Canadian visitor

A CANADIAN LADY has been making a nostalgic visit to Bourne where she was born and grew up eighty years ago. Mrs Heather Nash has a special affection for the town because it was her maternal grandfather, William Redshaw (1856-1943), a professional photographer with studio premises in North Street, whose work has survived the years to provide us with a pictorial record of the way things were.

She was born Heather Brake in 1931 at No 49 North Street and was educated privately before attending Bourne Grammar School, later meeting Richard Nash in London, a romance which lead to their marriage at the Abbey Church in 1951. They emigrated two years later and after a full working life, now live in retirement at Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Her mum and dad were Maud and Cyril Brake and she was one of their four daughters. Mrs Brake was a talented amateur musician who trained them to sing and dance and by 1938 the Brake Sisters, as they became known, Stella, aged 12, Sylvia, 9, Heather, 7, and four-year-old Valerie, were making regular appearances at concerts and musical evenings at the Corn Exchange and elsewhere in the town and surrounding district, entertaining with their singing, tap and speciality dancing, always accompanied by mum on the piano.

Since leaving England, Heather has always kept in touch with relatives and friends in the old country and during the past twelve years her main link with the town has been through the Bourne web site, writing emails and sending old photographs taken by her grandfather which now form part of our history.

Heather, now aged 80, has made many visits to see relatives and friends but this trip to her home town, accompanied by Richard, aged 84, (pictured above) has been particularly poignant because of the dramatic changes that have been made to the street scene and the countryside but she still retains vivid memories of her happy childhood years.

Bourne Wood has special memories as the place where she walked and played with her sisters, and the Wellhead Gardens, now much more beautifully kept than half a century ago although the walnut trees that once grew there have disappeared to be replaced by ornamental cherry. "I remember", said Heather, "that we scrumped the nuts off the trees and were chased off by a very angry park keeper who terrified us all. He caught us once and threatened to take us to the police station but we gave false names and I said I was Vera Bacon but he never cottoned on."

She also has good reason to remember the police station which was then situated on the corner of Burghley Street and North Street but demolished in 1987 and replaced by a block of maisonettes for the elderly. "I must have been naughty one day", she said, "because I was put in one of the cells for half an hour to teach me a lesson, a punishment arranged by my parents with the co-operation of the local constabulary who were our neighbourhood friends. It was a very frightening experience for a young girl and I have never forgotten it."

Heather was particularly impressed with the grammar school which she attended as a girl. "It has grown enormously from the small buildings of my days and is now a most impressive sight", she said. "But the market square was disappointing in its new role as the town centre. Every Thursday, the traders would be lined along the kerbside in North Street and West Street and this was a day to look forward to because we used to walk up and down the stalls inspecting everything that was on offer and there was always something new to see or buy.

“The Ostler memorial fountain has also disappeared, gone to the cemetery to stop it being damaged by passing traffic but what a pity it was not moved to the War Memorial Gardens instead. That would have been a far more appropriate setting. Then there was the old Dinky sweetshop on the corner of South Street where we used to spend all our money on toffees, lollipops and other sweet delights and I was quite disillusioned to discover that this delightful emporium had been turned into a barber's shop."

Heather is particularly pleased to see that the old home at No 49 North Street where the family lived for thirty years has been preserved. It was the end house in a Victorian terrace of four built by the Marquess of Exeter in 1880 and later the home of William Redshaw, then his daughter and her family. In 2000, the properties of red brick and blue slate were bought for redevelopment and earmarked for demolition to make way for a new estate of town houses but there was such a public outcry that the developers relented and refurbished them as part of the Marquess Court development which was completed in 2004.

“The last time I came to Bourne, the old house was one sad and sorry sight”, said Heather. “Although the front was more or less intact, the back part had been demolished and our lovely big garden where we played as children had disappeared. It looked a rather forlorn and lonely place and no longer the cosy home I remembered. When I lived there, all of these houses were beautifully maintained and were a joy to my mother. Now it is so good to see that they have been restored for future generations rather than pulled down because they are a distinctive part of Bourne's heritage and have certainly enhanced that part of the town.”

Heather returned to Canada sad at leaving but happy to have been in Bourne again renewing so many old friendships. “It is a lovely little town”, she said, “and although I have no regrets about emigrating, it is a place that will be forever in my memory.”