Latin is taught at Spalding Grammar School from Year 7 right up to Year 13.

Head of classics Katy Adams says that includes not only the language but the cultural background, with topics such as gladiators, slaves, architecture and archaeology covered.

Katy says the subject has an “elitist”overtone because it is most often public schools that offer it, but that grammar school pupils enjoy learning about things like a family from Pompeii and making Roman masks.

At Spalding High School Charlotte Jones is head of classics.

The subject is taught from Year 8 and students have the option to take it to GCSE. Latin and Classical Civilisations are taught at A Level.

Charlotte says: “We teach the whole thing. You have to put the language into context so we have done Latin words with English derivatives, the construction of Pompeii and we are coming up to theatre masks.

“Caroline Lawrence, best known for The Roman Mysteries series of historical novels, is coming in to talk to students.

“It’s about bringing it to life and her books are fantastic for that.”

Seventy-two pupils at Gosberton Clough and Risegate Primary School raised a whopping £777 with a sponsored skip.

It was part of The British Heart Foundation’s “Jump Rope” event, which means £621.69 goes to the charity and the remaining 20 per cent funds items the school needs.

BHF fundraising manager Helena Mair said: “I think it’s an absolutely amazing amount and all of the children have worked really hard.”

Our picture shows, back – Fionn Rowley, Olivia Kember, Lilly Sansam, Jasmine Deakin, Sophie Wilson, Harry Burton, teacher Carrie Verrall and Helena Mair; front – Leanne Turner and Jay White. SG170114-125TW

A woman from Spalding is selling a special range of jewellery to raise money for a national domestic violence charity.

Dawn Hook, of Candy Voss Jewellery, was featured in our sister paper, the Spalding Guardian, on January 9.

She is raising money for Women’s Aid by donating half the sale proceeds to Charlie’s Big Challenge, a 250-mile, seven-day run by TV sports presenter Charlie Webster.

For more details, visit www.candyvossjewellery.co.uk

Police are hunting vandals who smashed the window of a house in Market Deeping and then damaged a vehicle parked on a green.

It happened in Godsey Crescent between 7.30pm last Thursday and noon on Friday.

Anyone with information should call 101, stating incident 163 of January 17.

Police are looking for witnesses who saw a white Iveco van in Morton Fen on Tuesday when a number of gas cylinders were stolen.

It took place shortly before noon and the van’s registration number is Y543 DDC.

Anyone with information should call police on 101, stating incident 126 of January 14.

A lawnmower and tools, including chainsaws and drills, have been stolen from a shed outside a house in Pointon.

Police believe thieves used a van parked in nearby Pinfold Close to drive away with the goods from outside a house in West Road between midnight and 10am.

Most of the tools were given to the owner by their late father and anyone with information should call 101, stating incident 204 of January 19.

South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes writes for spaldingtoday.co.uk

As I said in my column last week, classic situation comedies have much to tell us about our society and the way it has changed.

Take the Likely Lads, another gem from the golden age of television. In the first series, made in the 1960s, the two central characters, Bob and Terry, were young working class men employed together in a factory.

But when the series was revived ten years later everything had changed. Bob had moved up the class ladder, acquiring an office job and a new executive home in the suburbs.

The journey Bob made from blue to white collar, from council house to home ownership was familiar for those, like me, who came of age in the first few decades after the war.

I want others to have the opportunities that I had on my own journey from a council estate to Parliament, then Downing Street.

The reality that in the last 20 years social mobility has declined should be lamented by politicians of all colours.

Shockingly, the Sutton Trust charity has found that people born in 1970 were less likely to have moved between social classes than those born in the year of my birth, 1958.

In the space of just 12 years, a child born into poverty would be less – not more – likely to escape the circumstances of their birth. Within a generation, opportunity had become restricted, horizons narrowed.

It is equally dispiriting that a follow-up study found that after years of expensive state programmes, social mobility remained as low for the those born in 1985 as it was for those born back in 1970.

Since the great nineteenth century Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli pronounced that it was on ‘the education of the people that the fate of this country depends’, true social reformers have understood that unleashing potential is the key to social mobility.

That’s why it’s so important to place an emphasis on a rigorously taught, traditional school curriculum; why we must continue to expand the number of apprenticeships, supported by first class careers advice; and why I support both our excellent grammar schools in Spalding, the academy programme – so beneficial locally – and all our primary and secondary schools striving for excellence.

Education at the heart of social reform means that ambitions can be fulfilled, potential realised and dreams come true.

Crimestoppers is inviting people to have their say on the issues and concerns affecting them the most.

The crime-fighting charity has launched a national debate on key crimes in the UK, including domestic violence, burglary and anti-social behaviour.

The campaign is part of Crime Matters Week where criminal justice experts, MPs and journalists are all giving their views on crime in the UK.

Mark Hallas, chief executive of Crimestoppers, said: “This will provide us with vital information to inform our future activity and ensure we are tackling crimes across the UK.”

You can visit www.blog.crimestoppers-uk.org or tweet #Crimematters.

Intruders broke into a Bourne pub, stealing cash after forcing open several gaming machines.

The burglary happened at The Nags Head, Abbey Road, where intruders got in through a back door just after 4am on Tuesday January 7.

Anyone with information should call 101, stating incident 22 of January 7.

Tools, including a disc cutter, rotating laser and generator, have been stolen from a metal storage container on a building site in Bourne.

A pump, cable locator and wacker plater were also taken from Elsea Park overnight last Wednesday and police believe a dumper truck was used to drive away with the goods.

Anyone with information should call 101, stating incident 55 of January 16.

The family of a cyclist killed in a collision with a car on a dark country road in Moulton Seas End last year is to sue the driver.

David Hall (58) died at the scene of the accident on the evening of February 1, 2013, after being struck by a car driven by Joseph Strong.

On Thursday, Strong (50), of Burnstone Gardens, Moulton, was banned from driving for a year and given a six month suspended jail sentence, after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

The court heard Strong had cut the corner on a bend and struck Mr Hall, of Moulton Seas End, who was stationary and waiting to turn right.

BT worker Mr Hall, who had his lights on and was wearing a high-visibility jacket, was cycling home from work.

His widow Vera said after the case: “I feel no hatred towards him (Strong) but I hope he has had time to reflect on the terrible consequences that his actions have had on our family.”

The solicitor representing Mr Hall’s family told the Free Press: “David’s death was tragic, untimely and totally avoidable.

“Although nothing will turn back the clock, now that criminal proceedings are concluded, we will be seeking to provide some degree of financial security for those he left behind by launching a separate civil action.”

In court, the judge said to Strong: “You never set out that day to take a life. You have never tried to wriggle out of this.”

Strong’s solicitor said: “He is now a broken man.”

l Court report and family reaction on page 6.

From 1822, people travelling by coach between Spalding and Bourne would have been forced to pay a fee.

The toll was made at a turnpike – named after the spiked barrier used to prevent people passing – or toll bar, and these were sometimes accompanied by a toll cottage.

Travellers may have grumbled about the toll, but the alternative was sunken lanes that became quagmires in wet weather.

Turnpike Trusts were set up, by Acts of Parliament, from 1706 to the 1840s so that groups of local landowners would repair and build stretches of road. The Great North Road was one of five major turnpikes radiating from London, with smaller turnpikes as offshoots, such as from Stamford to Deeping and Bourne to Stamford.

Landowners would then charge users tolls to pay for the road, the fees accurately calculated thanks to milestones, which were found along 20,000 miles of roads as well as canals at the height of the turnpike era.

It’s something that doesn’t seem terribly important in our age of generally good, well sign-posted roads, but turnpikes and milestones are an important part of our transport and highway history, believes Thurlby resident Joyce Stevenson.

That milestones are important is recognised in the fact that they are all Grade II listed assets.

That the vast majority of us don’t recognise their importance is reflected in the fact that many are in a poor state of repair and are frequently hidden in overgrown strips of land beside roads.

However, Joyce has had a fascination with milestones and posts since 2000 and since that time she has surveyed many of the local ones.

She has also researched the history of milestones and posts, built up a photographic archive of them, and followed the fortunes of buildings with associations to the turnpike roads.

Joyce says: “Milestones are a really important part of our transport and our highway history. Every village has got its own milestone or milepost so it is part of everybody’s life, but we tend to pass them by without noticing them. Generally speaking they are not looked after.”

The Grade II 200-year-old toll cottage at Folkingham was threatened with demolition in 2005 when the owner applied for listed building consent to pull it down because he believed it was unsound.

The cottage, which once stood on the turnpike road between Peterborough and Lincoln, was saved in 2013 when South Kesteven District Council agreed to spend up to £10,000 to safeguard it.

Joyce found an article about the Bourne toll bar in a copy of these newspapers from 1930, when the toll had been abolished for nearly 50 years. The cottage had a sign outside listing the charge for a horse and trap to pass through at 6d, and fixed charges for agricultural vehicles based on weight. Cattle were charged a given sum per head. Pedestrians were allowed to pass through free.

Joyce is intrigued by oddities, such as the milestone built into a wall outside Holbeach parish church and showing the mileage to or from over 20 different locations, from Spalding to London. “I believe it’s unique,” says Joyce, adding: “Most milestones and posts give you a mileage not only for where you came from but where you are going to, because obviously you could be going in either direction. Something that has intrigued me is the milestones between Langtoft South and Rippingale only have them going one way.”

She has unearthed fascinating facts, such as that Sutton Bridge was one of the last places to make a toll to cross the river, and that signposts and milestones were removed in the 1940s “so that in the event of any enemy parachutists landing they will not know their wheareabouts”, as this paper put it.

• The Milestone Society has set up a central database to record milestones – www.milestonesociety.co.uk. Contact the society’s database manager if you know of a milestone that is lost, concealed or out of place at ar@milestonesociety.co.uk

Tenants will soon be occupying brand new South Holland District Council houses.

The four two-bedroom properties in Surfleet have just been completed by Weston Hills developer Broadgate Homes.

Coun Christine Lawton, portfolio holder for housing landlord, and ward councillors Liz Sneath and Sally-Ann Slade joined district council housing landlord manager Richard Scorthorne at the handover of the homes on Monday.

Coun Lawton said: “I’m very impressed with the houses. They have a very useful layout and plentiful space outside.

“They will be a very welcome addition to our housing stock and we look forward to tenants being able to enjoy living in them.”

The semi-detached properties are in a cul-de-sac off Coalbeach Lane South, called Pinkthorn Close. The name Pinkthorn has historical links to the site.

Broadgate Homes chief executive Ian Canham joined contracts manager John Crunkhorn to hand over the keys to the properties after completion of the 26-week project.

He said: “We are grateful to the district council to have been given the opportunity to build these properties and wish the future tenants every happiness in their new homes.”

Local builders are due to complete more semi-detached two-bedroom council houses soon, including six properties in Wrights Lane, Sutton Bridge, four in Millfield Gardens, Crowland, four in Puddingpoke Lane, Lutton, and two in Broadgate, Whaplode Drove – the district council’s fifth recent new build scheme.

This time last year we were enduring one of the coldest winters in recent memory, writes Chris Carter.

Little over a year later we are still suffering the effects of one of the wettest winters we’ve experienced; only in these parts it seems that successive weather events have led our local authorities and more particularly IDBs to take positive steps to alleviate the misery of flooding.

I’m often asked why, in an area where much of our land is at or below sea level, we never appear to be flooded. Since the major deluge of 1947, many wonderful schemes have been put in place to ensure we never have to suffer flooding again. One thinks of the Coronation Channel and the many improvements carried out by our IDBs to get water away quickly from farm ditches, into local watercourses and then into Commissioner’s Drains.

There is absolutely no doubt as to the effectiveness of all their work and that of the Environment Agency, which deals with many of our river systems. How concerning then to hear of government plans to reduce funding for flood defence, more particularly on farmland, and to concentrate on the voting heartlands of the flooded south-east.

If only the planners would refuse applications on natural flood plains and discourage the never ending concreting over of many urban areas they may well find that nature might assist them rather than causing misery to so many people.

McDonald’s Restaurant at Long Sutton is seeking planning consent to open 24/7.

The restaurant, at the junction of the A17 and A1101, is already opening 24 hours a day under a temporary planning consent but is now seeking to make that arrangement permanent.

South Holland District Council will decide the planning application.

People in South Holland and the Deepings caring for dementia patients are invited to a series of workshops in Bourne starting next month.

The Carer Information and Support Programme is a four-session series at The Wakehouse, 41 North Street, for those caring for family members or friends with dementia.
It is run by the Alzheimer’s Society and runs weekly from Thursday February 27 until Thursday March 20.

For more information and to book, call 01522 692681 or email lincoln@alzheimers.org.uk

Police are hunting vandals who left behind a trail of graffiti in Market Deeping and Deeping St James this week.

The mess was made overnight between Monday and Tuesday and anyone with information should call 101, stating incident 61 of January 21.

Numerous taxi trips of a little over 500ft for county council staff have cost Lincolnshire taxpayers £42,000 in the last six years.

The county council paid the bill for the 524ft shuttles between two of its buildings in Lincoln because “it’s not a particularly pleasant place to walk” and “safety concerns” had been raised by staff.

Police told one national newspaper that there had been no reports of “attacks or serious crime” along the route of the taxi service, which runs from November to March.

Zoe Butler, head of the council’s customer service centre, said safety concerns were raised by staff who walk to and from Witham Park House and the Spa Road area during the winter.

She said: “The majority of our staff are female and, as a responsible employer, the council agreed to provide transport from November until March at the beginning and end of the day.”

But the taxi trips are ending.

Ms Butler said the road will be upgraded this year, making it a safer walking route, and “remove the need for transport in future years”.

Nene Potatoes’ new facility has been officially opened by National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall.

Members of the potato marketing co-operative based in Long Sutton funded the quality assurance building to help offer their customers reliable supply and assured quality.

Nene Potatoes chairman David Hoyles said: “It is crucial that Nene confidently delivers the expected quality potatoes to our customers right first time and gives our grower members timely, accurate information to maximise their crop returns. This new facility helps us to achieve that.”

Mr Hoyles said he, as well as the board and executive of the business, were delighted that Peter Kendall opened the new facility.

The QA facility is sited next to the Nene Potatoes office and allows the professional marketing team to see potatoes quickly first-hand.

It is equipped to allow the washing, grading, hot boxing, dry matter scoring, quality control analysis and recording of potato samples all year round, especially during the harvest and storage period.

Recorded data and photographs are uploaded daily to the marketing office to allow a detailed log of samples to be catalogued.

Peter Kendall said: “The consumer is wanting more and more to buy British produce. It is up to us to make the investments necessary to provide them with consistent quality and continuity. This facility is a great example of that.”