Hildred's Hotel, Skegness

Last week I was joined by my colleague Ian Marshman in Skegness. We were there to promote the project at Hildred’s shopping centre. As some might know, the centre takes its name from the Hotel that once stood on the same site before it was demolished in 1987.

Two hundred years ago, Hildred’s was known as the New Inn or New Hotel, welcoming Georgian travellers to Skegness. The name (before it changed to Hildred’s) helped distinguish the business from the older Vine Inn further down the coast in what was then just a tiny village.

Between 1808-1828, the hotel was run by Mr. Thomas Melson. He offered board and lodging at one guinea per week (not including tea in the afternoon) and a ‘warm sea bath at any hour of the day in addition to a ‘convenient, safe caravan for bathing at all times of tide’.

For over 100 years, the hotel enjoyed an unparalleled reputation. The rooms were ‘luxuriously furnished’, and the dining and drawing room considered ‘the finest on the Lincolnshire Coast’.

In 1828, Joseph Hildred bought the New Inn. Hildred learnt the innkeeping trade from his uncle, John Stafford, who ran the rival Vine Hotel. Until the railway arrived, it was very difficult for travellers to reach Skegness, and visitors tended to be wealthier people. Joseph Hildred began running a daily carriage between his hotel and the Peacock Inn at Boston, connecting stagecoaches from London and the Midland towns to boost trade.

In 1850, when Joseph died, his wife Sarah and son Charles Hildred took over. As the resort grew, more and more hotels were built, so they called theirs Hildred’s. Charles was one of the local businessmen who helped build the pier in 1877. Charles applied for a licence to sell wines in the fashionable new Pier Pavilion when it opened. An old photograph shows the hotel with visitors making their way to and from the pier.

In 1899, Hildred’s Hotel was purchased by the world’s largest brewer, Bass of Burton on Trent. Keen to invest in the booming resort, Bass rebuilt and expanded the hotel in a grander neoclassical style. Many people still remember this building as it stood until 1987 when the shopping centre was created.

A photograph of the hotel’s demolition (note the wrecking ball in full swing), shows some architectural detail of the main facade, a mixture of classical motifs and Victorian invention. During our visit, we are told of a young female ghost roaming the stockroom in one shop, and elsewhere staff complain of an eerie presence within the store. The ghost is believed to be Eva May Saxby of Harby, a barmaid who fell to her death cleaning one of the hotel’s chandeliers.

If you believe in the supernatural, the strange presence in the other store might be connected to a sailboat named The Shannon that capsized with the loss of 28 passengers in 1893. No prizes for where the corpses were temporarily stored – the hotel!