Sporting Sites in Lincoln

SPORTING SITES IN LINCOLN: 

A HISTORY OF THE CITY’S SPORTS GROUNDS

Editors: Andrew Walker, Donald Nannestad, Ian Nannestad

Many of Lincoln’s inhabitants have enjoyed over time a wide range of sports, both as participants and spectators. This multi-authored collection explores a variety of such sports across a broad chronological range. It looks at both sports with long connections with the city, such as horseracing and football, and also others with which readers might not be quite so familiar. It examines sports played inside and out; on land, and in, or on, water. The book’s chronological range extends from early-modern cockfighting through to sporting opportunities available in the city’s state-of-the-art twenty-first century sports centres. Attention is paid to both male and female engagement in these sporting activities.

The book considers how many different organisations have featured in sports provision in the city and the motivations underlying this involvement, including religious bodies, public houses, educational institutions, the state, both local and national, as well as employers. The principal focus throughout is upon the buildings and structures associated with these sporting activities, whilst paying attention as well to the changing social, economic and cultural context in which these sports take place.

Chapters include: 

• overview to 1914

• cockfighting

• pubs and sports provision

• Lincoln Christ’s Hospital Girls’ High School: gym and games for girls

• early sporting facilities for women at the Lincoln Diocesan Training College, 1862-1914

• Lincoln School cricket pavilion;

• the fives court at Lincoln School

• pigeon racing

• West Common baths

• development of Sincil Bank football ground

• Lincoln’s tennis clubs to 1939

• city cricket clubs and their facilities;

• Lindum sports ground

• bowling clubs and greens

• rowing clubs and boathouses

• temporary structures on the racecourse

• overview from 1914

• a championship golf course for Boultham?

• women’s sports in the mid twentieth century

• works’ sports grounds

• table tennis in Lincoln

• Ashby Avenue sports ground

• Lincoln Canoe Club

• swimming baths

• municipal leisure centres

• map

• further reading.

Cover Price: £10.95                   ISBN: 978-1-9192541-0-4                                      136 pages (indicative)

Book stockists (from 6 December 2025): 

• Lindum Books, 4 Bailgate, Lincoln, LN1 3AE;

• Steep Hill Bookshop, 2-3 Steep Hill, Lincoln, LN2 1LS.

• and, of course, it will be available direct from The Survey of Lincoln (collection or by post; postage extra)

See the Home Page for details of the book launch for this volume - free entry, contributors giving short talks, as well as launch event discount on this and our other booklets.