If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Possible turf maze on or near to the site of Julian Bower Lime Works, Louth. The site may have become part of Louth's public cemetery in 1855.

Full description

It is suggested there was a turf maze on the outskirts of Louth on a hill called Julian Bower which was recorded in 1536 as a place of muster. It is thought to have been located on the site of the Julian Bower Lime Works. The evidence for the maze is based on the place name 'Julian Bower' which is associated with turf mazes at other places. None of the original references cited in this source appear to specifically mention a turf maze. {1}

Julian Bower is marked on the OS surveyor's drawing of 1818 for the 1st edition 1" Ordnance Survey map. It is marked on the east side of the main road south of Louth. A map of 1834 shows Julian Bower marked at the same place. {2}{3}

The wooded hill called Julian Bower on the south side of the town is recorded in White's Directory for 1856, although the suggestion that it might be a druidical temple is false. {4}

The site marked on the 1818 and the 1834 maps is on, or close to, the site of the Julian Bower Lime Works on the 1st edition 6" Ordnance Survey County Series map of 1888. The site has perhaps been quarried and lost. The place marked on the earlier maps is still by the Julian Bower Lime Works on the 2nd edition 25" Ordnance Survey County Series map of 1905. {5}{6}

One of the preliminary sketch panels for William Brown's painting The Louth Panorama (the one labelled 'south-east'), marks Julian Bower as a clear and distinct wooded hill with the name 'Julian Bower' written on this hill. The hill is drawn on the east side of, and adjacent to, Upgate/London Road. This was to be the site of the public cemetery. The preliminary sketch panels date from 1844. {7}

HER Note: The words in brackets in the following paragraph are those of the author of Source 8.
In a Louth ordinance of 1603 it was ordered that 'all whose grounds abut upon the common sewer in Spittle hill laine [probably meaning Upgate/London Road, as modern Spital Hill is a 19th century street] leading as far as Gillyon Bower' need to cleanse and flush the sewer that lies against their property. William Brown marked the wooded hilltop on the east side of London Road/Upgate, south of the lime quarry, as Julian Bower on his 1844 sketch of the town. It is unclear whether the original Julian Bower maze and cross were located on the west side or the east side of London Road/Upgate. Bayley's 1834 plan may be the best guide to any surviving local tradition with regard to its location, given that he discussed Julian Bower and its cross in the book that his plan was published in. {8}

The Louth Enclosure Award plan shows a roughly circular enclosure allotment on the east side of Upgate/London Road adjacent to this road and opposite the end of the modern road called Julian Bower. This allotment is numbered 198 and has several trees drawn within it on the plan. It is in the same place as the wooded hill depicted on the preliminary sketch panels for the Louth Panorama in 1844 (see above source 7). The description of allotment 198 in the schedule reads: 'All that other plot or parcel of land called Julian Bower in the said southfield No.198 containing in Statute Measure One rood and twenty perches bounded by the said Allotment No.157 the said allotment No.162 and the said Turnpike Road leading to Spilsby respectively'. [One rood and twenty perches is a measurement of area equal to 1815 square yards or about 1517.57 square metres. This would give the allotment number 198 a diameter of about 43.96 metres.] {9}

<1> John Wall, 1993, 'Lincolnshire Turf Mazes and Associated Sites' in Lincolnshire Past and Present, Part.2, Issue.12 (Summer 1993), p.6 (Article in Serial). SLI9561.

<2> British Library, 2011->, Ordnance Survey Drawings, Louth sheet 1818 (Website). SLI13883.

<3> BAYLEY, R., 1834, NOTICES OF LOUTH, Frontispiece map (Bibliographic Reference). SLI905.

<4> William White, 1856, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire (Second Edition), p.243 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI886.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1883-1888, 6 Inch County Series Map - First Edition, Sheet 56NW (Map). SLI9454.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1902-06, 25 Inch County Series Map - Second Edition, Sheet 56/1 (Map). SLI3566.

<7> David Robinson and Christopher Sturman, 2001, William Brown and the Louth Panorama, pp.30, 64 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI14920.

<8> Caitlin Green, 2012, The Streets of Louth: An A-Z History, pp.123-5 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI14921.

<9> Lincolnshire Archives, Document Held by the Lincolnshire Archives, Louth Enclosure Award (1805). Louth St James PAR/17/1: page 12 and plan (Unpublished Document). SLI4514.

Monument Types

• TURF MAZE? (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1200 AD? to 1700 AD?)

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.