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Spalding is a market town with a population of 30,000 on the River Welland in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England.

Spalding is well-known for its annual Flower Parade which attracts many regular visitors from all over the world, although the attendance has been declining from year to year. Since 2002 it has also held an annual Pumpkin Festival (not linked to Hallowe'en) in October.

Spalding is twinned with the German town of Speyer.

The River Welland

Draining of the Fens

The River Welland flows north from Crowland, through Spalding and passing the village and port of Fosdyke before leading out to the Wash, bisecting Spalding from east to west; the town has developed as a linear settlement around the river. Land had been reclaimed from the wetlands in the area since mediaeval times, and Spalding was subject to frequent flooding. The Coronation Channel, opened in 1953, diverted the excess waters around Spalding and ended the flooding[1], allowing the area around the banks to be safely built upon. Although this area has become heavily built up, the river retains its recreational usage and fishing is still popular.

Water Taxi

In July 2005 a "Spalding Water Taxi" service was launched, running from Easter to late October. Its route is from just off Spalding's High Street (behind Hills Department Store), upstream along the river, turning onto the Coronation Channel, and going to Springfields Outlet Shopping & Festival Gardens, and back. It is mainly used as a recreational tourist attraction, described as "a relaxing 30 minute cruise". ^[4]

Vernatt's Drain

Around the north-west of Spalding is a large waterway called Vernatt's Drain, named after one of the civil engineers who drained the fens. Fulney Lock is the point where the Welland is no longer tidal.^{[citation needed]}

Industry and commerce

Flowers and vegetables

Spalding is located at the centre of a major region of flower and vegetable growth, due to the rich silty soil which mainly comprises drained recovered marshland or estuary. There are many garden centres and plant nurseries, as well as a thriving agricultural industry and various vegetable packing plants. The main vegetables are potatoes, peas, carrots, wheat, barley, oats, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts. The vast majority of these are sold to large concerns such as supermarkets, with little being available for sale locally.

Despite this, local fruit and vegetable shop Booth's sells lots of local produce to Spalding's citizens. They sell all major fruit and vegetables ranging from the famous, locally grown 'Boston' potatoes to imported rarities such as custard apples.

Tulips

Known as The Heart of the Fens, Spalding is famous as a centre of the bulb industry, and has close links with the Netherlands (origin of the Geest family, who were former major local employers). The annual Tulip Parade takes place on the first Saturday in May, and is a major tourist attraction, comprising a procession of floats on various themes, each decorated with tulip petals, a by-product of the bulb industry. In years when the tulips are late, daffodils are sometimes used in their place. When the tulips are early, crepe paper has to be substituted. The flower industry has, however, become less important in recent years, and the bands of bright colours that covered the fenland are now essentially gone.

Main companies

Many small and internationally famous products are supplied from the area including:

• George Adams pork products Welland Power generators from the Farrows family.
• Uniq plc (formerly Unigate) have a factory for their prepared salads.
• Fowler-Welch Coolchain, historically a Spalding company, have their UK base in the town on West Marsh Road near the power station, and were bought by the Dart Group in 1994.
• In May 2005, the Icelandic company Bakkavör purchased the main Spalding-based company Geest, for £485m. It had a large operation on West Marsh Road as well as factories in Holbeach and Peterborough. It began in 1935 has Geest Horticultural Products by John and Leonard van Geest who imported tulip bulbs to the UK. The salad preparation factory in Spalding opened in 1972. It launched on the London Stock Exchange in 1986. Most recently, Bakkavor has announced that it's central operations and registered head office (Previously in Paddington, London) shall move to their Spalding Site.

Sausages

Spalding is the sausage capital of the world being the home of Lincolnshire sausage ranging from the traditional recipes of Brownings and Bennetts Butchers in Winsover Road to the more peppery flavours of T Law in Hall Place Spalding, or the perfectly acceptable mass produced George Adams sausages. The key ingredient of the Lincolnshire sausage is sage. One town centre fish and chip shop, Turner's (known locally as Sheddy's), sells Spalding produced butcher's sausage in batter to wide customer acclaim.^{[citation needed]}

World Tulip Summit

Spalding was chosen to host the World Tulip Summit in 2008, from Thursday, 1 May to Friday, 2nd May, alongside a broader Tulipmania festival from 13th April to 24th May. This coincides with the date of the Flower Parade (Saturday, 3rd May), which is coincidentally the fiftieth one. The Summit is expected to attract about 200 delegates from around the world.

Accompanying the Summit and Festival will be many entertainment activities, all with a general focus on promoting the local area.

Spalding has a popular, reasonably-sized, market every Tuesday and Saturday and on the first Saturday in every month a Farmers' Market.

Landmarks and facilities

Historical buildings

The best-known building in Spalding is Ayscoughfee Hall, formerly a 15th century country house and now a [[museum]). Visitors to Spalding can find other local attractions at the Pinchbeck Engine Museum (just north of Spalding), the Springfields Shopping Outlet and Gardens, Bulb Museum (situated at Birch Grove Garden Centre, Pinchbeck) and the Gordon Boswell Romany Museum, to the south of the town. Spalding and the surrounding area is also famous for its parish churches; St Paul's at Fulney, on the eastern side of the town, was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the designer of St Pancras Station London, who was a friend of Spalding Gentlemen’s Society. Spalding Parish Church itself (St Mary & St Nicolas) has a handsome spire visible for miles around and dates from the 12th century. The Chatterton Tower is near Sainsburys.

Commercial and civic buildings

Six supermarkets are available to locals: Two Tesco stores, a Sainsbury's in the centre of the town, a Co-op in the Winsover Centre, a Marks and Spencer Food Hall, and a Morrisons in Pinchbeck. The Castle Sports Complex provides fitness facilities throughout the day and evening. The South Holland Centre is an arts centre on Market Place that stages concerts, theatre productions and film showings.

Power stations

A new £425m, 860MW combined cycle gas turbine power station, owned by Intergen, was built on the former site of British Sugar on West Marsh Road by Bechtel in October 2004. In mid-2006 a new wind farm (operated by Wind Prospect UK) became visible from much of Spalding, located in nearby Deeping St Nicholas.

Transport

Spalding is situated on the Lincoln Central - Peterborough railway line, operated by East Midlands Trains. The service is irregular, and non-existent at night or on Sundays, however it is of great convenience to Peterborough for employment and shopping. A spur from March, which carried the so-called 'Boat Train' between Harwich and Sheffield, closed in 1982.

This Article was sourced using Wikipedia