Starmer's pit, Tritton road, Lincoln

[Pho2]

Excellent detective work,

keep going, we will crack it

[Jan1954]

Also....

....maybe the archive of the local council's Planning Department may hold a clue. They should have information on the name changes for any roads, buildings, gravel pits....

Failing that, the local Parish Council (if there is one) would probably have a historian.

[Pam Downes]

I should add that prior to the name appearing in the Lincolnshire Echo in c1966, I had only ever known it as Boultham Moor Pit but clearly, some knew it as Starmer's Pit.

Eilleen,
The brain's gone into overdrive (though if you believe that, you'll believe anything )
Question is - where did you see/where did you hear 'Starmer's Pit'? Recently/long time ago? In a conversation on one of your pub crawls? In a document/paper of a certain date?
Just thinking about Geoff's statement re him knowing it only as Boultham Moor Pit, when he lived in the area for quite a time. In which case is it a name that's come into use more in the last 40 years? Or is it a name that only the really old folk will know and use?
Pam

[Geoff Everitt]

The 'Starmer Group' were a trio of Midlands newspaper proprietors in the early 20th century, one of whom was a Charles Starmer.
One of the publications they owned was the Lincolnshire Chronicle. Did the paper have offices or a printworks in the vicinity of the pit?

Nice try, but no.

[eilleen]

Finbar,
I thought I might be on the right track with the newspaper group,
but it did not lead anywhere.

Pam,
pub crawl I see you meant to put "that during my researching trip's"
like Geoff , I had known it as Boultham pit, as well as other not so favourable names

Trying to get intouch with some of the local's as advised .

my other half pho2,
has just gone down to "Starmers pit "
he has been cleaning it up abit
it keep's him happy, also he say's after a hard day's work, it is stress relieving,

just going to look at map's again, to try and nail down the date it first show's as being dug out,
Hartsholme I know was used to give to Lincoln for drinking,
I was wondering if Starmers had ever been used as a source for drinking water in any form.

more question's than answer's

Eilleen.

[Lesley Robertson]

more question's than answer's

Eilleen.

Next time you're in town, nip into the Archives and ask them. They're very helpful. You'll probably need some form of ID if it's your first visit.
Lesley

[Pho2]

Well, what started as an idle curiousity about Starmers pit has evolved into an inquest about the history of the domestic water supply for Lincoln.

I have spoken to many locals who have fond memories of the place, and they have supplied me with interesting stories,,,,,,,,

The pits are not marked on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area from 1824. Surveying starting in 1819 i think and revision for railway in 1890.

Lincoln water Co. was formed in 1846 and i think their first major project was to build Hartsholme reservoir. Damming the beck and creating a 26 acre lake.
Lincoln was fast expanding and palatable water was in short supply.
Water from Hartsholme was sent to Boultham.
The water from the " new reservoir" was soon found to be lacking in quality.

I believe that Starmers pit was dug out from the 1850s as an additional
reservoir for Lincoln drinking water.
What are marked as Doddington road Ballast pits ( the railway lake and Starmers ) were and still are joined by a large iron pipe running under the railway line.
The reference i have found came from reports concerning the typhoid epidemic of 1904.
Water was tested in the Lincoln reservoirs including Heartsholme and " Doddington road ballast pits ".
Although the water from these was said to be stinking and unfit for drinking even after it had been boiled,, no typhoid was found.

Starmers pit is in whats left of Boultham moor wood, and probably should be called Boultham moor lake.

When i find the answers to its origins and strange name i will post ,,,,,,,
unless someone beats me to it,,,

[Geoff Everitt]

The pits are not marked on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area from 1824. Surveying starting in 1819 I think and revision for railway in 1890.

Yes, I have that map - it wasn't any help here at all.

As I said the 1887 map at www.old-maps.co.uk has Starmer's Pit in its entirety and the "Railway Pit" part excavated. Some old maps show "Doddington Ballast Sidings" giving rail access to the railway pit. Perhaps Starmer's Pit also had rail access, but I can see no signs of it. There is no obvious road access on old maps.

It's funny, I knew Hartsholme Lake was part of Lincoln's water supply but didn't know it was the lake's reason for being there. I would express some doubts that it was the only supply indeed, as when I was a kid, there was a channel under Skellingthorpe Road through which one could crawl in the summer - in the winter it was the overflow for the lake, but was dry in summer. I wonder if water was piped from there to Boultham Baths or whether it found its own way along the Catchwater Drain which flowed close to both of them.

I can remember in my childhood seeing large open brick-sided rectangular pits at Boultham Baths. I suppose they were a remnant of the site's past as a waterworks.

[eilleen]

Geoff,

Pho2 , has gone to "Starmers pit "

so I will put my two pennies worth in,

I remember the pipe as well, and on map's that we have been looking at it seems to head off to Haw Hill area

I told Pho2 that the brick pit's before entering Boultham bath's, had been the Victorian bathing area's ,
before the modern one's were built,
I think your idea make's more sense .

Eilleen.

[Geoff Everitt]

I remember the pipe as well, and on map's that we have been looking at it seems to head off to Haw Hill area

I told Pho2 that the brick pit's before entering Boultham bath's, had been the Victorian bathing area's , before the modern one's were built,
I think your idea make's more sense .

Hi eilleen

I don't remember any pipe I don't think I do anyway ???

What or where is/was Haw Hill? I can't think of a hill within a mile of Boultham Moor.

When I was a kid, I thought they were some sort of old swimming pools too (empty ones). From what I remember they were maybe 15 feet deep all the way along, so a bit deeper than needed for swimming.

I just remembered ... a few years ago I picked up a 1928 Lincoln street plan. At Boultham Baths (which didn't exist at the time) there is WATER WORKS (Lincoln Corporation) - there are four rectangles marked on the map as FILTER BEDS - so now we know