This is a lovely little place, about half an hour's drive from Boston. There's a useful site here that really tells you pretty much all you need to know, and offers loads of ideas for walks.

It appears the spa began by accident. An entrepreneur searching for coal in the early 1800s found none, but when water subsequently started to emerge from the shaft he had dug, it was discovered to have health-giving properties.

And so a spa was born...

It was a family business for many years, but then, in the late 1880s, it was sold to a "Syndicate of Gentlemen", and a London architect came to lay out tree-lined avenues and large residential plots.

Woodhall Spa's heyday was the Edwardian era, when it welcomed "the cream of society, including royalty". After World War I, it was less fashionable, but "continued to prosper in a quiet way as both an elegant leisure destination and a centre for healing".

Aesthetically, it reminded me a bit of Bukit Fraser.





During World War II, Woodhall Spa was a garrison town, with troops billeted in the large houses and hotels. The 617 ("Dam-busters") Squadron operated out of RAF Woodhall Spa in the final months of World War II. Their famous attack on the dams was conducted while they were still based at Scampton, but many other significant operations were launched from here.



We started our little expedition at Ostler's Plantation, a pine forest that encompasses parts of the old airfield. There's a curious atmosphere to this place. It was bone-chillingly cold when we visited (one of those days when it's just impossible to warm up, despite your brisk movement and your many layers). It was also extraordinarily quiet, and amid the grand trees, you keep coming across remnants of the airfield buildings, which definitely have a kind of resonance.










Just down the road is the "Tower on the Moor", which is the Woodhall Spa emblem. It is thought to date from the 15th century, and served as a lookout tower and hunting lodge for nearby Tattershall Castle.


If you walk out of town in the other direction (southwest, in other words), you come across Kirkstead Abbey.

Founded in the 12th century, it grew to be one of the largest monasteries in Lincolnshire. But, of course, all this came to an end when Henry VIII suppressed the abbey in 1537, and seized its estates. The last abbot of Kirkstead and three of the monks were accused (probably falsely) of involvement in the Lincolnshire Rising, and executed for treason.

On a cold winter's day it's a melancholy kind of place.




A little further down the muddy track is the church of St Leonard's. The descendants of the founder of Kirkstead built a chantry chapel outside the abbey gates (it was called St Leonards Without). When the abbey met its end, the chapel continued, on the basis that it was not directly part of the monastery and was used by the community.






When it's not so cold, and when covid is not so nuisancy, Woodhall Spa will merit a return visit. It's the sort of place where you want to enjoy afternoon tea, and stroll (rather than scuttle) around its many scenic corners.

So, till we meet again...