The Country

Fish House Lane was a thoroughfare which once ran from the corner of Columbia Road along what is now Ladysmith Road. It got its name from a series of fish huts erected for the drying of salted cod. They were known as "inkies," small wooden towers where the fish would be hung on racks to dry.

Fish House Lane was a narrow, cobbled road which also housed the town's skating rink, a popular spot for the town's youngsters. There was an allotment site, later occupied by a Findus factory, Bennett and Jennison's had their picture framing business there and Baguley's removal and storage business had it's headquarters in the lane. Then there were the "trenches", an area of land the College Army Cadets used for training. This later became the site of the Weelsby Housing Estate. There was also the Trent Ammunition Factory, the scene of a fatal explosion during the war years.

The playing fields themselves – the present Clee Fields – were divided by a footpath. The College used one side (and they had rather superior dressing rooms), the elementary schools the other. They had to make do with a single wooden hut for use as changing rooms. Half way down Fish House Lane there was a narrow wooden bridge which crossed a dyke, a popular spot for youngsters with net and jam jar to catch minnows, tiddlers and "taddies".

Later known as Bourne Lane, Fish House Lane finally disappeared in the late 1940s when Ladysmith Road was extended through to Weelsby Road. But it will live on in the history of a town built on the fishing industry.