Our streets

MEDIEVAL BOURNE was clustered around the market place and in 1380 just seven main streets existed. They were Northgate, Southgate, Water Gang Street, West Street, East Street, Manor Street and Potter Street and elsewhere there were merely cart tracks or footpaths. Other names that have appeared since often have origins deeply rooted in past history such as Bedehouse Bank, a reference perhaps to an ancient monastic or prayer house that was once situated in the vicinity and Coggles Causeway where the surface was paved with small round stones or coggles, an alternative to cobblestones.

There are now around 250 street names in Bourne and the list is a chronicle of our history because they reflect the people, places and events that have influenced the community over the centuries. Occupational names survive with Tin Lane, off Exeter Street, once an area for tin workshops, and Tannery Close in Eastgate where houses have been built on the site of a busy skin and tannery industry.

Religion also finds its way into the streets with the names of saints such as St Gilbert’s Road while the Roman occupation is remembered with Centurion Court, the Danes with Viking Close and resistance to the Norman occupation by our Saxon hero is well represented with Hereward Street.

The Marquess of Exeter, whose family once held the title of Lord of the Manor of Bourne, is remembered with the Burghley Centre and Marquess Court and by Victorian times, the tradition of naming new streets after kings and queens and prominent people was firmly entrenched and so we have many royal associations such as Queen’s Road and Edinburgh Crescent, politicians with Gladstone Street and Churchill Avenue, explorers with Stanley Street, writers and poets with Tennyson Drive and Betjeman Close.

The system of street naming remains more or less the same today and although patriotic and military names are less evident there are special occasions when they are used such as the housing development off Mill Drove that remembers a Second World War battle with Arnhem Way and other names from the campaign.

Many prominent people from Bourne’s history are also well represented such as Delaine Close which remembers Hugh Delaine Smith MBE (1920-1995) and the family bus company that has served the town since 1890 and Midleton Gardens after Viscount Midleton (1903-88), best known locally as Trevor Brodrick, who with his wife Sheila, did so much work for deaf charities and the Girl Guides.

Street naming today is one of the tasks of the town council which is frequently called upon to advise housing developers and flowers, trees and herbs have become popular in recent years together with the names of various people who have made their mark on the community. All are worth investigating because they provide a permanent reminder of our past.

West Street today