The Corn Exchange

OF ALL THE VENUES for public events in Bourne, the Corn Exchange is the most popular and has been since it was built during the 19th century.

Grain was one of the main products from the surrounding farmland and the need for a central corn market coupled with a requirement for additional leisure facilities for a rising population persuaded local businessmen to finance the venture and the project was given the go ahead at a public meeting held at the Town Hall on 10th February 1870.

Until then, the main venues for large events were the Town Hall and the Assembly Rooms at the Angel Hotel but it was decided that purpose built accommodation was needed for an expanding town with a population of 3,850 [census 1871]. One of the prime movers was local magistrate William Parker, of Hanthorpe Hall, who was elected chairman of the meeting. "This is of considerable importance to the town and neighbourhood”, he said. “There are three main advantages in the erection of such a building. Firstly the establishment of a much needed corn exchange on a proper site, secondly the opening of a reading room and library and thirdly the provision of a suitable room for lectures and concerts which will afford instruction and rational amusement to larger numbers than can at present be accommodated in Bourne."

A limited liability company, Bourne Public Hall and Corn Exchange Company Limited, was proposed with a capital of £1,500 divided into 300 shares of £5 each and nine prominent people were elected as directors. A site in Church Street [now Abbey Road] then occupied by the town’s post office, owned by the Marquess of Exeter, Lord of the Manor of Bourne, who offered it for sale on favourable terms to help speed the development, was also agreed. By the time the meeting closed, 250 shares had been taken up.

The contract for the construction work went to Robert Young of Lincoln in May 1870 after his tender of £1,150 was accepted and work began on clearing the site. The building was ready for use by the autumn and the corn market opened for business in October. The total cost, however, had risen to £2,000, a sum that included the purchase of the land and the fittings. The result was an unpretentious Victorian building of red brick and stone dressings and a blue slate roof but lacking the sober grace of the Georgian Town Hall just round the corner.

Nevertheless, the new Corn Exchange was soon in use and a local newspaper reported on Friday 18th November 1870:

“We are requested to state that the building is a boon to the inhabitants as the large room is ample for all requirements and, being well adapted for a ball, a hope is entertained that arrangements will be made during the winter with this object in view. The opening of the room is said to be likely to increase the corn market, as 1,500 quarters of wheat were sold on the 10th inst. It is suggested that a meeting of merchants and farmers should be called to decide upon and establish a system of buying and selling corn without ‘chap money’ [a promise to pay rather than a payment] which has caused so much unpleasantness at Stamford. In referring to this matter, a merchant recommends 14 days net cash".

The new venue also became busy as a centre for social and community events, being the largest hall available in the town, able to seat 500 people and suitable for lectures, concerts and shows from visiting theatrical companies, with other rooms devoted to billiards and reading. Ice skating as a public pastime was introduced in 1876 at a time when many rinks were being opened around the country and the facility became known as the Bourne Skating Rink in an attempt to cash in on a fashionable pastime of the period.

In the summer of 1889, the Corn Exchange was struck by lightning although no serious damage was done. The weather vane, to which the point of the lightning conductor was attached, was bent, falling about five inches, and the wire was twisted throughout its length. A passer-by noticed a flash of light run from this point to the earth but no one was injured.

Corn dealing was phased out during the early years of the 20th century but the building continued in used as a social venue. The controlling company was wound up in June 1938 when it was sold to Bourne Urban District Council and under the local government re-organisation of 1976 ownership subsequently passed to South Kesteven District Council, the current administrators.

The original pyramid-style blue slate roof marks the last remains of the old building from 1870 and in 1990, the Corn Exchange and its facilities were completely rebuilt, refurbished and enlarged on a much bigger site as part of a £900,000 project for the area although a stone tablet bearing the date 1870 and the town's coat of arms were incorporated in the wall of the new building which borders Abbey Road. The extensions at the rear of the property also created a new façade overlooking a new market square and car park.

Apart from the main hall, the Corn Exchange also has a small reception area and a bar and has therefore become the major venue for social and business occasions in the town ranging from meetings of the Bourne Organ Club, regular productions by the local dramatic societies and the annual civic dinner and ball, to blood donor sessions, displays and exhibitions and is also hired out for family celebrations such as wedding receptions, birthdays and christenings.

The Corn Exchange has therefore served the town well, even surviving an attempt to pull it down. In February 1969, Councillor Lorenzo Warner proposed at a meeting of BUDC that the building be sold off for a supermarket development to fund a new town drainage scheme and that future meetings and events be held in school halls but his suggestion was overwhelmingly rejected by his colleagues on the grounds that it had become a valuable even indispensable amenity having been let out 112 times in the previous five months. It continues in frequent use today and has many more valuable years of life ahead, all due to the foresight of those who ran this town 140 years ago.