Friday September 15, during Lincolnshire’s Heritage Open Days, sees the launch of
Aslackby Voices Through Time, an audio trail telling the life stories of five Aslackby
notables, including an infamous highwayman, a colonist who left Aslackby for America
in 1606 and a soldier of the First World War who was born in The Robin Hood pub.
A collaboration between the team at St James’ Church in Aslackby and local charity
Dementia Support South Lincs (DSSL), each of the five people, represented by a life-
size acrylic figure, tell their own tale through the voices of members of DSSL’s Square
Hole Club, all of whom live with early-onset dementia.
Highwayman Spence Broughton was executed for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham
mail. He gained notoriety because his body was gibbeted at the scene of the crime,
where it hung for 36 years”
His story is narrated by Len Webb, who says “My family is bound to have crossed the same paths as Spence.
“I was brought up only four miles from Attercliffe Common, where Spence was executed, and I know the area well”.
Len has been living with dementia for eight years.
![](https://www.granthammatters.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ThomasCharlesPickering-1.jpeg)
Thomas Charles Pickering was born in 1894 in the Robin Hood pub in Aslackby, where
his father was the landlord, and was killed in Hooge, Belgium, in 1915.
It is only right that he is brought to life by David Cox of Pickworth, who was a Captain in the Welsh
Guards, serving in Northern Ireland, and who has been living with dementia for nine years.
The other Aslackby locals brought to life are John Dods, who went to America as a
colonist in 1606; the family name continues, with a descendent living in Aslackby
today; Rebecca Gibbons, who also left England for America after she converted to the
Latter Day Saints Church; and Eunice Everett, whose life is recorded in the War
Memorial which hangs in St James Church in Aslackby.
This unique project, which brings these five very different people to life, was made
possible through the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In addition to the audio trail, an illustrated booklet is also available with all five tales and short
biographical details of the narrators.
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