Streets through time - Pond Street
No 2 Wyggeston Farm
Other properties in Pond Street:
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No 3 Cherry Tree Cottage aka The Ferns
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No 9 Coach House aka Manor View
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No 10 Cornridge aka Home Lodge
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Three cottages, now a house. Late C18, altered mid C19 and late C20. Red brick and coursed squared stone, with moulded brick dressings and pantile roof. Single ridge and gable brick stacks with round topped panels. Dentillated eaves. 2 storeys; 4 window range. This building is probably one of those built or altered c1790-1820 by George de Ligne Gregory, and altered c1820-1840 by Gregory Gregory,
In the Estate sale of 1937, this property does not appear to have been included in the sale as it came under the ownership of the Wyggeston Trust.
This was the site of the original village inn, the Golden Lion. However, John Sherwin Gregory, the local squire, was upset by having to see villagers drinking ale outside the pub on his way home from the church so he shut the pub in the 1860's and gave the Gregory Arms on the main road a six day license so it could open all days of the week except the Sabbath and compensated the licensee with the rights to sell coal to the Manor and the village. It is generally thought that the Inn was moved to a new Gregory Arms but earlier maps show that the Gregory was already a practicing Inn some 60 years prior to the Golden Lion closing.
Above images taken in late 1960's.
Mrs Pat Hollingsworth, a local resident now living on Swinehill, recalls living here. Pat (born 1937) is the daughter of Fred (born 1999) and Biddy (real name Ethel born 1912) Higgins and they moved to Wyggeston Farm in approx 1944. The Higgins family originally lived in Manor Crest in West End and when the property was sold off in the 1937 Estate sale they moved to Dysart Rd in Grantham before returning to Harlaxton. The property was then owned by the Wyggeston Trust and the Higgins became their tenants. Pat moved to the village school from Dysart School. She recalls that Harlaxton school wasn't a very good school at the time when Harry Abbott was the Headmaster and, two years later, Pats mum moved her to St Annes school in Dudley Rd Grantham as it had a better reputation. To get to school, she had to catch the bus from Mr Noon's gate at Coneygree.
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Pat’s father Fred was a dairy farmer. He had around eight or nine cows which were milked twice a day by hand until they installed an electric milking machine. The old cow shed - which is now a residential house No 36 High St -was on the corner of Pond Street and High Street Fred used a cart to carry the milk around the village and a couple village boys would help deliver the small cans of milk which were filled from the churn, with a pint measure, to people’s doors. The milk was 6d a pint back then. The Higgins had a milk quota, and most of their milk went to the Co-op in Grantham.
Fred also had a big lorry which he used for carting rubbish to an airfield.
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Pat recalls that Wyggeston Farm had at one time been a bakers, a coal yard and a pub (The Golden Lion).
When Daddy Dimmock gave up the post office at Maytree House, Church St, it moved across the road and was run by Mrs Gibson. Some years later, it then moved into the old cow shed where it was originally run by Mrs Fox. Pat recalls a lampshade business being run from the cow shed by the Jarman family. Vic Oliver also ran the PO at one time.
Left is image of the cow sheds of Wyggeston Farm taken from No 73 High St front garden complete with local hedgehog. Date of image unknown.