Earthquake, fire and flood

Earthquake: In foreign countries, seismic tremors, as they are known, are a frequent occurrence but we rarely experience them in England although they are not unknown even in Bourne where five have been recorded in the past 500 years. There were shocks in 1750, 1792 and 1896 which were evident when the houses shook, plates and glasses fell from the shelves and slates, tiles and even chimneys toppled from the roofs and in 1916, an earthquake rattled windows, furniture and crockery in many homes and children still asleep awoke when their beds began to move across the room.

The most recent earthquake in the Bourne area occurred during the early hours of Wednesday 27th February 2008 when families heard a disturbance described by one resident as “a loud rushing sound as though an express train were thundering past the front window” followed by walls shuddering and pictures and ornaments vibrating.

Many people rushed out into the streets and gardens wondering what had happened while others telephoned relatives or friends and it was later revealed to be the biggest earthquake in England for a quarter of a century. The village church at Haconby was damaged as well as the stone pinnacles on the gable ends of the Red Hall sixty feet up which were later repaired and cemented back into place.

Fire: Bourne does not have as many old buildings as it should because of two disastrous fires in past centuries that destroyed large parts of the town on each occasion.

The first was in August 1605 and raged for three days and was so severe that no houses were left standing in some streets. The distress of the homeless and those whose businesses had been ruined attracted great concern throughout the country and when word of the disaster spread to London, the king himself, James I, ordered all of the nation’s churches to preach special sermons and to start appeals for money to help those who had been affected.

The second fire broke out in Eastgate in May 1637 and soon spread to surrounding streets, burning down many properties. Although not as widespread as the fire 32 years before, it did have far reaching effects because Bourne then had a thriving pottery industry based in this locality which had been operating since the Middle Ages but was virtually wiped out and never recovered. Documents that have survived tell us that the outbreak began because of carelessness in one of the potteries and totally destroyed Potter Street which was never rebuilt.

In 1898, fire broke out at Cliffe's shop in West Street which was then a grocery store and within a few hours the entire premises were gutted. Although it was in the early hours of the morning and still dark, many people gathered outside in their nightclothes to watch as stacks of food such as bread and milk, biscuits and jam, and hundreds of household items burned to a cinder with the firemen pumping water from the river at the back in an attempt to douse the flames. But nothing could be saved and next morning only the outside walls and chimney stack were left but the shop was eventually rebuilt and continued trading and is still in use today.

The Cliffe shop fire in 1898

The Meadowgate fire of 1922

Two families with children were made homeless when a pair of shops at the corner of Meadowgate and North Street caught fire in 1922 but all of them managed to escape in their nightclothes. This time the fire engine did not work properly and by the time they managed to start pumping water, a strong wind had fanned the flames and it was too late to save the building.

A wooden classroom at the Abbey Road school was destroyed in 1956 just a few minutes before 100 children were due to assemble there for morning prayers but desks, musical instruments, text books and recent work projects all went up in flames.

In 1968, a big blaze seriously damaged the premises of W A North, the forage and potato merchants, in West Street and in November 1979, the ambulance station in Queen's Road was destroyed by a tragic fire in which a young mechanic lost his life. There was also a massive countryside fire on the outskirts of Bourne in the summer of 1976 when grass and undergrowth became tinder dry because of weeks without rain and the flames soon enveloped three miles of hedgerow, 300 acres of stubble and many trees.

Flooding: Long periods of heavy rain are a particular hazard in Bourne because the town is surrounded by low-lying fen that was prone to flooding. One of the earliest recorded instances was in 1571 when according to one eye witness the roads were turned into rushing torrents and the market place became a vast lake. It was also recorded that the floods rose "to midway the height of the church walls" but this is most probably an exaggeration because there is a mark on the base of the tower which was made at the time recording a height of two to three feet above sea level.

There were other serious storms in the 17th and 18th centuries when huge hailstones beat the fruit off the trees and shattered windows and in 1763 the entire farming area around Bourne was under two feet water for several days. In 1875, the streets were so badly flooded that a boat was used to rescue marooned home owners and an excursion train returning from Skegness was halted when floodwater washed away the railway line and passengers were given emergency overnight accommodation.

These storms also illustrated the danger from thunderstorms because in 1878 a gang of boys were working in the fen when three of them were struck by lightning and one, Samuel Northern, aged 10, was killed instantly. In 1904, several houses in the town were also badly damaged in the same way.

The worst flooding in the history of Bourne occurred during the 19th and early 20th centuries when the fen was under water on several occasions, the worst being in 1910, a disaster so complete that it has become known as the Great Flood. For more than a month, the entire fen was a vast sea of floodwater with houses and farms under water as rivers burst their banks and farm workers struggled to fill the breaches with sandbags.

The Spalding Road during the Great Flood of 1910

Despite labouring for long hours, they had little success and farmers were forced to wait until the water subsided naturally but it was four weeks before it drained away completely. A distress fund was set up to help those affected but it was several years before the area finally returned to full crop production although some of the smaller farmers never recovered from the financial loss.

Improved drainage and the installation of new pumping stations now keep the area free from flooding and today, the fenland around Bourne is considered to be among the best drained areas of Britain through a continual programme of constant repair and renewal to ensure that the first class arable land it serves can fulfil its vital role of food production.

The town itself has also had its share of flood disasters mainly due to an inadequate system of drains which overflowed when they became blocked or unable to cope during periods of heavy rain. North Street was flooded in 1912 and again in 1915 when the downpour continued for ten days. Dozens of people turned out to take a look when the Bourne Eau overflowed its banks below the Queen's Bridge in Eastgate during a period of heavy rain in 1930 and another downpour flooded Hereward Street in Bourne the following year.

Queen's Bridge, Eastgate, in 1930

In 1960 there was a heavy mid-week downpour when three inches of rain fell in ninety minutes. The violent thunderstorm occurred on Wednesday 5th October and although it was early closing day, shopkeepers had to return to their premises to mop up. Traffic was brought to a standstill as roads quickly turned into lakes, cars were stranded, shops and houses flooded and daily life totally disrupted by the downpour. The fire brigade worked non-stop in an attempt to keep the floodwater at bay but were powerless to stem the inundation.

Most streets in the town were under water but Manning Road, South Street, Abbey Road and Coggles Causeway were among the worst hit where cars were left stranded at the kerbside, mainly because they were slightly below the level of the other streets in the town. Bourne Grammar School was holding its annual Speech Day at the Corn Exchange and as guests left to go home, they found floodwater swirling around the entrance. Senior pupils volunteered to wade through it and carry some of the elderly people to dry ground while hundreds more waited inside for the water to subside.

In 1968, the floodwater was so deep along South Road that Mrs Alice Gray, who ran a smallholding with her husband David, was marooned inside her cottage but chatted to firemen from an upstairs window when they came to the rescue with their pumps. Flooding in 1980 and as recently as 2002 has also affected the town but it has become a rare occurrence because of improved drainage.

West Street during the snowstorm of 1916

Snow is synonymous with winter and particularly Christmas and yet its appearance is relatively rare and when we do have a fall of any significance, the country invariably grinds to a standstill because public services, traffic, trains and travel cannot cope. Those occasions are therefore well remembered and although records of past centuries are sparse, particularly for small communities such as Bourne, some instances are well documented, especially the blizzard of 1916 which caused major disruption to public services and left a trail of damage.

The wintry conditions prevailed throughout Tuesday 28th March when trees were uprooted in various parts of the town, telephone and telegraph services were cut off, rail services halted by deep snowdrifts and the mail held up. Several passengers were stranded at Bourne railway station including three soldiers who were given beds for the night at the Red Cross hospital in the Vestry Hall. The surprising feature of the storm was that is caused only a small amount of structural damage to property, mainly dislodging slates, tiles and guttering that collapsed under the weight of snow.

One of the biggest snowfalls of recent times occurred in January 1987 when the town was covered to a depth of 6-12 inches. The main A 15 road into Bourne from the south was blocked near Thurlby, bus services were suspended for two days and all vehicles other than tractors were at a standstill. The deep snow was followed by a thaw which brought flooding to several streets while trickling water from the rooftops formed large icicles as it froze again during the night.

Flooding in the market place in 2002