Alford, Lincolnshire

An electoral ward of the same name exists. It stretches east to the coast, with a population of 4,531, as recorded in the 2011 census.[2]

Alford's retail outlets cater mainly for local demand. Shops include a pharmacy, a grocery, two butchers (the later one opened in November 2016) and DIY and hardware stores. There are three supermarkets, in Church Street, West Street and Hamilton Road. The five public houses are the Half Moon Hotel, Windmill Hotel, George,[3] Anchor and White Hart. Four of these still operate as such – the Half Moon has a tea shop attached and is a venue for local activities. The Anchor has been renovated as a bed-and-breakfast establishment. The Windmill is a hotel, while the White Hart is still a traditional pub.

The town has no banks, as the last, Lloyds Bank, closed in September 2018. There is still a Yorkshire Building Society office. Banking facilities are available at the Post Office, which is now incorporated into the Quicky Supermaket in West Street.

H & M Ducos Pottery, established in London in 1972, moved to Alford in 1973 and became the Alford Pottery. It acquired premises in Commercial Road in 1978 to manufacture tableware that is exported worldwide. The firm set up the Alford Craft Market, the Alford Festivals of arts and crafts, the Alford Folk Club (now an acoustic club), the Alford Morris Dancing club, the former Alford Jazz Festival, the former Alford Film Society, and other organisations. Alford Craft Market Centre is a cooperative venture selling works from local and regional craftsmen. With help from a substantial National Lottery grant, it provides various classes and workshops to allow the public to experience art and craft activities on a regular basis.

There are National Health private dentists located in South Street and a doctor's surgery in West Street. A crematorium opened at the entrance to the town in 2008.

The charter market day is Tuesday. The main market is run by the town council in the Market Place, with stalls for groceries, greengroceries, fishmongery and other items, and a popular auction. The Alford Craft Market has been held in the Market Place every late Spring and August bank holiday since 1975, in the grounds of Alford Manor House. The summer weekly Craft Market now takes place in the Corn Exchange and the Christmas Extravaganza at the Manor House on the first Friday in December. The cattle market closed in 1987 and the site became the Co-op Car Park. In February 2019, the Alford Promotions group was set-up by shop-owners and councillors to organize community events, including a Christmas Market, the first of which took place on 30 November 2019.

Most factories have closed in the last few years. The main sources of employment are newer businesses on the Safelincs industrial estate in West Street and the schools, nursing homes and smaller firms.

The former railway station

Beeching's Way Industrial Estate in the south-west of the town includes printing and manufacturing firms, a builders' merchant and a postal sorting office. It was built on the disused lines of the East Lincolnshire Railway from Grimsby to Boston, which closed on 5 October 1970, along with the local station. The naming of the industrial estate as Beeching's Way is a wry reminder of Richard Beeching, who masterminded the nationwide rail cutbacks under publicly owned British Railways.

The town's previous largest employer was C. S. Martin, later Finnveden Powertrain Ltd, closed its doors in 2010. After redundancies, the factory now operates as Gnutti Carlo UK Ltd.

There is a daytime Monday-to-Friday bus service to Skegness,[4] a single Wednesday service to Boston,[5] and occasional local and school bus services open to other passengers.[6]

Alford also has bus connections to Skegness, Mablethorpe and Spilsby, and one service a day to and from Louth. The nearest railway station is in Thorpe Culvert.

Alford has a primary school,[12] one of England's few remaining grammar schools, Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, founded in 1566, and John Spendluffe Technology College.[13] The grammar school received a mixed Ofsted day-inspection report in 2007.[14] The technology college was gauged as "requiring improvement" at a full Ofsted inspection in March 2019.[15]

St Wilfrid's church

The Anglican Parish Church of Alford is dedicated to St Wilfrid, a 7th-century English bishop. Built in the 14th century, then restored with additions from 1860, it stands at the junction between Church, South and West streets. It includes St Lawrence's Chapel. The original features include a 14th-century screen, a Jacobean pulpit, traces of 16th-century glass, and a 17th-century tomb in the chancel. The church founded a school in the Elizabethan period.[16]

The church holds regular services and some annual community events such as a flower show. The war memorial in the churchyard commemorates local people who died in the two world wars and in Northern Ireland.[17]

Alford has a Methodist church, an Independent Congregational church, and Alford Christian Fellowship.

Some 4 miles (6 km) from Alford, in the village of Markby, is St Peter's Church, the one remaining thatched church in Lincolnshire.[18]

In order of birth:

• Captain John Smith (1580–1631), explorer, lived in Great Carlton, 4 miles (6.4 km) to the north and went to school in Alford.[19]
• Anne Hutchinson, born Anne Marbury (1591–1643), Puritan settler and religious reformer in New England[20]
• Edward Hutchinson (1613–1675), Alford-born son of Anne Hutchinson, became prominent as a soldier and a politician in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
• William Wentworth (1616–1697), born in Alford, was a follower of the Puritan John Wheelwright and an early settler in New Hampshire.
• Susanna Cole (1633 – c. 1713), born in Alford, was captured and raised by American Indians after her family was massacred at New Netherland.
• William Charles Ellis (1780–1839), born in Alford, was a pioneer in the treatment of mental illness.
• Elizabeth Dawbarn (died 1839), born in Alford, was a Baptist religious pamphleteer.
• George Manville Fenn (1831–1909), novelist, taught in Alford.[21]
• Tony Richardson (1943–2007), footballer born in Alford, played for Nottingham Forest, Cheltenham Town and Bradford City.[22]

• Alford and Sutton Tramway
• Lincolnshire Poacher cheese

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Alford (Lincolnshire).

Media related to Alford, Lincolnshire at Wikimedia Commons

• Alford Town website
• Alford Town Council website
• Alford, Lincolnshire at Curlie
• Alford in the Domesday Book