Sometimes I have heard people say that Spalding used to be a nice place but it isn’t as nice as it was.
Sadly, the speaker often means that he or she moved to Spalding, legally, for above-board financial reasons and now begrudges other people moving in, legally, for above-board financial reasons.
I am not sure that Spalding was ever a perfect golden town. Surely I remember when the grumbles of the day were the milk bar or traffic in Bridge Street or glue-sniffers in Sheep Market.
However, there is one way in which Spalding used to be a nicer place. Now there’s a soulless, apparently personless, red-winking edifice where once there used to be a clanking, queueing, humming, steaming, rolling, slicing, roasting palace of sweetness. I’m referring to the late Spalding Beet Factory.
The 2019 Memorial Sugar-Beet-Boiling Ceremony will take place in my kitchen on November 4. Anyone wishing to attend is advised to book early as places are limited. The Ceremony of Drying Pulp in the Oven will take place the next day.
People will scoff but I was being served in a shop some time in the last couple of years and the lady who was serving me said: “There’s a sweet smell on the air today in Spalding. It reminds me of the beet factory. Are you from round here? Can you remember the beet factory?”. “Yes”, I replied.
Frances Richardson
Surfleet
