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This remarkable photograph is one of the earliest of
Bourne town centre to survive and was taken around 1875 which makes it
almost 150 years old. A guide to the date is the cast iron gas lamps which
were installed in 1859 and the absence of telegraph poles which were
erected along North Street to carry the wires to business premises when
the telephone arrived in 1878.
The Bull Inn was an important commercial hotel at that time with stabling
at the rear for customers who came by coach or on horseback and the name
persisted until October 1955 when it was changed to the Burghley Arms in
honour of William Cecil, the first Lord Burghley, who was born there in
1520 when hostelry was a private house.
The two shop buildings on the left of the Bull Inn were occupied by
William Todd, gentlemen’s tailors, hatters, hosiers and outfitters, and
next door by his wife, Mrs Jemima Todd, who ran a millinery and dress
salon for ladies. The shops were later demolished and they are seen here
boarded up and in a state of near dereliction, probably because of the
impending construction of new commercial buildings, first No 10 North
Street which was completed in 1881 and used partly as the Post Office
followed by the now familiar Lloyds Bank next door. |
