HISTORY
Restoration
Fydell House reopened to the public in July 2026 at the end of a painstaking £2.3 million restoration.
It was the most thorough works programme that the building has ever known. Just some of the renovation work included renewal of the roof, replacement of the entire heating and electrical systems, a completely new kitchen, provision of a new toilet block and repainting in heritage colours inside and out. Accessibility ramps were installed to the front and rear of the property, making it fully accessible to the ground floor for the first time.
During the course of the work, the House slowly began to reveal a number of secrets that had been hidden for many years. Just some of the things we found included hidden office drawers still containing ink bottles, and even some Victorian graffiti referring to a much earlier programme of repairs back in 1890! The volunteers will be delighted to show you the inscription, which is in one of the upstairs rooms.
The restoration would not have been possible without the generosity of donors and benefactors, including a grant of £1.6 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
As well as the renovation work, an extensive programme of art events and installations has been created, including interpretation panels explaining the history of the House and its occupants, which can be found on the outside wall at the southern side of the house.
History of Fydell House
Probably built around 1700 for the Jackson family of cloth merchants, Fydell House sits on land that was purchased for £20 – approximately £3,500 in today’s money. Although the family were prominent members of Boston, with Edmund Jackson serving as Mayor twice, the decline of the cloth trade led to the house being sold to Joseph Fydell in 1726.
Joseph was a successful merchant, granted his own coat of arms which features a pun on his surname Esto Fidelis usque ad finem (always be faithful and just). Fydell passed on through several generations, including Joseph’s nephew, Richard, a wine merchant who served as Boston’s MP and three times mayor of Boston. The house’s buildings were expanded to include stables, a granary, outhouses, a counting-house, vaults, a scalding yard and a coopery.
Fydell House remained the family home until 1816 when it was leased to tenants. Over the years that followed, those tenants included Francis Yeatman, a wine merchant and keen gardener; Jane Collins, widow of the vicar of Freiston; Samuel Waddington, a trader, president of the Liberal Club, Alderman and Mayor; and Fred Miller, Customs Officer and artist, the final person to live in the house, from 1926 until 1935.
By the mid-1930s, the fate of Fydell House hung in the balance, with plans to demolish it in favour of a housing development. The loss of the “grandest house in town” so alarmed the then-Vicar of Boston, Canon A.M. Cook, and other concerned activists, that they launched an appeal to buy it. The house was saved, and the Boston Preservation Trust was founded, whose aim to save other historic buildings in the town and bring them back into meaningful use continues to this day.
Since then, Fydell House has served a number of uses, including as the base for the Women’s Voluntary Service during WW2 and after the war, the house hosted adult education classes as an outpost of Nottingham University until 2003.
The house has also strengthened Boston’s connection with the United States, with US ambassador Joseph Kennedy, father of President John F Kennedy, dedicating the American Room in 1938.
Sir Nikolas Pevsner commented that “few buildings in the area show the ‘swagger’ of Fydell House in Boston”. The Trust, members, volunteers and trustees work hard to maintain this beautiful building as a relevant, thriving community asset, a place to explore Boston’s rich history, and share celebrations and events.
History of Fydell House Garden
The history of the garden predates the house by several centuries, beginning as pasture land and horticultural land attached to St Mary’s Guildhall.
In 1762, the Witham Drainage Act was passed to drain and enclosed the common fen land west of Boston, and Richard Fydell bought the leased land behind Fydell House stretching from the Bar Ditch to Greyfriars.
Over centuries, the lands were built over and John Adams Way driven through the middle. In the 1990s, Lincolnshire County Council withdrew its support for Fydell House, then a centre for education. The Chairman of the Trust, John Cammack, saw an opportunity: he designed Mr Fydell’s Garden, a recreation of a Georgian town garden with yew buttresses and arbours using Dutch themes.
With connections to Sir Joseph Banks and the New World, trustee Alison Fairman researched Australasian plants suitable for a walled garden. The garden was planted using money from a grant, and flourishes to this day.
Now, volunteers care for the garden, where it is a showcase for topiary, and has been recognised by Boston in Bloom and gained Royal Horticultural Society plaudits
