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As it nears The Wash, the muddy River Witham weaves its way through
BOSTON (a corruption of Botolf's stone, or Botolph's town), which was
named after the Anglo-Saxon monk-saint who first established a monastery
here, overlooking the main river crossing point in 645 AD. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the settlement expanded to become
England's second largest seaport, its flourishing economy dependent on
the wool trade with Flanders. Local merchants, revelling in their
success, decided to build a church that demonstrated their wealth, the
result being the magnificent medieval church of St Botolph, whose 272-foot
tower still presides over the town and surrounding fenland. The church
was completed in the early sixteenth century, but by then Boston was in
decline as trade drifted west towards the Atlantic and the Witham silted
up. The town's fortunes only revived in the late eighteenth century when,
after the nearby fens had been drained, it became a minor agricultural
centre with a modest port that has, in recent times, been modernized for
trade with the EU. A singular mix of fenland town and seaport, Boston is
an unusual little place that is at its liveliest on market days -
Wednesday and Saturday.
Mostly edged by Victorian red-brick buildings, the mazy streets of
Boston's cramped and compact centre, on the east side of the Witham,
radiate out from the Market Place , a dishevelled square of irregular
shape. Just to the west looms the massive bulk of St Botolph (May-Sept
daily 8.30am-4.30pm; Oct-April Mon-Sat 8.30am-4.30pm, Sun
8.30am-12.30pm; free), whose exterior masonry is embellished by the high-pointed
windows of the Decorated style. Most of the structure dates from the
fourteenth century, but the huge and distinctive tower , whose lack of a
spire earned the church the nickname the "Boston Stump", is of later
construction. The octagonal lantern is later still, added in the
sixteenth century and graced by flying buttresses and pointy pinnacles.
A tortuous 365-step spiral staircase (closed on Sun) leads to a balcony
near the top, from where the panoramic views over Boston and the fens
amply repay both the price of the ticket (£2) and the effort of the
climb. Down below, St Botolph's light and airy nave is an exercise in
the Perpendicular, all soaring columns and high windows. The sheer
purity of design is stunning, its virtuosity heightened by the
narrowness of the annexe-like chancel and the elegance of the Decorated
arch that partly screens it from view.
The church's most famous vicar was John Cotton (1584-1652), who helped
stir the Puritan stew during his twenty-year tenure, encouraging a
stream of Lincolnshire dissidents to head off to the colonies of New
England to found their "New Jerusalem". Cotton emigrated himself in 1633
and soon became the leading light among the Puritans of Boston,
Massachusetts. The Cotton connection was finally commemorated here in
the Stump by the creation of the Cotton Chapel , at the west end of the
nave, in 1857.
Boston had been alive to religious dissent before Cotton arrived and, in
1607, several of the Pilgrim Fathers were incarcerated here after their
failed attempt to escape religious persecution by slipping across to
Holland. They were imprisoned for thirty days in the old Guildhall (Tues-Sat
10am-5pm; £1.25, free on Thurs), on South Street - a brief walk south
along the river from St Botolph. A creaky affair, the Guildhall spreads
over three levels and incorporates an antique Council Chamber, the court
where the Pilgrim Fathers were tried and sentenced, as well as the cells
where they were locked up. There's a fascinating hotchpotch of local
bygones dotted around - including some spectacularly ferocious anti-poacher
traps and a small display on locally born John Fox (1516-87), whose Book
of Martyrs whipped up an anti-Catholic storm.
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