227. South Lincolnshire summer: Little Bytham and the Mallard

“The past is another country” — The Go Between, LP Hartley (1953)

August days are with us now, the ripe Lincolnshire corn shimmering tall and golden in late summer afternoons.

The stuffy, restrictive heat and bustle of London feels a world away from here.

The landscape has changed little across the years — parched harvest fields and desiccated stately lawns still wait ready for a boy or girl delivering some fateful message to Julie Christie in The Go Between or Keira Knightley in Atonement.

Only the slow progress of the monster machines that gather in the harvest serve to tell the tale of a landscape now worked with many fewer people.

Across long, easy days we cycle over gentle Jurassic hills. Three miles to reach another village, four villages to find a pub. It’s a pleasant way to slow down and find the summer.

The pace of life seems slow, and it’s hard to equate this landscape with a world speed record set three quarters of a century ago and still standing firm today.

At Castle Bytham we sink an ale beside the Norman motte and bailey. In nearby Little Bytham, Mrs Bee’s shop offers wonders of a completely different kind.

A traditional village store and sweet shop would be the best description, but that fails to do fair justice.

Entering from Little Bytham’s main (and almost only) street brings a friendly smile from Mrs Bee and a sight to warm the heart of any child, however grown-up they may now be. A memory-evoking selection of magical sweets awaits in tall glass jars atop high shelves.

The slow increments of progress pass unnoticed when you watch them, and then suddenly it’s clear how much the world has changed.

Mrs Bee has lived here for over 80 years, perhaps, or maybe even 90. She knows South Lincolnshire well.

We talk about our ride from Bassingthorpe, and our visit to the Walled Gardens at Easton. ‘It was a lovely house,’ she says, ‘Until the Canadian soldiers came and wrecked it.’

She remembers finely dressed folk turning up in carriages for parties before the house was commandeered for military use in the Second World War, some 70 years ago.

Little Bytham’s High Street is dominated today, just as it was then, by the massive railway viaduct.

The London to Edinburgh expresses roar past above our heads every few minutes, on one of the most historic lengths of railway track in all the world.

Beside the viaduct, a village house built in cream Jurassic stone carries the name of Mallard House. In many another English hamlet that might recall the duckpond, but not here.

A plate beside the door depicts the sleek blue locomotive which set the world steam landspeed record here when Mrs Bee was young.

The stretch of line from Stoke Summit to the south of Grantham was perfect for the attempt — a long straight with a uniform gentle gradient.

Here on 30th November, 1934, the famous LNER steam engine, Flying Scotsman, became the first steam engine to be offically recorded above 100 mph.

Four years later, and with a brave engine driver, Joseph Duddington, at the ready, another LNER engine, Mallard reached a speed of 125 mph between Little Bytham and Essendine on 3rd July, 1938.

A second attempt scheduled for September 1939 was cancelled following the outbreak of war.

And remarkably enough, the Mallard’s mark has never been beaten since.

Today, the locomotive takes pride of place in the British Transport Museum just an hour up the East Coast line in York, alongside the Flying Scotsman.

As we leave the shop to find our bikes for a pedal slowly home, Mrs Bee smiles and says goodbye, until next year.

Time moves slowly here.

I’m sure that Mrs Bee will be here to greet us, and Little Bytham and its world landspeed record will stand unchanged by then.

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