North Street in 1920

Old photographs reflect the changing scene in our town centres such as here in North Street, photographed in 1920 by Ashby Swift, showing two popular public houses that have since closed, the Six Bells, now converted into shop premises, and the Old Windmill Inn further down which was demolished in 1965 to provide an extension to Wake House.
The gentleman with the basket is looking at the billboards outside the newspaper and sweet shop run by Edward Solomon Knott while next door is Bray and Son's fish and game shop and beyond that the grocery business known as John Smith of Bourne which survived until December 1998.
The streets were still lit by gas and the Victorian cast iron lamp standards seen here were two of the 56 that had been installed around Bourne during the mid-19th century although now replaced by electricity.