The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brought Louth its greatest monument and some of its hardest times: a spire that still dominates the town, the end of the abbey, a rebellion against the king, a new school, waves of plague and civil war.
The Spire, 1501 to 1515
Work on the spire of St James' Church began in 1501 and finished in 1515, overseen by a succession of master masons. The townspeople paid for it themselves, through collections, gifts and fees, at a recorded cost of just over £305. The churchwardens' accounts record the work in detail.
The stonework rises 287 feet 6 inches (87.6 metres), and the top of the weathercock stands 293 feet (89.3 metres) above the ground. It's the tallest spire on any Anglican parish church. The first weathercock was made in Lincoln from a large copper basin captured from the Scots at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, and it was hauled to the top amid great rejoicing on 13 September 1515. The same year, the town was hit by plague.
The End of the Abbey
In September 1536, Louth Park Abbey was dissolved under Henry VIII's suppression of the smaller monasteries. By then only ten monks were left. The abbot was pensioned off, the site was granted to Lord Burgh, and anything of value went to the Crown. Legbourne Priory was closed the same year, and Alvingham Priory surrendered in 1538.
The Lincolnshire Rising, October 1536
Within weeks of the abbey's closure, rumours spread that the king's commissioners would strip the parish churches of their treasures. On Sunday 1 October 1536, the people of Louth rose up, and within days a huge army was marching on Lincoln. It's one of the most important events in the town's history, and it has its own page: The Lincolnshire Rising, 1536.
The Grammar School, 1551
In September 1551, Edward VI granted a charter for Louth's Free Grammar School, which became King Edward VI Grammar School. It's still at the heart of the town's education today. One of its best-known early pupils was Captain John Smith, there from about 1592 to 1595, who later led the English settlement at Jamestown in Virginia. Alfred, Lord Tennyson followed in the nineteenth century (see Victorian Louth).
Plague Years
Plague returned again and again. The parish registers record outbreaks in 1515, 1538 and 1543, when it was confined to Cisterngate. In 1587, 516 people died.
The worst came in 1631. The Lincolnshire Historic Environment Record gives about 500 deaths in July and August alone, while a total of 754 for the whole outbreak is often quoted. The two figures may cover different periods. Either way, a large share of the town died in a few months.
Bolles, Cadiz and the Civil War
In 1596, John Bolle of Thorpe Hall, near Louth, was knighted for his part in the English attack on Cadiz. Local folklore adds a romantic tale of a Spanish lady who fell in love with him and whose ghost, the "Green Lady", haunts Thorpe Hall, a story best enjoyed as legend.
In the Civil War of the 1640s, Lincolnshire was fought over by king and Parliament. Louth Town Council records Royalist recruitment in the area, a skirmish at Louth, and Parliamentary troops taking control of the town and around a hundred prisoners. Tradition says Oliver Cromwell slept in Louth before the Battle of Winceby, fought near Horncastle in October 1643, though no firm evidence for his stay has been found.
Sources and Further Reading
- Louth Town Council, Saxon times to the 20th century
- Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer: Louth
- Louth Museum, notes on the Lincolnshire Rising
- St James' Church, Louth on Wikipedia