Bourne Diary - April 2001
by
Rex Needle
Saturday 7th April 2001
Our spring has finally arrived as the cold spell passed and the sunshine broke through and this week we headed out into the countryside in the hope of finding those glorious sights and sounds that make this time of the year so enjoyable. Bushes and shrubs along the hedgerows are stirring into life and providing a splash of green here and there and adding to the feeling of renewal in the air, that expectancy that comes as April arrives and with it the promise of warmer days and a more attractive countryside as it bursts into life for another growing cycle.
The enjoyment is somewhat diminished this year by the continuing threat of foot and mouth disease and although the outbreak has not reached Lincolnshire, the precautions that we find serve as a reminder of what is happening elsewhere in England with disinfected straw at farm entrances, familiar footpaths sealed off and warning notices everywhere telling us to be on our guard and to help prevent the infection from spreading.
But as we drove along those country lanes, memories of what our countryside was like sixty years ago came flooding back and I grieved for what we have lost. I cycled similar winding roads almost daily as a boy when there was little or no traffic and indeed no white lines. A morning's excursion in early April would find the blackthorn in blossom and the banks of streams and brooks golden with lesser celandines and the kingcups or marsh marigolds, for there seemed to be a preponderance of yellow flowers at this time of the year, and even butterflies and perhaps dragonflies would be seen adorning the sky if the day was particularly fine. In the meadows and along the roadside verges, daisies were beginning to whiten and even the dandelions took on a new brilliance, while primroses and cowslips bloomed in profusion with perhaps even violets and purple orchids, fritillary, early vetch, dove's-foot crane's-bill, speedwell and greater stitchwort. What a riot of colour you could find on any spring day with more delights to come as the seasons advanced while the air was full of birdsong.
Such sights as this are the stuff of the poets from the past, William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley or John Clare, or from the pages of those country diarists such as Gilbert White and Edith Holden who faithfully recorded the beautiful world they saw about them in an England long gone.
For this is now just a dream from past years because our roads this week were lined with dull drab verges devoid of flowers apart from an occasional patch of daffodils that had taken root by accident after a few bulbs had fallen from a crate when they were grown commercially in these parts or perhaps they had been planted by sympathetic nature lovers who mourn the passing of the countryside as it once was. Many of the verges have been turned into quagmires by passing tractors or other farm vehicles while some roads were thick with mud and litter had been windswept into the hedgerows after being thrown from passing cars. Those country lanes that gave such delight a lifetime ago are now merely a means of moving farm equipment around or a fast route for traffic between two places and the colour that once clothed them in years past to delight walkers and cyclists has disappeared, perhaps forever.
The dramatic change that has taken place in the past half century is entirely due to intensive farming and particularly the use of agro-chemicals that have boosted yields but destroyed the environment for our flora and fauna. The English landscape is the oldest and richest record of our heritage that we possess but it has been badly eroded by the habitual use of pesticides and herbicides and may never recover. Now we have yet another threat to our livestock and perhaps in years to come, the familiar cows and sheep that have been just as much a part of that landscape, may also disappear. This surely is the time for our nation to pause and ponder on whether those farming practices that have turned agriculture into an industry have been the right ones.
The final entry has been added to the new Schools section of the web site with a short history of the Robert Manning Technology College that has been contributed with the excellent co-operation of the acting headteacher Geoff Greatwood and his staff. All of the schools in Bourne are now represented here and this will provide a detailed guide for parents moving into the town and wanting to find a suitable school for their children as well as giving an insight into these establishments for those whose children are already pupils. This has been a lengthy undertaking but I have been greatly encouraged by the help I have been given by the staff at each school.
It has occurred to me that this information ought to be available for all and so I am including it in a book to be deposited in the reference section at the public library in Bourne where it will be available for visitors intending to move to the town and who are anxious to know more about our educational establishments. I hope to complete this task within the next few weeks.
Two week ago, I added an item to our feature Memories of Times Past in which Janice Leonard, now living in Canada, remembered her happy times as a pupil at Bourne Grammar School during the 1950s and today we have another such reminiscence but this time one from Sweden which relates to one of the many private schools that once thrived in Bourne. There are no such establishments in the town today but they played an important part in local education in years past, particularly during the 19th century when several such schools were operating at the same time and one, a boarding school for young ladies, was based in the Red Hall.
Christina Backman, who lives at Uppsala in Sweden, came here in the early years of the Second World War when she was only seven years old. Her father was working for the Swedish section of the BBC in London and she and her mother had the unique experience of being evacuated to Bourne in 1940 to escape the bombing in the capital. Christina attended Miss Close's private school for boys and girls in Elm Terrace, one of a row of red brick houses off North Road and the last private school to operate in the town, and she writes with deep affection for her time there because she says: "Looking back on those days, I cannot recall any unpleasantness or unfairness, only kindly and friendly children." I have persuaded Christina to write a memoir of her time at the school and her contribution entitled An Alien in the Classroom is an evocative remembrance of her childhood days in this town.
Memories of Times Past is proving to be an extremely popular feature around the world and I do hope that those of you who have memories of Bourne will tap out a few paragraphs and tell us how it was because it is your recollections of the past that will prove invaluable for the social historians of the future.
It is now eight weeks since a Mitsubishi Galant was abandoned in the car park behind the Post Office in Bourne where it is slowly being vandalised and also taking up much-needed parking space. This vehicle was left there on or about February 11th and the police knew about it a week later because they slapped one of their red "Aware" labels on the windscreen and after I had emailed South Kesteven District Council on March 27th, an official arrived and fixed another notice on it "requiring its removal by the keeper" although I fail to understand what good that will do. I fear that both of these organisations, whose sole object in life is to serve the public that pays for their upkeep, are doing no such thing because the car was still there yesterday. Our council tax bills that fund both authorities are due for payment this week and they are almost 6% higher than last year which prompts me to ask just how much of our money is being wasted on such bureaucratic inactivity.
The case of this abandoned car, the fiasco over bus passes, the delays in opening a permanent waste recycling centre for Bourne and not forgetting the ongoing saga of our new public loos, have prompted a correspondent who is about to retire from public service to offer an explanation of the procrastination and increasing inefficiency that is creeping into our government at both local and national level. The dithering over the date of our elections coupled with the crisis over the handling of the foot and mouth epidemic are also such examples. He writes: "The regulations, counter orders and near-anarchy that now embraces all departments of state do not make it much fun. The problem is the information revolution and all its bad practices. Emails are too long, papers are too many, information is copied to people who do not need it and the constant erosion of resources combined with a fading public image makes it very hard to continue to serve with a smile. It may just be that local authorities such as South Kesteven Council are run off their feet. However, the key is to admit error and fix it. That is what is called leadership."
Thought for the Week: "It is hardly surprising that morale in public service is so low, and that it is regarded mainly as a slightly unpleasant way of repaying a mortgage." - Dr Theodore Dalrymple writing in The Spectator, 31st March 2001.
It is a puzzlement to most people why the footpaths in Lincolnshire are to remain closed when the county is currently free of foot and mouth disease. The decision by the county council to continue with this policy is a direct contravention of guidance from central government that is justifiably concerned about the effects that these unnecessary restrictions are having on the tourist industry and the image being presented abroad that Britain is closed for business. Local footpaths are used by local people, a fact recognised by the Forestry Commission that has now re-opened its woodland walks in Bourne Woods and elsewhere. Saturday 14th April 2001
Farm shops remain open, football matches continue, race meetings are going ahead, travelling fairs are still visiting our towns and coaches are running their usual excursions, all activities that involve travel. Why then are they allowed to continue when such an innocent pleasure as walking through our countryside is banned? The county council should tell us these things and not merely impose restrictions without apparent reason.
The original impetus of precautions to prevent the spread of infection has already started to pall in Lincolnshire and those mats of disinfected straw that were laid across country lanes and at farm gates are fewer than they were, a sign that the hysteria which accompanied the first announcement of the outbreak has begun to subside. We should not be complacent but to be over zealous is an equally mistaken approach and the county council should review its current policies and march in step with the rest of the country. One facet of their much publicised awareness campaign is also slightly ridiculous. They have erected highly visible red and white road signs around the county saying "Help Prevent the Spread of Foot and Mouth Disease" when just a moment's thought about such an admonition makes their appearance alongside the highways totally meaningless because we the public are quite powerless to do anything of the sort.
One other development that has surfaced as a result of the outbreak is food for thought. The county council tells us that the police are stepping up action to control hare coursing and spot checks are being carried out on some major roads in an attempt to catch the culprits. This dubious sport has been the bane of farmers for many years because those involved frequently turn up at isolated farm locations in large numbers to pursue their activities, trespassing on agricultural land and often causing serious damage to fields and crops, yet it has never before been given such a high priority. Do we really need a disaster of these proportions before the police turn their attention to those infringements of the law that are in less troubled times usually ignored?
After including short histories of all four schools in Bourne on the web site, I have been reminded of the tradition of private education in the town that should not be forgotten. Prior to the Education Act of 1870, which provided for elementary schools to be built and run by the state, private schools thrived in Bourne although the life of many was short-lived. But there was an obvious demand for this type of education, particularly for girls whose parents sought the teaching of certain subjects required in their training to become acceptable young ladies. Instruction was therefore given in such matters as social accomplishments, a subject that was not on the curriculum at the National School, the only other available to them because the grammar school was restricted to boys only.
Local records show that in 1810, two sisters, the Misses Munton, ran a boarding school in the town and in 1819 there was another such establishment for young ladies in West Street. A Miss Dewey was running a boarding and day school in 1832 and by 1857, there were four private schools in the town, the most prominent being one which operated from the Red Hall and the principal of this distinguished boarding school for ladies was Miss Eliza Wood. These establishments, or at least their proprietors, were of a transitory nature because a county directory published in 1861 also lists four private schools but none of the owners mentioned before reappear. All of the names were different while the school at the Red Hall had vanished altogether.
Nevertheless, private education remained a part of life in Bourne through into the 20th century and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Miss E Close was running her school for boys and girls from her home in Elm Terrace, one of a row of red brick houses just off North Road. Her establishment catered for about 35 children, from toddler age through to 14, with a staff of three. The standard of teaching was extremely high and many pupils left to continue their education at Bourne Grammar School, which was by now admitting girls, while others left to go out to work. A recollection of Miss Close and her small school can be found in the article An Alien in the Classroom that has been included in Memories of Times Past.
Miss Close continued in business throughout the war years but closed soon afterwards. It was the last private school in Bourne but by then, the town was being served by three other state schools spanning the entire age groups for both primary and secondary education that has been built on since to the system that we have today.
Two more items are added today to our feature Memories of Times past, the first from Japan and the second from the fens. Ian Channing, who lives and works in Tokyo, has been remembering happy days on the roads of Lincolnshire where he cycled around every single town in the county as his rite of passage. He recalls a part of England that has little changed over the years with peaceful winding country roads and small market towns that still live in the past and although this may not be everyone's image, that is what he saw in his mind's eye as he pedalled on. The second contribution is by Robert Abbott from Cambridgeshire who remembers that fateful day in 1963 when the world was stunned by the shooting of the young American president John F Kennedy whose death became a cause for reflection for most of us on where we were and what we were doing at the very moment of his assassination. He was in Bourne when the news arrived from the United States and his account reflects the stunned reaction of most people when they heard of this tragic event.
Thought for the Week: If there were as many police officers on the beat as there are on television, the country wouldn't be in the state it's in. - Inspector Raymond Fowler (Rowan Atkinson) in an episode of the comedy series The Thin Blue Line, screened by BBC Television, 23rd March 2001.
The roads in this part of Lincolnshire are now becoming extremely dangerous for motorists because they are being poorly maintained. Potholes are appearing on the surface in many places, creating sudden hazards for the unwary, and it will not be long before there is a serious accident, even a fatality. Both town and village roads are affected and on a recent short drive of under a mile from my front door, I counted a dozen craters that had appeared in recent months and were potential hazards for passing vehicles. Saturday 21st April 2001
Potholes appear on road surfaces as a result of wear or weathering and my interest in them was prompted by meeting a deep one head on a fortnight ago. I did not see it until it was too late and although I was doing less than 30 m p h, I hit it at a bad angle and damaged the suspension on my car and I now face a bill of £150 after having it put right. The offending crater was one of several to be found on the A6121 at Toft, three miles south west of Bourne, on a stretch of road that is already acknowledged as an accident black spot with large warning signs urging drivers to take care because of a steep hill and sharp bend. Yet the road at the bottom has been allowed to deteriorate into an uneven surface riddled with potholes, some of them several inches deep, and vehicles trying to avoid them inevitably cross over the white line and so add to the danger that this spot presents.
Potholes can be found in most of the villages, on the main roads through Bourne, and even on housing estates where they lie in wait to trap the unwary. They are not only a serious hazard but a reminder that the highways department is not doing its job. We are told that Lincolnshire County Council will be spending more than £20 million on the roads this year and we urge them to use some of this money to make this and other sub-standard carriageways safer.
The council cannot claim ignorance of these dangers because Councillor Ian Croft, the member for Bourne Castle who is also chairman of the Highways and Planning Committee, lives just round the corner at Lound village and must therefore use this road quite frequently. There has also been another very large pothole for several weeks outside the home of another county councillor, John Kirkman, the member for Bourne Abbey who lives in Stephenson Way.
The hazards that these potholes present were highlighted last weekend by one of our local newspapers after a complaint by town councillor Guy Cudmore, the member for Bourne East and one of our more publicly active representatives, who described the road surface as appalling. "No attention has been paid to it", he said. "The county council needs to resurface this stretch properly and if there is insufficient money to maintain such crucial roads, then they must secure additional funds from central government."
Twenty years ago, when similar problems surfaced in this part of Lincolnshire, the authority appointed a special squad of travelling road menders whose daily task was to tour the district in a lorry looking out for such hazards and repairing them immediately but I fear that bureaucracy may have become too cumbersome for such a simplistic solution since those days and permission to fill in these holes now needs an on the spot investigation, several forms in triplicate, a surveyor's report, committee approval and the assent of the entire council before a single shovel full of tarmac is chucked in. We should therefore drive in the knowledge that a pothole is likely to appear at any moment and threaten our safety and so it might be worthwhile remembering their position in order to avoid them on future journeys, or suffer the consequences.
The Mitsubishi Galant abandoned in Bourne since February 11th has finally been moved. Contractors appointed by South Kesteven District Council arrived this week to cart it away from the car park behind the post office where it was taking up a much-needed space and was slowly being vandalised, with broken glass causing a health hazard, especially to children who play there in the evenings and at weekends. The council emailed to tell me about the operation and we are thankful for their intervention after I reported the car to them last month. The police knew about it but did nothing and I have not heard a word of protest from any of our councillors but fortunately the steam created by this web site has been sufficient to get it moved even if it has taken almost ten weeks.
One of my regular correspondents in the Middle East is interested in our way of life and so I occasionally give her pen pictures of the daily round here in Bourne. I explained last week that the schools were closed for the Easter holiday and instead of being in class, children thronged the streets and shops. One morning while going to the bank, I was almost run down by a posse of young cyclists, the eldest no more than ten, who raced down the pavement in the town centre on their mountain bikes at some speed and I was among several people who had to jump clear to avoid them. There is a law that forbids riding cycles on the pavement that is not only unknown to most juveniles but is also never enforced and this is the problem with our legislation, that the police are reluctant to take action over minor infringements even if they have knowledge of them.
School holidays are a particularly opportune time for young law breakers because they have so much spare time on their hands and parental control in many cases is totally lacking. The majority from this age group do not fall into this category because they respect their elders and wish to contribute towards the community in which they live and have sufficient activities to occupy their minds without causing disruption in the streets. But there is a fractious and insubordinate element that appears to be totally unaware of civic and family responsibilities and their misdemeanours give their entire generation a bad name.
My correspondent, who lives on a kibbutz in Israel, has had some experience as a teacher in Jerusalem and elsewhere and has suggested that television is one of the main causes of incivility among our younger generation and that explanation is almost certainly true. But she also pointed out that there is always a worse situation elsewhere. "The violence and terror that we have in Israel is almost war", she writes movingly, "and no one knows what the end will be. Therefore, do not be afraid of the English children. They certainly will not throw stones like the Arab youngsters."
The Bourne web site has received another award for excellence. The latest accolade comes from the Médaille d'Or Organisation that monitors the Internet for exceptional sites that are well designed and presented and contain information that is regularly updated. Their judging categories cover a wide variety of subjects including current affairs, the arts, education, health, history, recreation and science. I am most gratified to be added to their Roll of Honour, particularly for my son Dr Justin Needle who designs and maintains the site and for my wife Elke who proof reads every line and gives her judgement on every photograph. The web site is then a family affair and one that carries no paid advertising in order to maintain its independence and to enable free comment on local affairs without commercial pressure and I am sure that this latest award will spur us on to even greater effort but we can only succeed as long as you continue to support us.
We have now received seven national and international awards since the web site was launched in 1997 and are attracting around 500 visitors a week from many different countries. There are lots of new ideas in the pipeline and we hope to continue to provide this facility for many years to come, not only for the people of Bourne but also for those visitors from around the world who find enjoyment in the English countryside where many of them once lived.
Thought for the Week: "Ninety-nine per cent of the population should be physically prevented from owning anything more advanced than a stick insect." - Manda Scott, a Suffolk veterinary surgeon, writing in The Sunday Telegraph last weekend on why she refuses to help in the culling of animals during the current outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
There are now real fears that democracy in local government for this part of Lincolnshire is at an end and the irony is that the very people we elected to serve us on South Kesteven District Council have sounded its death knell. The mandate they were given has been grossly misused in the cause of party politics and they can no longer be trusted by the people who put them into power. There have been several flagrant abuses of confidence in recent months but the main catalyst for this abysmal situation is the fiasco over concessionary travel for the elderly and disabled through the issue of travel tokens, a scheme that has been operating successfully since 1974 but now lies in tatters together with the reputations of many councillors who voted to replace it with an inferior and restrictive system. Saturday 28th April 2001
The details of this sorry affair were outlined in this Diary on March 31st when there was a slender chance that the council would rescind its previous decision and follow the wishes of the people but that was not to be and they have since voted through a new voucher scheme that is disliked by everyone it is meant to benefit. There is dismay at their cavalier attitude and distress for those who are affected because they are among the most vulnerable in society, the old and the infirm.
The reason why this new system has been approved is not difficult to understand when you study the voting pattern of those councillors who attended the council meeting earlier this month. It was decided as a result of party affiliation rather than compassionate concern for the people who elected them and this is a gross abuse of their position. The Conservative group on the council commands a majority and as it was their members who voted in favour of the new system, together with a few fellow travellers, their will prevailed. This does not mean that all of these councillors agreed with the new system. In fact, there is evidence that many did not. But they voted for it nevertheless because their political masters told them to and so they have become, to use a favoured phrase in Westminster for such followers of the pack, little more than lobby fodder.
The decision then was taken not in the council chamber where members should be on parade with their consciences, but most probably over drinky-poos in the chairman's room at some time before the meeting. It was in other words, a political conspiracy. Those who wavered, and there were several, would be ordered to toe the party line and if they became belligerent, then their support could be won by threats of disciplinary action or persuasive hints of future elevation, another committee membership or perhaps a facility trip somewhere, a method known in America as pork barrel politics, and so the vote was sealed to the detriment of those who were meant to benefit from this scheme.
There is little chance of any improvement in the situation either because this council is moving towards an inner cabinet system in which control over its affairs will rest with a handful of chosen councillors and the majority of them will therefore be from the ruling party. Once this cabinet is in place, its members will become even more remote from the electorate and accountability a mere memory and the other councillors might just as well go home because they will have even less influence than they have now.
This is perhaps an appropriate time to reflect on other matters now being considered by South Kesteven District Council that do not have public approval. The proposed residential development of 2,000 new houses on the edge of Elsea Wood, south of Bourne, worries many people because the scheme was pushed through will little or no consultation. The saga of our new public loos has still not been settled even though the people of Bourne have made it quite clear which is their preferred site. Then there is the matter of the proposed new supermarket for North Street, a development that will drastically alter our street scene and not necessarily for the good.
The cause for concern is that local government has become an arena for power struggles rather than a means for public good. An organisation that spends almost £50 million a year should be administered entirely by qualified personnel and yet we give this power to elected councillors, lay people who invariably have no knowledge of such matters and actually have hire and fire power over the salaried executive. The result is rather like the golf club that provides the opportunity for disappointed men to achieve some form of prominence, irrespective of ability. The council therefore becomes a place of whispers and intrigue, of who is in favour and who is not, of cabals and complicities, manoeuvring, machinations and manipulation, and those they are supposed to represent get second best. We who pay the bill deserve better.
A huge flag with a red cross on a white background appeared on the outside of the Angel Hotel in Bourne this week to remind us that Monday was St George's Day when we celebrate the patron saint of England. It has a particular significance this year because there is a national debate underway over our Bank Holidays for it appears that we have fewer than other European countries and perhaps therefore the number ought to be increased, a notion that is gaining much support because the British love nothing more than a day off on full pay and one date in particular has been put forward as obvious addition: St George's Day on April 23rd.
I therefore went out to photograph the flag hanging outside the Angel Hotel on Sunday morning and while waiting for the cars to pass and the sun to appear, a elderly lady approached me and I listened politely as she explained why the flag was there and of its significance. She was proud of her country and proud of St George. "It is right that we should celebrate something really English", she said with patriotic fervour. "We have been hearing far too much recently about those foreign asylum seekers who want to come and live here."
The history of our nation is available for all to read but it is at times like this that I wonder how many people merely accept what they have been told or, even worse, what they imagine. St George was not English and he never slew a dragon. Furthermore, he never even visited this country and if he had, he would probably have been a foreigner seeking asylum. George is remembered as a soldier-saint who was venerated in the east after being martyred for his faith in Palestine circa AD 303. The cult of St George soon spread, reaching its peak in the west when soldiers returning from the Crusades told stories of the many legends that surrounded him, including his battle with a dragon while on his way to the Holy Land, and he was adopted as the patron saint of England in the 14th century. But despite his widespread personification of Christian chivalry, his life was a very different story to that we were taught in our schools or that we revere whenever his flag is unfurled.
The myth was exploded by the distinguished historian Edward Gibbon who shocked 18th century England with his masterpiece The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in which he demolished the reputation of our patron saint. He tells us that George was born of humble origins in Cappadocia, now part of central Turkey, and from obscure and servile beginnings, raised himself by the talents of a parasite, securing through flattery a contract to supply the army with bacon. "His employment was mean", wrote Gibbon. "He rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption but his malversations were so notorious that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice."
He embraced Arianism, acquired a library of philosophy and theology, and was promoted to the throne of Athanasius but, said Gibbon, "each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice". He monopolised trade, imposed heavy taxes, turned informer and was eventually dragged in chains to prison with two of his ministers but an excited mob stormed the jail and killed them, throwing their bodies into the sea. "The odious stranger", wrote Gibbon, "disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of martyr, a saint and a Christian hero; and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the garter."
At school, we were taught to be proud of St George after hearing tales of his derring-do and there are those today, particularly bone-head patriots and emotive football fans following the fortunes of our England team, who wrap themselves in his flag and wear his favours, but as with any tradition or age old belief, things are not always what they appear to be.
The story of Charles Mapperson tells of the pioneering spirit that helped create the British Empire during the 19th century. In the spring of 1853, he was working as a farm labourer at Castle Bytham, near Bourne, but was haunted by dreams of making his fortune in the Australian gold rush after several strikes had been made at Ballarat in Victoria. He married his sweetheart, Mary Ann Hales, daughter of a veterinary doctor from Baston, at the Baptist Chapel in West Street on May 1st and a week later they were on the high seas bound for a new life 12,000 miles away on the other side of the world.
Charles did make good but not from gold. His life took many different paths and by the time he died in 1918, he had established a family dynasty that survives today and is the subject of a new book by one of his descendants, Norman Mapperson, who has chronicled the life and times of his ancestors in painstaking detail. I have arranged for copies of this fascinating work to be deposited with the Family History Society here in Bourne and in the reference section of the public library where it is available for all to read and in the meantime, I have written a short history of the life and times of Charles and Mary Ann Mapperson that is added today to the Bourne Focus.
Thought for the Week: Bourne will become a very dirty place indeed if this facility is not replaced immediately by a permanent waste recycling centre. - comment from one of the operators at the freighter waste disposal service in the Rainbow car park which is due to close on May 26th.
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