Motor racing: The pioneer of British motor racing, Thomas Raymond Mays, always known as Raymond, brought prestige to Bourne and took this country to the forefront of international competition on the track. Although his achievements were mainly sporting, his various business enterprises created jobs and stimulated the local economy.

Raymond, the son of a wealthy local businessman, owned his first motor car at the age of twenty and within a few years he was racing and designing his own models, first with English Racing Automobiles, or ERA, and then with British Racing Motors, or BRM as it came to be known. The first BRM was demonstrated to the motoring world at Folkingham airfield on 15th December 1949 when the car was hailed as a world-beater, although success was slow in coming with many failures on the way.

New engines and cars were designed at the workshops in Spalding Road which at one time employed more than 100 people and in 1962, the BRM became the first all-British car to win the world championship with the company's Number One driver Graham Hill, father of the present day Damon, at the wheel, so becoming the world champion.

This accolade from world motor racing was marked by a civic reception at the Corn Exchange in March 1963 organised by Bourne Urban District Council when Hill was presented with a silver salver for his achievement and in 1978, Raymond was honoured with a CBE for his services to motor racing. He died in 1980, aged 80, and a memorial marking his achievements was erected on the riverbank in South Road in 2003.

Bottled water: Water from Bourne's underground springs has been famous for centuries and was even being exported 300 years ago. At one time, there were an estimated 130 artesian bores within the urban district of Bourne, supplying farms, factories and housing developments but most have since been sealed and those that survive are used by Anglian Water to provide supplies over a much wider area.

But it was an enterprising businessman during Victorian times who realised that this water was an asset to be exploited and was soon marketing the abundant natural supplies that were available under the town on a very large scale. In 1864, Robert Mason Mills, a chemist with a shop in West Street, began the bottling of aerated mineral water in a factory behind the premises under the name of R M Mills & Company, a product so popular that soon he was supplying the rich and famous.

The firm began manufacturing a dozen different aerated beverages using flavouring extracts from various roots and herbs and special medicinal waters were also being made from doctors' prescriptions. By 1934, table waters from the town were advertised as "the purest in England from an artesian spring of great depth" with supplies being despatched by horse and trailer from a depot in South Street, although there were also deliveries by their own motor vehicle and by rail.

There were other companies soon marketing Bourne water, such as Lee and Green Ltd who set up a bottling plant in Abbey Road in 1891, and one of their advertisements proclaimed: "As the beauties of nature appeal to the eye, so the exquisite flavour of Lee and Green's Dry Ginger Ale charms the palate." Their table water also became so popular that a railway tanker was bought to carry it to distributors throughout the country.

The demand for Bourne water declined in the late 1930s and none of these firms has survived but many of the old bottles used by them are frequently unearthed in gardens and building sites around the town and a large display of them can be seen in the Heritage Centre as a reminder of this once thriving trade.

Printing: One of Bourne’s major industries today is printing, a direct result of the enterprise and foresight of Lorenzo Warner who in 1927 founded Warners Midlands Ltd, a company specialising in newspaper distribution.

Lorrie, as he was known, had begun as a delivery boy after leaving school at the age of 13 and eventually acquired his first shop in Abbey Road, Bourne, but by 1936 the company had outgrown it and moved to larger premises in West Street that also included an old printing works founded in 1864. This small business has since grown into Warners Midlands plc, now based at the Old Maltings further up West Street, and still run as a family concern.

Lorrie’s son, the late Michael Warner MBE, took over when he retired and was responsible for the major expansion that took place during the late 20th century and the firm is now run by his grandson, Philip Warner, who succeeded his father as managing director. The company currently employs 300 workers with a printing plant catering for every aspect of magazine and brochure production from design through to mailing and despatch.