First trip of the year.......

.......and the theme is World War 1 tanks! Planning on going last week in March.

Lincoln is the birthplace of the tank, in 1915 William Fosters & Co of Lincoln, an agricultural engineering firm, developed, tested and produced tanks. Fosters were an agricultural machinery manufacturer in Lincoln making Traction Engines and threshing machines.

Inside Fosters Works - note the banner

Tanks in Fosters works (pic from web, but its water marked Richard Pullen so acknowledgements to him!)
Richard Pullen is a Lincoln based historian and author of 'The Landships of Lincoln' and 'Beyond the Green Fields'.

Foster’s managing director was a man named William Tritton, He was assisted by his chief draughtsman William Rigby, and Walter Wilson.. Tritton and Wilson took just 37 days to produce the first prototype tank and it was tested on waste ground near the factory, and on Burton Park in 1915 and 1916. (the testing grounds on Burton Park are roughly where the A46 bypass goes up the hill from the A57 roundabout to the Riseholme roundabout A15.)

 Factory workers assembling the vehicles had been told they were producing "mobile water tanks" for Russia, which they shortened to ‘tank’.

Tank at Foster's factory in Lincoln.
The markings were to give the impression it was a"water tank" destined for Russia. Not sure if its getting on or getting off the rail car!
The translation of the Russian writing is 'with care to Petrograd' (pic from www.iwm.org.uk)

 

 

The man himself, William Tritton on the far right.(pic from preserved tanks.com)

Trials at Burton Park 1916 (just off the bypass!!) pic from www.iwm.org.uk

Tank 2397 built by Fosters, and I guess by these guys. The tank was christened 'Lurcher' and is recorded as being in action in 1918, but may have fought earlier (pic from www.iwm.org.uk)

Tanks were in full production in Lincoln by 1916, the original designs being improved as expertise and experience of using them grew, much of the production was outsourced to other engineering companies who had greater capacity,

Mark I tanks were first used at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, but they were limited in number and not used effectively, they suffered reliabilty problems. The Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 saw the first use of tanks on a large scale.

Fosters Wellington Foundry occupied land between Waterloo Street and Firth Road. This land is now part of a retail centre on Tritton Road (named after Foster’s managing director) with only a short stretch of Waterloo Road remaining. All that remains is a section of wall behind Starbucks that now divides the retail park from a row of houses along Waterloo Street.

Aerial photo from 1926 showing the Fosters as well as Rustons and other Lincoln factories (pic from http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/ but captions mine)



The wall! Last bit remaining of Fosters Wellington Foundry (you'll find it behind Starbucks opposite Morrisons onTritton Road)

This pic is of a WW1 picture merged with a modern photo and shows a tank on the Cornhill in Lincoln (pic from BBC website)

  

So the link is the tank and here endeth the history lesson. I tend to get a bit detailed in the background research for these trips but I've found this one very interesting given the local connection.
The trip is from Lincoln to Cambrai and to try and get to see the Deborah Tank at Flesquires. This is the only remaining WW1 tank in France and is in a private museum, but I've booked into the hotel owned by the guy who owns the tank, so should be able to soft talk me way in.
I intend to pop into Ashford when passing to look at their tank, and to visit some other WW1 stuff whilst in the Somme area.