Photographed in 1929

 

WHEN LADY GODIVA RODE THROUGH BOURNE
TO HELP THE BUTTERFIELD
 

by Rex Needle
 

THE CONNECTION between Lady Godiva and this town is tenuous to say the least and may depend more on fiction than fact but there is evidence that she did ride through the streets of Bourne on at least one occasion.

Milady was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry almost a thousand years ago in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name Peeping Tom for a voyeur originates from later versions of this tale in which a man named Tom bored a hole in his shutters to watch her ride by and was reputedly struck blind.

The link with Bourne is that Lady Godiva (1040-1080) was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and by tradition the mother of Hereward the Wake who was born at the castle in Bourne and became a Saxon hero by opposing the Normans who eventually trapped and slayed him in Bourne Wood, although this account owes more to the imagination of Victorian novelists than it does to documentary proof.

Hereward’s last days were recalled during the Bourne Pageant in 1938, one of the great church celebrations of past times which was held in the garden of the old vicarage [now the Cedars retirement home] to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the founding of the abbey by Baldwin Fitzgilbert in 1138. There were several days of events in the church and on this occasion, a service was held in the open air with a fully robed choir while special stands were erected around the lawn for the congregation. Among the re-enactments staged by parishioners was that of monks taking Hereward’s body by river to Crowland Abbey for burial although it has been established since that this incident has no historical foundation.

Hereward was also featured on a float during one of the grand carnival parades through the town which became popular during the years following the Great War of 1914-18 and he was also featured in 1925 during one of the earliest fund raising events for the Butterfield Hospital in North Road, then a busy medical facility for the town but always in need of cash to meet running costs.

These fund-raisers were well supported, eventually evolving into a rag day, and in the summer of 1929, the famous ride by Lady Godiva was staged during the event which had by then become a very popular annual occasion. It was held on Saturday 6th July after several weeks of organising, the initiative having been taken by Councillor Tom Rickard, chairman of Bourne Urban District Council. Heavy rain on the previous two days which continued into Saturday morning threatened to spoil the event but the storm clouds disappeared as the main parade started and the weather was fine, despite a strong wind. Crowds thronged the streets, attracted by the appearance of her ladyship astride a horse, her face and features obscured by a wig with long hair, and although there had been much speculation about her identity, it was never revealed.

The parade began in Mill Drove and headed by the Bourne Town Band, followed by the fire brigade, the matron and nurses from the Butterfield Hospital and many other tableaux depicting historical subjects, all heartily cheered as the procession wound its way through the town to the market place then down Abbey Road, Eastgate and back to town via Willoughby Road. In the evening, it took a different route down North Street to the Market Place and on each occasion, helpers were out with their collecting tins to raise money for the hospital and when counted it was revealed that the magnificent sum of £64 16s. 3d. had been raised which is around £12,000 at today’s values.

The procession dispersed about 7 pm but the band continued playing selections in the market place as collectors walked about still rattling their tins. Earlier in the week, sections of the parade had visited the surrounding villages of Thurlby, Langtoft, Baston, Tongue End, Morton, Edenham and Grimsthorpe with the barrel organ providing a musical accompaniment on each trip. "The hospital rag was an eminent success", reported a local newspaper the following Friday, "and the appeal to the general public to help with funds received a ready response."

The hospital was a popular charity at that time because few people were not touched by its activities, either through surgery and out-patient treatment or home visits by the nurses and street collections such as this ensured its survival. The Butterfield Hospital closed in 1983, despite a valiant fight by the town to keep it open, but was given a new lease of life two years later when it opened in its present role as a day care centre for the elderly.

Money is always needed to keep the new Butterfield Centre running efficiently and so fund raising continues today but in a less spectacular role with whist drives, slide shows, concerts and table top sales taking the place of the carnival parades through the streets which so entertained the populace in past times.

Mystery John Bull

HERE IS another old photograph taken on Rag Day although the year is unknown. The character is meant to be John Bull, a puny looking representative of our national hero, and the picture appears to have been taken in the back garden of No 18 West Street, then a private house but now used as office premises and known as Commerce House. The location can be identified by the windows of the Baptist Church that can be seen in the background and so the house frontage is on the left of the photograph. The picture was taken by Ashby Swift (1882-1941), a Bourne photographer who was in business from 1904, operating firstly from premises in South Street and then in West Street. It is obvious that the John Bull connection comes from the cycle tyres, a popular brand in the early years of the 20th century, and samples can be seen hanging on the cart. Was he then a cycle dealer?

NOTE: This article was published by The Local newspaper on Friday 5th December 2009.

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