Bourne Diary - October 2000
by
Rex Needle
Vandalism is one of the most shameful of our current social crimes because it has no motive and there is no gain for the perpetrators. Those who are responsible for the wilful damage of property can never give an explanation as to why they target a particular building or edifice other than that it happens to be there when they are in a destructive mood and often fired by strong drink. The morose and sullen reply by the guilty when asked to clarify their conduct is usually an inane retort that reflects their mindless stupidity because even they have little idea why they should roam the locality wrecking everything in sight although remorse for their actions is invariably sadly lacking.
Saturday 7th October 2000 The Vandals of history were a Teutonic people related to the Goths and in the 5th century they moved from North Germany to invade Roman Gaul and Spain, and after much bloodshed many settled in Andalusia and others reaching North Africa. They occupied Rome in the year 455 AD and plundered the city, despoiling it of its treasures and art and literature, but a century later accepted Roman suzerainty and thus ended the history of this independent tribe. The name has since been used for those who wilfully or ignorantly indulge in the destruction of works of art and is now applied to most forms of wanton damage.
The causing of malicious damage during civil demonstrations against government and state has frequently been justified as the means for the cause and that is arguable but the indiscriminate destruction of property for no apparent reason is inexcusable and this is the heart of the matter. What, for instance, was in the minds of those who wrecked the stone and slate memorial outside St Andrew's Church at Sempringham last month?
This memorial honours the mediaeval Princess Gwenllian, daughter of Llewellyn, the last true-born Prince of Wales, and the only grand-daughter of Simon de Montfort, who was held captive here for more than half a century. Gwenllian was born at Abergwyngregyn in Wales on 12th June 1282 but when she was only 17 months old, Edward I, fearing that she might threaten his suzerainty over Wales, wrote to the prior and prioress at Sempringham, the Gilbertian Abbey which then stood on this site, asking them to admit her to the order and habit "having the Lord before our eyes, pitying also her sex and age, that the innocent and unwitting may not seem to atone for the iniquity and ill-doing of the wicked and contemplating specially the life of your Order".
Four years after Gwenllian was admitted to Sempringham, Edward issued a mandate to Thomas Normanvill "to go to the places where the daughters of Llewellyn and of David his brother, who have taken the veil in the Order of Sempringham, are dwelling, and to report upon their state and custody by next Parliament". Sempringham Abbey was allowed to acquire certain lands, including Ketton, Cottesmore, Stamford and Casterton, because Edward had shared them with Gwenllian. Then in 1327, when Edward III stayed at Sempringham, he granted Gwenllian a yearly pension of £20 for life. She died ten years later on 7th June 1337 after 54 years of virtual imprisonment by the order.
The memorial was erected in 1993 as a tribute to the princess and financed by public subscription raised by the Princess Gwenllian Society. Coach parties of Welsh pilgrims regularly visit the site to pay their respects and the memorial was recently blessed by the Bishop of Bangor. Were the culprits therefore English nationalists, haters of the Welsh who vented their wrath on the materials from that country which was used in its construction? Or, should we accept that as this incident occurred during the school holidays, then youngsters with time on their hands, teenagers and perhaps children even younger, were to blame and attacked this memorial with whatever weapons lay at hand without a thought of what they were wrecking?
The church stands in a remote location surrounded by vast tracts of agricultural land and intruders intent on causing damage are unlikely to be observed and so the vandals who shattered the heavy Welsh slate capping and punctured the inscribed blue slate tablet had little fear of discovery. This isolation provides a suitable climate for vandals because it is easy to avoid detection and if they are apprehended, they refuse to face up to their actions and deny responsibility. Cowardice is a comfortable bedfellow for those who participate in such belligerent behaviour.
But the society is determined that the memorial should be restored. The secretary Mrs Malt Anderson, said: "We realise that if we do replace it, there is every chance that it will be smashed again but it will be restored. We have been grateful for the support of friends in Lincolnshire who have helped us so readily in the past in our determination to maintain and care for this tiny corner of an English field that is forever Wales."
An anonymous visitor calling himself The Critic, who appears to have a bee in his bonnet about the Bourne web site, left a message in the Guest Book at the weekend attacking us and defying me to delete his entry. Why this challenge should have been thrown down is a complete mystery because if I had deleted it as soon as it appeared, no one would have been any the wiser except the two of us. However, I left it there for a week to show good faith but it has now been wafted into cyberspace, not because of its content but because this is not the place for such matters. A Guest Book is just that, as it is in an hotel, a record of our visitors and we like to know who they are and where they come from.
Issues that cry out for discussion have their place in the Bourne Forum and I therefore ask our unnamed contributor to repeat his comments there where I can make a suitable reply and where they can be discussed in detail by others who might be interested in what he has to say. As it is, his entry is rather like a naughty schoolboy knocking on someone's door and then running away. However, I doubt that he will take advantage of this offer because he was able to put a message in the Guest Book without leaving his name or email address and that is not possible in the Bourne Forum where contributors are deemed to be responsible for the opinions that they leave there.
The Bourne Focus item for October is the story of property owner John Lely Ostler (1811-1859) and is posted today. He had only a short connection with Bourne during the 19th century yet became one of the town's major benefactors. My interest was aroused by the Ostler Memorial, a public drinking fountain that once stood in the town centre. It was erected to Ostler's memory in 1860, the year after his death, but was moved to the cemetery in 1960 because it was creating a traffic hazard. I am grateful to the cemetery supervisor Peter Ellis for helping me locate Ostler's grave which was neglected and overgrown and covered with moss and lichen, but he gave it a thorough clean to enable me take a photograph and the picture is included with my essay on the life of this man who did much for Bourne before he died at the early age of 48. Our cemetery is full of such people who gave time and effort to our town during their lifetime and are now sadly forgotten but then that is the way of the world.
I have now produced a CD-ROM of the Bourne web site from its inception in 1997 to the end of September 2000. This contains over 400 photographs and more than 200,000 words of text, making it the most comprehensive guide of the locality currently available. If anyone would like a copy, then please email me for full details of this offer.
There were no recreation fields in my district when I was a boy although we sought out every piece of available green area for play, on waste ground and farm meadow, whether it was kicking a ball or merely lying in the sun. When the grass was growing strongly in early summer, the lawns around the offices of the local brick company were mowed endlessly and the cuttings dumped in the field across the way and we would romp there for hours amid these piles of clippings that would cling to our hair and the recesses of our clothes for days afterwards because in the absence of bathrooms, regular washing was unknown and we often awoke in the morning just as dirty as we had gone to bed the night before. Saturday 14th October 2000
Even the first school I went to in 1934 had no sports field. This was an elementary school, a large and forbidding Victorian building with playgrounds on either side and not a blade of grass in sight and so our gym lessons and games were confined to those that could be pursued on hard standing such as physical jerks, running on the spot, skipping, rounders and tag, all in our ordinary clothes because sports kit was unheard of and even it had been in the shops, few families could afford to buy it. The thought that one day playing fields would be available to all and that every kid in the street would be wearing a football strip never entered our heads and the concept of a modern sports or leisure centre was undreamed of, even at the pictures during a Saturday afternoon matinee, the one thing that brought the prospect of a brighter future into our lives.
Recreational areas were so few in urban areas that the government introduced Play Streets, short thoroughfares where traffic was either banned or restricted to enable children pursue their games without fear of being knocked down by passing traffic, but this was a most unsatisfactory and short term measure and so the playing fields that are so familiar today were slowly established and the leisure industry was born.
Today, these amenities are taken for granted. Green open spaces where children can play are all around us and yet many who sport the colours of Chelsea and Manchester United still prefer to kick a football in the street, often too lazy to walk the few hundred yards to the very places designed for this purpose. Yet if they disappeared, there would be protests from parents that their community was being deprived of recreational facilities and that the local authorities were not fulfilling their responsibilities to the town. We live in a most contrary society but then this is a culture that has developed because we have too much and our expectations are too high. Social deprivation sixty years ago gave us no choice because there was none.
Here in Bourne, we are blessed with green spaces for relaxation and sport. The recreation ground was opened in 1911 as part of the celebrations for King George V and since then there has been ample space for generations of townspeople, both young and old, to enjoy their leisure time. The Wellhead Gardens are the perfect place for a daily stroll in pleasurable surroundings while for the more energetic, the Abbey Lawn that is endowed by an ancient charity, provides facilities for a wide variety of sports for both the beginner and the veteran.
The land originally formed part of the grounds of Bourne Abbey but the public were allowed to use it at the discretion of the vicar. There is no record of the public ever being banned from using the Abbey Lawn for this purpose and so it became the town's unofficial recreation ground and has been in use for such purposes for at least 200 years. The site is now administered by the trustees of the Bourne United Charities who have done much for the town by building the outdoor swimming pool and by laying out and maintaining the Abbey Lawn playing fields. The land was purchased by them in 1934 and since then there has been a continuous programme of improvement and upkeep.
It has also become one of the most attractive cricket grounds in Lincolnshire and home to the Bourne Town Cricket Club. Their activities date from 1803 but current records only go back to 1920 and although their home matches have always been played on this ground, the facilities have become greatly enhanced under the present ownership. For some seasons past it has been the scene of Minor Counties matches as well as the extremely popular local tournament for the Hodgkinson Cup, a knockout competition for village teams with matches played midweek in the evenings with a limit of 20 overs per innings.
The tennis club, which formerly played on courts in Exeter Street, now uses the courts on the Abbey Lawn while one of the best-known organisations, the Bourne Abbey Bowling Club, occupies land on the far corner of the site. The club originated in 1922 when games were played in the gardens of the old vicarage but soon afterwards, a piece of land close to the church was acquired and prepared by volunteers and this has been in use as a bowling green ever since. More recently, another green was created at the Abbey Lawn and the Abbey Road bowling club came into being.
But perhaps the most popular sport to be played here is soccer and over many years, Bourne teams have generally gained a high reputation for their games. The Bourne Town Football Club was founded in 1883 and has been nicknamed "The Wakes". Their colours are claret and sky blue and their ground has a capacity of 5,000. The team is backed by an active supporter' club and has drawn Saturday afternoon crowds to the ground for many seasons past with a record attendance of over 3,000 for the F A Trophy match with Chelmsford in 1970. The team has also achieved many notable successes including the championship of the United Counties league on four occasions, in 1968-69, 1969-70, 1971-72 and 1990-91. The club has also spawned several players who have progressed to the Football League including Peter Grummit (Nottingham Forest), Shaun Cunnington (Wrexham, Grimsby and Sunderland) and David Palmer (Wrexham).
Although the official date of the football club's inception is 1883, there is evidence that a town team existed for several years before that and was even playing games on Tuesdays as well as Saturdays. A fixture list exists from the 1877-78 season detailing away matches with Stamford, Sleaford, Boston, Grantham and Spalding and it is likely that the team travelled to these games by train because by that time Bourne had become a thriving railway centre in South Lincolnshire.
In winter, the Abbey Lawn is also the home of the Bourne Hockey Club, formed soon after the First World War, and now frequently providing members for the county team while in the far corner near the entrance in Abbey Road, an enclosed court has been established for petanque, a type of boules played especially in France and a sport that has gained popularity since the town became twinned with Doudeville in Normandy in October 1989.
For such a small town, we have more than our fair share of open spaces and long may they continue to be used with pleasure.
The town centre in Bourne came to a complete standstill again at midday on Wednesday as passing traffic built up in all four streets, unable to move either forwards or backwards because two cars and a van were illegally parked on double yellow lines in North Street while their drivers went off to do some shopping or whatever. The situation was exacerbated by the road works in West Street that are already causing enough problems for drivers without having to put up with this inconsiderate behaviour from those who refuse to observe the law. Such delays are becoming commonplace in our narrow streets which were only intended for horse drawn carts and coaches but this need not be so. You do not require a PhD in the blindingly obvious to come up with a solution because the employment of a couple of traffic wardens would not only make erring drivers see the error of their ways but would also pay their wages in the fixed penalty charges they imposed. Perhaps those who run our affairs might consider this simple alternative to the prospect of bottlenecks and frayed tempers that deter many from driving into the town centre during the week . . . but don't count on it.
This is the month of harvest festivals when the faithful gather in church to give thanks for nature's annual bounty, when the earth gives up its fruit for another year. The gathering in of the crops has been a time for rejoicing from time immemorial, celebrated by the Jews, the Romans and even the Druids. The tradition is still observed in England today when the aisles ring with the sound of the familiar hymns of childhood, "We plough the fields, and scatter, the good seed on the land " and "Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest-home" and we sing lustily without thought for the deprivations of years past when a bad harvest meant a hungry winter. These hymns are rooted in the past as is the harvest festival service itself for the food we eat today rarely comes from the fields around us and the larder is usually filled with tins from Tesco's while the fridge is loaded with frozen delights from Waitrose, much of which most probably emanated from another part of the country or even from abroad. Saturday 21st October 2000
As a choirboy sixty years ago, the harvest festival was one of the highlights of the church year and I looked forward each autumn to the decorating of the church with fruit and vegetables freshly picked the day before, rosy apples, luscious pears and juicy plums clinging to the branch, the mud of the field in the baskets of potatoes, while cabbages and carrots, onions and parsnips were still damp with the morning dew, and best of all, sheaves of wheat, barley and oats that had been specially tied with ribbons by the farmers' wives and which brought the very smell of the harvest field into the chancel where we sat. It was a wondrous time for a boy who marvelled that such produce could come from the brown earth in such a short time to sustain us for so long and we sang our hearts out with thanks to God for his bounty.
But time moves on. The harvest festivals are still with us although the meaning has become blurred at the edges. Last weekend, we went to Langtoft and called in at the lovely parish church of St Michael and All Angels after reading on the village notice board that this was the time of their harvest festival celebration. Pupils from the village school had attended harvest services on Friday afternoon and had brought their gifts to be auctioned after the harvest supper in the village hall on Sunday evening. Fresh produce was scarce in the abundant array laid out on the floor of the chancel. Instead, there were plastic bags full of off-the-shelf purchases from Sainsburys and Budgen's and Mr Heinz was well represented with his tins of beans, spaghetti rings and tomato soup. In an age when vegetable gardens have been phased out in favour of herbaceous borders, lawns and now decking, convenience foods make it easier to give at times like this for this is the stuff of the modern kitchen and there is even a reluctance by many young housewives to use fresh produce for everyday meals because cookery is no longer on the curriculum of most schools.
Nevertheless, the amount that had been donated was evidence that the spirit of the occasion is still alive and well although the food that was brought here would have been unrecognisable to our forefathers who came here on this occasion to bless the fruit of the trees and the grain from the fields. The consumer society has finally caught up with our harvest festivals.
It was with a sense of relief that I noticed the flower tubs in the town centre being replanted this week. I have not cared much for these tubs because their design is rather awful and they looked like a job lot of rejects from Notcutts but they did not cost the town anything as they were sponsored by local firms and they did give us a splash of colour during the summer months. We are now between autumn and winter and as the flowers faded and died, the tubs were in danger of becoming pavement eyesores because some were slowly filling up with cigarette ends, empty cans and some other unmentionable litter. It is my experience of human nature that those people who refuse to use an official rubbish bin will most certainly dump their garbage in these.
The provision of the ten tubs was announced in April by the chairman of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce Mike Holden as one of the initiatives of the Bourne Town Centre Management Partnership that was launched at the beginning of the year with the intention of bringing fresh impetus to the town centre. He told us that they were being sponsored by local businesses and looked after free by the Social Education Centre and so we should not look a gift horse in the mouth but it is essential that they should be regularly maintained.
When the partnership was launched in February, I suggested that it was likely to become just another talking shop but was castigated by Mr Holden who replied: "Let's not knock it until we've tried it." This then is an opportune time to remind ourselves of the other bright ideas in the pipeline. "Other schemes being mooted", said Mr Holden at the time, "include brown road signs as Market Deeping has, welcoming visitors to the historic town, provision of further traffic calming measures, better street cleaning, improvements to shop frontages, a Bourne tourism guide, the reinvigoration of the market and mapped walks around the town, to name but several."
Have any of these things happened that I may perhaps have missed during the lazy days of summer? Or is the sum total of the management partnership's achievement since it was launched nine months ago been just those flower tubs? I think we should be told.
The winter is on its way and we are taking a short autumn break before the weather turns inclement and so there will be no new Diary next week. The web site will continue however so please keep logging on and perhaps leave a topical contribution in the Bourne Forum.
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