• King John visited Louth in 1210.
   
• Any center of trade is a potential site for plague. Plague came to Louth in 1515, 1538, 1543 and 1587. In April of 1631, the village was ravaged by plague. By November, the disease had taken more than 750 lives, leaving many houses and shops empty. All trade was suspended and the markets abandoned. Survivors talked about abandoning the village, but decided to stay.
   
• In 1536, the town was the origin of the Lincolnshire Rising, which started on 1 October 1536 in St James Church. The rising began after Rev. Thomas KENDALL, the incumbent, gave an 'emotive sermon', the evening before the King's Commissioners were due to arrive and assess the church's wealth. Eventually, 30,000 supporters were said to have marched to Lincoln to confront the King's Commissioners. Michael GARLICK has a photograph of the Memorial Plaque on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2016. The event caused King Henry VIII to write that Lincolnshire was, "The most brute and beastly shire of the whole realm."
   
• In the 1600s, the King's Head Hotel opened. Jo TURNER has a photograph of the King's Head Hotel on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2011.
   
• In 1761, construction started on the Louth Canal project, allowing the village access to the North Sea via Tetney Lock. (Some sources give a date of 1763, which is the date Parliament passed the "Louth Canal Act". The canal travels about four miles easterly from the village, then swings to the north toward Tetney Lock.
   
• A 1797 report tells us that the town was without manufacturers, but we suspect that boatbuilding, brewing and tanning were overlooked. In 1840, the chief manufacturer made carpets and blankets (established in 1787!). A second was a paper manufacturer. And, as usual, much of the town depended on tanneries, soaperies, boatbuilding, breweries, etc.
   
• In 1802, a sheep market was established every Friday during spring and autumn.
   
• In 1822, we have this report of emigrants from Louth in the Strabane Morning Post (a Portable Document File).
   
• In 1826, in April, the Gas Works opened to provide lighting for the town.
   
• The Municipal Reform Act of 1835 split Louth into two wards - north and south.
   
• In 1848, the Great Northern Railway established the first rail link with another town - Grimsby.
   
• The Louth Water Works Company was formed by an act of Parliament in 1871. The water source for the town was a spring called "Silver Spring" in the valley adjoining Hubbard's hills.
   
• Date unknown: Mr. Tommy AYSCOUGH, a dairy farmer from Immingham, set up a trust fund and built AYSCOUGH HALL on Lee Street.
   
• In May, 1920, parts of Louth were flooded, killing 23 people. There is a memorial in the cemetery.
   
• Check out #069, An Old-Fashioned Winter, 1938, a black and white 16mm film clip, 14 min., with sound, from Lincs Film.
   
• Richard CROFT provides a photograph of the Chalybeate spring head near the river on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2015.
   
• Dennis WETHERLEY provides this family story:
   

There was a story in the Louth Standard on October 19th 1935 about the house known as "Eau Meets". The postal address of the house was Conisholme although it was much closer to Alvingham and seems to have no connection to Conisholme. The story is about the terrible state of the house which was literally falling down around John (b 1876) and Elizabeth SPENDLOW nee SMITH (b 1878 in Skendleby).

The house had been in the family for at least 3 generations and as far as I can find out was first occupied by Richard SPENDLOW (b 1774 in Saltfleetby All Saints) and his wife Elizabeth (b 1767). The house was situated at the point where the river Lud split into the North and South Eau, hence the name Eau Meets. Incidentally the locals pronounce Eau as "ee" as in "see" and not the French pronunciation.

Family stories say that one of the duties of the occupiers was to regulate the flow of water along the river using sluice gates next to the house. These waterways are now but a shadow of what they must have been and are mostly dry.

After Richard SPENDLOW the house was occupied by his son Richard (b 1831) and his wife Mildred nee BURKITT (b 1831 in Mablethorpe) and in turn by Isaac SPENDLOW (b 1841 in North Cockerington) and his wife Sarah nee LANCASTER (b 1837 in Grimoldby). Why Isaac was born in North Cockerington I don't know. Isaac's sisters were all born at Eau Meets.

In the Louth museum there is a photograph of Isaac riding his tricycle in Louth. He looks quite a character. According to the 1881 census the house was divided into two with Richard and his wife and granddaughter in one house and his son Isaac and his family in the other, 8 altogether. According to the story in the Standard the house was built from mud and straw bricks which had been made in a "sod clamp" and were not equal in size which must have made them difficult to lay.

Originally there was no chimney, just a hole in the roof over the fire. The chimney was not built until around 1860. In 1935 a new house was built next to the now decrepit old house and John and Elizabeth moved a few yards to the new one. The old house was demolished. The new house is still there and is still "Eau Meets".

• In June, 2007, parts of Louth were flooded again. Chris has a series of photographs starting at on Geo-graph to document the flooding.
   
• Louth is situated on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds and is commonly referred to as the ‘Capital of the Wolds’. It is the largest market town in the District of East Lindsey.
   

• You may want to find the book "The History of the County of Lincoln" by ALLEN, publ. 1834. Found online at Archive.Org.
   
• Here's a handy website of British history which you can search by location.
   
• The Black Death or Plague swept through Lincolnshire (and all of western Europe) in 1680 through 1690.
   
• All of England suffered from a "monster" storm in November of 1703 that killed a reported 8,000 people. Seaside villages suffered greatly and their church and civil records may have been lost.
   
• In a similar storm in early 1953 flooding occurred from Mablethorpe to Skegness, reaching as far as 2 miles inland.
   
• Liz DAVIES offers a list of names from the Agricultural Workers Revolt of 1872 and a list of Farmers against the Unions of 1874. Her Great Grandfather had an employer who found him reading a newspaper one day. He was asked "Can you read then, Pennell?" "Yes, sir," was the reply. "Then you can pack your bags and be off. We don't want your sort here."
   
• For reasons that are buried in ancient history, folks who were born in Lincolnshire are called Yellow Bellies. No one knows for sure, but come find a list of possibilities.
   
• What was life like back in the "good old days"? You might try to find a copy of "Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes," written in 1698. Part 3 covers her trip through East Anglia. Another source is H. E. Bates, who began to write a regular column for "Country Life" (published by Penguin) just before WW2. Beware the authors who paint rosy pictures of the landed gentry and their great estates.
   
• The book "Life As We Have Known It," Margaret Llewelyn DAVIES, reprinted by Virago in 1977 is a selection of notes written by women around WW1, describing their lives. The chapter by Mrs. Burrows - "A childhood in the Fens 1850-1860", would shatter all of one's illusions about how life in the country really was. She left school at 8 years of age, unable to read or write. She worked 14 hours in the fields with other children younger than her. The ganger had a whip, which "he did not forget to use". They were required to walk at least 2 miles and sometimes around five miles to reach a particular field, and then home again in the evening. (Thank you, Adrian HEDGECOY)
   
• The Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 might have your village listed in its Lincolnshire section.
   
• The "big invention" of the 1800s was the steam engine and the impact it had on agriculture that century. It not only brought the railways, but also steam engines now replaced "ag labs" in the fields and replaced windmills for draining the Fens and pumping water. Oddly, many men found work in the coal mines to supply fuel for these "beasts", while others worked in the iron pits around Scunthorpe because of the demand for iron and steel.
   
• "The Lincolnshire Poacher" is a traditional English folk song associated with the county of Lincolnshire, and dealing with the joys of poaching. It is considered to be the unofficial county anthem of Lincolnshire and it is the quick march of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell. Find out more at Wikipedia
   

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