Birchwood, Hartsholme and Swanpool

Description

This volume (the tenth) in the Survey of Lincoln neighbourhood booklet series examines the southern area of the city that lies west of the level crossings on Skellingthorpe Road and Doddington road. It includes the extensive and diverse housing developments of Birchwood, Hartsholme and Swanpool and the schools and places of worship that were built alongside them. It also explores the largely undeveloped area north of Skellingthorpe Road and south of the Fossdyke.

Chapters range across a wide variety of themes and time periods – from Roman times until the 21st century. As with other volumes in the series, this edited collection examines how people lived through exploring the buildings and structures they left behind, some still surviving and others now demolished.

Today perhaps the area is best known for its housing and Hartsholme Country Park. This work plots the short life of Hartsholme Hall and examines the extensive residential estate development in the area that spans nine decades of the twentieth century. It also looks at other aspects that perhaps are relatively little known. The work explores the area’s links to industry and farming. It highlights the important contribution the area made to the Second World War, with significant RAF and military bases located within the district and strategic wartime supply facilities built to serve the city and beyond . The neighbourhood’s railways are also put under the spotlight.

This is a fast-developing part of the city, with a past worthy of investigation.