1914 Home Front

The first battle of Ypres took place on the 11th November 1914, incidentally a wednesday.

The First World War was in its infancy having started just a few months before in the July.

British Society would never be the same again given the loss of life, upheaval and revolution from that great war.

On the Home Front there was a semblance of normality in spite of the appetite to fight amongst the young males of the nation.

A case in point was the Sale by Auction of Contractors Plant at Louth Sewerage Works in Lincolnshire on that very same day.

The sale, by the local auctioneers Dickinson, Riggall and Davy was to start at 10.30am at the Out-Fall Works of the Sewerage Plant and with a secondary venue for the afternoon, from 2pm in the Corporation Yard, Upgate, Louth.

The town was a typical centre of commerce and business for an English rural area being some 20 or so miles east of the county town of Lincoln and equidistant from the North Sea Coast. On the edge of the rolling Wolds countryside the town was important for a regular market economy of produce and livestock. The population had expanded rapidly in the pre-war period from the older street frontage  cottages around the town centre into the middle class areas of villas with gardens and a view of the sky and hills beyond.

With urban growth and development came the need for Utilities including sewerage being provided by private enterprise, wealthy investors or the Borough.

The sale was on behalf of the executors of the late Orston Wright Esquire, no doubt an important benefactor and servant of the townspeople. The advertisements for the Sale were targeted as being an opportunity for farmers, contractors, engineers and local authorities to acquire ' Effects of the utmost utility and of standard quality'.

Such an event would no doubt be the highlight of the day for the resident population given that it would take some time for the telegraph wires and press to bring the news of the momentous troop and military movements of the War to the town.

On offer was a wide range of buildings, goods, chattels, materials, tools and instruments. Amongst the structures were an excellent and well built Stores Shed with two windows and a corrugated roof of dimensions 30ft by 18ft since dismantled and re-erected at the railway station goods yard. In addition, a cement shed, Pay Office (in sections) with a desk and Solar Stove, Engineers Office on wheels and 2 watchmans boxes.

Materials cnsisted of a large amount of timber, pitch pine posts and sleepers to appeal to contractors and farmers. Galvanised and other tanks, iron piping, cement and ballast guage boxes may also have been of interest to the well informed.

The apparatus of the sewerage works was also to be sold including smoke testers, brass inflating pumps, Avery brand weighing machines, a portable bellows, 3 ton blocks and pulleys, Diaphragm Pumps by Bastin & Co and a hose pipe.

The goods up for grabs were extensive with many leading and well known brands, Bamfords and Jim Crow amongst them.

The Auctioneers had structured the day to work from the largest items downwards. By about midday there was a huddle of interested parties around the display of small plant, tools and effects. Many bidders went away happy given the surplus of barrows (20), Tool Boxes (6), shovels (250), picks (150) and hammers (30). Those attendees in more formal attire than overalls and work clothes were in waiting for the specialist items under the broad heading of 'Engineers Instruments'. These ranged from drawing boards and the rudiments of a fully equipped office to surveying equipment, a 100 feet steel tape on a drum and a 14ft staff pole.

The sale was by all accounts well attended and with a good level of revenue generated. For some in the crowded venues it may have been a welcome distraction from the looming pressures to enlist and take the Kings Shilling to participate in the war on foreign soil. Given the acceleration of the conflict it is likely that many of the goods and chattels purchased that day may not have enjoyed an extended lease of life in the hands of  those who had volunteered only their hard earned cash to acquire them on that November day in 1914.