a volcanic, erratic boulder from Northumberland; brought here by glaciers some 25,000 years ago. In Eastgate you can step from the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere over a marker set in the pavement for the Greenwich meridian. The town’s St James church outdoes Lincoln cathedral by having no less than four imps! It also has England’s tallest spire of 285 feet. Even the diminutive-looking weathervane is over 5 feet tall. Louth’s Market Tower is also unusual in being a copy of that in Sienna in Tuscany, Italy, whilst similarly based on Our Lincolnshire “heritage” is full of sometimes little-known curiosities; this month we seek out a few of them. Lincolnshire explored MURDER GRAVE CUXWOLD ALKBOROUGH CHUCHYARD CROSSLINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 65 Sienna’s tower is the Grimsby landmark of the Dock Tower; 309 feet high and built in 1851/2. A rare (possibly unique) feature of the locks on the Louth Navigation, opened in 1770, are the unusual concave lock walls. The theory was that the weight of the earthen embankments would compress the brickwork together rather than risk pushing a vertical, flat wall outwards. A stone’s throw from the navigation at Tetney are the Tetney Blow Wells. This natural phenomenon, geologically called artesian wells, were believed to be bottomless but are really only some 16 feet deep. The water comes from the Wolds, rainfall taking about three years to follow the underlying chalk rock strata down to Tetney. Once a watercress farm it is now a nature reserve. Back again in the Wolds we next visit Bag Enderby where St Mary’s church door has part of a Saxon shield nailed to it; and whilst on the subject of churches we must not forget the remarkable little tin chapel at Stainton-le-Vale. Moving on from churches and churchyards to gravestones we must visit Fulletby. There in St Andrew’s we find that of Henry Winn born in the village in 1816. Self-educated he ran the local shop and founded a library but is best remembered for becoming the parish clerk at age 14, a position he held for 76 years thus earning a place in the Guiness Book of records. Nearby Tetford churchyard has the grave of two gypsies, a rare thing for hallowed ground. Tyso Boswell and Edward Heartin were both killed by lightening in 1830. A more macabre grave can be found in remote Cuxwold at St Nicholas churchyard. It commemorates a murder victim, Enoch Goldey aged 24, an assistant gamekeeper who “was cruelly murdered on 16th May 1860. Also, on a more cheerful note from Victorian times, and rare survivors, are the “VR” post boxes at Muckton and Belleau - both very well preserved. There are some prehistoric curiosities too! Still in the Wolds we move to Tathwell where there’s the remarkable sight of seven prehistoric burial mounds on the skyline known as the Bully Hill barrows on the skyline. These date from the Bronze Age – about 2.200 BC. About the same time people were also living by the Ancholme at present-day Brigg and prehistoric log boats (each cut from a single tree) have been found here along with a wooden causeway. One boat found in 1973 was first conserved at Greenwich Maritime Museum but returned to Brigg Heritage Centre for display in 2012. A must see! Finally, we finish in the far north again, with one of Lincolnshire’s more curious buildings; the Ropewalk at Barton-on- Humber. There is a long history of rope making in Barton since the Ropewalk opened in1767 and only closed in 1989. At 450 yards (1,350 feet) long it is twice the length of Lincoln cathedral and almost certainly Lincolnshire’s longest building. More curiosities next month when we explore south Lincolnshire. by Hugh MarrowsTIN CHAPEL STAINTON-LE-VALE SYPHER SPRING CAISTOR LOUTH MUSEUM ERRATIC BOULDER ALVINGHAM LOCK LOUTH NAVIGATIONBELLEAU POSTBOX66 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY HISTORICAL HOUSES T he Grade 1 listed Belton House is an historical building near Grantham, Lincolnshire, built between 1685 and 1687 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet, and is considered to be a great example of a typical English country house. It is subject to a compilation of styles, mainly Carolean (restoration) and is said to be built in the only truly vernacular style of architecture in England since Tudor times where a structure encompasses a variety of building types with different methods of construction from around the world, only being constrained by the materials available in the local region - the claim has even been made that Belton’s principal façade was the inspiration for the emblem on modern British motorway signs which give directions to stately homes. Like many large houses it has beautiful formal gardens and avenues of trees which lead to surrounding woodland and different follies, a folly being a building constructed primarily for decoration but suggesting through its appearance that it has some other purpose and so extravagant it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. It was the Brownlow family, a dynasty of lawyers, who started to buy properties in Lincolnshire to augment their income from 1598 with Belton House, 2 miles (3.2 km) from Grantham, becoming one of these purchases. The first Brownlow was Richard, Treasurer in 1606 and Chief Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, an office gaining him an annual profit of £6,000 with which he purchased the house. But he neither stayed at nor made changes to Belton, preferring to reside elsewhere. When he died, he was succeeded by son, Sir John Brownlow I, who passed away childless in 1679 who was attached to two of his distant blood relations: a great-nephew, also called John Brownlow, and great-niece, Historical Houses Belton House Historical Houses Belton HouseLINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 67 HISTORICAL HOUSES Alice Sherard from Lobthorpe in Lincolnshire, who married in 1676, both aged only 16 years! John Brownlow became an English MP, ending up Sheriff of Lincolnshire and MP for Grantham, a seat he held until his death. In his marriage to Alice, disappointingly in those days, they only had four (or five) daughters and no sons and so the titles belonging to his family moved to his younger brother, Sir William Brownlow, 4th Baronet, who received Belton House on condition that Alice could live there during her lifetime (as she outlived Sir William, it was passed on her death in 1721 to William’s son, John Brownlow). So it was Sir John Brownlow, now 3rd Baronet, who lived in Belton House, who in 1668 inherited the estate of Belton, amongst others, and built the comparatively modest house of today (considering his wealth) in 1685 - 1687. Nevertheless, Belton House was fitted with the latest innovations, such as using sash windows and followed the latest thinking on house-planning, in separating those parts for family use apart from the servants areas. Successive generations made changes to the interior which reflected their changing social position and tastes, such as adding a large wine cellar in 1857 containing nearly 5,000 bottles of precious wines and an even bigger beer cellar where pints of beer formed part of the servants’ wages: 3 pints/day for men, 1 ½ pints a day for women divided up at lunch, dinner and supper. In 1914, Belton House and parkland were the assembly point for the 11th (Northern) Division before its deployment in World War I, then in October 1915 it was used as the home depot/training ground of the Machine Gun Corps. During World War II, RAF Belton Park was 68 Á68 LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY HISTORICAL HOUSES established as were two RAF Regiment squadrons. By November 1944 1,850 personnel were based at Belton House. Another interesting fact is its link to Wallis Simpson. In the 1930s the house belonged to the 6th Lord Brownlow, a close friend of Edward VIII. Wallis and the King were weekend guests at Belton House and slept in the Chinese bedroom (not quite the most impressive bed there that being the tallest 4 poster bed in the UK, based on a Versailles design), Lord Brownlow accompanied Wallis when she left Britain for France and tried to persuade her to give up the King to no avail. Subsequently, for about three centuries, until 1984, Belton House remained the Brownlow family seat, with another point of interest being that the house was used by Prince Charles when he spent weekends there during training at nearby RAF Cranwell. But like many previously wealthy families, relatives of John Brownlow were faced with huge financial debt and so the estate was opened to the public. But in 1984 the financial difficulties were too great and the house was donated with most of its contents to the National Trust. The National Trust created ‘walks and talks’ and Christmas light extravaganzas to encourage the public to visit the house and so fund repairs and help conserve it, with further revenue raised from the use of the property as a filming location and licensing the Marble Hall for civil weddings – the estate now being visited by approximately 340,000 people per year. All in all Belton House gives a wonderful taste of its history, both past to present. Editorial by Jilly Day Photos by Imogen Leahy 12 3 45 1) Rear view of house and formal gardens 2) Tallest 4 poster bed in the UK 3) Chinese bed canopy 4) Portrait of John Brownlow (Husband of Alice) 5) Portrait of Alice Sherard (Wife of John Brownlow) LINCOLNSHIRE TODAY 69 CARING T oday, the vast majority of adults can expect to live many years past retirement age, and the number of older adults will more than double by the mid-century resulting in one of the most profound demographic shifts since 1960 – and as a happy, quality life is a priority for an elderly relative providing for this can be an overwhelming task and can be found in a myriad of ways, with varying budget options. Many elderly people enjoy the companionship, care and social interaction that living in a care home can bring with routine, regular meals, bathing, easy access to rooms, bathrooms, stair lifts, social events and visitors. The hundreds of UK residential nursing and care homes are overseen by the RQIA (Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority) who monitor standards of private, voluntary and Trust homes - verifying a care home an elderly relative may be interested in is up to standard relieves worry for an elderly relative and their family. If a relative has little or no assets to pay for the care home, the cost can be free through the NHS CHC (Continuing Healthcare) scheme with more information available at www.nhs.uk. If a retirement home is out of budget another option is for the older relative to Looking after family Looking after family © stock.adobe.com/Andrey Bandurenko Growing old is not fun and looking after an elderly person can at times feel difficult. We look here at the options available for help, and some quick tips that can work wonders. 70 ÁNext >