Bye Bye York Street

[Fairfax]

May & Baker were producers of a cure for bacterial pneumonia, known as Sulphonamide M & B 693. It was used on Winston Churchill when he contracted heart and lung problems towards the end of the war, and less famously on me too when I was two years old. Some time after the war, though I cannot remember the date (? fifties), they were looking to build a new factory in eastern England and chose, as their prime site, and area of reclaimed land at Frampton Marsh. The upshot was that they obtained planning permission in principle, but were refused permission to carry out ground works to link the factory to an enlarged water main. Of course, this killed the project as you cannot run a chemical works without water. Instead, they built on Sweet Briar Road in Norwich, and are still there under the name of Roche, unless that has changed in the last few years.

Nothing can be proven, but a predominance of farming interests on the council at the time is worthy of note.

[Maxross]

Wasn't there also an Italian steel producer that was treated in a similar fashion?  You only have to read the comments of some of our elected  "representitives" in the local press to see that their lack of vision has, for many years held Boston back and continues to do so.  I live away from Boston now but I still get the Standard but every time I read it I get depressed.

[Pilgrims67]

When I was doing my A levels my old geography teacher told me a couple of stories from the past.
1, That there where plans to develop a deep sea port near Frieston, rather than develop Boston Docks, this way they could take much larger boats, this was rejected, and now look at the state of our port
2. The Railways wanted to use Boston as its main hub to the north, with the mainline coming through Boston, which makes sense as we are a straight line from London, this was rejected, and the Railways picked on a small town called Doncaster, which saw its development explode, obvious I am happy that we dont resemble Donny its a dump, but its the principle.

I dont know how true any of this is, but its what I heard, and no reason to disbelieve

[dubai camel]

..... or try this.....

object to anything that may compete for the cheap labour pool, thus effecting the farmers in the Con Club!

[Fairfax]

The original Great Northern Railway main line did come throught Boston and the locomotive works was at Hall Hills, which I believe was close to the river bank near Anton's Gowt. As I don't live in the town, I have not been there for many years. I do remember that it had a tall chimney well into the sixties at least. A later decision by the GNR was taken to move the works to Doncaster, but I am not aware of the reason for the move. I think that it was on a more direct route avoiding the Humber estuary. Hall Hills became the main sleeper depot for the GNR then LNER and eventually British Railways. It was convenient as sleepers were made of Scandinavian timber imported into Boston Dock. The change to concrete sleepers saw the end of railway development in Boston. Otherwise we could have been one of the railway town football teams with Doncaster, Darlington, Crewe, Brighton, Swindon & Derby.

Incidentally, Peterborough was a small town, rather like Ely, but The Marquess of Exeter wouldn't let Stamford (a major Royal Mail Post Town) be developed as the junction with the main line and the cross country (Norfolk to the Midlands) route. That's why Stamford is still a small backwater town and Peterborough is a large city.

[green hats mate]

No need for the council to protect low wages , the goverments immigration policy (or lack of it! ) does a far better job of keeping wages down. dc.

[Old Pilgrim]

..... or try this.....

object to anything that may compete for the cheap labour pool, thus effecting the farmers in the Con Club!

But the Conservatives are Independent councillors aren't they?