Thomas Hinson

1816-1902

Thomas Hinson was a master builder and monumental stone mason who worked in Bourne during the 19th century. His ancestors had moved to the town from Crowland and the business was passed down through the family, from his great grandfather Robert (1730-1762) to his grandfather John (1758-1811) and then to his father John (1787-1843). Thomas was born in 1816 and when he inherited the business it was operating from a yard in Abbey Road, Bourne.

The family firm carved many of the memorial headstones in the town cemetery and they are also known to have carried out a great deal of work on the stonework of Grimsthorpe Castle over the years. The Hinsons may also have helped with the building of the Wesleyan Chapel in Star Lane [now the Methodist Chapel in Abbey Road] in 1841 which the family actively supported for many years.

By 1856, Thomas Hinson and his brother Charles were operating from premises in West Street as contractors, builders and stone masons. The firm's prosperity was greatly increased by the opening of Bourne cemetery in 1855 and many of the memorials there were made by Hinson's and are marked accordingly. One of their most prestigious gravestones in the cemetery is that of one of the town's Victorian benefactors John Lely Ostler who died in 1859 and the base slab is signed with the firm's name. 

This is Ostler's gravestone and should not be confused with the 1860 public fountain memorial to him designed by Edward Browning which was moved to the cemetery from the market place in 1960 because of traffic problems. There is another signed memorial of similar design over the grave of John Dove, a wealthy Victorian landowner.

Thomas was one of five children and he married Olivia Chapman of Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, in 1838 and they went to live in West Street, Bourne. They had fourteen children and all but one were baptised at the Weslyan Chapel. All of the brothers were associated with the building industry and worked as masons, bricklayers, joiners, carpenters, plumbers and glaziers. Increased railway travel during the mid-19th century brought work opportunities in other towns and the sons left Bourne to seek employment in the Midlands, the North and in London, with the exception of Thomas, who worked as a builder, and Jabez, a carpenter. Thomas' younger brother Charles (1818-1905), for instance, who was also a master mason, moved to Stamford where he too ran a building business until his death.

By 1851, Thomas was living at the Austerby with his wife and six of their children aged between two months and nine years, and his nephew Frederick, from Ketton, Rutland, who was learning the business. In 1877, Thomas Hinson bought a piece of land in Eastgate from the Marquess of Exeter's Trust and built the property now known as No 6 Eastgate as a home for his son Thomas. A plaque containing a small sculpture of a lion's face and the date 1877 can be seen built into the upper section of the side wall. Rows of three rose emblems have been sculpted into the stone lintels above the front door and the windows of the upstairs rooms and there is also a cross engraved into the stone sill of the right hand bedroom window. These small sculptures indicate that Hinson's built the house and spare stone from the mason's yard was used as materials rather than waste them.

Thomas's wife Olivia died in 1882, aged 62, and eight years later, in 1890, Thomas went to Grimsby to live with his two sons Michael and Walter who had moved there some years before. He married again at Grimsby in 1894 when he was 78 and died there in 1902 at the age of 86.

His son Thomas continued to use the premises at No 6 Eastgate as a builder's yard while part of the house became a bread, cake and grocery shop run by his wife Mary Ann. A photograph exists of the property in 1907 when it consisted of two semi-detached homes with both front doors in the middle. On either side of them were the front windows of the two houses, the one on the right being a bay window with a low brick wall and iron railings at the front which indicates a private home, while that on the left was open to the pavement and the window flush against the wall which was used a display for the shop premises.

Thomas died on Saturday 9th August 1924 at the age of 79 after being in business as a builder for 40 years. He had retired fifteen years before but returned to work to assist in the building trade during the Great War of 1914-18. His death came after a long illness and he was confined to his bed for the final two weeks. The funeral took place at Bourne cemetery where he is buried. After his death, his wife continued running the shop which also sold sweets and was a favourite call for local children with a few pennies to spare. It continued in business until the mid-1950s when it was being run by their son Walter and his wife. Thomas also had a daughter who lived with Walter, Jessie Elizabeth Hinson, who worked as a dressmaker but never married and continued to run the shop after Walter and his wife died. She herself died in December 1959 at St George's Hospital, Stamford, and is the last known Hinson to have lived in Bourne.

REVISED OCTOBER 2014

See also     Frederick Hinson     Clock and watch makers

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