AN ANCIENT MILESTONE on the A151 West Road out of Bourne has recently been restored, presumably by Lincolnshire County Council, the highways authority, but in doing so part of our heritage has been destroyed. 

This relic from our past can be found on the right hand side of the road a few yards from the turn-off to Stamford and was erected in the early 19th century, perhaps even before, because the name BOURN was spelled out in embossed letters without a final “e”. This was not added to the name until 1893 to avoid confusion with other places in the country named Bourn and so the milestone is an important part of our heritage. 

However, during the recent restoration when it was straightened and re-painted, someone also decided that Bourn should have that final “e” which has been clumsily added in black paint in an attempt to match the original lettering and the result does not look good.

Although the name Bourn without a final “e” persists in many old books, maps and documents, the correct spelling today is Bourne although this has only been in general use for less than 120 years.

A wide range of English place names derive from their connection with a river or stream and Bourne occurs in several localities with many other towns having burn, borne or bourne as an ending such as Ashbourne, Pangbourne and Sittingbourne.

Brunne, the original name for a stream that existed here, eventually came to be known as Bourn and after that Bourne when the final "e" was added in the late 19th century. The change was made unofficially by the Post Office to distinguish it from Bourn in Cambridgeshire because there was some confusion between the two places and came as a direct result of the growing popularity of the postal services and the railway age that brought the widespread movement of goods and passengers around the country.

The problem was that many people using the postal services forgot to add the final “e” and confusion became so intense that in the early summer of 1893, a special meeting was convened at the Town Hall to decide whether an official change of name was in order because, as one local newspaper reported, “there has from the earliest times been some bewildering uncertainty as to the orthography”.

The meeting was held at the Town Hall on Monday 5th June with Alderman William Wherry presiding. He explained that the postal and railway authorities had been put to considerable trouble and the public to much loss and inconvenience in consequence of the dual forms of Bourn and Bourne, particularly since Bourn in Cambridgeshire had recently been made a telegraph station and all letters or telegrams generally reached there first and only arrived in Lincolnshire by a circuitous route a day or two later. Attempts had been made to avoid such confusion by adding an “e” to Bourne or “Lincs” after the address but if either were omitted, then the businesses involved were put to considerable expense in telegraphing to identify their lost messages.

The meeting provoked a lively discussion among townspeople, mainly those with business interests. Robert Mason Mills, founder of the mineral water company in West Street, said that during the previous 40 years, letters addressed with the final “e” never failed to be delivered but those with just the name Bourn invariably went to Cambridge and he suggested that history was on the side of Bourne being spelled with a final “e”.

The Vicar, the Rev Hugh Mansfield, also defended the use of the “e”. He said that the town had a very ancient and honourable history and to drop it would be to detach it from its famous associations. He went on: “In the works of Manning of Bourne, known in literature as Robert of Brunne, the father of modern English, the name was invariably spelt with the final ‘e’. In the parish registers, both methods of spelling are found. The final ‘e’ forms a link with the past. Reasoning from analogy, Bourne is correct, e g Eastbourne. From a practical point of view, it would be best to retain the ‘e’ as it differentiates us from the little village in Cambridgeshire. The commercial argument is answerable. In a telegram, they can always save a halfpenny by writing ‘Bourne’ instead of ‘Bourn, Lincs’. From an aesthetic standpoint, Bourn is indefensible. It looks stumpy, stunted, ugly – something like a dog with his tail cropped off. The ‘e’ gives it an artistic finish. Moreover, it greatly simplifies the work of the letter sorters at the GPO.”

The vicar finished his impressive speech by proposing to the meeting: “That the final ‘e’ be retained in the spelling of the name Bourne.” In his summing up, Alderman Wherry said that during the previous week, his firm had lost an important order through the delay in the delivery of letters as a result of the “e” being omitted from Bourne in the address. He had also been informed by the postmaster, John Pearce, that out of 711 letters received one morning recently, the addresses on 637 of them were all spelled Bourne. 

The vicar’s proposal was adopted by the meeting and it was agreed to notify both the GPO and the railway authorities immediately. The Stamford Mercury used the new form in its issue of June 9th and the railway companies and the post office fell into line immediately afterwards and soon everyone else had followed suit.

The A151 milestone is a reminder of these events. It is a local landmark of immense social interest and should not be tampered with. The changing of the spelling in such an inelegant manner is even regarded by many conservationists as a case of official vandalism and both Bourne Civic Society and Bourne Preservation Society have suggested that the original spelling should be restored in the cause of historical accuracy.