Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire - Winter Gardens Royal Hotel, Ruddock -local pmk 1907

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Winter Gardens, Royal Hotel, Woodhall Spa [Lincolnshire]
• Publisher: 'Ar-Chrom' series, Ruddock, Lincs.
• Postally used: yes
• Stamp:  Edward VII half d light green
• Postmark(s): Woodhall Spa 1907 cds
• Sent to:  Miss M. J. Cooke, West Street, Alford, Lincs.
• Notes / condition: small nick on top edge

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Woodhall Spa is a former spa town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, 6 miles (10 km) south-west of Horncastle, 23 miles (37 km) west of Skegness, 15 miles (24 km) east-south-east of Lincoln and 17 miles (27 km) north-west of Boston. It is noted for its mineral springs, cinema and its Second World War association with the RAF 617 Squadron. The cinema has the last remaining rear screen projector in the country.

Much of the village's Victorian elegance remains, and since January 1991 much of the centre has been a designated conservation area.[2]

Woodhall Spa Manor

The building and grounds of Woodhall Spa Manor are intrinsically linked to the development of the village from its formative years. The earliest references to this site show that a small hunting lodge was present here in the late 18th century. The inner library room still retains original Jacobean carving over the fireplace and is believed to be the earliest remaining feature from the hunting lodge days.

Woodhall Lodge or Wood Corner, as it was then known, became the property of one Thomas Hotchkin of Rutland, Lord of the Manor of Thimbleby and Woodhall. Hotchkin had inherited many manors throughout Rutland and Lincolnshire but Woodhall Lodge was his particular favourite and where he spent most of his time. Half a mile to the west of the grounds, close to the present Kinema, Thomas Hotchkin had built a spa bath in the late 1830s, having by chance discovered the healing properties of the iodine-rich water in a disused mine shaft on his land. In 1842 White's Directory describes Woodhall Spa as "a modern watering place … with just over 300 souls" and Thomas Hotchkin as living in Woodhall Lodge, "a neat mansion near the spa'.

After his passing, four further generations of the Hotchkin Family lived in Woodhall Lodge. At some point during the last century, it was renamed as the Old Manor or Manor House. During the residence of Thomas Hotchkin's great grandson, Stafford Vere Hotchkin (1876–1953), who helped to redesign the adjacent world-rated golf course which bears his name, there were major additions to the building. Around 1905 the south-west corner and east wings were built, greatly enlarging the footprint of the property, leaving the front entrance wholly Georgian, whilst, to the left and right are the Edwardian additions. The magnificent sweeping staircase, the beautiful hallway and Queens Room fireplaces, and the mahogany panelled entrance to the library all date from this period of high elegance. In 1965, Thomas Hotchkin’s great great grandson, Neil Stafford Hotchkin (1914–2004), sold the property to the National Farmers Union and it was converted into offices as the company’s regional headquarters. Around twenty five years later, it was sold to a local businessman, who continued to run it as offices for various Lincolnshire companies. In 2013 new owners renamed it Woodhall Spa Manor and it now serves as a wedding and event venue.

The Tower-on-the-Moor, an octagonal, four-storey, red brick-built tower, is the stair turret of what is believed to have been a hunting lodge, built in the mid–15th century for Ralph de Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell whose fortified house, Tattershall Castle, was located 4 miles (6 km) to the south in Tattershall.[19] It is a Grade II* Listed Building[19] and a scheduled Ancient Monument.[20] Documentary sources indicate that the tower was partly dismantled in 1472, when bricks from the Tower on the Moor were used for repairs at Tattershall Castle.[21][22] One of the older roads in Woodhall Spa, Tor-O-Moor Road is named after the tower.[citation needed]

The Tower is adjacent to the 3rd green of the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa Golf Club. It is a notable feature of the course and has been adopted as the emblem of the golf club.

Geography

Woodhall Spa lies at the southwestern edge of the Central Lincolnshire Vale, between the Rivers Witham and Bain. The village is largely flat rising gently towards the east, and is surrounded towards the north and east by a mixture of ancient and planted woodland. To the south west can be found many sand and gravel excavation pits, some still in use and some abandoned, many of which are now protected nature reserves. Much of the land on which the village is built was once extensive heathland with a light fluvial sandy soil.[23] Well-preserved areas of heathland can be seen at Moor Farm Nature Reserve on Wellsyke Lane, where plants include tormentil, bell heather and climbing corydalis.

The abundance of sand and gravel in the soil around Woodhall Spa explains the formation of acidic heathland, in a county otherwise characterised by calcareous bedrock and naturally alkaline soils. Lincolnshire's heathland has historically been eroded by agriculture, forestry, quarrying and peat-cutting and is threatened by falling water-tables[24] To the northwest, south and immediately west can be found arable farmland, with the River Witham lying one mile to the west of the village centre and arable fenland beyond that.

The civil parish of Woodhall Spa borders the civil parishes of Tattershall Thorpe, Timberland, Martin, Stixwould and Woodhall, Roughton, and Kirkby on Bain.