Boston Hanse Group: International Hanseatic Day.
Saturday 31st May, 2025.
10:00am to 01:00pm
Boston Market Place – near the Ingram Memorial, .
FREE.
International Hanseatic Day.
A lively day where you can sample food and drink, enjoy the medieval jester, see crafts such as the medieval forge, bowmen, spinners and woodcarvers, be entertained with music from the Lincoln Waites and a Drum Band from Transported Art; all culminating in a costume parade through the Market Place with our spectacular Hanseatic Banners.
The New Hanse is an organisation of over 197 towns and cities across northern Europe all of whom are seeking better economic, social and cultural ties in the spirit of the original Hanse League which brought great prosperity to Boston in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Six English towns and two Scottish ones are now members of the new Hanse: Boston, King’s Lynn, Hull, Ipswich, Great Yarmouth, Beverley, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Boston’s historic medieval trading links once made it one of Britain’s most important ports, trading wool for dried fish, timber and furs. Many of the town’s riverfront buildings carry the design hallmark of great cities across northern Europe and many merchants chose to set up premises and live here.
With trade came greater trust and prosperity along with employment, social and cultural connections.
The original Hanseatic League was a powerful trading alliance of merchant guilds or trade associations led by the German merchants of Lubeck that dominated trade along the northern coasts of Europe from the 12th to the 17th-century. Their boats, known as ‘cogs’ were well built from Baltic oak and were designed to carry a large cargo. The biggest could be 25 metres long and 8 metres wide. In many towns they used, the League established a kontor, a trading centre with offices and warehouses built around a courtyard. In England these were known as steelyards from the German stâlhof, a place where goods were offered for sale.
Boston was an ideal port from which the Hanseatic League could conduct its business. It was on the East coast facing Europe and the Baltic with river access to much of England. Boston soon became an important part of the Hanse network that included places such as London, Lynn and Hull. Boston’s famous international fair was frequented by merchants from all over Europe.
Wool was the dominant export. Fountains Abbey was the largest and richest wool producer in northern England and its monks owned property in Fountains Lane in Boston. There were also links to many other monasteries such as Kirkstead and Louth and even as far away as Furness in Cumbria. The Wool Staple was the place through which all wool exports had to pass. When it was transferred from Lincoln to Boston in 1369 trade increased and by 1377 Boston was second only to London as the busiest port in the country. Between 1379 and 1388 Boston exported 37% of English wool, about three million fleeces per year.
More information about the Boston Hanse Group here
