Bourne Diary -  September 2002

Saturday 7^th September 2002

This claim is a false one and I told the owners so last autumn when I visited to take photographs of the interior. The oldest property in Bourne is obviously the Abbey Church, our only Grade I listed building dating back 1,000 years but even then, Monkstone House is certainly not the oldest secular property, even though it is Grade II listed.

Few houses in which the townsfolk lived in earlier times have survived but this one has remained virtually intact externally for the past 250 years and is similar in style and period to the house nearby that is now used by Lloyds TSB. The rear part of Monkstone House dates back to 1620 while the impressive red brick frontage was erected in the mid-18th century and the original doorway incorporating a broken pediment and fanlight still graces the main entrance.

This handsome building rising to two storeys above the ground would doubtless have been the home of one of the town's more affluent citizens. During the 1930s, the house was owned by the late Mr Jack Rayner, a teacher at Bourne Grammar School who died in June 1990 at the age of 73. He was an expert in timber and carpentry, and he spent much of his spare time filling the main rooms with intricate wood carvings of foliage and small animals, particularly mice, converting the drab interior into the splendour of a richly decorated Elizabethan home. Later in the century, when the house fell vacant, it stood empty for several years but was converted for use as an Indian restaurant in 1993.

Monkstone House is pre-dated by several properties, most notably the Red Hall that was built in 1605. The Old Bakehouse in the Austerby is even older and dates from the early 16th century while the old New Inn, now a private house on the Spalding Road, was built by Thomas Dawkins, a tanner, in 1550. If we are to date existing properties by their earliest remains, then this makes the Balti King claim even more tenuous because Bourne abounds with old properties that have been added to and altered over the years and many most probably contain a section that pre-dates all of those I have mentioned here.

Heading the list is the Shippon Barn which may well have been built with materials salvaged from the fortifications of Bourne’s old castle, dating back a thousand years, perhaps more, but was destroyed in mediaeval times and it is quite likely that certain stones incorporated in the end of the barn were the exterior sections of the cross-bow slits that once formed part of the castle walls.

Many old cottages of great antiquity can also be found in Bourne, usually dramatically altered in appearance and construction. One example in particular is worth considering and that is the pair of cottages at numbers 25 and 27 Spalding Road, certainly among the oldest in the town because they are of mud and stud construction and therefore are at least 300 years old and although the original walls survive, they have been reinforced with stone. They look incongruous with their red brick chimneys, dormer windows, ashlar quoins and a white-washed exterior, and were originally three farm workers' cottages but their age is undisputed. They are now converted into two homes and their snug interiors command such a loyalty with the tenants that those who have lived there have always been reluctant to move into a new property with all modern conveniences.

It is my experience that owners of old properties are always anxious to improve on history, more so if this will also increase trade, as in the case of the Balti King. When it was suggested to me by the present tenants that this was the oldest property in Bourne, I asked for some form of documentary proof which, of course, they were unable to provide. Their claim though is now in print and so someone will believe them. It is also unfortunate that the oldest part of this building, the attractive fenestrated section at the rear, is always cluttered with parked cars and rubbish bins. If they wish to parade the longevity of this building as an advertising slogan, then they should first put their house in order for all to enjoy.

There were originally a total of 75 listed buildings in the parish of Bourne. Fifty-one of them were in the Conservation Area although two of these in North Street have been demolished. The other 24 were outside, in Eastgate, Cawthorpe and Dyke, but four of these have been pulled down. A listed property is one that has been so scheduled by the local authority and endorsed at government level because it has sufficient historical interest and merit to be preserved and therefore it cannot be demolished or even altered without special dispensation. Most of the listed properties in Bourne are early 18th century and although not all are in a good state of repair, they are the best that the town has to offer and pictures and descriptions of all 69 have now been committed to my CD-ROM A Portrait of Bourne that is now into a third edition and an order form may be accessed from the front page of this web site.

I wrote last week (Diary August 31st) that my wife and I were attacked by a cup cake while walking down Abbey Road one evening, a missile that hit my wife on the head while the culprits, two ten-year-old boys, escaped on their mountain bikes, pedalling furiously lest they be caught but laughing uproariously at their little joke. I thought that this was an isolated incident in our quiet little town, prompted by the boredom of the long summer holidays from school, but it seems that we are not the only victims of these petty assaults.

Two more cases have since been reported to me, both similar in circumstance, and in each case the assailants were children of the same age on cycles. In the first incident, a man was pelted with a plastic bottle while cycling through town and in the second, a woman jogger was fired at with a powerful water pistol.

These attacks may seem trivial, even humorous, to those who were not on the receiving end, and indeed they all have the flavour of the circus ring about them, but equally there is a sinister element for if our young people derive so much pleasure from hurling objects at passers-by without being brought to book for their delinquencies, it will not be long before they graduate to more serious misdeeds that will do real harm to those out on the streets. Common assault, the category into which all three of these cases fall, is often the first step to a life of crime.

What the local papers are saying

A little known development in the future transparency of our county councillors is revealed by the Lincolnshire Free Press (September 3rd) who report that a majority of the 77 members of Lincolnshire County Council do not wish to have their declared business and political interests included in the authority’s Internet web site. The official register of members’ interests, which is drawn up by law for public inspection, contains financial, charitable, political, property-related and employment links and associations and is intended as a safeguard against corruption but only 25 councillors have agreed that their entries should be available online while the other 52 have withheld permission.

The Internet initiative is intended to address a wider public because the only other way this information can be obtained is by travelling to the county council offices at Lincoln and asking to see the file. A councillor who therefore refuses to have their disclosures on the web site is denying their electorate the right to see where they stand and this must be wrong. A resistance to innovation has been one of mankind’s drawbacks down the ages and I wrote last week that some newspapers are still refusing to accept the Internet as part of our modern system of communications despite the fact that more than 33 million people in this country use it. A refusal by some county councillors to provide easy access to their business and personal interests is in direct opposition to the government’s declared policy on the use of electronic information and it might be worth finding out if your own county representative is being obstructive in this way and if so, ask them why.

I note that The Local has a new editor, Angela Lowe, and we wish her well although the newspaper will miss the local knowledge of her predecessor Jonathan Smith who seemed to know everything about this town and was on nodding terms with most who live here. This familiarity with a community is essential for an editor of a local newspaper and Angela will need to do a lot of homework if she is to catch up. Meanwhile, I see that Jonathan has retained his connection as group photographer although in future, he will be based at the company’s headquarters in Oakham and his contribution to Bourne life will be missed.

Lack of local knowledge has already manifested itself in a picture story about a long serving employee of T R Carlton, the ironmongers and funeral directors, of Abbey Road (September 6th. Page 13), which was a total mishmash of error and mistaken identities and which will no doubt be the subject of a grovelling apology next week. This would not have happened under Jonathan’s editorship because he knows everyone in town and would soon have spotted this example of slovenly reporting.

The main inside page news story in The Local this week (September 6th) was the continuing vandalism at the Bourne Town Football Club’s ground at the Abbey Lawn where hooligans invaded the pitch last weekend and damaged goal posts and nets while later in the week, there was yet another attempt to set fire to the grandstand. Officials have naturally been outraged and cite the lack of police presence as a major factor but it was misguided of the club to blame Bourne United Charities for refusing to allow them to erect an eight-foot high fence around the premises earlier this year. A culture of blame currently exists in this country and when there is wrongdoing, it has become a habit to lash out at any likely target. Vandals will cause damage if they are minded to whether fences exist or not and in this case the Bourne United Charities have no reason whatsoever to reproach themselves for their decision which was taken with the intention of keeping the Abbey Lawn as it was intended, a public open space uncluttered by enclosures.

Thought for the Week: All our ancient history is no more than accepted fiction. – Voltaire (1694-1778), French writer and philosopher.

Saturday 14^th September 2002

One of the biggest planning blunders in Bourne of modern times was the decision by the local authorities to allow Meadowgate become the entrance and exit road to the car park adjoining the Budgens' supermarket. It was known when this facility opened in 1989 that the daily chase for one of the 170 available parking spaces would create chaos along this road and this has happened in no small measure.

Last Saturday morning, one of the town's busiest shopping times, I had the misfortune to be leaving the car park and driving towards the junction with Harrington Street, a journey that took almost ten minutes because one side of Meadowgate was a continuous line of parked cars on the north side while there were several others parked intermittently on the south side. Gridlock ensued, a seething road rage and white knuckles were evident everywhere as drivers gritted their teeth and gripped their wheels, and multiple collisions were only missed by a coat of paint. It could have been worse, and may well be in the future, because this road is a potential death-trap and it is only because cars are forced to slow down to snail's pace, that a serious accident has been avoided. 

Meadowgate is a narrow road originally intended for the horse and cart and yet those responsible for our highways have turned it into the worst traffic bottleneck and road hazard in Bourne today, a situation to which anyone who has driven down it can attest. Yet the solution is a simple one: turn Meadowgate into a one-way system, entered at the Harrington Road end and exited via Hereward Street at Abbey Road. But what, I wondered, are local authorities doing about it? The answer is exactly the same as when the road began to take this additional traffic thirteen years ago: nothing. The subject is not even on the agenda. Perhaps our local councillors can explain why, especially as one of them lives in this road.

The stagecoach has a long association with Bourne because the town was on the main route between London and the north and so passengers travelling between London, Lincoln, York and even Scotland, passed through. The Angel Hotel was a well known posting house where the horses were stabled and travellers given overnight accommodation and records reveal that more than one baby was born there when lady passengers went into labour during the journey.

The first coach in England was made by Walter Rippon for the Earl of Rutland in 1555 and nine years later he made one for Queen Elizabeth I. This mode of travel soon became popular and was much used as a public conveyance from the 18th century onwards but fares were high because the pace was slow. Passengers at first only travelled inside but outside seats at reduced rates were introduced and soon coaches were running on regular routes throughout the country, the faster, lighter vehicles being known as "flying coaches".

The Lincoln mail coaches, for instance, left the Great North Road at Peterborough, passing through Market Deeping, Baston and Bourne, and the Lincoln Flyer which operated between 1785 and 1871 had dark- blue painted bodywork with a canary yellow top section and the drivers wore long, yellow waistcoats to distinguish them. In 1766, a coach left Bourne weekly to connect with the Stamford Flyer that would take passengers to London, inside at 18s. with 40lbs. of luggage, leaving at 10 o'clock at night and arriving in London the following morning. The Lincoln Flyer had a similar reputation. It left Lincoln at 2 pm and connected at Market Deeping with coaches from Stamford and Spalding with stabling for 100 horses at three local inns. The coach reached Peterborough at 9 pm and continued down the Great North Road to reach the Spread Eagle hostelry in Gracechurch Street, London, at 5 am next morning.

A daily service also passed through Bourne and in 1842, for instance, a mail coach left the Bull Inn [now the Burghley arms] for London at 7.20 pm each evening while one also ran in the opposite direction leaving at 6 am bound for Hull. Another coach called The Tally-ho ran between Lincoln and London and calling at Bourne once daily in each direction. 

In 1743, eight stagecoaches passed through Market Deeping each day and although this was the pick up point on several stagecoach routes, it never had its own service based in the town. The Express called here as it galloped between London and Barton-on-Humber, as did the Royal Mail coach while The Perseverance stopped here on its journeys to and from London and Boston and Jackson's stagecoach went through the town on its daily runs between Boston and Stamford.

The use of stagecoaches for public travel began to decline with the coming of the railways in 1840 although it continued for many years afterwards in some rural districts that the permanent way had not yet reached, and as an amusement for the richer classes. The era of stagecoach travel however is remembered still and despite its obvious discomforts, continues to command a place in our affection through paintings, literature and films, as a symbol of an England long gone.

Those colourful days on the road are now being revived with a series of stagecoach weekends in Lincolnshire and on Sunday, eleven intrepid travellers boarded the refurbished 1832 Gay Gordon outside Grimsthorpe Castle for a round trip through the country roads to discover how things were in times past. The coach once trundled its way up and down the Great North Road between London and Edinburgh, a journey that took ten days and cost £10 first class, sitting inside the 4ft by 3ft wood-panelled cabin with room for six, or £3 10s. second class, sitting on top. It is owned and driven by Caroline Dale-Leech, whose father bought and restored it in the 1930s and now runs on regular trips from her Red House Stables Working Carriage Museum at Darley Dale in Derbyshire. Fully loaded with passengers, it weighs four tons and is pulled by four dappled greys, but demand for places is brisk and most of the passengers turn up in period costume to add to the gaiety of the occasion.

Among them on Sunday were Mrs Brenda Jones, chairman of the Bourne Civic Society, and her husband Jim, who were taking the trip to celebrate their wedding anniversary, both dressed in Victorian costume, Brenda in poke bonnet and shawl and Jim in cloak and stove pipe hat. "It was", said Jim afterwards, "a memorable occasion and it might even be termed the trip of a lifetime."

What the local papers are saying

The shortage of school places in Bourne was highlighted in a front page story by the Stamford Mercury (September 6th), a situation that is being exacerbated by the Elsea Park development to the south of the town where 2,000 new homes are being built and the first have already been sold, together with the Hereward Meadow estate which will provide a further 160. Even with an average nuclear family of 1.64 children, the latest official estimate, this will mean an extra 3,542 youngsters needing classroom space in the coming years and there has been no move whatsoever to build the new primary school agreed by the developers. The Mercury quotes Mark Gray, head teacher of the Abbey Primary School, as saying that parents looking for places are already being turned away and the situation could worsen. He added: "Things have gone quiet as to when the school will be built. It seems common sense to build it before the children arrive."

Planning permission for this massive scheme that will double the size of this town was a controversial issue when it was first proposed and was only agreed in November 1999 after a series of promises by the developers and as memories are short, I took the precaution of itemising them on this web site. Now that the estate is slowly becoming a reality and changing the face of this town, it is worth reminding ourselves what those promises were and they can be found in the Elsea Park pages. They make revealing reading and we should not forget them.

The Lincolnshire Free Press continues to treat Bourne with some disdain as far as its news coverage is concerned and only two or three items from their 64 pages this week (September 10th) were from this town although they did persuade enough local traders to buy space in a full page of advertisements around a picture of the Abbey Church taken from the Wellhead Gardens under the title "The Best of Bourne". Those who participate in these advertising features should seriously consider whether sufficient people who might patronise their businesses buy this newspaper because the editorial currently does not warrant sales any further west of Spalding than Pode Hole.

One of the biggest news stories this week has been a follow up of Guy Cudmore's article on this web site about the visual impact of the new £6 million press hall and bindery planned by the printing firm Warners Midlands plc for their site alongside the Wellhead Gardens in Bourne. The Herald and Post gave it front page treatment (September 12th) while The Local devoted much of Page 3 (September 13th) to a detailed account of the situation and interviews with people living in St Peter's Road who are deeply concerned at the thought of concentrated industrial activity so near to their homes. But the other worry is that the new development will involve the felling of a hedgerow and mature trees that currently hide the printing plant from visitors to the park, particularly horse chestnuts and a weeping willow. There are also two ancient and stately conifers known as Wellingtonia in the vicinity and although the fate of these trees has not been mentioned, they must surely also be in danger, despite their striking appearance and the fact that there are barely half a dozen of them in Bourne, the others mainly in North Road. 

For those who are not acquainted with them, they are a species of the North American sequoia or redwood, the world's biggest tree, introduced into Britain as seeds in 1853 and named after the Duke of Wellington who had died the previous year. They were originally grown to beautify country houses although some public institutions such as St Peter's Hospital also benefited. They are not rare in England but unusual enough to be preserved. The size of these two examples would indicate that they are both probably 100 years old and still growing and so any thought of them being felled cannot even be contemplated. The directors of Warners and our council planners should take due note of this.

We have not heard the last of this and it is to be hoped that our local councillors take due regard of their responsibilities with the powers they have to make sufficient noise to protect our environment, especially in such a sensitive area as that bordering the Wellhead Gardens which, I should remind them, is a scheduled ancient monument. It is also well within the town's Conservation Area, designated under the Town and Country Planning Act of 1971, and therefore our elected representatives and the local authorities themselves have the right, and a duty, under the existing legislation to ensure that it is not despoiled by unsympathetic developments either within or immediately without, and to protect both the inward and outward views from it. They have the powers to save these trees and hedgerow and prevent the area being turned into an eyesore and it is to be hoped that they use them.

For some strange reason, this story was not used by the Stamford Mercury, despite its importance to the town. Instead, their front page (September 13th) was devoted to a remarkable and topical exclusive about one of the New York fire fighters who was called in to help with the Twin Towers disaster of 9/11. Mark Leyland, aged 40, captain of the Arizona Fire Department, was drafted to the scene to use his specialist rescue skills and spent ten days sifting through the rubble searching for survivors 100 feet below Ground Zero. Mark says that he is still haunted by nightmares of the tragedy and has now moved to Meadowgate, Bourne, to be near his parents who live in the town. He is starting a new computer business and writing novels in his spare time but he is also hoping to join the Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service as a retained fire fighter based in Bourne.

Message from abroad: "I can say without the slightest hesitation that to us, your Diary entry for the end of August gave a depressing image of a decaying society further compounded by a couple of complaints in the Forum. The photograph of the vandalised public telephone kiosk, the patient who was expected to wait nine days to see a doctor, the indifferent attitude of the police hierarchy and the littered streets, seemed more in keeping with the traditional picture of a New York slum district than rural England. Who could have dreamed that in the year 2002, New York would be reaching towards zero tolerance while a part of Lincolnshire was fast becoming not the new Jerusalem but the new Bronx. - Dennis and Doreen Blue, Balaklava, South Australia.

Thought for the Week: "To jaw-jaw is better than to war-war" - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman, writer, and twice Prime Minister, during a speech in Washington on 26th June 1954.

Saturday 21^st September 2002

The Indian state of Kerala is hoping to twin one of its communities with Bourne. Officials have been impressed with the success of the concept of town twinning which began in Europe a century ago and now wish to take advantage of the benefits it offers through friendship and fellowship by forging links between their various towns and villages and similar places in other parts of the world.

Kerala is a green strip of land tucked away in the south west corner of the Indian peninsular and bordering the Arabian Sea, a land of splendour and scenic beauty, lined by coconut trees and sandy beaches. It has a population of 29,000,000 and is rich in plantations producing rubber, tea and pepper and has a higher proportion of literacy than any of the other Indian states. The country covers 15,005 square miles, Malayalam is the official language although English and Hindi are also widely spoken, the religions are Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, and the climate is tropical. Tourism is also developing fast as visitors flock to see the mist clad hill stations, lush forests, exotic wildlife, trekking trails, scintillating waterfalls, tropical islands, historic monuments and sacred pilgrim centres, festivals, spectacular boat races, tropical islands, invigorating monsoons and a spicy cuisine. Little wonder that Kerala enjoys a reputation as "God's own country".

The capital is Thiruvananthapurum from where I have received a letter, forwarded by email, from the officially appointed agency investigating the possibility of town twinning arrangements for Kerala. Jayasree Paul, the chief co-ordinator, tells me that many places in Kerala have a rich cultural heritage and historical importance and added: "Town twinning is a major item on our agenda. We are preparing a list of possible twins for all of our municipalities and corporations. This is a tumultuous period of social, ethnic and economic strife and the world is looking for various ways to foster international peace, friendship and fellowship. Greater co-operation with the inhabitants of foreign countries is one way to promote these objectives, leading to the affirmation of brotherhood and sisterhood all over the world.

"The formation of twinning links leads to better cooperation and exchange between the regions of the world, making them aware of the fact the similarities uniting them are much stronger than the differences dividing them. We are therefore trying to find a twin for every municipality and corporation in Kerala and invite you to participate."

Bourne is already twinned with Doudeville, a small town about 30 miles inland from Dieppe in Normandy, France, a most successful arrangement that was officially initiated in October 1989, and it is doubtful if Bourne could sustain another such friendship link, especially with somewhere 5,000 miles away. However, that is not my decision and so I have passed this correspondence to Councillor John Kirkman, who is my representative on the town council, for him to put the matter before his colleagues. In the meantime, if you want to find out more about Kerala, then log on to the state's main web site at 

www.kerala.com

A decision by Bourne Town Council to shelve proposals that would turn Dyke and Cawthorpe into a conservation area is not only a backward step for our heritage, but it is also misguided. The council has decided to take no further action after testing public opinion when only 22% of the households questioned responded in favour of the scheme. Survey forms were delivered to 123 homes in the two villages but only 47 were returned, 28 of them in favour, 16 against and three undecided.

The conservation campaign was designed to protect the character of the two villages which contain thirteen listed buildings, eight in Dyke and five in Cawthorpe, while traces of ridges and fallows of strip farming dating back to mediaeval times can still be seen in the vicinity. However, those not in favour indicated that they could not see anything particularly worthy of preservation and others even felt that the survey was a waste of public money. 

Local councillor Don Fisher, who represents Dyke on the town council and has vigorously supported the campaign for conservation, was obviously disappointed. "Residents told me they wanted conservation status which is why I fought so strongly to get it", he said. But Councillor John Kirkman was more pragmatic. He said: "If villagers wanted the status, they would have inundated us but the reply was not big enough. Instead we got pure apathy."

This raises the question that is forever hanging over the democratic process: what should the people be allowed to decide? The referendum is never used by government, at whichever level, unless the answer is already known and therefore within their policy. The apathy of which Councillor Kirkman spoke was inevitable because people do not wish to be bothered by forms and questionnaires. Furthermore, the opinions of the people of Dyke and Cawthorpe are totally irrelevant as to whether these historic places should be conserved because others moving here in future years may have very different opinions. We should also remember that no one asked the people of Bourne when a similar status was granted to the town centre area in 1977 and the decision was left to experts in this field. Similarly, there was no referendum in Bourne when the Elsea Park development was first mooted in March 1999. Either we have referendums for all major changes to our environment or we have none. 

Test public opinion by all means but that does not give the town council the authority to take a negative decision merely because there has been a lukewarm public reception. National governments would not have a mandate on such a premise because turnout at general elections is usually so low, particularly in recent years. We elect our councillors to take the best decisions on our behalf and this issue was such an obvious one. 

The town council's course of action is quite clear in that both villages should be embraced within the conservation area and therefore protected from unwanted residential development. But by dropping the issue from their agenda, the council has given the green light for every unsuitable housing project on available sites that comes along and it will not be in the too far distant future before the expanding Bourne conurbation envelops both villages and while our heritage will suffer, those who own the land will profit mightily.

What the local papers are saying

There is a belief in journalism that sport sells newspapers and so great effort is devoted to the subject yet by tradition, it always appears in the back pages. This makes presentation difficult because buyers usually look at the front page first and so additional effort is required to catch the attention of the reader. The inside back pages of The Local were filled with football last week (Pages 22 & 23, September 13th) but were especially good, neatly laid out and easy to read, and reflect great credit on this small newspaper's editorial design team, especially the page which dealt with a local league cup match at the Abbey Lawn between Bourne Town and Deeping Rangers (Bourne beat them 1-0). Most provincial newspapers cram their sports pages with as much information as their reporters and correspondents send in and this can be dull reading unless sufficient attention is paid to the layout but here, The Local is most certainly showing the way how it should be done.

Sainsburys are planning to expand their Exeter Street supermarket which was given a jazz band opening back in August 1999. The store was built on a site previously occupied by Nursery Supplies (Bourne) Ltd that had moved to a new out of town location, covering 15,000 sq feet and providing 150 new and part time jobs, with an adjoining car park for 170 cars, But the Lincolnshire Free Press reports (September 17th) that the company wants to increase facilities and staffing to keep pace with an expanding population. The management recognises the fact that new houses are going up in Bourne and naturally they want to attract those people moving in as new customers. This is the old Boy Scout policy of being prepared and one that I commend to our local authorities. 

The increasing popularity of Bourne's Heritage Centre, which is housed at the early 19th century Baldock's Mill in South Street, was reported by the Herald and Post in a front page picture story about the guided walks around the town that are regularly organised by the Civic Society (September 19th) as part of their policy of stimulating interest in our history. Autumn looks like being equally busy with many people wanting to visit but there is always room if you wish to pop in at weekends and take a look round.

A community initiative to win more support for the police was launched yesterday by the Stamford Mercury (September 20th), a commendable campaign at a time when public perception of their role in society is not especially high. The newspaper is concerned that the efficiency of the Lincolnshire police force which serves Bourne will suffer as a result of new government proposals to shift priorities from rural to metropolitan areas, a scheme which could rob the force of more than £4.5 million in funding and might mean the axe for 130 police officers or a 40% increase in council tax or a combination of both.

The Mercury points out in a front page article under the heading "Backing our Bobbies" that policing in Lincolnshire already faces significant problems because of its rural location, the increase in tourism and a particularly long coastline. An excellent inside spread over two pages gives a detailed account of the current policing situation together with funding and staffing, and a form to the Home Secretary David Blunkett which readers are asked to sign in support of their campaign for a better deal. This coverage, a combination of reporting, editorial comment and reader participation, is the very stuff of local newspapers and the Mercury is to be commended for its enterprise.

The town cemetery at Bourne is among the best in Britain . . . and that's official. The Local devoted its front page headlines this week (September 20th) to the Cemetery of the Year Awards for 2002 which was won by Bourne when the ceremony was held at Scarborough earlier in the week. This is a particular success for supervisor Peter Ellis and his staff who are painstaking in their work to keep this green space in tiptop condition and to ensure that it is always an attractive place for visitors to tend graves or just to sit and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of this quiet corner of the town. The competition was sponsored by the Confederation of Burial Authorities and Bourne was placed first in the category for 12 acres and under and the two engraved and gilt-lettered plaques will take pride of place at the main entrance to the grounds in South Street. The cemetery was opened in June 1855 and extended in 1904 and again in 1999 and now covers eight acres and contains the remains of more than 5,000 people, some of whom made their mark in life, both locally and internationally. I have written an illustrated history of the cemetery that is currently available on my CD-ROM A Portrait of Bourne and an order form may be accessed from the front page of this web site.

The shortage of school places in Bourne currently being aggravated by the Elsea Park housing development, an issue highlighted by this web site last week, has drawn an immediate response from the developers, Allison Homes. Both The Local and the Stamford Mercury reported (September 20th) an announcement by the company that work will begin on a new primary school for five to 11-year-olds when the 300th home is occupied, although they are unable to predict exactly when that will be.

Anyone with experience of local planning matters can tell them that if this is their serious intention, then the very time scale involved would suggest that they begin to formulate their proposals now because the gestation period for a new school will be at least two to three years by which time they will have sold many more homes, occupied by many more children, seeking many more places at our existing schools. Far from being a solution, it will merely add to the current problem because by the time a new school is fully operational, the number of houses built and occupied at Elsea Park will most probably have passed the 1,000 mark.

Messages from abroad: "We have just moved from the countryside into town and are getting used to the noise. Two acres which we used to have keeps you from hearing the neighbours for sure. But it was lovely to wake up in the morning to find deer in your back garden or mallard coming from the farmer's pond behind us. One autumn we had bears in our garden, around two hundred of them. That part of the district has open fields with hundreds of wild apple trees which bears love to fatten them up for the long winter when they head back to the mountains to sleep it off. They are not dangerous, but if they have cubs with them they can be pretty ferocious if you get between them and the babies." - Ethel Guertin, Aylmer, Quebec, Canada.

Thought for the Week: Number crunching: 7 - number of days before Parliament recalled to pay tribute to Queen Mother. 92 - number of days before Parliament recalled to discuss war on Iraq. - Private Eye, 20th September 2002.

Saturday 28^th September 2002

The long-awaited household waste recycling centre for Bourne has finally become a reality. After many stops and starts, it is to open this weekend on the Pinfold Road Industrial Estate where it will operate seven days a week from 8 am to 4 pm, taking most of the rubbish generated from the normal family home such as garden waste, wood, paper, magazines, cardboard, car batteries, engine oil, white metal goods (that means old fridges and cookers), textiles, glass bottles and jars, and plastic from electrical equipment.

This is a most welcome and much needed innovation for our town but its introduction is not one which our councillors can be proud of because it should have been operating long before now and I will remind them of the history of our need and the heel-dragging process of which they have been part. There is a perception in Bourne that this problem is only a year or so old but I can tell them that it goes back much further than that.

Excess household waste was already becoming a problem more than a quarter of a century ago and on 22nd May 1976, South Kesteven District Council agreed to site a skip in the council depot at Lound, two miles south west of the town, for Saturday morning collections between 9 a m and noon. The facility was requested by Bourne Town Council because of the increasing amount of rubbish being generated in the town and the district council promised: "If enough people use it, we will provide one at regular intervals."

This proved to be the case and the following December, the location was moved to the old cattle market site near the town centre, now the Budgens' supermarket car park, with a fortnightly collection but this proved to be unpopular. In September 1986, town councillors were busy discussing this issue after receiving complaints that a health hazard was being caused because some people were dumping waste before the lorries had arrived, and where have we heard that before? Even then, the solution was quite clear because one member, Councillor Norman Thwaites, had the vision to suggest that a skip should be sited there permanently. "The rubbish would then be in a proper container in readiness for collection", he said. 

This idea was unwittingly an embryonic scheme for the waste recycling centre that is now coming to fruition but 26 years does seem rather a long time to wait for such a much needed facility. Since those days, we have had an unending cycle of freighters driving in every Saturday morning to various vantage points from where they could collect our surplus waste, including a school playground and a supermarket car park, a costly and time-consuming exercise that a permanent site open daily would have solved long ago, especially as the amount of rubbish being disposed of soon became the highest of any other similar site in the county.

Everyone knew the solution but no one in authority had the will to carry it through and so we suffered the indignity of carting our rubbish to these mobile skips every Saturday morning when we were forced to stand in line like naughty schoolchildren before we could dispose of our garbage. While this was going on, those we elected to solve these problems seemed to bury their heads in the sand, waiting, like Mr Micawber, for something to turn up. Why is it that every time Bourne has a real need, our elected representatives wring their hands and blame everyone but themselves, even the very councils on which they serve? We must therefore ask who runs our local government: is it the councillors or the salaried officials, or does a combination of both create a massive bureaucratic machine of indecision in which neither side is willing to make a ruling? Whatever the answer, it is we the public who suffer in the long run.

All of this will no doubt soon be forgotten as we take advantage of the new facility finally being initiated by Lincolnshire County Council and we are pleased that it has arrived. But I do hope that councillors will not have the audacity to hold an official opening. Twenty-six years to provide an amenity waste disposal site which can be found in most towns in the civilised world is not a record for which they should be proud and although councillors are always ready with their smart suits and chains of office to parade before the cameras whenever the occasion presents itself, I can assure them that this is not one of them.

Farm fires are a devastating occurrence for the owners, as was demonstrated by the outbreak at Morton Fen, near Bourne, last week. Over 1,000 tonnes of baled straw were alight, sending burning embers hundreds of feet into the air and wafting them on the wind over a wide area, some landing in my garden three miles away. Twenty firemen from four stations were called in to bring the blaze under control and beaters were used to prevent it from spreading to nearby stubble fields but the fire burned for three days and the cost of the damage has been estimated at £20,000. Police investigating the outbreak are working on the theory that children were to blame because a group of youngsters had been seen playing there earlier in the day.

While searching the newspaper archives a few days ago, I came across this report from the Stamford Mercury of Friday 23rd August 1850 which is reminiscent of the latest conflagration and a reminder that fire raisers have always been with us:

The inhabitants of Bourn were disturbed on Saturday night last by an application for the fire engine and brigade, a fire having been discovered on the premises of Mr Thomas Lawrance of Hacconby. A large straw-stack was discovered to be in flames about 11 o'clock and soon ignited a beautiful stack of seeds standing near; nearly the whole of both stacks were consumed. Although a reward of 50 guineas [£3,300 by today's values] is offered for the discovery of "the incendiary", there is a latent hope that it arose from accident. We hardly feel at liberty to go into detail pending the inquiry which is being instituted, and must this week content ourselves with observing that, if it be the act of an incendiary, suspicion points her finger only in one direction. The efforts of Mr Lawrance's neighbours and friends were most exemplary, and saved from destruction a barn, a hay-stack and a wheat-hovel (the latter having been carried out only that day). Mr Lawrance was insured in the Phoenix fire-office.

Our CD-ROM, produced in conjunction with this web site, has received a remarkable accolade from Councillor Terl Bryant, a former Mayor of Stamford, and chairman of South Kesteven District Council. He was searching the Internet for information about Bourne's local hero, Charles Sharpe, who won the Victoria Cross during an Allied assault on Fromelles in France in 1915, and emailed me for help. I sent him a copy of A Portrait of Bourne, which includes a profile and photographs of Sharpe's illustrious military career, and his problem was solved.

Councillor Bryant has replied with a fulsome tribute to the CD-ROM for which we are grateful: "The resource that you have made available through this CD-ROM is invaluable now and in future years as a snapshot of the times will become an equivalent to the Domesday Book of Bourne. Every man should, in passing, leave his mark on this earth. Most are unaware that they have done so. Your mark is already there, burning bright as an example of what an interest in journalism, photography, history and technology, can produce."

The CD-ROM is now into its third edition and you may access an order form from the front page of this web site.

What the local papers are saying

The Willoughby School at Bourne has received an excellent report by OFSTED, the Office for Standards in Education, which was given extensive coverage by the Lincolnshire Free Press (September 24th). The school has 71 pupils aged from two to 19 with a variety of special educational needs ranging from emotional and behavioural problems to speech and language difficulties. Inspectors visited the school earlier this year and their report makes excellent reading: "The school is very effective and some aspects of its work are excellent. Good teaching, a very good curriculum and thorough assessment enable pupils to make good progress academically and very good progress in their personal development". If you wish to know more about the school, you will find an item about its aims and objects in our Schools in Bourne section on this web site.

The valuable community work based at the Butterfield Hospital comes under the spotlight this week in an article carried by the Herald and Post (September 25th) which reports an appeal to raise £26,000 to replace an ageing minibus currently being used for the vital role of transporting the elderly. The hospital was closed to medical services in 1983 but the building was re-opened as a day care centre in 1985 after a public campaign and now fulfils a useful role among our senior citizens, providing meals and snacks, hairdressing, bathing, chiropody and a library as well as outings and games. The ability to transport them to and from their homes is an essential function and a public auction is being held on October 26th to boost the appeal and so if you have anything unusual or interesting that might fetch a few pounds, please drop it in at the Butterfield when you are passing or give them a call and they will collect.

The fragility of our town centre road system came into sharp perspective again on Tuesday afternoon when traffic came to a standstill to make way for two massive lorries carrying abnormal loads. The ensuing chaos was photographed by The Local (September 27th) and given front page treatment while an inside page report told us that they were carrying pumps from a Leeds factory bound for Mozambique through Tilbury docks and were over 17 ft. high (5.7 metres). Last June, South Street was closed for several weeks after a large lorry partly demolished a Grade II listed cottage and it therefore takes very little imagination to realise that as transporters become larger, our old buildings and streets originally intended for the horse and cart will become even more vulnerable and those responsible for their movement should direct them along roads more suited to take such traffic. It was therefore astonishing to discover that the vehicles involved in the latest incident were travelling on a pre-determined route provided by the highways department at Lincolnshire County Council and sightseers could be forgiven for thinking that in view of the tight squeeze that ensued between North Street and West Street, this was a ridiculous way to send them. I would have thought that this story could have been expanded by The Local to one of wider public interest if the reporter had put these very pertinent points to the appropriate officers at the county council headquarters in Lincoln because their answers would be of great interest to the whole of Bourne rather than accepting the situation as just another of those inconveniences thrust upon us from on high.

Council allotment holders in Bourne are battling against an invasion of rabbits that have been wreaking havoc with their vegetables and flowers. The front page story by the Stamford Mercury (September 27th) featured photographs of both, the bunnies and the gardeners, together with a third photograph of a possible solution: a ferret. A local breeder has three of them which are likely to be recruited to clear the pests from the allotments during regular visits if the town council agrees. One cannot help feeling sorry for the allotment holders who have been losing their sweet corn and carrots, not to mention their dahlias and chrysanthemums, and this was an entertaining tale although I fail to see it of sufficient importance to warrant the entire front page that should be reserved for more serious matters.

Thought for the Week: Where are the meadows and hedgerows? Grubbed out and ploughed in. Where are the songbirds and the butterflies? Poisoned with pesticide. Where are the fish in the rivers? Polluted by slurry. Where are the deer and foxes? Hunted for pleasure. Thank you, Countryside Alliance, you have cared for the countryside well. - C D, Rothwell, Northants, in a letter to the ITV Teletext feature "Write On", Tuesday 24th September 2002.

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