BBC Radio
 visits Bourne with Down Your Way

The recording of a BBC radio programme giving a fascinating glimpse of Bourne and some of its leading residents almost fifty years ago has been found in an old suitcase tucked away in a storeroom.

The discovery was made by Jim Jones of the Civic Society at the Heritage Centre based at Baldock’s Mill in South Street. The suitcase had been recovered from Eastgate House after the death in 1980 of the owner, racing driver and BRM designer Raymond Mays, together with a collection of photographs that have since been used for display in the memorial room which features his life and career.

The suitcase lay forgotten in the storeroom until a few weeks ago when it was opened and found to contain a taped recording made on old reel-to-reel equipment but still playable and now transferred to CD.

It had been made by Raymond Mays when he himself was a guest on one of the most popular radio programmes of the time, Down Your Way, a BBC series which ran from 1946 until 1992, originally on the Home Service and later on BBC Radio 4, usually being broadcast on Sunday afternoons, always with the now familiar signature tune Horse Guards Whitehall by Haydn Wood.

The formula was a simple one with a visit to towns and villages around the country when selected residents were interviewed and their choice of music played. There were several presenters during that time but the best known was Franklin Engelmann (pictured above) who took over in 1955 and it was he who came to Bourne with a recording team in October 1971, the year before his death.

He opened the programme with a word portrait of Bourne, a busy market town of great contrasts, situated on the edge of the fens, a thriving agricultural economy and home to the BRM motor racing company. There were six guests, all of whom were well known in Bourne, the first being Dr John (Alistair) Galletly, a family doctor who had been in practice in the town since 1927 when he took over the North Road surgery from his father.

Dr Galletly was passionate about local history and he described how Bourne had developed from a Roman settlement some 2,000 years ago into the bustling market town we see today. He had also worked at the Butterfield Hospital which had the unusual status of a cottage hospital as it had been since 1910 after the house in North Road had been left to the town by the Butterfield family.

Sister Grace Bristow, assistant matron at the Butterfield, who had worked there for eighteen years, spoke of the work and staffing of the hospital which she said was a valuable public and much-loved amenity, well-equipped and always open in times of emergency.

She also described the medical facilities, including eleven beds, an operating theatre and a busy children’s department, a hospital greatly appreciated by the people of Bourne and although many other cottage hospitals in the country were closing, it would be a tragedy if the Butterfield were to suffer the same fate because patients would have to travel long distances to Stamford and Peterborough for treatment. Her remarks were a portent of things to come because in 1983, the Butterfield Hospital was indeed lost to the town, closed as part of a series of drastic cuts by the National Health Service.

Charitable work in Bourne was discussed by Mrs Dorothy Stanton, a former chairman and then a trustee of Bourne United Charities which administers money left to the town in various bequests during past centuries, mainly the generous legacy from the philanthropist Robert Harrington (1589-1654) who left Bourne for London as a youth to seek his fortune and became a successful businessman. Mrs Stanton also described the regular grants made annually by BUC to various organisations in the town, together with £1 a week to 200 needy old people.

Tom Barthorpe, who farmed 70 acres of arable land at New Farm off South Road, was the next guest who talked proudly of Bourne’s agricultural heritage, the quality of the fen soil and the crops it produced, cereals, sugar beet and particularly potatoes in which he specialised for both human consumption and seed. He also kept a breeding flock of Suffolk cross sheep and a few landrace and white cross pigs which were fattened for sale.

A visit to the fire brigade in South Street was the next port of call for an interview with Station Officer Gareth Owen who talked about their work as part of Lincolnshire Fire Service and in particular, a new bleeper system that had recently been installed to call out the volunteer part-time firemen whenever there was an alert, a signalling system which replaced the old style siren and one of the first of its kind to be used by a county fire brigade in Britain.

Bourne’s motor racing heritage was featured in the final interview with Raymond Mays at his home adjoining the BRM workshops in Eastgate when he talked about his early days and his obsession with motor cars from the age of eight which led to an international career at the wheel. He reminisced about some of the cars he had produced, the men who had worked and raced with him and his successful moments on and off the track, particularly the development of the BRM which in 1962 became the first all-British car to win the world championship with Graham Hill at the wheel.

Jim Jones is now preparing an audio-visual presentation of the tape which will be shown to visitors at the Heritage Centre later this year.