Spalding has a wealth of interesting chimneys – particularly in what has been called “the town’s first housing estate”, developed during late Victorian and Edwardian years to the west of the centre. If only we looked up from our smart phones or litter-strewn pavements.……
The three chimneys above were clearly architect-designed, prestige features signalling the wealth or local importance of the new building’s owners.
But the rest? They’re mostly on quite modest villas or humble terraces. It would be interesting to know if they’d been individually
designed, or been copied from pattern books or were the product of the ordinary working bricklayer being given free rein to exercise not just his skill with mortar and trowel, but scope for his
creative artistry too. If the last, then the pride and pleasure he must have felt in his work speaks loud and clear still after a hundred years.