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Braceborough
This was once
Braceborough Spa, a secluded place of mineral springs visited by Victorian health addicts seeking a cure for their various illnesses, both real and imagined. Today, it would make a fortune. The village is tucked out of the way between the A15 and A6121, four miles south of Bourne, and you will miss it unless you keep your eyes open for the signpost. The famous Doctor Willis treated George III here for his madness and his royal patient used to stay in a wing of Shillingthorpe Hall nearby, now demolished but there is a tablet in Greatford church to his efforts. Patent medicines were a popular cure-all in past times although the outrageous claims made by their makers have been banned by successive legislation on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry. But those wishing to find a cure for an ailment or seeking better health did not just rely on a bottle of mixture or a packet of pills. The spas of pure water that could be found dotted around the country were particularly popular and extensively patronised by sufferers from a multitude of complaints, hence the phrase “taking the waters”.
The spa prospered for many years but gradually declined, along with other British spas, because of the advent of new drugs such as the sulphonamides, in the early years of the last century. An attempt was made to revive the facility in 1927 when a new company was formed by Sir Ernest Trollope, the local landowner, and Mr Henry Wing of Red Lion Square, Stamford, but Sir Ernest died before the project got underway. Neverthless, the business went ahead in the autumn of that year for the sale of several thousand bottles of spa water each week, both in Britain and abroad, and the extension and improvement of facilities for bathing, accommodation for rest, refreshment and recreation while taking the waters, although the original impetus for its revival was not maintained and by 1939, the spa had finally closed down. In view of this spa's recommendation for healthy living, it is perhaps fitting that the imposing and spacious Braceborough Hall has become a retirement home where the more affluent of our senior citizens can live out their final years. Few now know about Braceborough Spa although it once boasted its own railway station which survives as a private residence known as Spa Halt.
The old railway station was bought in December 1964 by a London couple, James Lawlor, aged 67, and his wife Jessie, aged 63, who decided that they were not too old for a rural retreat and despite warnings from local people that it was a hopeless task, turned it into a comfortable modern home by 1968. Said Mrs Lawlor: "When we saw this place, we both fell in love with it at once." The cream, green and black decor used by British Railways was covered over with a light wallpaper, the old booking office became a dining room and the waiting room was transformed into a guest room. All of the old station's living accommodation was stripped and redecorated, a bathroom was built on and outside the wash-house became a tool shed while the platform with its end ramp now forms the basis of the garage and its driveway. Mr Lawlor levelled the surrounding land and put in paths, steps and walls and planted shrubs and flowers. The total cost of conversion was £3,500 although they also had an unexpected expense when the well which provided the property with water dried up and they had to sink a new borehole at a cost of £300.
The village is one of sequestered charm, enhanced by several thatched cottages and a mix of the old and the new, including a fine terrace of stone cottages in the main street, pictured above, where one occupant spent his life collecting a magnificent display of farm machinery that was displayed in his garden. The village also contains a number of well designed modern bungalows set in ample grounds.
St Margaret's Church has a fine porch from 1662 and a sturdy church tower with a soaring broach spire dating back to the 13th century and a wheelchair ramp inside the porch reminds us of the elderly residents who now live in this village. There are several items of antiquity inside, importantly the Norman font, its square bowl carved with arches, zigzag and diamond pattern, although the tiny apsidal chancel has largely been rebuilt. Yet another is a big stone with the impress of a brass to Thomas de Wasteneys who died here of the Black Death in 1349. The window in the south aisle contains figures of saints Luke, Paul and Mark, and is the work of the eminent Victorian stained glass artist C E Kempe whose output in Lincolnshire was impressive. The
organ is small but magnificent in its new livery of blue and gold while another dash of colour is provided by the hand-embroidered hassocks, neatly lined up in the pews ready for the comfort of worshippers at mattins or evensong next Sunday.
The East Glen River runs past the edge of Braceborough and summer time will find it a mass of burgeoning leaves and grass, a tranquil scene that has endured for many centuries past although the persistent use of agro-chemicals has cost us most of our wild flowers. This is part of England's green and pleasant land, the rural landscape evocatively described by the painter, poet and mystic William Blake (1757-1827), and one that is remembered with a deep affection and nostalgia by all who have lived here and are now far from home. In spite of the poor treatment it gets from some farmers, our countryside retreats stubbornly in the face of such adversity although it has changed for the worse in a single lifetime. At this season of the year, it still bursts forth to give us another magnificent display but unless these practices are moderated, we cannot expect such resistance to continue indefinitely See
also Cheshire Rails
The Braceborough collector 
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