Abstract

This article develops some of the themes that concluded an earlier work on the Borough of Grimsby in the nineteenth century. That article examined the relationship between the borough’s middle classes and external forces, particularly the region’s major landowners and the railway companies, and its implications for the development of the town. Its conclusion, that the rise of Grimsby might be regarded as a qualified example of the ‘triumph’ of its middle classes, contained an inherent dichotomy: that the wealthiest town in Lincolnshire had an abysmal record in dealing with issues relating to sanitation, housing and the generality of the urban condition. This in turn raised questions regarding political hegemony and the performance of its civic leadership in an age of mass democracy and increasing public accountability. This article seeks to address some of those questions by considering the ways in which the town’s lengthy history as an incorporated borough, and particularly the enduring influence of its enrolled freemen, might have affected the nature and pattern of its development in the latter half of the nineteenth century.