SILVER PLATED

SPOON

TEA SPOON

MARKED

TRADITION SILVER PLATED

IMAGE

SKEGNESS

(COAT OF ARMS)

SIZE

126mm

CONDITION

SPOON GOOD CONDITION ,

TARNISHED,

BLACK BOX

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KNOWLEDGE / INFORMATION / HISTORY

Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is 43 miles (69 km) east of Lincoln and 22 miles north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579, it is the largest settlement in the East Lindsey district; it also incorporates Winthorpe (previously its own parish) and Seacroft, and forms a larger built-up area with the resorts of Ingoldmells and Chapel St Leonards to the north. The town is on the A52 and A158 roads, connecting it with Boston and the East Midlands, and Lincoln respectively; Skegness railway station is on the Nottingham to Skegness (via Grantham) line. 

Historically Skegness was situated further east and sat at the mouth of The Wash; it was later named for the headland which likely sat near the settlement. There is evidence of late Iron-Age and early Roman saltmaking activity in the area and the settlement may have been associated with a Roman fort and ferry crossing to Norfolk. The modern name is Old Norse and appears in the historical record from the 12th century. By the 14th century, Skegness was a locally important port for coastal trade. The natural sea defences which protected the harbour eroded in the later Middle Ages, and it was lost to the sea after a storm in 1525 or 1526. Rebuilt over a mile westward, it remained a small fishing and farming village, but in the late 18th century members of the local gentry visited for holidays. 

The arrival of the railways in 1873 transformed it into a popular seaside resort. This was the intention of the landowner, the 9th Earl of Scarbrough, who wished to capitalise on the growing trend for seaside holidaying, increasingly affordable among the working population. He built the infrastructure of the town and laid out plots, which he leased to speculative developers. By the early 1880s, this new Skegness had become a popular destination for holiday-makers and day trippers from the East Midlands factory towns. A drop in trade in the 1880s was soon replaced by a boom; by the interwar years the town was established as one of the most popular seaside resorts in Britain. The layout of the modern seafront dates to this time and holiday camps were built around the town, including the first Butlin's holiday resort which opened in Ingoldmells in 1936. 

The arrival of package holidays abroad in the 1970s and the decline in industrial employment in the East Midlands harmed Skegness's trade in the late 20th century, but it retains a loyal visitor base and has increasingly attracted people visiting for a second holiday; tourism also increased following the Great Recession of 2007–09. In 2011, the town was the United Kingdom's fourth most popular tourist destination and in 2015 it received over 1.4 million visitors. Despite the arrival of a number of manufacturing firms since the 1950s and Skegness's prominence as a local commercial centre, the tourism industry remains very important for the economy and employment. Its low wages and seasonal nature, along with the town's aging population, have contributed towards high levels of deprivation among the resident population.