A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods , thoroughfares , parishes , landmarks , geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to the area (e.g. William Morris Ward in the London Borough of Waltham Forest , England). It is common in the United States for wards to simply be numbered.
46-519: Skirbeck Quarter is a suburb of Boston in Lincolnshire , England. It is located to the south of the town centre and is directly adjacent to the ward of St Thomas' and the South Forty-Foot Drain . Skirbeck Quarter is directly south of Boston and north of the village of Wyberton . Despite its name, it is not part of the historic village of Skirbeck , which is split by both The Haven and
92-602: A hamlet or farm ; hence the Latin villa Sancti Botulfi "St. Botulf's village"). The name Botulfeston appears in 1460, with an alias "Boston". The town was once said to have been a Roman settlement, but no evidence shows this to be the case. Similarly, it is often linked to the monastery established by the Saxon monk Botolph at "Icanhoe" on the Witham in AD ;654 and destroyed by
138-614: A ward was an administrative subdivision of a county , very similar to a hundred in other parts of England. In Australia , Canada , New Zealand , South Africa , Sri Lanka , the United Kingdom , and the United States , wards are an electoral district , within a district or municipality , used in local government elections. In the United States, wards are usually subdivided into precincts for polling purposes. In Wisconsin,
184-542: A 'ward' is what in most other states would be a precinct In some cities of India , such as Mumbai and Delhi , a ward is an administrative unit of the city region; a city area is divided into Zones, which in turn contain numerous wards. The smallest administrative unit of Gram Panchayats in India is also known as a ward. In Bangladesh wards are subdivisions of a city or town which administrates under City Corporations and municipalities ( pourashova ) In East Africa,
230-523: A miller and millwright. His mill was once prominent near Skirbeck Church, just to the east of the Maud Foster Drain. The railway reached the town in 1848, and it was briefly on the main line from London to the north. The area between the Black Sluice and the railway station was mainly railway yard and the railway company's main depot. The latter facility moved to Doncaster when the modern main line
276-598: A theatre in 1965 and now houses the Blackfriars Arts Centre . Henry VIII granted the town its charter in 1545 and Boston had two Members of Parliament from 1552. The staple trade made Boston a centre of intellectual influence from the Continent, including the teachings of John Calvin that became known as Calvinism . This, in turn, revolutionised the Christian beliefs and practices of many Bostonians and residents of
322-502: Is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire , England. Boston is the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Boston local government district. The town had a population of 45,339 at the 2021 census, while the borough had an estimated population of 66,900 at the ONS mid-2015 estimates. Boston's most notable landmark is St Botolph's Church , colloquially referred to as 'The Stump',
368-472: Is in the Lincolnshire Standard newspaper, January 1918. During the war the port was used by hospital ships and some 4,000 sick or wounded troops passed through Boston. The town was bombed by a Zeppelin on 2 September 1916, injuring three adults and killing a child. The first cinema opened in 1910, and in 1913, a new town bridge was constructed. Central Park was purchased in 1919, and is now one of
414-548: Is known locally as Boston Stump and is renowned for its size and its dominant appearance in the surrounding countryside. The Great Sluice is disguised by railway and road bridges, but it is there, keeping the tide out of the Fens and twice a day, allowing the water from the upland to scour the Haven. Not far away, in the opposite direction, was the boyhood home of John Foxe , the author of Foxe's Book of Martyrs . The Town Bridge maintains
460-565: Is located). This is likely to be where the Scrooby Pilgrims were imprisoned in 1607. There is a statue of Herbert Ingram , founder of The Illustrated London News , in front of the Stump. The statue was designed by Alexander Munro and was unveiled in October 1862. The allegorical figure at the base of the monument is a reference to Ingram's efforts to bring the first piped water to the town. He
506-520: Is now considered part of Boston, but the name remains, as a church parish and an electoral ward . The order of importance was the other way round, when the Boston quarter of Skirbeck developed at the head of the Haven , which lies under the present Market Place. At that stage, The Haven was the tidal part of the stream, now represented by the Stone Bridge Drain ( map ), which carried the water from
SECTION 10
#1733093708382552-405: The 2021 Census , the population of Boston is around 70,500. This is 9.1% higher than the 64,600 reported in the 2011 Census . This was a higher percentage of growth than the 6.6% national average for England during the same period. Much of this population growth is due to high levels of immigration to the town, especially from eastern Europe. The 2021 Census states that 23.6% of Boston's population
598-729: The East Lincolnshire Railway from Grimsby to Boston and the simultaneous building of the Lincolnshire Loop Line by the Great Northern Railway , which ran between Peterborough and York , via Boston, Lincoln and Doncaster . This line was built before the East Coast Main Line and, for a short while, put Boston on the map as the GNR's main locomotive works before it was relocated to Doncaster in 1852. Boston
644-563: The Holland coast, grain , produced up-river, and lead, produced in Derbyshire and brought via Lincoln , up-river. A quarrel between the local and foreign merchants led to the withdrawal of the Hansards around 1470. Around the same time, the decline of the local guilds and shift towards domestic weaving of English wool (conducted in other areas of the country) led to a near-complete collapse of
690-593: The River Witham . It is contiguous with Wyberton. Skirbeck Quarter was recorded in the Domesday Book as Scirebec . In 1866 Skirbeck Quarter became a civil parish , in 1894 it became part of Boston Rural District , on 1 April 1932 the parish was abolished and merged with Boston and became part of the Municipal Borough of Boston. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1740. Boston, Lincolnshire Boston
736-634: The Vikings in 870, but this is doubted by modern historians. The early medieval geography of The Fens was much more fluid than it is today, and at that time, the Witham did not flow near the site of Boston. Botolph's establishment is most likely to have been in Suffolk . However, he was a popular missionary and saint to whom many churches between Yorkshire and Sussex are dedicated. The 1086 Domesday Book does not mention Boston by name, but nearby settlements of
782-641: The 32 council seats, losing all but four of them in the subsequent election in 2011. Boston received its charter in 1546. It is the main settlement in the Boston local government district of Lincolnshire, which includes the unparished town of Boston and 18 other civil parishes . The borough council is based in the Municipal Buildings in West Street. As of 2015, Boston Borough council consisted of 30 members: In 2017, six county council divisions existed for
828-648: The Borough of Boston, each of which returned one member to Lincolnshire County Council: The town is part of the Boston and Skegness parliamentary constituency , currently represented by Reform UK chairman, Richard Tice . Prior to the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union , Boston was part of the East Midlands European Parliament constituency , which elected five members. According to
874-513: The Earldom of Richmond, North Yorkshire , and known as the Richmond Fee. It lay on the left bank of The Haven. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Boston grew into a notable town and port. In 1204, King John vested sole control over the town in his bailiff . That year or the next, he levied a "fifteenth" tax ( quinzieme ) of 6.67% on the moveable goods of merchants in the ports of England:
920-453: The East and West Fens. The line of the road through Wide Bargate, to A52 and A16 , is likely to have developed on its marine silt levees. It led, as it does now, to the relatively high ground at Sibsey ( map ), and thence to Lindsey . The reason for the original development of the town, away from the centre of Skirbeck, was that Boston lay on the point where navigable tidal water was alongside
966-501: The current one, costing £35 million and doubling the current department in size. Boston railway station is a stop on the Poacher Line ; East Midlands Railway operates a generally hourly service between Nottingham , Grantham and Skegness . These services are run by the Class 170, 158 or the older Class 156 trains. The railways came to Boston in 1848, following the building of
SECTION 20
#17330937083821012-490: The drainage locally, Lord Lindsey , was shot in the first battle and the fens returned to their accustomed dampness until after 1750. The later 18th century saw a revival when the Fens began to be effectively drained. The Act of Parliament permitting the embanking and straightening of the fenland Witham was dated 1762. A sluice, called for in the act, was designed to help scour out The Haven. The land proved to be fertile, and Boston began exporting cereals to London. In 1774,
1058-564: The first financial bank was opened, and in 1776, an act of Parliament allowed watchmen to begin patrolling the streets at night. In the 19th century, the names of Howden, a firm located near the Grand Sluice, and Tuxford, near the Maud Foster Sluice, were respected among engineers for their steam road locomotives, threshing engines, and the like. Howden developed his business from making steam engines for river boats, while Tuxford began as
1104-599: The fishing trade was moved out in the interwar period. At the beginning of the First World War , a number of the town's trawlermen, together with some from Grimsby , were taken prisoner after their ships were sunk by German raiders in the North Sea. Their families did not know what had happened to them until late September 1914. The men were taken to Sennelager camp, then on to Ruhleben POW camp , where most remained until repatriated in 1918. A full report of their homecoming
1150-551: The focal points of the town. Electricity came to Boston during the early part of the century, and electrical street lighting was provided from 1924. During the Second World War , 17 residents of the borough were killed by enemy air raids. A memorial in Boston Cemetery commemorates them. The Haven Bridge, which now carries the two trunk roads over the river, was opened in 1966, and a new dual carriageway, John Adams Way,
1196-706: The following year, set sail for the Netherlands, settling in Leiden . In 1620, several of these were among the group who moved to New England in the Mayflower . Boston remained a hotbed of religious dissent. In 1612, John Cotton became the Vicar of St Botolph's and, although viewed askance by the Church of England for his nonconformist preaching, became responsible for a large increase in Church attendance. He encouraged those who disliked
1242-525: The highest such vote in the country. In the 2019 Borough elections, the Conservatives were confirmed as the majority party on Boston Borough Council with 16 of the 30 seats, followed by independents with 11. In May 2007, a single-issue political party, the Boston Bypass Independents campaigning for a bypass to be built around the town, took control of the council when they won 25 of
1288-544: The lack of religious freedom in England to join the Massachusetts Bay Company , and later helped to found the city of Boston, Massachusetts, which he was instrumental in naming. Unable to tolerate the religious situation any longer, he eventually emigrated himself in 1633. At the same time, work on draining the fens to the west of Boston was begun, a scheme which displeased many whose livelihoods were at risk. (One of
1334-520: The land route, which used the Devensian terminal moraine ridge at Sibsey, between the upland of East Lindsey and the three routes to the south of Boston: The River Witham seems to have joined The Haven after the flood of September 1014, having abandoned the port of Drayton, on what subsequently became known as Bicker Haven. The predecessor of Ralph the Staller owned most of both Skirbeck and Drayton, so it
1380-488: The largest parish church in England, which is visible from miles away across the flat lands of Lincolnshire. Residents of Boston are known as Bostonians. Emigrants from Boston named several other settlements around the world after the town, most notably Boston , Massachusetts, then a colony and now part of the United States. The name Boston is said to be a contraction of " Saint Botolph 's town", "stone" or " tun " ( Old English , Old Norse and modern Norwegian for
1426-461: The late 1980s and became a working mill again. It stands next to the drain after which it is named, and is unusual in having an odd number (five) of sails. The Guildhall in which the Pilgrim Fathers were tried was converted into a museum in 1929. The cells in which the pilgrims are said to have been held at the time of their trial are on the ground floor. After a major refurbishment during which
Skirbeck Quarter - Misplaced Pages Continue
1472-468: The line of the road to Lindsey and from its western end, looking at the river side of the Exchange Building to the right, it is possible to see how the two ends of the building, founded on the natural levees of The Haven, have stood firm while the middle has sunk into the infill of the former river. From 1552, Bostonians used to have their jail near the Stump (about where the red car in the photograph
1518-515: The merchants of Boston paid £780, the highest in the kingdom after London's £836. Thus, by the opening of the 13th century, Boston was already significant in trade with the continent of Europe and ranked as a port of the Hanseatic League . In the thirteenth century it was said to be the second port in the country. Edward III named it a staple port for the wool trade in 1369. Apart from wool, Boston also exported salt , produced locally on
1564-495: The museum was closed for several years, it reopened in 2008. The Pilgrim Fathers Memorial is located on the north bank of The Haven a few miles outside the town. Here at Scotia Creek, the pilgrims made their first attempt to leave for the Dutch Republic in 1607. The ruined Hussey Tower is all that remains of a medieval brick-fortified house, built in 1450, and occupied by John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford until he
1610-525: The neighbouring shires of England. In 1607, a group of pilgrims from Nottinghamshire led by William Brewster and William Bradford attempted to escape pressure to conform with the teaching of the English church by going to the Netherlands from Boston. At that time, unsanctioned emigration was illegal, and they were brought before the court in the Guildhall . Most of the pilgrims were released fairly soon, and
1656-508: The sources of livelihood obtained from the fen was fowling, supplying ducks and geese for meat and in addition the processing of their feathers and down for use in mattresses and pillows. Until 2018, the feathery aspect of this was still reflected in the presence of the local bedding company named Fogarty. ) This and the religious friction put Boston into the parliamentarian camp in the Civil War , which in England began in 1642. The chief backer of
1702-484: The tenant-in-chief Count Alan Rufus of Brittany are covered. Its present territory was probably then part of the grant of Skirbeck , part of the very wealthy manor of Drayton, which before 1066 had been owned by Ralph the Staller , Edward the Confessor 's Earl of East Anglia . Skirbeck had two churches and one is likely to have been that dedicated to St Botolph, in what was consequently Botolph's town. Skirbeck ( map )
1748-628: The town's foreign trade. The silting of the Haven only furthered the town's decline. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII during the English Reformation , Boston's Dominican , Franciscan , Carmelite , and Augustinian friaries—erected during the boom years of the 13th and 14th centuries—were all expropriated. The refectory of the Dominican friary was eventually converted into
1794-809: The word ward used in English is translated into Swahili/Kiswahili as Kata. In the case of a municipal amalgamation , the former cities and towns that make up the new metropolis may be referred to as wards. In Monaco , wards are informal divisions of the country, grouped into quartiers. In the Republic of Ireland , urban divisions were called wards and rural ones were called district electoral divisions . Both were renamed as electoral divisions in 1996. The electoral districts for Irish local authorities are local electoral areas . These are generally defined as combinations of electoral divisions, and in urban areas were formally described as combination of wards. In Japan ,
1840-461: Was a relatively simple task to transfer his business from Drayton, but Domesday Book in 1086 still records his source of income in Boston under the heading of Drayton, so Boston's name is not mentioned. The Town Bridge still maintains the preflood route, along the old Haven bank. After the Norman conquest , Ralph the Staller's property was taken over by Count Alan . It subsequently came to be attached to
1886-402: Was also instrumental in bringing the railways to Boston. Born in nearby Paddock Grove, son of a butcher, he was also MP for Boston , from 1856 until his death in 1860, in a shipping accident on Lake Michigan . The seven-storeyed Maud Foster Tower Windmill , completed in 1819 by millwrights Norman and Smithson of Kingston upon Hull for Issac and Thomas Reckitt, was extensively restored in
Skirbeck Quarter - Misplaced Pages Continue
1932-626: Was born outside of the UK. 5.6% of the population of Boston was born in Lithuania and 5.4% was born in Poland . This is the highest proportion of Lithuanians anywhere in the UK and the second highest number of Poles, behind Slough, Berkshire . Polish is the main language of 5.68% of the inhabitants. Boston has historically had strong cultural connections to the Netherlands , and Dutch influence can be found in its architecture . The parish church of Saint Botolph
1978-534: Was built in 1976–8 to take traffic away from the town centre. A shopping centre, named the Pescod Centre, opened in 2004, bringing many new shops into the town. Boston Cottage Hospital opened in 1871, was rebuilt in the 1960s, and is now called the Pilgrim Hospital , having been officially opened by Princess Anne on 23 June 1977. The hospital is currently building a new Emergency Department extension next to
2024-722: Was executed in the wake of the Lincolnshire Rising . 2 miles (3 km) east, Rochford Tower is another medieval tower house. Ward (country subdivision) The word "ward", for an electoral subdivision, appears to have originated in the Wards of the City of London , where gatherings for each ward known as "wardmotes" have taken place since the 12th century. The word was much later applied to divisions of other cities and towns in England and Wales and Ireland . In parts of northern England ,
2070-447: Was opened. Boston remained something of a local railway hub well into the 20th century, moving the produce of the district and the trade of the dock, plus the excursion trade to Skegness . Boston once again became a significant port in trade and fishing in 1884, when the new dock with its associated wharves on The Haven were constructed. It continued as a working port, exporting grain, fertiliser, and importing timber, although much of
2116-546: Was the southern terminus of the East Lincolnshire Line to Louth and Grimsby, until its closure in 1970. Bus services in the area are operated predominantly by Stagecoach East , Stagecoach East Midlands and Brylaine Travel. Key routes link the town with Lincoln, Skegness and Spalding. Boston residents voted strongly (75.6%) in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership ,
#381618