Bourne Comment

WHY THE MARKET SHOULD BE KEPT
OFF THE STREETS

There has been a market in Bourne since the earliest times but twenty-five years ago it was moved from its original location on the streets in the town centre to a purpose built paved area behind the Town Hall. Despite the criticism from some quarters, this was a necessary and sensible decision by South Kesteven District Council because the stalls could no longer operate in safety while ranged along the kerbside in West Street and North Street where shoppers were at constant risk from passing traffic.

Yet there are still voices raised in support of moving the market back on to the streets, conveniently forgetting that they would be trading from a trunk road because North Street where most of the stalls would be sited is now the main A15 between Peterborough and Lincoln carrying an enormous amount of through traffic each day, cars, vans and buses, and more importantly heavy vehicles such as articulated lorries which thunder through at maximum speed close to the kerb, endangering pedestrians and spewing out diesel fumes which are breathed in by anyone in the vicinity and that often includes old people and young mothers with children in pushchairs.

Nostalgia is a powerful motivator and it may be that a market on the street as it was in past times has a picture book appeal for small towns such as Bourne but conditions have changed and such an arrangement now would be extremely impractical and highly dangerous for shoppers each time the stalls were erected for business.

We cannot dwell in the past however appealing the thought may be but perhaps an understanding of the way in which our market has developed will help people realise that conditions in which it once operated are no longer valid and like all historic institutions it must move with the times no matter how much we wish to cling to tradition.

The market was founded by royal charter granted to the Lord of the Manor of Bourne, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279. The original charter document, dated two years later, is now in the British Museum, giving permission for trading to take place on a Saturday and this tradition has continued to the present day although a Thursday market was later added and this has become the more popular of the two.

Many similar market towns were being established in England at this time and although the number was seriously reduced by the Black Death, they flourished again during 1500-1650 when Bourne was one of thirty-seven market towns in Lincolnshire.

The manorial rights were eventually acquired by the Cecil family whose distinguished member William Cecil became the first Lord Burghley and this entitled his descendants to receive the market rents. In 1962, the then Marquess of Exeter sold the rights to Bourne Urban District Council and as a result of the local government re-organisation of 1974 they passed to South Kesteven District Council which now collects the weekly tolls and is responsible for its administration.

In mediaeval Bourne, market stalls were known as the shambles and it was not always easy to distinguish them from the shops but by the 16th century they were generally small premises erected for the sale of fish and meat and let out to townsmen and traders from other places on market days.

By the early 19th century, the old town hall in Bourne had become dilapidated and a site occupied by a house adjoining the Bull Inn (now the Burghley Arms) on the east side of the market place was chosen for a new building which was erected in 1821 but this too was to have a shambles or set of stalls underneath and from this arrangement sprang the eventual street market that became a familiar sight in the town during recent times.

A survey carried out in October 1921 showed that there were 62 stalls occupying a frontage of some 225 yards along North Street and West Street. The scale and importance of the undertaking to the town may be judged from an entry in the minutes of Bourne Urban District Council for May 1924 when it was decided to inform the Marquess of Exeter that residents living in the vicinity were complaining about the noise created by the late hour of closing on Saturday nights and suggesting that his lordship give instructions for the stalls to be taken down at 10 pm, an indication that market hours tended to be very much longer than today and the gatherings far more lively.

Everything was sold at the market in earlier times including grain and livestock but these undertakings were eventually given their own premises, the cattle market which was established in 1860 and continued in business until 1981 and the Corn Exchange, built in 1870, which became the centre of the grain trade until 1938 when it was bought by Bourne Urban District Council for community use, a role that continues to this day.

Markets have always been a magnet for country folk and a survey of 1950 revealed that almost 60% of those people who attended travelled between one mile and five miles to get there, many arriving in their Sunday best to spend the day in town. Goods were brought in for sale from the farms and villages and tradesmen would arrive to display their wares.

The market continued in the town centre until the closing years of the 20th century when increasing traffic flows finally made road conditions too hazardous for shoppers and on Thursday 13th December 1990, it was moved to the present purpose built paved area behind the town hall, planned as part of the Burghley Arcade and Corn Exchange development on the site of the old cattle market that had now closed.

The change did not please everyone and there have since been several attempts to move the market back on the streets, the last in 2006 which was rejected by the local authorities because it would have involved road closures on market days, and it is now widely accepted that in view of the present volume of traffic through the town centre, that would not be a practical proposition.

In October 2009, significant changes were made to the weekly market where trade had been in danger of flagging in past months. A new look was introduced for the stalls with attractive blue and white awnings and welcome messages for shoppers, thanks to an investment by South Kesteven District Council.

As well as providing a fresh approach to this historic feature of the town it was hoped that the improvements would attract new traders and increase turnover and the initial reaction appeared to be that everyone had given the thumbs-up to the transformation and so the market continues in business but with fluctuating fortunes although it has become fashionable to blame a low turnout of stallholders as a direct consequence of moving the market off the streets but this is far from the truth.

It would be a pity to lose our market because it now has an excellent permanent location but it no longer attracts the variety of goods that were on offer in past times. Most shopping is now done in the supermarkets and the bargains offered by stallholders in the past now have other outlets such as discount stores and the Internet while a close look at our town centre on Thursday mornings indicates fewer shoppers anyway and there have been occasions when I have even seen the streets practically deserted at midday.

The trend throughout the country is that the larger markets such as Stamford and elsewhere are surviving because their success is self-perpetuating but those in the smaller market towns no longer attract shoppers and so traders stay away with the result that the number of stalls in Bourne on some days is often down to two or three. If this trend continues then the decline may eventually be terminal but there in no way this can be blamed on the decision to move the stalls off the streets.

A street market is a mediaeval concept and if it has to end then the real culprit is the changing times in which we live, a transience we euphemistically call progress.

Note: This article was published by the Bourne web site on 5th September 2015.