Blue plaque for Louth's panoramic painter

William Brown painted the unique 360-degree Louth Panorama after climbing scaffolding to the top of St James’s Church spire, which was being repaired having been struck by lightning in 1844.

While the Panorama is displayed in the old Sessions House, in Eastgate, and there’s a reproduction in the museum, there had been no official acknowledgement of Brown in Louth, something Louth Civic Trust has now corrected, with the installation of a Blue Plaque.

Town Mayor Julia Simmons unveiled the plaque in Vickers Lane, near the site of Brown’s home, which was demolished in the 1970s.

Also present was Anne Cramphorn, William Brown’s great x 6 granddaughter. She said: “We are very proud of him. He has always been part of the family and this is a fitting monument.”

Dr Richard Gurnham, president of Louth Civic Trust, and Richard Lance Keeble, a volunteer at Louth Museum, were the main organisers of the event.

Richard said: “William Brown has always appealed to me as a fellow journalist. From 1839 onwards he worked as a freelance reporter for the country’s oldest local newspaper, the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury. The Panorama, indeed, is a wonderful manifestation of the journalistic imagination at its best – concerned with recording the here and now in all its changing detail and human variety.”