Saturday 2nd November 2002
Bonfire Night is almost upon us and so it is
worthwhile pondering for a moment why we celebrate this unusual event
because it is a fair bet that the majority of those who will be letting
off their squibs, Catherine wheels and Roman candles, have little or no
idea how the tradition began.
This annual firework display followed by the burning of an effigy of Guy
Fawkes commemorates an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in
London 400 years ago. The plotters involved in the conspiracy were Roman
Catholics who felt that the Protestant King James I and his government
were being increasingly and unacceptably oppressive to other religions and
so they decided to get rid of him and his ministers in one devastating
explosion.
The instigator was Robert Catesby who enlisted help from Guy Fawkes, a
native of York and a zealous Catholic convert who also knew how to handle
explosives. He filled 30 barrels with gunpowder which he concealed below
piles of coal and wood in a cellar below the Houses of Parliament but the
plot was discovered before it could be carried out and the conspirators
executed in January 1606 before a large crowd.
There is some folklore in Bourne that the Gunpowder Plot, as it came to be
known, was hatched at the Red Hall
but that is not the case. The hall was not built until 1605, the year the
dastardly plan was discovered and the perpetrators sentenced. Sir Everard
Digby, who was one of the main conspirators, never lived there as has been
assumed since, but at Stoke Dry, near Uppingham, Rutland, and was one of
the great landowners in the East Midlands. The Digby family who eventually
owned the hall did not arrive until a century later and were not related.
This story has persisted until modern times and I have recently been
stopped in the street while taking photographs by a long-time Bourne
resident who insisted that it was true because it had been told to him by
his mother who in turn had been taught it at school. The origins emanated
from early historians and country directories which repeated it without
any documentary evidence, mainly through the mistaken belief that Sir
Everard Digby had been born here in 1578, which was repeated by J J Davies
in his book Historic Bourne, published in 1909, even though the
house had not then been built. Indeed, the belief has taken such a hold in
Bourne, as with the deering-do of Hereward the Wake, that it still appears
in official guides today because the authors take little or no trouble to
research their work and merely copy from old accounts.
Nevertheless, Bonfire Night has always been celebrated with great
enthusiasm in Bourne and there were times in years past, particularly
during the 19th century, when extra police were drafted in because of
possible trouble. Riotous behaviour and vandalism became an annual event
on every Fifth of November and special sittings of the magistrates were
held the next morning to deal with offenders. The worst riot of this kind
was in 1877 when 40 men and youths were arraigned on charges relating to
disturbances in Bourne and the surrounding villages, their main enjoyment
being the rolling of lighted tar barrels down the street, a popular
although illegal method of celebration at that time, and of starting
bonfires on the highway. Other offences included assaulting the police,
firing guns, discharging fireworks in a public place and causing a general
commotion to the annoyance of the public. (See Diary
for 29th June 2002).
Disturbances have been less violent in recent years and there is now a
continuing public debate over the sale of fireworks and their
indiscriminate use, especially in the run up to November 5th when the
night sky is regularly illuminated by rockets while the use of bangers and
other explosives in residential areas frightens old people and dogs. The
current situation is that most people deplore their universal sale and use
because of the dangers involved but would accept some form of regulation
that would prohibit all firework events except those which are organised
and supervised and this would seem to be the perfect solution.
The clamour for similar restrictions was prevalent during the 19th century
and in the years since but little has changed and so we will continue with
things as they are despite the fact that during October and November last
year, 1,362 people were admitted to hospital with injuries resulting from
fireworks, the highest number of the past five years. If this were a
national celebration, such as the Golden Jubilee which was observed last
summer, then fireworks would have a part to play, but as the majority have
no knowledge or regard for what happened in 1605, then the time has surely
come to lay this so-called celebration to rest.
What the local papers are saying
A most depressing picture of a once grand row of
terraced houses in North Street was painted by the Stamford Mercury
(October 25th) under the headline "Derelict houses an eyesore".
This is indeed a sad tale of neglect for we are told that the boarded up
properties have become a drinking den by teenagers, overgrown with weeds,
a dumping ground for rubbish and are now attracting rats. These historic
houses are on a prime site in the main street of Bourne, which is also the
A15 trunk road between Lincoln and Peterborough, and therefore seen by
everyone driving through who will form an impression of this town from
what they see.
The terrace of four cottages was built circa 1880 by the Marquess of
Exeter, Lord of the Manor of Bourne, as homes for artisans and they were
in continual occupation until bought for redevelopment in 2000. They are
marked on maps of the town in 1891 when they were known simply as The
Terrace but were then part of a longer row that extended further
northwards along the roadside although the others were demolished in 1974
to make way for the town bus station and access to St Gilbert's Road.
These houses are solidly built of red brick and a roof of blue slate in
the urban Victorian style of the late 19th century with the distinctive
bay windows of the period, chimney stacks and stone lintels over doors and
windows still intact, together with a contemporary brick wall that serves
as a frontage to the pavement.
There was a public outcry last year when the new owners, the Lindum
Construction Group, announced plans to pull them down and fill the site
with 20 two and three storey town houses and a concerted protest campaign
prompted Bourne Town Council to seek approval from the Department of
Culture, Media and Sport to include the terrace in the Conservation Area
but before this was determined, the developers had a change of heart and
gave assurances that it would be retained and sympathetically restored as
part of their overall housing scheme. A few weeks afterwards, the
department ruled that although the terrace was of local interest, it was
not of a high enough architectural quality to warrant listing but by then,
the houses had been reprieved. But in view of their continuing
deteriorating state, it was feared that they may be lost after all because
now that the government has refused to protect them, there is no
requirement on the part of the developers to proceed and as new homes are
more economically beneficial to speculators than restoring the old, we
could well wake up one morning to find that they have been bulldozed out
of existence.
The Mercury quoted opinions from town councillors who thought the
subject serious enough to discuss at a recent committee meeting when
growing concern was expressed at the detrimental effect this neglect is
having on the street scene but the newspaper omitted to seek a reaction
from the right quarter, namely the Lindum Construction Group. However, the
company is quoted by both The Local and the Stamford Mercury
this week (November 1st) giving assurances that the houses are safe but
explaining that there have been delays in starting the refurbishment
because of planning amendments and that restoration work will begin later
this month. I have seen the plans they propose for the development of
these old houses, reinstating them to their original Victorian splendour,
and they look very good indeed. This is therefore welcome news for all who
treasure our old buildings and are reluctant to see them disappear from
the street scene.
For those who are not familiar with these houses and the history attached
to them, I have added an item to the web site today entitled the North
Street terrace.
The cost of dying is likely to be going up drastically in Bourne if
proposals by the town council's amenities committee are implemented. An
excellent comprehensive report by The Local gives a complete run
down of the revised charges for the town cemetery (November 1st) which
they plan to introduce from next April, some of the rates increasing by as
much as 150%. The new charges were drawn up by a cemetery working party
whose members felt they were justified after studying the increasing cost
of maintenance and the charges set by neighbouring towns although how they
run their affairs has nothing whatsoever to do with us.
The general opinion of committee members appeared to be that charges
should be increased to offset losses that are being made but this is
misunderstanding of its role because the cemetery is a public service and
not a business that depends on profit. We pay our council tax to meet the
costs and to ask the public to cough up even more in burial charges, like
the proverbial milch cow, is totally misguided. The cost of interment, for
instance, would rise steeply from £150 to £250 while other charges would
be equally iniquitous and wildly above the government's inflation rate
that is currently running at just over 2%.
If the town council proceeds with these new and exorbitant charges, then
it will be one of their most unpopular decision in recent years, coming as
it does in the run up to Christmas when the town will be illuminated by
lights which they bought last year for £40,000, money which they did not
have but borrowed from South Kesteven District Council over five years at
an interest rate of 5.5%. To put this in perspective, we should remember
that the town council's entire annual budget is barely £100,000 and here
they are borrowing almost half of that for a few Christmas gewgaws at a
rate of interest that is costing them £2,200 in the first year alone
apart from repayments on the capital sum.
Increased burial charges will hit relatives at their most vulnerable time
and before our town councillors vote on the issue when it comes before the
full council at its meeting on November 19th, I suggest that each one asks
themselves which is more important to this town: luxuries such as
Christmas lights or a burial that the people can afford?
What the local papers are not saying
One of the failings of young reporters today is
that they rarely read their own newspapers because therein often lies a
story that they missed. An example of what I mean appeared in the Lincolnshire
Free Press (October 22nd) with a For Sale notice in the property pages
that cried out for editorial coverage and yet no one spotted it. The
notice related to an unidentified six-acre warehouse depot complex in
South Lincolnshire that has come on the market for £1,450,000, one of the
biggest asking prices for a commercial development in the Bourne area in
recent years and yet the sale was not covered by any of our local
newspapers, not even the one which carried the original advertisement. The
premises at the corner of Meadow Drove and the Spalding Road are the
former distribution centre of Nursery Supplies Ltd, the company that moved
there from Exeter Street in January 1999, providing 150 new and part time
jobs.
This was a major project when it opened, big enough to attract royalty
because the Duchess of Gloucester was the guest of honour at the official
opening on Tuesday 27th April 1999 when the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor
Don Fisher said: "It was a brilliant afternoon, an historic occasion
for Nursery Supplies and for the town." His enthusiasm was echoed by
company director Adam Moody who said: "This marks the culmination of
our relocation process which means that we are now able to expand into the
next century in our new premises." But it was not to be. The business
foundered and closed in 2001, one of the town's biggest commercial
failures in recent times, and I would have thought that the sale of their
new and modern premises so soon after these grand and optimistic
beginnings would have been worthy of some coverage by at least one of our
local newspapers although it is not yet too late for them to catch up.
Thought for the Week: I just cannot understand why [Prime Minister
Tony] Blair is planning to send our troops to fight another war that is
not of our making at a cost of millions of pounds when the country cannot
even maintain electricity supplies to his own people every time there is a
high wind. - overheard in the pub, Tuesday 29th October 2002.
Saturday 9th November 2002
It is difficult to imagine the high regard with which we held the National Health Service in its early days, before it disintegrated into the chaos that we see today, when we had the benefit of a perfectly good system that served the populace for several decades before being ruined by self-interest. The seeds of failure, however, had already been sown because the Socialist politician Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960), architect of the NHS which came into operation in 1948 to give us free care from cradle to grave, is on record as saying that the only way he was able to win the co-operation of the consultants for this radical change in treating the sick, allowing them to work for the health service and keep their highly paid private practices, was because: "I stuffed their mouths with gold".
His words came back to me with the recent decision by consultants not to accept a pay rise and this curious reaction is explained by the conditions attached that require them to work evenings and weekends when needed. This is unacceptable to the consultants because doing the job for which they were trained with public money, with salaries from the same source, would take up the time they devote to private practice and anyone who has ever had a private appointment with a consultant will know that it is arranged in the evening or at weekends for a large fee.
In any other professions, when there is additional work to be done, then those involved will put in longer hours even if it means giving up their leisure time. This is a perfectly reasonable procedure and were it applied to consultants, then hospital waiting lists would soon become a thing of the past.
If it were also extended to family doctors, patients would not need to wait seven to ten days for an appointment which has been the subject of many complaints in the Bourne Forum. Instead, family doctors work on weekdays only and then pack up and go home, leaving emergencies to inexperienced locums and Well Doctor telephone lines. A stricter work regime embracing evenings and weekends would soon reduce the backlog of people waiting and ensure a much healthier population. They owe it to us and to the system which gave them their jobs to do this.
It could be done if they were prepared to observe such humanitarian considerations but years of clock watching and indexing of salaries
appear to have robbed the medical profession of any such ideals and our perception is that they only wish to heal the sick between nine and five on weekdays when it is well known that illness invariably strikes outside those hours. Doctoring, as my mother used to call it, is no longer a vocation but a job and our general practitioners have become little more than ciphers, taking the line of least resistance, with the pen poised over the prescription pad when the patient enters, ready to send them away with yet another often unnecessary medication, even a placebo, that will swell the coffers of the pharmaceutical companies and perhaps even their own practice because we suspect that they get a commission on the drugs they prescribe as they do for the patients they are so willing to send for private treatment.
Doctors should be doing the job for which they were trained at public expense, regardless of the hours involved, and that is to treat illness and incapacity whatever the hour. The NHS will decline even further while those who work for it call the tune and those who manage it continue to put profit before pain. Tending the sick is not a business. It is a vocation and those who do not accept this are defrauding the system.
Few people today remember the way it was and as the years go by, more accept the current situation as normal. It is not. Conditions were vastly different and here in Bourne, we might remember that the community medical care carried out at the Butterfield Hospital was recognised in 1973 when the assistant matron, Sister Grace Ann Bristow, aged 62, was awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours List. She had joined the Butterfield in 1953 and remained there for 20 years and eventually retired to live at Dyke.
A tribute to her work and warm praise for her award came from one of the hospital's trustees, general practitioner Dr John Galletly and his description of the health service then available sounds quite remote
today:
No one has done more towards making this hospital a model of its kind where without fuss, compassion and efficiency go hand in hand. She has built this hospital so firmly into the affections of the Bourne community and its encircling villages that when the regional hospital board thought evilly of closing it down, a wave of anger swept through the district. Few in the remote regions of control realise the work done by Sister Bristow and her team. There are some 300 casualties a month, the 13 beds are nearly always full with sometimes a stretcher on the floor. There are busy clinics held at the Butterfield where consultants from the big district hospitals come to see the patients of local doctors. A bad road accident, someone in pain or distress, the sister is there, efficient, calm and kind. No one has deserved the MBE more than Sister Bristow and we are all very proud of her.
Ironically, the Butterfield closed 10 years later. Bourne Hospital was shut in 1998 and all hospital patients now go to either Stamford or Peterborough while the National Health Service continues on its downward path although those medically qualified personnel who work for it keep office hours but remain the best paid in the land.
A contributor to the Bourne Forum claimed this week that the Angel Hotel was being victimised because it has been taken to task by South Kesteven District Council over the new colour scheme on the façade of the building in the town centre. The frontage has been black and white for as long as anyone can remember but during the winter of 2001, it was repainted green and cream without the permission needed for the Grade II listed building and the authority has ordered the owners to suggest an acceptable alternative colour or restore the original, otherwise they will face legal action, most probably an enforcement order.
It is quite incorrect to say that the hotel management are being victimised. They were perfectly aware when they bought the property of its heritage status and that its appearance must not be changed without prior permission and yet they have deliberately painted it green and cream and in doing so, breached the conditions laid down for the maintenance of a listed property within the conservation area. Yet the new colours were applied by the owners with full knowledge of the consequences and South Kesteven District Council has a duty under its existing powers to enforce the rules, through the courts if necessary, and if they do not then they are liable to answer to Whitehall for their inactivity over this matter.
Victimisation is a word often bandied about whenever we see decision making with which we do not agree. The speeding motorists along North Street, who have also been given much space in the Bourne Forum during recent weeks, will undoubtedly claim to be victimised if they are identified by a radar trap when in fact they are breaking the law and have been caught in the act. This is not victimisation but law enforcement and, as with the totally unsuitable colours now being displayed by the Angel Hotel, if you do not like the law because you think it is a bad one, then try to change it rather than flout it. We need an ordered society to survive in a civilised fashion and the alternative is the road to anarchy. In the meantime, please stop shouting victimisation every time someone is found out.
The town cemetery in South Road was opened in 1855 and so the headstones date from that time. Most of the memorials are made of stone but wind and weather have taken their toll on the older ones and many have become unreadable as a result. A photograph from 1900 shows their pristine condition when none of them were then more than 50 years old and so today, we are able to compare what they were like when first erected.
Another example has now been uncovered by cemetery supervisor Peter Ellis after a recent burial in the older part of the cemetery. A headstone on an adjoining plot had toppled many years before and was lying on its face and this detracted from the appearance of the new grave and so relatives asked if it could be restored to give the spot a more respectable appearance. It was a hard task because these old stone memorials are extremely heavy but Peter and his staff managed to lift it and place it back in its original position but they made a startling discovery when the front was revealed because it looked as good as new.
The memorial had been made in 1889 by Atton and Sons, stonemasons of Station Street, Spalding, for a local man who had died that year. However, there may have been a fault in the stone because in the subsequent years, it cracked near the base and toppled over, leaving the engraved side face down on the earth. This probably occurred fifty years ago, perhaps even longer, because the back of the memorial that has been exposed to the elements, is now eroded and covered with lichen but the front when lifted was as sharp and as clear as the day it had been carved.
The inscription reads: "In affectionate remembrance of Eliza, the beloved wife of John Collins, who fell asleep December 23rd 1889 in her 52nd year. Peace perfect peace. Also of John Collins, husband of the above, who passed away January 6th 1908 in his 75th year. At rest."
Imagine what it would be like for social historians and descendants researching their family trees if they were able to read every tombstone with such clarity! Stone is now rarely used for memorials and black marble has become the favoured material because it does seem to be more durable. They look good and are easy to read and it is to be hoped that they will survive the years much better than their stone predecessors.
What the local papers are saying
The out of town move by Bourne Town Football Club from the Abbey Lawn where they have played since 1885 is now approaching reality and the
Stamford Mercury tells us (November 8th) that they have submitted a planning application for their new ground on 5½ acres of agricultural land in Meadow Drove which has been made available by lifelong supporter Len Pick, a retired farmer and businessman. The club had hoped to stay at the Abbey Lawn but only if they could fence off their existing ground, a request refused by the Bourne United Charities who own it because it would have split this public open space in two and ruined its appearance. The new ground is a natural progression for the club and although there is still a long way to go, officials envisage a clubhouse with room for 150 people and a stadium with seating and standing room but most importantly, the new ground will give them control over spectators at all matches.
It would be unthinkable if our Town Hall were to close and this column has repeatedly warned that we must be ever vigilant for those who are prepared to do away with our ancient buildings. This is one of the best we have, built in 1821 by the architect Bryan Browning, with a distinctive exterior staircase, recessed twin flights of steps within the front of the building and Doric columns after the fashion of the Roman baths, a façade that has dominated the town centre for almost two centuries. But
The Local reports (November 8th) that it is in danger of being shut down because access for the disabled does not meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995.
The Town Hall is actually owned by Lincolnshire County Council, although I cannot imagine why this should be because it was built entirely by public subscription and is therefore
the property of the town. It is leased to South Kesteven District Council who in turn lease it for a peppercorn rent for use as a magistrates' court, town council chamber and council offices.
The subject of wheelchair access came before a meeting of the town council's finance and general purposes committee on Tuesday when various ways of solving the problem were
put forward and it is difficult to believe that all of this was being taken seriously because among the suggestions
were (1) having staff on duty to carry people in wheelchairs up and down the stairs, (2) leaving them downstairs and relaying messages backwards and forwards during meetings,
(3) installing a two-way speaker system between the meeting rooms and the bottom of the
stairs, and (4) moving meetings to a new and more suitable location.
Or of course, the county council could spare us all this bureaucratic nonsense and take the obvious and most sensible course of action
by installing a stair lift for £2,000.
The cabinet member on South Kesteven District Council who was responsible for closing the public lavatories in South Street, Councillor Peter Martin-Mayhew, continues to put his foot in it every time he makes a statement on the subject. Last month, he advised anyone needing to spend a penny to use the lavatories in the town centre public houses instead and this has naturally raised the ire of landlords who,
The Local says, are hopping mad at the thought of subsidising council services in this way and by having shoppers traipsing through to spend a penny but not buy a pint (November 8th). Now, he has done it again, this time by telling visitors to use the toilets in the supermarkets instead. This is not only a crass suggestion but also one that illustrates the councillor's ignorance of Bourne because none of the supermarkets have toilets with the exception of Sainsburys which is some distance from the town
centre. If Councillor Martin-Mayhew wants to do something really useful for the council which he is supposed to serve, then I suggest that he switches off the lights at the South Street toilets that have been active ever since he closed them down last month because I am sure that his authority does not have money to burn, otherwise they would not be contemplating a 5% increase in our council tax next year.
Thought for the Week: "There's no T in courier, mate." - immigration official at Sydney Airport, Australia, to Lord
Fellowes, the Queen's former private secretary, who gave his professions as "courtier" on his
passport, reported by BBC Ceefax "Quote On", Tuesday, 5th November 2002.
Saturday 16th November 2002
There has been some discussion in the Forum over whether the traffic lights in the town centre at Bourne are doing the job for which they were intended, that is to keep vehicles
moving without endangering pedestrians.
This is a perennial topic and one that surfaces each time there is a hold up, usually caused by badly parked trade vehicles, a collision or a failure in the lights themselves. For instance, those in North Street shut down completely last Saturday and were out of action for most of the week, yet no one seemed to miss them and there were no mishaps although it is obvious that some form of controlled crossing for pedestrians is necessary at this point.
Many people are known to be against the current system in the town centre itself because they think that the job could be better done by a roundabout which would ensure the free flow of traffic provided drivers remember the rule of giving way to vehicles approaching from the right.
In June last year, contractors carrying out road repairs in West Street sliced through the electricity cables that power the traffic lights and repair work took several days during which time drivers negotiated this busy cross roads as though it were a roundabout and the emergency arrangements worked perfectly. There was a similar occurrence when the traffic lights failed in December 1998 and one man who observed the smooth flow of vehicles gave an unambiguous verdict. Ray Cliffe, the West Street trader and town councillor, said: "The cars flowed through very easily and when the lights came back on, the traffic started to build up again. It is like that whenever they break down. I always said that they should not have installed them in the first place."
The traffic lights were unpopular from the very moment they were introduced almost thirty years ago at a cost of
£10,000, which is £75,000 by today's values. They began operating on Monday 11th June 1973, but within a few days, Bourne Urban District Council had been swamped with complaints and because of their misgivings over the safety of shoppers, hastily arranged a meeting with the engineers and told them that changes must be made immediately. The main problem was that there were no pedestrian crossing controls and this presented a very real danger, especially for children and old people, at what was becoming a very busy intersection in the town centre.
After the meeting, the chairman, Councillor Percy Wilson, was most emphatic about the hazards involved. "Three-fifths of the children from Bourne Primary School have to use the crossings and they do not know where to cross", he said. "A traffic warden and local police have to help them. If people try to cross in West Street, they are likely to encounter traffic coming from South Street. We left the engineers in no doubt that their installation was not what we were led to believe. We are quite dissatisfied with the arrangements relating to the traffic lights and the pedestrian crossings are lethal. They are death traps. The flow of traffic must take second place to the safety of our people, especially the young and the old. Safeguards for them are uppermost in our minds."
There was the distinct possibility that young mothers and their children might stage a public demonstration, such as a sit-in at the lights, until some form of safety control was included, and so it was up to the council to put things right as quickly as possible. Alterations to the system were eventually made but there has been a nagging doubt ever since about the wisdom of the installation, particularly in view of the growing popularity of the roundabout systems now operating in all major towns and cities in Britain, and even in Bourne at other less sensitive spots such as West Street at the junction with Exeter Street, and in North Street at the junction with St Gilbert's Road and Meadowgate. Many believe that a similar arrangement in the town centre would ease vehicle flows and prevent the traffic jams that have become a common occurrence and that this point has been amply demonstrated by the many failures of the lights when traffic flows have continued smoothly and with little or no delay.
Town centre traffic is now controlled by an elaborate and sophisticated system with a staggering twelve sets of traffic lights around the crossroads that are costly to maintain yet whenever they break down it becomes obvious that they are not needed. A permanent roundabout would be a one-off capital outlay with little further maintenance and what is more, it makes good sense. Perhaps our Town Centre Management Partnership might consider this a worthwhile issue to investigate.
There is currently much dissatisfaction over the lack of a pedestrian crossing in North Street at the junction with Meadowgate and St Gilbert's Road, a subject that has been dealt with by this column before
(Diary 12th October 2002) and this is very much like the 1973 situation because schoolchildren are at risk. But so far, the only reaction we get is the promise of a county council survey of traffic flows at some indeterminate time in the future with the prediction that it is unlikely to support the case.
My suggestion last week that doctors might work weekends until the backlog of patients waiting for appointments is cleared
has provoked a fresh discussion on the merits of the National Health Service. The tenor of my item was not an attack on our local doctors as some seem to believe but was meant to reflect a public perception of the NHS that has become all too prevalent in this country and irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the case, there is little doubt that much is needed to be done before the service is acceptable to all. I personally am quite satisfied with the doctors who attend me at my clinic, and many more people in Bourne share this view, but as we know from recent postings to the Forum, this sentiment is not universal.
However, the item has raised the level of debate because it attracted both praise and criticism. Kate Colgrave
of Milton Keynes wrote: "Thank you for your brilliant comment on the state of the health service and your opinions of those who provide it. I only wish I could put my views to paper with the clarity you employ." But Dr Ian Pace, a partner in the Galletly Practice here in Bourne, was less enthusiastic and he sent me a robust message suggesting that I had got it completely wrong. His argument is long on generalisations but short on
specifics and the discussion would have benefited if he had been more
precise about the number of evening and weekend duties that individual family doctors are obliged to fulfil, the level of fees paid by consultants for work done when patients are referred for private treatment and perhaps even an indication of the salary level that can be expected by a doctor in
a multiple partner practice, which I am told, is not unadjacent to £60,000 a year. But despite these omissions, his article is both informative and persuasive and all who have criticised the NHS
or their local clinic should read it and inwardly digest.
A second such email has come from the Far East, comparing the health
service in Singapore with ours in the UK and it would appear that
expatriates would prefer to be ill back at home if they were in the
fortunate position to have a choice. Tony Walton, aged 36, left Bourne
last year, with his wife Lisa and their three children, to take up a new
position in Singapore. He works for First Union, one of America's
biggest banks, and was moved to the Far East to take over responsibility
for the Asian markets. Tony was a member of and sometimes a player for
Bourne Town Cricket Club and although he misses his sport, he also
misses our health service.
The way in which visitors regard Bourne has occupied a great deal of space on the Forum in recent days after a chap called Pete moved here from Yorkshire yet found that there was too much criticism about the town. John
Morfee, a resident for the past seven years, felt that this was not the entire picture and filed this message that I think worthy of repeating and
perhaps ought to be included in the next town guide:
Hi
Pete, welcome to Bourne: It is a shame that your first impression of
the Forum is so negative but if you think about it for a while, you'll
find that the comments here do actually paint a decent picture of the
town. How so? Quite simply, if all we have to complain about is the
trivia that you find on these threads, then life must surely be pretty
good. I have been here since 1995 and wouldn't dream of leaving. My
children have benefited from superb tuition at the Abbey Road Primary
School and at both the secondary schools. The recreation facilities in
and around the town are excellent, offering a wide range of activities
for very reasonable prices. For a small town, the range of shops is
pretty good. We are yet to be swamped by national chains and I have
yet to find anything that I cannot get in Bourne. Choice might be
better in Peterborough, but then we must have the best bus service for
any town of its size to the nearest city. We have some excellent
places to eat in the town and some really good pubs. All within easy
walking distance of all parts of the town, so no worries about
drinking and driving. With Bourne woods only a five-minute walk away,
Grimsthorpe and Burghley only a short drive and Rutland Water within
half an hour of here, I can't think of anywhere else with so much to
offer. If you still need convincing, take a wander down to the
memorial park. Where else will you find the flags of the services on
view in a public place that is not being vandalised? Despite the
negative comments on the forum, some by me, I don't think you will
regret your move and I'll bet that you'll not want to leave.
Our occasional columnist Guy Cudmore has also been
examining why so many people get a bad impression of Bourne when the
opposite should be the case and his article entitled A positive approach to Bourne
has been added to the web site today.
What the local newspapers are saying:
The Butterfield has become such an integral part of Bourne, first as a hospital and now as a day care
centre, that it is difficult to imagine the town without it. But
The Local tells us in a front page story (November15th) that the centre is under serious threat of closure because of financial difficulties and if that possibility became a reality, then the community would be the poorer for it. The Butterfield is a grand Victorian red-brick building standing on the corner of North Road and Meadowgate and was originally a private house known as
Brooklands, owned by Mr Joseph Butterfield who had moved here from Yorkshire, and after his death, his family bequeathed the house to the town for the relief of suffering in 1909 and it was opened as a cottage hospital the following year. Medical services continued here until it was closed in October 1983 but public pressure gave it a new lease of life when the building was adapted for its present role two years later. The solution to the present problems would appear to be an injection of capital, either from the public or from the local authorities, but this money must be found to ensure that we do not lose this important facility. An illustrated history of the Butterfield can be found on the CD-ROM A Portrait of Bourne.
The great toilet debate rumbles on and the latest coverage comes from the
Stamford Mercury with a full page feature on the issue (November 15th) accompanied by the opinions of several people who are in no doubt that Bourne needs public conveniences in the town
centre. This subject has received more coverage than any other local issue this year and the consensus is quite clear but whether our elected representatives will take notice is another matter.
Sports coverage in The Local has now set the standard for newspapers that circulate in this town and this week's issue (November 15th) has five pages devoted to a wide variety of activities that are going on here in the evenings and at weekends. The newspaper must have organised a small army of correspondents to keep this up because apart from match reports on rugby, football at all levels, swimming, gymnastics, golf, hockey and athletics, they also carry a page of results, tables and fixtures for many other sports such as bowls, cribbage, darts, pool and table tennis, and I know from experience the painstaking work needed for this type of detailed reporting.
Thought for the Week (1): The South Street bogs are an allegorical representation of South Kesteven District Council itself. All the lights are on, but there is nobody home.
- town councillor Guy Cudmore in a message to the Bourne Forum over why the lights have been left on even though the lavatories have been closed to the public, Saturday 9th November 2002.
Thought for the Week (2): The Treasury now admits that a British war in Iraq would cost us over
£15 billion of taxpayers' money. For that, we could have hospitals in every village, 40% pay rises for all public workers and free rail travel. No other country in the European Union is daft enough to want to take part.
- letter to the ITV Teletext Write-On feature, Sunday 10th November 2002.
Saturday
23rd November 2002
A cast iron shield presented to Bourne by the Admiralty more than half a century ago has been handed over to the Heritage Centre at Baldock's Mill where it has gone on public display. It commemorates HMS Beryl, a Hull fishing trawler bought by the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and deployed in the Mediterranean during the Malta campaign where it saw many months of distinguished service, taking part in the heroic defence of the island that was subsequently recognised by the unique award of the George Cross for gallantry to the people and garrison by King George VI in April 1942.
The connection between the ship and the town was the result of a Warships' Week appeal that was held in Bourne from 7th-14th February 1942 with a target of £35,000 to buy a minesweeper, but in the event, £54,168 (£1.5 million at today's values) was collected in national savings to help the war effort. As a result, the town adopted HMS Beryl and the following June, the shield, emblazoned with the ship's crest, was handed over to Bourne Urban District Council by Rear Admiral F A Buckley of the Royal Navy during an official ceremony at the Abbey Lawn. In return, the council presented the ship with a wooden plaque that had been specially carved by Jack Rayner (1917-73), a woodwork teacher at Bourne Grammar School, and this was hung in the ship's wardroom. The Beryl survived the war and resumed fishing until she was broken up in 1963 when the wooden plaque was returned to Bourne and handed over to the grammar school for safe keeping.
Meanwhile, the cast iron shield had been hung in Wake House, then the offices of Bourne UDC, and it would have been lost had it not been for the intervention of Bert Johns, a wartime naval veteran and retired policeman, who lives in Stanley Street, Bourne. He rescued it as it was about to be thrown away when the building was vacated by the council to make way for the newly formed South Kesteven District Council under the local government reorganisation of 1974, and decided to retain it on behalf of the Bourne branch of the Royal Naval Association of which he is secretary. Twenty years later, he also took possession of Jack Rayner's wooden plaque as it was about to be consigned to the bonfire when some of the old wooden buildings at the grammar school were demolished in 1995. The association has now decided that both should go on public display and they have been handed over to the Civic Society who run the Heritage Centre, together with other items and documents associated with them.
A cast iron shield similar to that for HMS Beryl already hangs in the Heritage Centre, remembering a second warship associated with the Bourne area that was adopted by South Kesteven District Council whose administrative area at that time included several villages around the town. The target on this occasion was much more ambitious and £120,000 was raised to adopt HMS Polyanthus, one of the Royal Navy's Flower Class of corvettes of World War II whose main duty was safeguarding the passage of merchant ships bringing in vital supplies from the United States and Canada but was sunk after being hit by a torpedo from a U-boat in September 1943. The two plaques now hang side by side in the Heritage Centre as a reminder of those perilous wartime days and are well worth a visit.
The various Warships' Weeks held throughout Britain to persuade the public to help finance new fighting ships was one of the most successful of the savings campaigns held by the government during the war. When the dates and targets of the various Lincolnshire weeks were announced in November 1941, it was revealed that weekly savings from this county alone had enabled the Admiralty to sign contracts for three cruisers at a cost of £3,466,566 (£119.3 million) and four destroyers, two submarines and other craft at a cost of £4,007,000 (£138 million), a staggering amount considering the austerity of those years.
Coincidentally, I have received an email from John Mizzi in Malta who is working on a monthly publication entitled
Malta at War and he was seeking information about the connection between Bourne and HMS Beryl. Having researched the subject in some detail, I have therefore been able to provide him with sufficient material to make a substantial entry in the second volume when it appears next year.
If you have any item of interest connected with the history of this town and which will enhance the Heritage Centre, the Civic Society would be most grateful if you would consider lending or even donating it and if you are not sure whether what you have is worthwhile, please send me an email about it and I will pass it on. Or you could even become a member of the society because additional help is always needed. All you need do is fill out an application form and you will find yourself most welcome.
Another link with the Royal Navy can be found in the village church at Greatford where a ship's bell dated 1953 hangs on the north wall of the nave. It was presented to the parish for safe keeping by the Admiralty to mark the links between the village and the minesweeper HMS Greatford when the warship was due to be broken up. The bell was handed over during a special service at the Church of St Thomas à Becket on Sunday 4th May 1969, attended by the Archdeacon of Lincoln, the Venerable A C Smith and the chairman of the parish council, Mr J H Fitzwilliams. To signify the Royal Navy's watch over the bell, it was struck eight times after which the verger, Mr L Baker, sounded the bell again to signify its change of custody.
Presenting the bell to Greatford, Captain H Murray-Clark told the congregation: "HMS Greatford was a small warship and in this it had at once an affinity with this small village after which she was named. The smallness in size of a ship or a community is no measure of the service that they give their Queen and country and although the ship's service in the Royal Navy was not a long one, be assured that it was faithful. Much value is placed by the navy on close links with the varied communities with which they have associations and it is both pleasant and fitting that a part of this ship should come to safe keeping here as a permanent token of this link."
What the local newspapers are saying: When the public lavatories were closed in South Street last month on the pretext that they were being vandalised, South Kesteven District Council also shut those in Market Deeping where there has since been a similar outcry over the decision. The
Lincolnshire Free Press reports however (November 19th) that they have been re-opened on Wednesdays, which is market day, following a furious letter from stallholders complaining about the withdrawal of this necessary amenity, which is used by them and by shoppers, and threatening to withdraw their stalls unless they were reinstated. The town council was told that SKDC did not want to lose income from the market and so they agreed to re-open them, the perfect illustration that direct action is often the only effective argument when our local authorities take decisions that are not in the public interest.
The report also says that the town council at Market Deeping is considering taking over the running of the toilets themselves although it would cost
£14,000 a year. This would seem a sensible solution to the problem in Bourne but expenditure of this magnitude is currently impossible for our town council which has a financial millstone around its neck in the form of a £40,000 loan for the Christmas lights,
ironically owed to SKDC, the council that persists in ignoring its responsibilities in the
matter of our lavatories, so causing widespread public concern and not a little inconvenience.
A report in The Local on this week's proceedings of Bourne Town Council (November 22nd) appears to indicate that the authority is having financial problems which is why they have decided to make a drastic increase to the burial charges at the cemetery, some by as much as 150%. The vote was a narrow one and a move to review the new rates before they were introduced was rejected by only seven votes to six. The increases are therefore being applied by the slenderest of majorities and on the excuse that business profit comes before service to the community and although there were assurances that the council was acting responsibly, no one mentioned that this situation would not have arisen if the council was not faced with the repayment of interest and capital on the purchase of the Christmas lights. When the new illuminations were bought last year, this column forecast that sacrifices would be needed to pay for them and now we are beginning to discover the extent of the liability that we have shouldered for the next five years.
More massive development appears to be on the way for Bourne, according to a front page report in the
Stamford Mercury (November 22nd) which outlines plans for a hotel, petrol station and public house on land to the south of the town, opposite the new housing estate known as Elsea Park, which as regular readers will know, is destined to contain 2,000 new homes. The four-acre site alongside the main A15 trunk road is owned by South Kesteven District Council and although previous development for welfare facilities on the site was refused, the situation concerning roads and access has since changed sufficiently for a more tolerable approach and may well now go ahead, although a final decision is likely to rest with Whitehall.
In view of the various developments now in progress and pending, there seems little doubt therefore that Bourne is on track for a metamorphosis of status, from small market town to urban centre of some importance. The situation was succinctly summed up at a meeting of the SKDC planning committee this week when Councillor Reg Howard of Market Deeping remarked: "Talk about the wind of change. There has been a gale blowing through Bourne."
The inevitable crash has occurred at the hazardous junction in North Street where a double mini-roundabout controls traffic flows between Harrington Street and St Gilbert's Road.
The Local reports (November 22nd) that a car ran off the road at the Harrington Street roundabout on Monday afternoon and demolished a brick wall next to the bus station shortly before children were due to pass on their way home from school. A traffic survey has been ordered by Lincolnshire County Council to decide whether a pedestrian crossing should be installed at this point but the data has not yet been evaluated although county councillor John Kirkman is quoted as saying that the figures are unlikely to reflect the need for such a safety precaution.
We are still waiting to be told whether this criteria was applied to the new crossing that is about to be installed in Burghley Street where both traffic and pedestrian flows are well below those in North Street and perhaps one of our county councillors with Internet access might take the trouble to tell us, or are we to assume that this crossing is being built purely for the convenience of Sainsburys to enable shoppers reach their supermarket in Exeter Street in safety while our schoolchildren take pot luck?
The web site last week was one of the busiest since we began almost five years ago with outside contributions from three different people. It has occurred to me that there are many more out there who have something so say, an axe to grind or a point
of view to expound, and so from now on there will be space here for you to say it. Articles will therefore be welcome by email but I would ask for at least 1,000 words, longer if possible, and that the chosen topic has a bearing on Bourne. I realise that not everyone has the talent for such a project but if you have a bee in your bonnet, give it a try and I will help all I can before the article finally appears.
Message from abroad: I regularly keep up to date with the Bourne web site and often marvel that the local issues so closely parallel those concerns in our own community. It is only the names of the two places that differ.
- Colin Burgess, Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.
Thought for the Week (1): Here, you can ring up for an appointment and you are seen the same day.
- email about visiting the doctor from Robert Abbott of Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, a market town of comparative size to Bourne and with two similar group practices, Sunday 17th November 2002.
Thought for the Week (2): George Bush is on the brink of invading Iraq but most Americans have no idea where it is. A survey by the National Geographic Society revealed that 80% could not identify the country on a map while during a subsequent street poll in Times Square, New York, Iraq was placed in France, Germany, Albania, the Caspian Sea, South Africa and Nicaragua.
- Daily Mirror news online, Thursday 21st November 2002.
Saturday 30th
November 2002
We took the bus to Spalding on Tuesday using our pensioners' travel vouchers from South Kesteven District Council and spent the morning at the weekly market and in the pub before returning home in the early afternoon without the need to drive after a glass or two of beer. Our
trip however necessitated a visit to the public lavatories in the town centre and we were astounded at what we found. An attendant was on duty and admission to either the gents or the ladies cost 10p which opened the door and inside we found palatial conveniences, full of pink tiling and scrupulously clean walls, floors and fittings. These lavatories are administered by another authority, namely South Holland District Council, and are among the very best public toilets that I have seen anywhere in Britain.
I urge our district councillors to go and take a look because this is what we need in our town. If it is good enough for Spalding, a market town just thirteen miles down the road, then why do we not have a similar facility in Bourne? Please tell us why a neighbouring local authority is prepared to deliver a quality service to the community when they are not. The people have a right to know why they are being denied such facilities and it is up to our councillors to find ways of improving our public toilets instead of taking the easy option of closing them down on the pretext of vandalism.
Every time a pertinent question is asked on this web site on behalf of its readers, which number 500 or more a week, we are met with total silence even though our elected representatives constantly parade their Internet credentials. Elections to both the town and district councils are due to be held next May and the voters should remember this when asked to return a sitting candidate.
From the archives: Councillor Derek Ward told a meeting of Bourne Urban District Council that better toilet facilities were needed in South Street in the interests of public health and hygiene and his views were endorsed by the Medical Officer of Health, Dr H Ellis-Smith. Councillor Mrs Marjorie Clark, chairman of the estates committee, replied that provision would be made in the 1971 budget for a higher standard of hygiene at the toilets and added: "We have had to cut the estimates for this year down to a minimum. It will cost quite a bit of money to provide sinks while soap and towels will disappear like magic and this will cause something of a nightmare for us."
- news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 19th June 1970.
A friend who lives out in the fens of Cambridgeshire has emailed to say that he has just seen a green woodpecker and a kingfisher on the same day and he counts himself lucky. The experience of seeing relatively rare birds does arouse wonderment in us at the variety of beautiful things that nature has to offer, provided we have the time to stop and stare. My brother was surprised to see so many starlings in my garden when he last visited and wondered why he did not get any in his which is close to the New Forest in Hampshire but he did say that dozens of green woodpeckers feed on his bird table every day and did not think that unusual. We should be so lucky!
Few people in this country have ever seen a kingfisher because they are so elusive although one has been a regular visitor this summer to the Bourne Eau behind Baldock's Mill in South Street. I have seen many because of my enthusiasm for fishing in my youth and many a time I have sat by the riverbank and watched them just a few feet away. Halcyon days. I have in recent weeks moved our bird table on to the patio and therefore closer to the kitchen window so that my wife can see it while she is working and although my bill for bird seed has risen quite considerably, the results are quite spectacular. Blue and great tits, robins, wrens, sparrows, starlings, collared doves, greenfinches, chaffinches, bullfinches, but no green woodpeckers yet. That would really make our day.
I have just heard that an ibis was spotted somewhere in the south of England and hundreds of bird watchers from all parts of the country raced down there to see it. Someone said that it had been blown to these shores because of global warming but they all slunk off home when they discovered that it had escaped from the local zoo.
Rare birds have often been spotted in Bourne in past times, particularly during the 19th century but in those days they were invariably killed and stuffed, so providing a brisk trade for Mr John Evans, a naturalist and taxidermist, with premises in West Street. In the summer of 1850, a flight of curlews arrived and four of them were shot by a gamekeeper at Dyke while a few weeks later a beautiful specimen of the nightjar, or goat-sucker, was shot at Witham-on-the-Hill. The
Stamford Mercury reported: "This is a rare bird in the
neighbourhood, although found in our northern counties, and is migratory, arriving in England in May and leaving in September. It derives its name of goat-sucker from a superstition of universal prevalence, that it fastens upon the teats of goats and cows, which afterwards become dry and diseased."
In July 1870, Mr Evans was again busy with more rare birds that had flown into Bourne and been killed, including a puffin or
coulterneb, picked up alive in an exhausted state by a gentleman about a mile from the town, a stormy petrel and a forktail petrel. He was also stuffing specimens of hawk, owl, roller, black partridge, pintail and grouse, jacana and bittern, as well as a consignment of skins from exotic animals that had been sent to him from India by Lieutenant Cheaps of the 11th Hussars, including a tiger, black bear, brown or cashmere bear, jackal, fox, and the heads of an antelope and
nylghau. It is doubtful if Mr Evans would continue long in business today.
What the local papers are saying: A fishy tale dominates the front page of
The Local informing us that one of Bourne's fast food outlets has banned cod in
sympathy with the recent announcement that stocks in the North Sea are reaching dangerously low levels (November 29th) because years of over-fishing and poor management have reduced
them to an unsustainable level. Fish and chips have been one of my favourite dishes since childhood when
it was regarded as a luxury in my working class family and I still hanker for the odd serving
although without the essential cod, this ubiquitous meal is nothing. The removal of cod from the menu at Henry's Restaurant and Takeaway in North Street
may not have an immediate impact on the crisis in the fishing industry but the owner, Henry Smith, has decided to make a
small gesture. "As soon as the scientific evidence of the near extinction of British cod became incontrovertible", he said, "we decided that we had to do our bit. This is not about profit. A wider issue is at stake."
Not everyone agrees that cod is in crisis. Nicola Day, owner of Alec Day Butchers in Abbey Road (yes, they also sell fish) gets her supplies from Grimsby and believes that there is no need to panic just yet. "We've had no trouble getting cod", she said. "In fact, it's harder to find haddock." Other fish and chip shops are also carrying on with cod because they get their supplies from other waters, such as Scandinavia, Russia, Iceland and the North Atlantic.
Henry obviously cares for the planet and his wish to protect fish species in waters where they are endangered is
to be admired while colleagues in the industry who turn a blind eye may not realise
what is happening until our oceans stop producing the bountiful harvest
that has been taken for granted for so many centuries.
The new cabinet system currently being operated by South Kesteven District Council has been repeatedly criticised because it excludes councillors from the decision-making process and we had a perfect example of this in Bourne last month when the South Street public lavatories were closed without the issue being discussed in either committee or council. Bourne town and district councillor Don Fisher suggests that the system stifles debate and restricts input from local councillors who have intimate knowledge of the various issues and he wants the existing cabinet structure examined for its efficiency by central government.
The Stamford Mercury reports his convincing speech (November 29th) to SKDC last week in which he said: "Once an item has been given the go-ahead by cabinet, it becomes extremely difficult for anyone to change or stop it. Is it right that a cabinet of half a dozen councillors or so should be entirely responsible for decisions? Surely this system is less democratic than before." I gather that many of the cabinet councillors themselves are unhappy with the new system because it is they who take the flak from the public for unpopular decisions and it was not therefore surprising that Councillor Fisher's motion to approach Whitehall for a change was passed with 25 councillors voting in favour and 15 against although whether such a change will come about is another matter.
Today is a landmark for the Diary because this is the 200th that I have written. Since it began on 28th November 1998, I have presented my personal view week by week of events in Bourne past and present, recounting items from our history and heritage, taking a look at the countryside and commenting on current matters of public interest that affect our town. I need hardly say that the more controversial issues that I have written about have won me no friends in some quarters but that is the way of the world and this web site is now read regularly around the globe and has won several prestigious awards.
It began as a hobby but has since taken on a life of its own and as the weeks go by, more photographs and more text are added and so it has gradually evolved into a glimpse of Bourne that any visitor is likely to see with a few thoughts on what is going on here.
The Diary now runs to almost half a million words and with each entry, I have tried to capture the climate of the week, and so we have a continuing tale of life here in Bourne, the changing face of the town, the issues and controversies we face, the people involved and the way they have served us. This amounts to 25% of the entire web site content of text and pictures that continues to grow and our Internet Service Provider has recently granted us a further 10MB of web space bringing the total to 40MB. When the project started in 1997, I had only 5MB at my disposal but a few months later I added a further 5MB and then another 10MB and another and the latest addition by courtesy of Which Online makes us a most sizeable undertaking that reflects the amount of information that can be found here.
My hard copy records, both text and pictures, have become so extensive and so detailed that they extend to more than 25 volumes and are still expanding and I intend to leave this archive in a suitably safe place in the hope that it will be consulted in the future as a guide to the way it was in Bourne in past times. However, I hope to be around for a few more years yet and look forward to writing my 300th Diary in the year 2004.
The web site deals with Bourne as it is today but four years ago I also began working on the history of the town from the earliest times to the present day and this is now available on CD-ROM and occupying 100MB, three times the size of the web site and providing a comprehensive historical record of the town in words and pictures. The previous definitive work was
A History of Bourne written by J D Birkbeck and published in paperback in September 1970 with a hardback reprint in December 1976, and although now out of print, this excellent book can sometimes be found in second-hand bookshops although copies will cost between £15 and £20.
Douglas Birkbeck, a former history master and deputy headmaster of Bourne Grammar School, and now living in retirement in
Cumbria, realised that his publication was becoming outdated and was likely to be superseded, and generously gave my CD-ROM project his blessing and has provided tremendous help and encouragement. He also realised that we have the added advantage of colour photographs and of modern technology to record images of Bourne for posterity and can manipulate type and pictures in a way that he could never have imagined.
The CD-ROM entitled A Portrait of
Bourne now contains over 1,500 photographs and more than 350,000 words of text, making it the definitive history of Bourne currently available and the largest ever produced and a detailed list of the contents can be found in Bourne Focus. It would make an excellent Christmas present for anyone interested in our town and if you want a copy, then you may access an order form from the front page of this web site.
It must be true, it was in the news: A 700-year-old fresco
containing a figure looking like Mickey Mouse has been discovered in Austria.
It was uncovered by an art historian working on a church in the southern village of Malta who says that the 14th century
face bears an uncanny resemblance to Walt Disney's famous cartoon character with the same upturned nose and large, rounded ears.
- BBC News Online, Saturday 16th November 2002.
Hundreds of Christian pilgrims have been making their way to a church in India to see a
chapati, a loaf of unleavened bread, one of dozens that Sheila Anthony bakes in her oven every day. But this one was different because burnt into it was the image of the face of Jesus Christ and so she took it to her local church in Bangalore where it has been mounted in a glass display case. The priest, Father Jacob George, is convinced that it is a miracle and pilgrims continue to arrive.
- BBC News Online, Saturday 16th November 2002.
Thought for the Week: Our living standards rise, but we are becoming an increasingly unhappy country, and one reason why is that we know we are being lied to systematically, especially on four main areas of public concern: crime, education, transport and health.
- Paul Johnson, writing in The Spectator, Saturday 23rd November 2002.
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