Woodhall Spa

Heavy showers today for a change.  After a bit of fannying about David and I went off to have a look at Woodhall Spa.  It is a lovely Victorian spa town that catered for the Victorian visitors.  In the early days a dear man collected the infirm visitors in a bath chair pulled by a donkey, from the station down on the riverside, but in later years a branch line ran up to the town.
Large hotels were built here and by an heiress, a country retreat that she hid herself in after a painful divorce.... HERE 

(I have googled it but I can't find out on what the grounds was the divorce!!)  Anyways the country pad was commandeered by the War Office and the surrounding airfields of which there were several, not least The Dam Busters Squadron had it as their Officers Mess.  

Throughout the downstairs and still in the same bar of the what is now a hotel are photos and memorabilia relating to that time.  Here are a few photos 

Small country pad.

Hero of mine, Leonard Chesire VC

Lancaster Bomber

Newspaper report of the raid which featured Guy Gibson

An illustration of a Lancaster accidentally hitting a tree.....

Look carefully to see hanging from the beam above the bar the branch of said tree in the Officers Mess.

Bad light reflection but the handsome Leonard Cheshire again.

Woodhall Spa is a pretty and quaint place, they need longer moorings here as there is a lot to see.