The Abbey Church in 1819

The oldest image we have of the Abbey Church is a rare engraving which appeared in a book entitled Ecclesiastical Edifices of Olden Times published in 1840.

The engraving was the work of John Coney who reproduced the plate from his own drawing and is entitled "Bourn Abbey, Lincolnshire 1819, south west view". Note the old spelling of Bourne.

Coney (1786-1833), a draughtsman and engraver, had published his first work in 1815, a series of eight views of the exterior and interior of Warwick Castle, drawn and etched by himself. Shortly afterwards he produced a series of exterior and interior views of the cathedrals and abbey churches of England, a task which occupied the greater part of his time for the next fourteen years and all pf the plates are executed with consummate skill.

A copy of the Bourne engraving hangs in the vestry at the Abbey Church and shows the Abbey House on the left of the west front. The building was demolished in 1878 and the materials salvaged to built a new vicarage nearby, now the Cedars retirement home, although some of the stones may have been stolen and survive today in various locations around the town, often as garden ornaments

The building of the church was an act of faith by Baldwin Fitzgilbert but was fraught with problems because his original plan was to include a second tower to be built on the left and which would have added symmetry to the west front but the project was never completed. These matters are discussed elsewhere in this history.