|
The connection between Lady Godiva and Bourne is
slender but there is evidence that she did ride through the streets of
this town on at least one occasion.
Legend has it that the Anglo-Saxon noblewoman originally rode naked
through the streets of Coventry almost a thousand years ago as a protest
against oppressive taxation, the link with Bourne being that Lady Godiva
(1040-1080) was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and mother of our
folk hero, Hereward the Wake, the Saxon rebel who opposed the Normans,
although his exploits owe more to the imagination of Victorian novelists
than to reality.
In years past, Hereward often featured in the many events held to raise
funds for the Butterfield Hospital in North Road, then a busy medical
facility but always in need of cash to meet running costs. Rag days became
popular and during the summer of 1929, the famous ride by Lady Godiva was
re-enacted on Saturday 6th July as the main attraction. Crowds thronged
the pavements along North Street as the parade headed by the town band
passed by, all anxious to catch a glimpse of her ladyship astride a horse,
her face and features obscured by make-up and a wig with long hair, and
although there was much speculation about her identity, her name was never
revealed. |
