It's God v Mammon in 700th anniversary year!

A landmark building project is planned for the centre of Boston - in the heart of the town, right beside the River Haven.

It will be built at a phenomenal cost and take years to complete.

But once finished, it will be a major beacon that will attract people to Boston from miles around, and not just the local area.

No, it' s not the "pull the name out of a hat" Merchants Quay.

We're winding the clock back seven hundred years, and whilst the headlines remain the same, the building in question is St Botolph's Church, Boston, better known as the Stump.

This year sees a wealth of celebrations to mark the 700th anniversary of the Stump - described by the architectural writer Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "a giant among parish churches."

Things get underway this weekend with the annual Lincolnshire County Council Children's Service, featuring youth musical groups from around the county.

Happy birthday, St Botolph's.

We hope that the season of celebration will be well supported by the public, and that the church gets the recognition it so rightly deserves on a bigger stage than merely here in Boston.

Let's not forget that the church is undergoing a three million pound restoration, so any contributions you feel able to make this year will be especially significant.

We hear a lot of waffle these days about "landmark" developments, which are usually nothing more than glorified shopping centres built by permission of greedy and gullible councils for the benefit of developers.

This is why we made the analogy with the proposed Merchants Quay, which ... as any fule kno ...will certainly not be around in another 700 years, whilst we are sure that the Stump will.

The other comparisons we could make is that Boston has now followed the time honoured and classic pattern of communities everywhere, and switched from saluting God - to sucking up to Mammon.

A building is a true landmark when it genuinely dominates its landscape and remains a durable community focus down the centuries and is regarded with a blend of awe and affection by its neighbours.

Boston Stump is just such a building, and we should appreciate it more than we do.

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