The Red Cow and The Mill, Boston

An Inn existed on the site of the Red Cow since the 16th Century when the pub was known as The Bell. The old cattle mart closed around 1758 and cattle sales moved to the open site in front of the current building. The pub was rebuilt in 1760 and renamed The Red Cow. This was likely in honour of the Lincoln Red, an old breed of beef cattle originating from Lincolnshire.

The pub, which has 2 storeys and an attic, was built in a decorative alternating pattern of red bricks known as Flemish bond. There are several other recognisable decorative features in the exterior design. Banding is visible on the 1^st floor and there is a wooden dentiled eaves cornice where the walls meet the roof. Above the windows are uniformed cambered brick heads with stucco keystones. There is also a neat pedimented door surround. The Red Cow would likely have been a good place to settle business between cattlemen on market days. Especially so during the weekly cattle markets established in 1847. A map from 1888 shows the extent of the pub’s operations. There is a large courtyard behind the pub for stabling and carrier carts. The map also shows the nearby pig market. This has since been demolished and replaced with an existing building built in a sympathetic Georgian style to the Red Cow. Sadly, the Red Cow is currently vacant and not used as a pub.

My next pub, the Mill Pub along Spilsby Road, is a short distance away. The pub presumably takes its name from a mill known as “Burton Corner Mill”, which stood near the current site. The mill was demolished in 1878 along with the bakery. An earlier map reveals the existing site of the pub was formerly part of ‘Burton Cottage’, a large late Victorian house next door. In 1849, the house was described as a ‘pleasant’ modern-built brick tenement containing extensive gardens, a coach house, stables and outbuildings. The house was considered ‘most suitable for the residence of a genteel family.’ Charles Wright JP bought the property and lived here until he died in 1907. The pub is located a few meters away from Burton Cottage. It replaced an earlier building on the same site before being demolished and rebuilt in the early part of the 20th Century. The existing pub acquired some of the outbuildings that once served as the stables to Burton Cottage.

In 1935, former boxing champion Johnny Cuthbert was licensee. Cuthbert had been British featherweight champion between 1927-31 and British lightweight champion between 1932-34. A life-size cut-out of Cuthbert in fighting kit hung over the pub’s entrance and was floodlight at night.