Wolds Women of Influence: Launch of enhanced Rasen tour

Six new stories focusing on ‘Wolds Women of Influence’ are being added to the Market Rasen Heritage Tour and Website.

The women featured are from all walks of life – from landed gentry to publicans, headteachers to shop owners - but each have left their mark.

Six new plaques have been placed in and around the town at locations connected to the women, to give a companion walking tour.

The plaques all have QR codes linking them to the story pages of the website.

They join 14 existing plaques in the town, which means Market Rasen now has a 20-stop heritage tour to satisfy even the most ardent history buff.

Project manager Nicola Marshall said: “The existing Market Rasen Heritage Tour is an ideal platform for the Wolds Women of Influence stories, giving them a permanent home online and giving visitors another reason to come to Market Rasen and explore its heritage by finding the plaques about town.

“We are grateful to Market Rasen Community Partnership and Lincolnshire County Council for supporting and funding this development, and the many other people and organisations who have helped us research and record these women’s stories and preserve them for the future.”

The new stories have been taken from the Wolds Women of Influence exhibition which proved a great success when launched in 2018.

The website can be found at www.marketrasenheritagetour.co.uk, where visitors can explore a vintage map of the town and find the women’s stories by clicking on blue bonnet icons.

Also included in the update is a fascinating 12-minute video that reveals how local woman Louisa Boucherett helped many children from the Caistor Workhouse, making her, perhaps, one of Lincolnshire’s most unsung heroes.

The official launch of the enhanced website and tour will take place at the pop-up market in Market Rasen tomorrow, Saturday April 16.

Stephen Bunney, town mayor and West Lindsey district councillor for the Market Rasen Ward, said: “The inclusion of the ‘Wolds Women of Influence’ plaques greatly enhances the already magnificent experience gained by those who undertake the Market Rasen Heritage Trail.

“As they follow the trail, either on foot or virtually via the web, participants gain a fascinating insight into the social history and architecture of this small gateway market town on the western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds.

“It is highly recommended by visitors and deserves its award-winning status.”

At the launch event on April 16, Gail Dennis, of the Lindsey Rural Players, will dress as Louisa Boucherett, the woman she portrays in the video created for the project.

Louisa’s story was uncovered through the original PhD research of Dr Caroline Mogg, for the Wolds Women of Influence Exhibition.

In the video, Gail reads through original letters and papers to tell the story in Louisa’s own words.

The video also brings the past to life with the help of modern-day local children, who, following a competition in the Rasen Mail, lent their faces so the workhouse children could be represented.

Dr Mogg said: “Louisa Boucherett provides an excellent example of a local propertied woman who used her considerable power and influence to improve the lives of those less fortunate than herself.

“Through her pioneering work, Louisa intervened in the wider public debate about the plight of England’s workhouse children.

“Her achievements deserve to be celebrated and I am delighted her story has been brought to life in such a creative way.”

Who are the women featured?

Alda Blount Nettleship

(born 1898)

Councillor and Alderman. Among her many contributions to the town, Alda Nettleship opened Market Rasen’s Mill Road public library back in 1971.

This is the same library that you can visit today.

In its first 10 weeks of service, the number of books issued at the new library increased by 70 per cent to nearly 2,000 a week, compared to figures achieved at the congested and inadequate premises the town’s library had been using on King Street.

Caroline Smith

(born 1847)

For many years Caroline 
Smith ran the White Hart 
Hotel in King Street, which can be found close to the Market Place in Market Rasen.

Mrs Smith is believed to have taken over the hotel around 1901, managing it until around 1940 when she passed away at the grand age of 94.

By the late 1930s Mrs Smith was considered the ‘oldest licensee in England.’

Winifred Eleanor Gledhill

(born 1908)

Remembered fondly by former pupils for her role as principal of Market Rasen’s Sheffield Manor School, Miss Gledhill was also one of the instigators of the Market Rasen Festival, a highlight in the town’s cultural calendar from 1944 to 1976.

Charlotte Bond

(born 1810)

The 1841 census lists her as living above a shop in King Street, Market Rasen. The shop is still there today. She dealt with the sadness of losing many of her children and her husband at an early stage in her life and built up a successful business within the town, prospering enough to retire in her early 50s.

Marjorie Myers

(born 1907)

Marjorie Myers was a successful local businesswoman. Misses E & M Myers, Children’s Outfitters of Union Street, was a fixture in the Market Rasen high street for many years, clothing the children of the area from the 1930s through to the 1960s.

The Boucherett sisters

Jessie

(born 1825)

Jessie Boucherett lived in the Lincolnshire Wolds area, in a large house that used to stand in Willingham Woods. She played an important role in the Suffragists (NUWSS) movement, a British organisation that campaigned for women’s right to vote, and still campaigns for women today.

Louisa

(born 1821)

Louisa Boucherett was Jessie’s sister. Concerned by the plight of young children living in the harsh workhouse regime, Louisa pioneered a system of ‘boarding out’ children to local families, and she vetted and supervised these placements herself. The system of boarding out was a forerunner of the concept of foster care.