Spalding

Spalding Jersey is a famous manufacturer of sports balls.

Known as 'The Jewel of the Fen', Spalding is famous as a centre of the bulb industry, and has close links with the Netherlands (origin of the Geest family, major local employers). The annual Tulip Parade takes place on the first Saturday in May, and is a major tourist attraction. The event is a procession of floats, on various themes, each decorated with tulip petals, a by-product of the bulb industry. In years when the tulips are late, daffodils are sometimes used in their place. When the tulips are early, crepe paper has to be substituted.

Located at the centre of a major region of flower and vegetable growth, due to the rich silty soil which is nearly all drained recovered marshland or river estuary, there are many Garden Centres and plant nurseries, as well as a thriving agricultural industry, and various vegetable packing plants. The main vegatables are potatoes, peas, carrots, wheat, barley, oats, brocolli, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, kale and brussel sprouts, but somewhere in the Spalding area there's a field of almost anything you can think of. Vegetables and other plants can be, and are, sold cheaply by the roadside by farmers and growers.

The River Welland and Coronation Channel flows north from Crowland, through Spalding and out to the Wash, cutting the town in half, East to Weast. The town's best-known building is Ayscoughfee Hall, formerly a 15th century country house and now a museum and tourist information centre.

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