NOSTALGIA: Boston salon evacuated in 1976 after gas main split during construction of John Adams Way

A hairdressers had to be evacuated after a gas main was fractured during work on Boston’s inner relief road in late 1976.
The scene in Main Ridge, Boston, in late 1976.The scene in Main Ridge, Boston, in late 1976.
The scene in Main Ridge, Boston, in late 1976.

Seventeen women – many with their hair still wet – had to leave the Ridgeway Salon and be taken home by car.

For the owner, Wallis Fox (pictured), it was the last straw. She claimed that the road construction work was damaging her business because no one was telling her what was happening.

“It seems that no one is bothered about the cutting off of gas, electricity and water which has happened always without warning, on several occasions. The lack of communication between departments such as water, electricity and the road builders is appalling. Is no one in overall charge?

“Certain no official had anything much to say to customers on Friday other than ‘we think you should vacate the premises’ when the area was isolated because of a gas main fracture.”

A spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council said individual authorities were responsible for informing customers about disconnections, but were aware that accidents had taken place as part of the build.

Work on the inner relief road – what is today known as John Adams Way – began in mid-1976 in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the town.

It opened about two years later in May 1978.