| Current Text | Your Suggestions |
| Spot Name:* | Flatters Farmhouse | |
| Significance: | Bernie Taupin's Birthplace and First Childhood Home | |
| Street Address: | Highway A153 |
|
| Address 2: | | |
| City, Town, or village: | Between Sleaford and Anwick | |
| State/Province: | Lincolnshire | |
| Postal Code: | | |
| Country:* | England | |
Country
(if not in list above): | | |
| Telephone: | | |
| Latitude: | 53.035360 |
(Decimal format only. Convert other formats at http://boulter.com/gps/.) |
| Longitude: | -0.356610 |
(Decimal format only. Convert other formats at http://boulter.com/gps/.) |
| What Happened On This Very Spot: | On This Very Spot on May 22, 1950, Bernie Taupin was born at home on a farm that his father had been hired to manage. The large house was actually a duplex, with the Taupin family on one side and another employee of the farm on the other. Taupin was born in the upstairs front bedroom on the left. Taupin immortalized his birthplace in a poem called "Flatters (A Beginning)" on his 1970 self-titled spoken-word album, which begins:
In furrows where the seagulls stole
The seed that was then sown by man,
To a rabbit hutch, and a milkman's bell
That rang by the gate and sang.
And includes a reference to his birth:
Naked and young the flesh that was born
Inside the left window.
Bonus Spot! On the country lane that runs behind the house is the ornate cement bridge where Bernie and his brother Tony played "Pooh-Sticks" with their beloved grandfather Poppy. This activity was chronicled in Taupin's 1988 autobiograhy, A Cradle of Haloes, and immortalized in a 1970 poem entitled "To a Grandfather," which goes in part:
There is only one who haunts the corridors of time.
Who took two children,
Hand-in-hand down the lengthy lanes. . . ,
Exploring things so long ago,
Like some misty memory from another land.
And we will always remember him. | |
| Other Interesting Facts About This Very Spot: | | |
| Visitor Information |
| Condition of Spot Today: | The house looks essentially the same as it did at the time. | |
| Public Access: | This is a private residence and is not open to the public. | |
| Parking: | There is no room for parking on the busy two-lane highway that runs past the house. | |
| Amenities: | | |
| General Location: | Northeast of Sleaford in southern Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire is located on the central east coast of England. |
(Example: Downtown Memphis in southwest Tennessee in the southern U.S.) |
| Nearest Major Airport: | Birmingham or Manchester | |
| Nearest Rail Station: | | |
| Nearest Subway/Tube Station: | | |
| Directions: | Flatters Farm House is located about 18 miles south of Lincoln on the south side of the A153 between Sleaford and Anwick. Take the A15 out of Lincoln for about 15 miles. Just before you get to Sleaford, go west on the A17, then north on the A153 toward Anwick and Louth. The farmhouse will be on your right just after a sideroad forks off to the right. A small sign in the front yard bears the name. The sideroad is the country lane leading to the "Pooh-Sticks" bridge. | |
| Hours of Operation (if any): | | |
| Contact Information (if different from above): | | |
| Related Websites(up to three) |
|
|
| Photographs, Maps & Other Graphics: |
|
|
Your Information
[The following information is required to prevent fraudulent submissions.
Your information will not be sold or used for any other purpose.] |
| Your Name:* | |
| Your Phone Number:* | |
| Your Email Address:* | |
| Your Website: | |
| How should we credit you on our website? | |
| * | |
| |
|
