Skegness Magazine

FOUNDED in 1912, Skegness Cast Stone Ltd closed down its 612-acre site at Old Wainfleet Road because of falling demand for its pre-cast concrete products and architectural stone in 1979.
The firm was founded by the late Mr Henry Lill, who came to Skegness at the turn of the century and started work as a builder and contractor. Seeing the Potential in pre-cast concrete, he began to manufacture housing units.
During First World War service in France, Mr Lill noticed how far advanced the French were in pre-cast concrete. On his demob, he increased that side of the firm’s activities and phased out the building.
The site was formerly the Earl of Scarbrough’s brickworks. Some of the brick drying sheds, used for storage, were pulled down and the tiles sold as antiques.
The firm’s buildings have grown piecemeal and consist mainly of three former aircraft hangars and a house, 40 Old Wainfleet Road, which has been converted into an office block.
At one time, long ago, 60 men were employed there, but at the time of closure, the workforce has sunk to eight.
The directors were Mr Philip Lill, son of the founder (pictured), and his son, Robin. Philip’s brother, Douglas, resigned as a director in 1978 but continued to work there.
Mr Philip Lill said he and his son had reached the point where they wanted to retire and take up other business ideas but nothing had yet been decided about those. The company closed in February, 1979.
COMPETITIVE
“It’s a very competitive line and most of the other firms have their own quarries and are situated in industrial areas,” he explained at the time. “Local demand isn’t what it was.
” We can’t have any sentiment these days. One would be very foolish to hold on to one thing and not switch to anything that’s more viable.”
Once the whole of Lincolnshire was their “hunting ground,” he said. They did a lot of church restoration work over an even wider area and had four lorries of their own. Now they were, working within a 40-mile radius and the volume of work that came in was not sufficient.
As manufacturers and merchants, they dealt in generalised products rather than specialised ones — things such as bird baths, sundials, troughs, fencing, coping, cycle stands, culverts, cladding units, kerbs, rockery stone, footbridges, septic tanks, stairs, land drain tiles, and sea defence wave wall units to name but a few.

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The Skegness Cast Stone works closed down in 1979, and Grandways Supermarket was built on the same site the year after, which of course eventually gave way to Kwik-Save Supermarket.