The History of Nocton

NOCTON
PUBLIC LECTURE

ENTITLED

"The History of Nocton"

in Nocton Village Hall on

Wednesday, October 12th 2011

BY

Dr Nicholas Bennett, as Maurice H Footman, Esq

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This was a really enjoyable event, with a super turnout, for a very interesting presentation. Wine and delicious desserts were served and a raffle held, all for a good cause - the Nocton Church Fundraising Committee.

The introduction was delivered by Carol Bennett at 7.25pm. Sheila Redshaw supplied most of the photographs and also has Maurice Footman's original text in an exercise book, which is hand-written with his personal notes (Eileen Moulds copy typed the original text back in 1988).

The pictures of the Georgian church of St Peter were taken from "A History of Nocton" written by Maurice Footman and Kate Norgate in 1900.

Other photos supplied:

• Joseph Noble and the Chestnut Tree (Chris Parnell)
• The inside of All Saints Church and some of the Vicarage and Gardens (Hilary Healey)
• Nocton Railway Station (Trevor Peacock)
• The James Gilroy's Cartoon of Lady Buckingham (Carol Bennett)
• The 1st Earl of Ripon painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; George Hodgson; photos of the Ellys monument and the West Window (Sue Morris)

Powerpoint presentation:

• By Sue Morris.

Maurice Henry Footman was born in Ipswich in 1860. He was the eldest child of Canon Footman who was Vicar of Nocton from 1881 to 1902. He married Lily Harriet Bridges in Stepney, London in 1889. The same year, he had published in Lincoln "The Orchard of a King" a romantic play in one act.

By 1891, he was a solicitor and living with his wife and his younger sister Hannah, who was studying to be a school mistress, at 1 Greetwell Gate, Lincoln St Peter in Eastgate. During March 1900 he was appointed Coroner for Kesteven County Council and one of his Inquests was held in October 1908 at Dunston, concerning two local young men who had died by misadventure by suffocation while examining a pipe in a well in Dunston Vicarage Garden.

Maurice's father, Canon Footman, died in 1902 and his mother and sister would have had to vacate the Vicarage at Nocton. Maurice was an Alderman for many years and in December 1903 he was elected Mayor of Lincoln. By the time he presented his Lantern Slide Show to the Nocton audience in 1911, he was living at Nocton House in Wragby Road, with his wife and 4 year old daughter, Catherine and his older sister Catherine.

Maurice died in the December of 1923 in Lincoln.

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