Thread Topic: Green Hill (St Peters)THE CANNONS
Topic Originator: Mike Laughton
Post Date August 1, 2016 @ 8:48 AM |
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| Mike Laughton |
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I have always called the former site of St Peter's Church (near Stamford Bus Station) The Green Hill.
But when I was young I know lots of adults used to call it THE CANNONS.
I understand that up until the beginning of World War Two, the green was surrounded by railings and several cannons stood on the site.
I believe these may have been Russian cannon captured during the Crimean war although I can't be sure.
However in 1939/30 the cannons and railings were taken away to be melted down to help build new armaments.
I have never seen any photos of the Green Hill as it was before the Second World War. Doesn't anyone have any photos of the site as it was then. And can anyone recall how many cannons there were?
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| Syd |
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I never saw any on the site, but I believe there was just one, and I am sure that when I was a YMCA member in the fifties there was a base with a small plaque giving details, but it may have been my imagination!
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| Keith Hansell |
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The photograph only shows the one cannon and the Stamford Institute (YMCA) in the background. I have always thought it would be great if a dig/survey took place to determine the exact size and location of the church. As a lad I remember the disgusting gents toilets that were built into the mount, opposite the then British Legion. Whilst in the Dolphin one night, the landlord, Percy Walker, told me that he, along with another chap, dug out the mound to accommodate the toilets. Whilst doing so they uncovered several bones. Being hard times they took them to the rag and bone shop, only to be found out and made to recover them so they could have a Christian reburial.
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| Keith Hansell |
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The gun was placed on St Peters Hill on the 30th of Oct 1858, after an eight to six vote against another proposed site in the Corn Market. A procession consisting of the "Foundry" band and various schools proceeded to the Midland railway station, from where the gun was placed on a trolly, guarded by two cavalry soldiers and drawn through the streets to St Peters Hill. It was a 24 pounder, measuring seven feet ten inches from mouth to touch hole and nine feet from end to end. The bore was six inches.
The expenses connected with enclosing the hill and siting the cannon were: walling £83.12s 6d, railings £84 7s 6d, carriage of gun £17 14s, levelling and planting £10. Apparently all raised by subscription.
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