ONE OF THE BIGGEST public events in Bourne during the coming year will be the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to mark her sixty years on the throne. This has only ever happened once before to an English monarch when the national rejoicing for Queen Victoria's long reign more than 100 years ago spread to all corners of the land and here, the entire town joined in the festivities. 

The celebrations on Tuesday 22nd June 1897 are among the best recorded in the history of the town. Photography was then becoming extremely popular and the pioneer cameraman, William Redshaw, who had business premises in North Street, took the images you can see on this page during a joyous and auspicious occasion that attracted large crowds which thronged the market place throughout the day. 

The weather was perfect, hot enough for many to carry umbrellas to protect them from the sun, and a day of unalloyed enjoyment for both young and old. The town was ablaze with colour, national flags adorned every property, the streets were festooned with red, white and blue bunting while the front of the Town Hall was a mass of patriotic decorations. A public holiday had been declared and so the shops and businesses were closed and families turned out in their Sunday best to stroll around, greet old friends, stop and gossip, mostly about the grand old lady who had been on the throne for sixty years and would be celebrating her 80th birthday two years later. 

The women and girls all wore long dresses and large hats while the men were dressed in suits, starched collars and ties, often carrying a stick and usually wearing a bowler hat, or more likely a straw boater, headgear which became fashionable in the closing years of the 19th century. It was unheard of for anyone to be seen scruffily dressed on a public occasion and many actually bought new clothes for such events. 

There were special services at all of the town’s churches where ministers preached sermons on patriotism and loyalty to one’s country, followed by a day of celebration and enjoyment for both young and old for this special day that had been long anticipated. “Children were jubilant from daybreak till long after the legitimate bedtime”, reported one local newspaper, “and veterans of 70 and 80 were early astir. There was no home undecorated and many were remarkably beautiful with red roses, evergreens, flags and patriotic emblems. There appeared to have been a happy rivalry in transforming the old Saxon town into a place of beauty.” 

The town was full of people for the rest of the day and at three o’clock, 1,000 schoolchildren gathered in the Market Place to sing God Save the Queen. The town band then struck up the National Anthem to mark the start of a grand parade with the Volunteers resplendent in their uniforms and medals close behind and followed by the friendly societies, always evident on public occasions carrying their colourful banners.  

They all marched through the streets to the Abbey Lawn followed by a huge crowd of people ready to begin the celebrations consisting of a children’s treat of tea and buns, a programme of sports, a cycle parade, a supper for the adults in the evening followed by dancing, fireworks at dusk in the Wellhead Field and to end the day, a torchlight procession to Stamford Hill on the outskirts of the town where, at the highest point, a huge bonfire that had been days in the making, some 20 feet in height, was lit to coincide with others across Lincolnshire and indeed, the entire country. 

“It was lighted precisely at ten o’clock”, reported the newspaper, “and the flaming tongues that flaked the night must have formed a beacon far across the fenland towards the sea. From near the bonfire could be seen the fires at Spalding and Crowland, and lights in the direction of Gosberton, Pinchbeck, Littleworth, Boston and Peterborough, were discernible. From beginning to end, the proceedings passed off with perfect success.” 

There were also long term benefits for the town from that year’s jubilee celebrations. The parish council decided to mark the occasion by illuminating the Town Hall clock at night, an advanced innovation for a public timepiece at that time. The work was carried out by Edward Pearce, a clock and watch maker with premises in North Street, and the son of Thomas Pearce who had helped supply the previous timepiece. 

The clock had been in need of restoration for some time and Mr Pearce fitted a new dial with gilded hands and black figures in an opal glass, allowing the face to be lit up after dark, the illumination being provided by gas light regulated by automatic machinery and the old wooden turret or cupola on the Town Hall was lined with asbestos to render it fireproof. The mechanism was sited in the constable's room below and connected to the dial by wires. Total cost of the work was £47 14s. 1d. [£3,000 at today's values]. "The illuminated dial gives universal satisfaction", reported the newspaper. "The new clock is a decided improvement for which the parish councillors may justly claim credit."  

Unfortunately, on Saturday 31st October 1933, the gas mechanism used to illuminate the face overheated and started a fire which destroyed the wooden turret on the Town Hall. It was never replaced but the clock remains on the pediment below although no longer lit up at night.

Other significant developments included the restoration of the chancel in the Abbey Church together with the installation of new choir stalls and a chancel screen. The Town Diamond Jubilee Nursing Association was also established and this eventually led to the opening of the Butterfield Hospital in 1910. In the ensuing years, the nursing service became a valued medical amenity in Bourne with more than 2,000 home visits a year and continued until the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 while the cottage hospital was in use until as recently as 1983 when it closed, although the building became a day care centre for the elderly two years later and remains a much valued amenity today.