Building record MLI10032 - St Mary's Guildhall, Boston

Summary

St Mary's Guildhall, Boston.

Type and Period (11)

  • (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1390 AD? to 1547 AD?)
  • (Medieval - 1300 AD to 1499 AD)
  • (Medieval - 1300 AD to 1499 AD)
  • (Post Medieval - 1555 AD? to 1680 AD?)
  • (Post Medieval - 1583 AD? to 1820 AD?)
  • (Post Medieval - 1555 AD? to 1680 AD?)
  • (First World War - 1915 AD to 1918 AD)
  • (Second World War to Mid 20th Century - 1940 AD? to 1946 AD?)
  • (Post Medieval to Edwardian - 1583 AD? to 1902 AD)
  • (Early 20th Century to 21st Century - 1920 AD? to 2050 AD)
  • (Post Medieval to Modern - 1720 AD? to 2050 AD)

Protected Status/Designation

Full Description

St Mary's Guildhall, Boston is a grade I listed building. For the full description and the legal address of this listed building please refer to the appropriate List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. {1} St Mary's Guildhall is a fine 15th century brick building with stone quoins and tracery windows. Excellent 15th century stained glass. The Pilgrim Fathers are said to have been detained here until the will of the king was made known. They were allowed to proceed to Holland and afterwards to America. {2}{3} The Guildhall had been designated as a scheduled ancient monument, but was descheduled in 1989. It is still a listed building. {4}{5} Stained glass in this building, some of which is in situ, can be found in the chapel/banqueting hall and dates to about 1450AD and to the 14th to 15th centuries. {6} The Guildhall is said to have been built as a hall for the religious guild of the blessed Virgin Mary in approximately 1450. Boston Guildhall is a two storey building of eleven bays. The walls are of late medieval brick, the floor and roof frame are timber-framed. Although a number of posts have been replaced at ground floor level. At first floor level there is a fine fifteenth-century crown-post roof structure which retains a good sequence of carpenters' marks. {7} A building survey was undertaken at St Mary's Guildhall, Boston prior to refurbishment. A date of about 1390-95 is being suggested for the building of the Guildhall after dendrochronological dating, which would make the Guildhall one of the earliest brick buildings in Lincolnshire. A trial trench was excavated against the northern elevation of St Mary's Guildhall, Boston prior to renovation. This uncovered two wall foundations which are dated to the 14th to 15th century. The footings go underneath the Guildhall and therefore may have formed part of the base on which the Guildhall was built. There is also a brick built drain which is also dated to the 14th-15th century, and is contemporary in date to the Guildhall. {8} Since the date of the construction of the Guildhall is known, the building was used as a dating control in a project by Durham University to evaluate the accuracy of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of brick. A brick from the northern wall of the Guildhall (from the original phase of construction of the building) was tested and gave a date of 1388 +/- 16 years. This date accords very well with the known date of the building. {9} Originally built as the Hall of the Guild of St Mary, the dating of the building’s timbers to 1390-95 make this possibly the earliest brick building in Lincolnshire. The building has long narrow rectangular plan and is of two storeys. It is built of red brick with ashlar dressings, while the pitched roof is covered with plain tiles. It is a rare example of a late 14th century Guildhall that survives substantially intact, including its crown post roof. Its west gable end to the street with a 15th century window is also intact. The chapel seems to have been housed at the west end of the ground floor. The transfer of the Guild of St Mary's assets to Boston Corporation was confirmed in 1555, but by then the kitchens below and chambers above had already been prepared for use as a prison. In 1583 an inner chamber was made suitable for use as a council chamber. By the mid 17th century the Town Hall was being used to entertain and dine members of the corporation and their guests, and in the early 18th century alterations were made to the kitchens in order to improve the banqueting facilities, The interior contains detail that illustrates craftsmanship of the highest quality from the medieval period to the 18th century. The creation of the elegant first-floor room to the east seems to date to the second half of the 18th century. There is a tradition (now questioned) that the group of dissenters later known as the Pilgrim Fathers were imprisoned and tried in the Guildhall following their arrest in 1607 for attempting to leave the country unlawfully. Attached to the south of the west gable end is an early-18th-century-style gate with a decorative overthrow. During the First World War and the Second World War the hall was used, respectively, as a National Soup Kitchen and a British Restaurant. The building is now a museum. The listing entry for the building was revised in 2011. {10}

Sources/Archives (10)

  •  Index: Department of Culture, Media and Sport. 1999. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. 716-1/10/174.
  •  Index: Lincolnshire County Council. Sites and Monuments Record Card Index. TF 34 SW: F.
  •  Photograph: PARISH FILE. BOSTON. P22/79.
  •  Scheduling Record: MINISTRY OF WORKS. MOW 819. SAM 50.
  •  Scheduling Record: ENGLISH HERITAGE. 1989. DESCHEDULING DOCUMENT. -.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: Penny Hebgin-Barnes. 1996. The Medieval Stained Glass of the County of Lincolnshire. pp.41-59.
  •  Report: University of York. 2001. Boston Guildhall.
  •  Report: Field Archaeology Specialists. May 2003. Building survey of St Mary's Guildhall, Boston. BGH03.
  •  Article in Serial: Bayliff, I. K., Blain, S., Graves, C. P., Gurling T. and Semple S.. 2010. 'Uses and recycling of brick in medieval and Tudor English buildings: insights from the application of luminescence dating and new avenues for further research' in The Archaeological Journal. vol.167, p.168.
  •  Website: Historic England (formerly English Heritage). 2011->. The National Heritage List for England. http://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/. 1389007.

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Location

Grid reference Centred TF 32865 43891 (60m by 19m) (2 map features)
Civil Parish BOSTON, BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE

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Record last edited

Dec 6 2023 10:31AM

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