THE CHANGE OF ownership at the Angel Hotel reflects its chequered history and the important place it has in the life of this town. There has probably been a hostelry of some sort on this site since the earliest times and the present building which dates from the 18th century was originally known as the Nag's Head but the name was changed around 1800 and later taken up by the public house on the other side of the market place.

It was an important posting house during coaching days when Bourne was on the main route between London and the north. A daily stage coach service connecting with Lincoln, York and Hull passed through, often making an overnight stop and usually picking up passengers and more than one baby was born there after lady travellers went into labour during the journey.

There was also a mail coach and a wagon service for heavy goods and carriers also operated local services to surrounding towns. By 1857, an omnibus left the Angel Hotel at 8 am every morning, except Sundays, to connect with the railway station at Tallington on the Great Northern line and as the coaching days ended, the livery stables at the rear of the building were incorporated into the main hotel and by 1900 it boasted fifteen bedrooms and a banqueting room that could accommodate 150 people.

The courtyard and outbuildings can still be seen together with an ostler's bell preserved on the wall which was used by stage coach drivers to summon help when they arrived while outside on the street, the hotel façade has a distinctive pattern of small gables across the coaching arch although the town pump which was strategically placed on the pavement to provide for the needs of the coach horses that stopped here has long since disappeared. Apart from its function as an hotel, the Angel was also registered as an Excise Office from 1808 onwards where makers of a wide range of goods were required to pay their necessary duties.

The most important landlord of the past two centuries was Henry Bott (1810-1888) who was actually born on the premises when his father, also called Henry, was landlord, having bought the Angel at auction in 1807. He died in 1838 when his son became mine host and remained so for the next 50 years during which time he became one of the town’s most highly respected and influential persons not only as innkeeper and brewer but also as a farmer, founder director of the Bourne and Essendine Railway, chairman of the Vestry Meeting, forerunner of our local council, and was always prominent in the forefront of any enterprise that concerned the welfare of the town. His most lasting legacy was the introduction of street lighting and in 1885 there were 56 public gas lamps at various points around the town which had never been previously lighted, due entirely to his perseverance and persistence despite considerable and influential opposition.

He was also a deeply religious man, a regular worshipper and churchwarden at the Abbey Church and was mainly responsible for the major alterations that were carried out to the building in 1870. Bott was a founder member of the Hereward Lodge of Freemasons in 1868, meeting at the new Assembly Rooms that he had built behind the hotel six years before, erected in the courtyard in matching red brick and blue slate and a stone plaque bearing the date 1862 and his initials can still be seen at the front.

When he died at the hotel at the age of 77, the entire town mourned his passing, shops and business closing down while his funeral cortege passed by on the way to the cemetery where he was buried during a graveside ceremony and a grand marble cross marks his grave. His son, Arthur, took over as landlord but he was not a fit man, having been badly injured in an accident when his horse-drawn trap overturned, although he was instrumental in saving the hotel from being destroyed when the brewery at the rear of the premises caught fire in 1892, rallying staff to help douse the flames with water.

He died in 1899 at the early age of 44 and the hotel was subsequently sold to a retired army officer, Major W W Townson, but he died suddenly soon afterwards while on a trip to Liverpool and his widow, Mrs Annie Townson, took over and ran the hotel until 1916. Under her ownership it became a central point for the social life of the town and district and the landlady became so popular that for a brief period, the Angel was often referred to as Townson’s Hotel.

She was succeeded by Frederick Nash who was also active in local affairs helping to found the Bourne Swimming Club and giving practical help to the Bourne Abbey Bowling Club, the town cricket club and amateur operatic society as well as being instrumental in the purchase of new uniforms for the Bourne Town Band. His wife, Julia, died in 1921 at the age of 50 and Frederick survived her until 1926 when he died at the age of 68 and both are buried in the town cemetery.

The Angel became a Trust House for a period and was used as a proving ground for trainee managers before moving on to more established hotels but eventually returned to private ownership. In the summer of 1985, the long-disused outbuildings and stables at the rear of the hotel were converted into a new shopping centre called the Angel Walk. Seven shops were included in the arcade with glazed domes built into the roof to provide light and although the conversion scheme blended with the atmosphere of the old coaching inn, the appearance of these domes did not meet with universal approval.

Since then, there have been several owners and the interior has been greatly changed and modernised while the hotel continues to serve the area and its prominent position at the southern end of North Street is a permanent reminder to visitors that Bourne has always been a welcoming town.