Saturday 3^rd May 2003

The disappearance of several public benches from the Wellhead Gardens has been the subject of some discussion in the Bourne Forum this week. It is a matter close to my heart for, as an elderly gentleman who still finds walking a pleasure, I am always on the lookout for a public bench to rest awhile. For this reason, the Wellhead Gardens have been a favourite spot, winter and summer, because there were seats aplenty, not only to sit and recover for the next stage of the outing, but also to savour the scene which at this time of the year is one of the most peaceful and tranquil spots in Bourne.

But I too have been disturbed to notice that several of the seats alongside the main paths have been removed, leaving only the metal supports protruding forlornly through the concrete bases. I originally thought that they had been taken away for maintenance but after a while, when they did not reappear, I made some inquiries and was told that they had been removed permanently because youngsters congregated here in the evenings and some thought that their presence was becoming a nuisance.

Only last year, I wrote about the closure of the Memorial Gardens at dusk, usually at weekends, when they are chained and padlocked as a precaution against unwanted visitors who had been congregating around the cenotaph after dark. The noise they caused was also judged to be a nuisance and so Bourne United Charities, who own and administer these gardens, empowered their staff to secure the gates every Saturday and Sunday night to prevent a repetition. It would appear that the seats have been taken away for similar reasons.

These restrictions are misguided. The seats particularly, are an integral part of these gardens and whoever heard of a public park without somewhere to sit? Three of the eight original seats have gone and I understand that they were removed because of complaints from one or two people living nearby about the noise in the evenings. If this is the case, then the trustees should have decided which was more important, the few who complain or the majority who enjoy these facilities, and anyone who does not know the answer to that obvious question should not be a trustee.

A trustee is appointed to manage the affairs of a particular institution. In other words, they are entrusted with carrying out the original wishes of those who were instrumental in its formation which, in this case, is for the benefit of the public. The removal of park benches which were put there purely for the convenience and enjoyment of visitors certainly does not come into this category. If there is a problem of impropriety in the Wellhead Gardens, then the police should be notified for it is their job to deal with cases of disorderly conduct in public places and we should not retreat at every sign of anti-social behaviour. This is not the time for unilateral action by the trustees that is so blatantly against the public interest. 

The seats have been here without complaint for almost half a century and should be reinstated immediately in order that they can be enjoyed to the full during the coming summer months. The Wellhead Gardens were developed in the years following the Second World War of 1939-45 under the terms of a bequest from Alderman Thomas Atkinson who left property to provide income for this purpose, together with the War Memorial Gardens. He was a public benefactor whose wishes were carried out by men of vision with the welfare of this town and people at heart and the amenities they worked so hard to provide should not be slowly eroded merely for the benefit of the few.

What the local papers are saying:  The unruly element that has been blamed for the removal of these seats is among those likely to be targeted by the police in their plan for 2003-04. County News, the monthly publication produced by Lincolnshire County Council (May 2003), gives us a complete run down of the policing priorities that have been drawn up to make life safer for the general public and one section is devoted to reducing public disorder and anti-social behaviour. Two specific manifestations will be under scrutiny, namely young people hanging around and getting into mischief and alcohol-related incidents, both of which appear to be at the root of the problem in Bourne. But how will this be solved? The police say: "Our strategic approach to addressing these concerns has three strands: (1) providing an appropriate response, (2) problem solving with partners, and (3) promoting good citizenship, particularly among young people. We expect our operational officers to take a pragmatic view of the appropriate tools to use in each particular circumstance and will provide them with the best possible toolkit to choose from." 

This appears to be the modern way of saying that something will be done although I cannot help remembering the old days when the sight of a bobby on the beat would send the miscreants scuttling off home rather than face the ignominy of being reported to their parents or headmaster. But I do hope that this declaration of intent by the police will persuade the Bourne United Charities to do the right thing and reinstate those lost seats for the benefit of the town.

 More farmland alongside the A15 to the south of Bourne is to disappear under bricks and mortar, according to the Stamford Mercury. Developers are seeking planning permission to build new homes on part of a 16-acre site adjoining Bourne Hospital that is about to be pulled down to make way for a new residential estate (May 2nd). This land has an interesting background because back in October 1999, it was destined to become the Southfield Business Park, a £10 million complex with a petrol filling station, restaurant, public house and hotel, a mixed-use area of light industrial units and warehousing and a planning gain of road improvements at this point. The scheme was hailed as a welcome and exciting project, creating hundreds of new jobs, attracting fresh inward investment opportunities and providing scope for locally based firms to expand and develop. All of these benefits were cited as reasons why the new business park should go ahead and so planning permission was purely routine but the project was abandoned in May 2001 because of insufficient commercial interest. With Elsea Park just across the road, housing is now the big attraction at this point and the new scheme provides for 80 new homes on part of the site which, the owners say, will enable them proceed with developing offices and light industrial units. But who wants to live next to a business park and so it seems a more likely proposition that the entire area will eventually end up as new houses.

There is a heart-warming tale on the front page of The Local about one of our best-known local councillors, Mrs Marjorie Clark, twice mayor of Bourne, and still serving on the town council at the age of 84. She was adopted as a baby in 1919 and after searching for more than 60 years, she has finally discovered her roots and made contact with the family she never knew she had. The story of her quest (May 2nd) is of particular interest because last year I helped in it by searching the many genealogical sites on the Internet for relatives and left messages on several seeking information on her behalf. Marjorie eventually discovered the name of her maternal grandfather, Eli Harrison, a jeweller who lived in Manchester, and this prompted her to post a notice in a regional newspaper covering that area and this was answered by a first cousin, Elizabeth Harrison. They wanted to meet and so Marjorie invited her to the annual Civic Ball in Bourne last month and they are now busy filling in details of the family background and making up for those lost years. "This is so exciting after all this time", said Marjorie. "Knowing that I have blood relatives is absolutely wonderful." This is a remarkable story of human relationships, of hope and determination to establish the ties that bind us, and one that is well worth reading.

Many housewives swear by gas cooking for their meals and although some favour electricity or even solid fuel with an Aga, it is generally reckoned that the gas stove will provide the best results. In fact, it has become such an integral part of the home that it is difficult to imagine a kitchen without one.

But it was not always so and when gas arrived in Bourne during the 19th century, there was some resistance to its general use in the home, for lighting, heating and cooking, and so the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company, which owned the gas works in Eastgate, launched a campaign to persuade the public otherwise. The company had been formed in 1840 and by 1869, many premises were already heated and lighted by gas and there were soon 56 gas lamps in the main streets that were lit after dark. But there was still a reluctance among housewives to use the new power for cooking and so the firm arranged a series of demonstrations in the town in an attempt to convert them and one such occasion was reported by the Stamford Mercury on Friday 5th April 1889:

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, demonstrative lectures on cookery were given in the Corn Exchange by Mrs Thwaites, medallist of the Liverpool School of Cookery. Gas stoves supplied by the Gas Company were used for cooking and different kinds of stoves were exhibited in the hall. A large number of ladies and several gentlemen attended the lectures. In the afternoon, high-class cookery was exemplified and every day cookery in the evening. All who attended received valuable hints on practical cookery. The various articles made found a ready sale at the close of the lectures. From 11 to 1 each day, dishes were cooked free of charge in the gas stoves for anyone who liked to send them. Several ladies availed themselves of the privilege and great satisfaction was expressed with the result.

These early experiments in public relations paid off and soon gas stoves passed the stage of being a novelty status symbol to becoming a necessity and are now taken very much for granted, the proof of the pudding being in the eating, as you might say. Over the next 25 years, sales boomed and so many homes were using gas stoves that when the engine at the gas works broke down and the supply failed on the evening of Saturday 28th August 1915, the Town Crier was called out next morning at 10 am to alert the town. There was much consternation about the announcement because housewives were about to start preparing one of the main meals of the week, Sunday lunch, but they were urged to light fires and use those for cooking instead although maintenance engineers called in to carry out emergency work managed to restore the supply before suppertime.

The state of some village churchyards in the area is not good and as I have visited them all, I am able to make a comparison. When this web site began five years ago, I spent an entire summer photographing every one within a ten mile radius and among the worst kept was that at Swayfield.

The village is seven miles north east of Bourne and the church stands next to a cow pasture and is approached by a narrow track. It is dedicated to St Nicholas with a 13th century tower and it sits high up on sloping ground a few hundred yards from the main east coast railway line. The building is small and humble and largely rebuilt between 1875 and 1878 by F H Goddard in the early English style. He would have been disappointed had he seen it when I took my first pictures there is 1998 because the churchyard was in an advanced state of decay, overgrown, with wind blown branches from surrounding trees scattered around, toppled and broken headstones, rubbish and weeds. 

What a transformation there has been since! We went back at the weekend to find that there has been a drastic change in the intervening years and today it is a joy to see. Much work has been done and the church is now one of the most attractive in the district with newly mown grass, a new footpath around the church and gravestones kept in trim while those that have toppled have been neatly placed underneath trees and around the perimeter. This church is now well worth a visit as you will see on the Swayfield page. 

The town centre in Bourne during the past week has been the cleanest we have ever seen it, certainly a distinct improvement on the scene that I photographed on Friday 18th April with litter defacing the road and pavement area outside the Town Hall. The improvement became apparent during last weekend and persisted throughout the week with not a crisp packet or cigarette carton in sight, not even in West Street that is usually one of the worst affected areas for discarded rubbish. I would not suggest for one moment that this column makes a difference to the way our affairs are run in this town but it does have a wide readership from all walks of life and perhaps the photograph did signal a time for a drastic change for the better in our street environment. Whatever was the catalyst for this change, it is a most welcome one and we look forward to a litter-free Bourne in the coming months when many visitors will be coming this way and will be so impressed with the cleanliness of our town that they will wish to stay awhile, look around, shop and eat, and like it so much that they will want to come again.

Nature conservation is an important issue in the English countryside which is under so much pressure from intensive farming practices and the encroachment of residential development. Wildlife has suffered badly in recent years and hardly a week goes by without us hearing of further threats to our flora and fauna. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is one of those organisations that is dedicated to the preservation of what we have and they currently control more than 100 nature reserves in the county. Dave Vandome is warden of several in the Bourne area, including our magnificent small slice of ancient forest, Dole Wood, and he has contributed an article on the importance of these reserves to the preservation of wildlife.

Message from home: I noticed your piece on the Old Grammar School [Diary 26th April]. I used to be a guide and I quite enjoyed going there and having camp fires in the summer and to hear that it is in bad condition, is quite sad. I read your piece out to my mum and she found that to lose something so old and historical was sad to her too. I was wondering if anything is going to be done about it, like sponsors and charity sales to raise money to help, even though £20,000 is a lot of money. I think even to at least try to do something to help would be better than sitting and waiting in sadness for it to be knocked down or crumble away. - Yours sincerely, Charlotte Elliott, aged 12.

Thought for the Week: A proposal that a tax be imposed on bicycles was discussed at a meeting of the Bourne Urban District Council on Tuesday. Councillor John Storey Mills, a farmer of Cawthorpe, who moved the motion, said that the money raised could be devoted to keeping the roads in repair. Members voted 6-4 in favour of the idea. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 13th July 1900.

Saturday 10^th May 2003

The owners of the Angel Hotel in Bourne have finally capitulated and the building is being repainted black and white. Their original defiance shown to South Kesteven District Council, who ruled that the new colour scheme of green and cream was out of keeping with the Grade II listed building in a conservation area, has finally evaporated and painters moved in this week to change it back. The work is expected to take ten days.

This is a confrontation that need not have happened had the hotel management sought advice before the redecorating was undertaken two years ago. The woodwork had become dilapidated and was in dire need of renovation and when the scaffolding went up in December 2001, it was assumed the black and white livery would be retained. Instead, a new colour scheme was introduced without the necessary planning permission and when it came to the notice of the council, an order was issued for its return to the original.

There were allegations of victimisation from some quarters and the management appeared to have dug in their heels against making the change. 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 neglect of this matter. Despite a lengthy confrontation, the owners therefore have had no alternative but to repaint the hotel black and white. Many will not agree with this decision but if anyone does not like the law because they think it is a bad one, then they should 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. 

The Angel Hotel is one of the grandest buildings to be found in the town centre, dating from the 18th century when it was originally known as the Nag's Head, although the name was changed around 1800. During the days of stagecoach travel, it was an important posting house and even today, no one can pass through without noticing its impressive frontage. It is therefore right that the period appearance of the building should be maintained and no matter what personal preferences the owners may have, they owe it to our heritage to choose colours in keeping with the character of the building which green and cream most certainly were not.

Election watch: There has been much public dissatisfaction with the performance of South Kesteven District Council in recent years, not least over the issue of travel tokens for the elderly, the closure of the public toilets in South Street, the constant threat of car parking charges being introduced and the proliferation of housing developments in sensitive areas for which they are responsible through the granting of planning permission. There are many similar issues that have raised the ire of the electorate and yet when they have the chance to make a difference, they are nowhere to be seen. Six seats in two Bourne wards were contested in the local elections last week when a total of 5,579 votes were cast, and at the rate of three votes per person, this amounts to 1,860 voters, which is a deplorable turnout of under 30%.

Democracy therefore, does not appear to be working because those six councillors who have been elected, able though they may all be, are not representative of Bourne and yet we will have them for the next four years. Also, with further successes from the Conservatives, we can now expect even more political decisions from that quarter in the future because they will now have an overall majority. I am not against the Conservative Party, having voted for them all my life, but the situation would be exactly the same if it were Labour or Liberal Democrats in overall control. It has always been my belief that politics should not be part of local government but as time goes by, this becomes an unattainable ideal and those candidates who do seek election without a party label, intent on putting the people before politics, can only stand by and wring their hands, even though some candidates may top the poll in their own wards, because in a situation such as this, it is the party that calls the tune.

In the coming session, the old issues that have caused so much controversy will surface again, together with many new ones, and there will be the inevitable grumbling in the streets and letters to the newspapers, but before anyone out there thinks that they have cause to complain, I suggest that they first ask themselves where they were on polling day. Here are the results for our two wards in Bourne and you will see how little actual support we have given to those candidates who felt it worthwhile to seek election and serve the community:

Among the very first features to appear when popular newspapers became the vogue a century ago was "Answers to Correspondents" in which readers submitted questions on topics of interest and they were printed the following week together with the replies. Several newspapers have revived the tradition but perhaps the best is the feature that appears regularly in the Daily Mail, the newspaper founded by Lord Northcliffe who introduced modern journalism to the world when it first appeared on 4th May 1896. This newspaper particularly, has turned it into a lively and interesting column, highly readable and always informative.

One of the editors, Charles Legge, emailed last week with a request for help over one of their queries because a reader had asked: How did the village of Twenty in Lincolnshire get its name? We were glad to be of assistance and the reply duly appeared in the Monday issue (May 5th) and it may be of interest to all who have ever wondered about the strange name conferred on this tiny village, four miles east of Bourne. 

There are three theories as to how Twenty became so named. 

Firstly, until 1977, it was suggested that drivers on the No 20 bus route serviced by the Lincolnshire Road Car Company were required to slow down to 20 mph to negotiate the sharp corner on the road but that is a modern idea and we need to hark back to the 19th century for the real reason. 

Secondly, in October 1853, local solicitor Francis Thomas Selby had proposed the formation of the grandiose sounding Spalding, Bourne and Stamford Railway and Waterworks Company. The tracks and a water pipe would run side by side through the fens between Spalding and Bourne and then the railway would continue across the Great Northern Railway's main line into Stamford. As it happened, this last section was completed by the GNR and opened in 1856 while the Bourne to Essendine portion was built by another group and opened in 1860. This left the 9½ mile section from Bourne to Spalding to be constructed by the Bourne-Spalding Railway Company and it opened for traffic on 1st August 1866 but was later absorbed into the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway under their amalgamating act of 1893. During the construction work, it was decided to have three intermediate stations, mainly for the transit of farm produce. Since these would be well outside the village centres, names had to be invented for them and as the first station out of Bourne was sited near to a milestone on the main road, now the A151, announcing that it was 20 miles to Colsterworth, then the name of Twenty was adopted. 

Thirdly, and perhaps the most likely explanation, is that when the building of the track reached the new North Fen station, the engineer in charge of the project said that a more specific name was needed and after asking how many sections had already been laid, he noticed that the station would be sited in a field in Section 20 of his Ordnance Survey map and the village was so named.

There are many local organisations in this town always ready to assist in improving the environment and none has such a distinguished record as the Rotary Club of Bourne. One of the best projects they have ever undertaken is the planting of trees along the grass verges in North Road, a most attractive improvement to this thoroughfare which is also the main A15 trunk road and therefore the most frequently seen by people passing through. The trees, just coming into blossom, therefore give our town a most pleasing aspect and they are a delight to see.

On Saturday night, vandals moved in and destroyed three of the saplings, breaking two of the stems while a third was wrenched from its support. Earlier, a fourth had been uprooted together with its securing post and dumped some distance away at the end of Mill Drove.

The final 24 trees planted by Rotarians as part of their project to enhance this stretch of road were put in place by members only last month and the result has been most pleasing, not least to residents living in the vicinity who offered refreshments to the men as they worked. This is the thanks they get from drunken louts rolling home full of lager-fuelled bravado and intent on destroying anything in sight. The volunteers who put in so much time and effort to improve our town deserve better. 

What the local papers are saying: One of the brightest ideas to solve the continuing problem of reducing traffic congestion outside schools in the mornings comes from Westfield Primary in Bourne. The Local reports that a new Travel Plan has been introduced (May 9th) to encourage pupils walk or cycle to school rather than have their parents drop them off, much to the annoyance of people living in the vicinity who are frequently inconvenienced by parked cars blocking the road at peak times. The school is one of the first in Lincolnshire to adopt such a scheme which I would have thought to be obvious because when I was a lad, Travel Plans were unheard of and there was only one way to get to school, whatever the distance, and that was shanks's pony. Nevertheless, the initiative is here and the school has provided more bike sheds and cycle training for the children but it remains to be seen whether they are prepared to give up that comfortable ride to school every day in favour of a spot of healthy exercise.

The Stamford Mercury suggests that there is some disappointment with the quality of street lighting in Bourne (May 9th). The subject came up in the annual report of the town council's amenities committee presented by the chairman, Councillor Shirley Cliffe, who told the meeting: "I am not happy with our street lighting at night. I do not think that the quality is good enough and we are worthy of better, especially in the town centre." This was not a problem a century ago when Bourne was one of the best lit towns in South Lincolnshire and our street lamps were powered not by electricity, but by coal gas provided by the local gasworks. Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire reported in 1885: "Bourne consists principally of four streets diverting from the Market Place, all remarkably clean and lighted with gas, with 56 public gas lamps at various points around the town." If it could be done then, why not now?

The number of letters from correspondents that appear in any newspaper is a mark of how well it is being read and The Local has a particularly lively page of them this week (May 9th). All are interesting but one particularly so because it touches on a subject that has occupied this column for several weeks past, namely the standard of enthusiasm shown by candidates in the recent local elections. Now that the voting is over, Norman Holmes of Ancaster Road, Bourne, writes: "On Wednesday 16th April, at approximately 11 am, I heard hurried footsteps leading to my front door and immediately they left my premises. Upon checking, I found literature from two Conservative Party councillors with a note inside saying: 'Sorry we missed you when we called. We will try to call back again.' My point is that I was at home and am satisfied that the deliverer of the literature never bruised their knuckles door knocking. Why couldn't they be honest and say: 'We have no intention of calling but if by mischance we do meet, we have no intention of discussing relative matters'?

A new web site has appeared on the Internet giving panoramic views of various locations around the town such as the lakes and the bluebells in Bourne Wood and the Memorial Gardens in South Street. They are the work of Sam Malone who runs it for commercial purposes to give businesses a cost-effect method of using interactive panoramic views on their own web sites. But these 360º images of the town and district are provided free. Said Sam: "I figured the Bourne panoramas would be good for those who wish to see local beauty spots they were not necessarily aware of. They will also be of interest to people who can't get around as much as they once could but would like to visit the woods, for example, again, but this time via their computer for a virtual tour. Panoramic views are also great for leisure and tourism because they enable people see why they should visit the locality."

You will find the address of Bourne Panoramas by accessing our Links page and if you have any suggestions for new panoramic locations from this area, then email Sam from the web site.

From the archives: On Tuesday night, Mr J E Dallywater, the Town Crier, chimney sweep, bill-poster and landlord of the Red Lion Inn, entered the lion's cage of the Spanish travelling menagerie that was visiting Bourne and, facing the lion, remained while he smoked a cigarette, after which he emerged unscathed amid the cheers of a crowded audience. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 1st December 1899.

Thought for the Week: War makes rattling good history but peace is poor reading. - Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist and poet.

Saturday 17^th May 2003

One of my first assignments as a young reporter fifty years ago was to interview the retiring Mayor of Peterborough and when I asked how his year in office had gone, he replied: "It was like being king for a day". His reply has stuck with me ever since for it sums up the unreality of a situation in which you are suddenly thrust into the limelight by being given a job in which you are feted like royalty but one that has no official parameters other than to be seen. 

A mayor was originally an overseer or bailiff and stems from the Norman maeur or mair although there is an alterative explanation that it comes from the Latin major meaning greater or superior. These derivations invite the assumption that the mayoralty we know today is an extremely ancient institution whereas it is a comparatively late development in local government organisation yet still has connotations of Ruritania and even Toytown, for those of us old enough to remember the popular BBC Children's Hour radio series of that name. 

The position of mayor in England was largely governed by the Local Government Act of 1933 which required the council of every borough to make it their first duty at each annual meeting to elect a mayor who normally holds office for one year but may be re-elected. There have been changes since, consistent with the various re-organisations of local government, and so the title of mayor is now usually reserved for the head of an urban administration, one that has been granted district or borough status by royal charter. The system is different in the United States where the mayor is the elected head of a city or town and in 1999, the Labour government in Britain floated proposals for directly-elected mayors, a system that is now being adopted by some of the larger authorities, notably in London where the controversial Ken Livingstone was elected by public vote in May 2000. The latter system is also prevalent in Europe and ostensibly enables decisions to be made without the red tape of committee and council meetings and is therefore meant to be a faster and more efficient means of running local affairs.

It is unlikely that small towns such as Bourne will ever get a directly elected mayor and so the present system will remain with us for the foreseeable future. Last week, Councillor Trevor Holmes, aged 62, a retired sales representative, became the 32nd Mayor of Bourne and will continue in office for a year, with his wife Pam as mayoress, as is the custom.

The mayoralty in Bourne dates back only 30 years. From 1899, our affairs were in the hands of Bourne Urban District Council which had a chairman but under the local government re-organisation of 1974, all urban authorities in England were replaced by district councils and henceforward, Bourne's affairs came under the control of South Kesteven District Council based in Grantham. The town however, retained a parish council which, because of its historic status, was given special dispensation to become a town council with a chairman who is also the mayor, and this authority took over the Coat of Arms and civic regalia previously enshrined in Bourne UDC. Our first citizen, therefore, is no more than the chairman of the parish council but by recent tradition, is elected as mayor by his peers. 

Apart from taking the chair at council meetings, the mayoral duties are ornamental rather than practical and extend to attending public functions as a representative of the town council, garden fetes, concerts, dinners, coffee mornings, and the like, and therefore involve a constant round of glad-handing and the risk of putting on pounds while navigating the rubber chicken circuit, culminating with the Civic Ball at the end of the term, when those who have been of help during the year are thanked personally for their support.

The office then, is one of adornment rather than achievement, as exemplified by the silver chain of office he wears during his tenure. It is filled by rotation on a basis of seniority rather than merit, a case of Buggins's turn, and as council seats are liable to change, it is possible to become mayor twice in a short space of time, as has happened to seven councillors in Bourne since 1974. There is also no requirement to be elected by the people, as with the present council which has 14 members, all of whom have been returned unopposed without a single vote being cast.

Some of those who do become mayor tend to get carried away with the euphoria of elevation and may be forgiven for promising the unattainable when donning the chain of office for the first time, however well-intentioned these aims and objectives may be. Our new mayor, for instance, has said that he wants to put Bourne on the map (Stamford Mercury, Friday 9th May) although it is a safe bet that the status of this town will not have changed one iota when he leaves office in twelve months' time. Other aims to which the mayor aspires, such as improving facilities for younger age groups, stopping kids from drifting into licensed premises and even the establishment of a soft drinks pub (The Local, Friday May 9th), are also unlikely to materialise. The mayor has no more powers to make them happen while in office than he did as a mere town councillor but it does sound good at the time and is therefore worthy of a round of applause and headlines in the local newspapers. Reality is a little different.

What then can we expect from our mayors in the future? The answer is very little, except a high profile and there is little wrong with that. The title is far more important than the job itself. But all organisations need a figurehead and in Bourne, that role is filled by the mayor. The office may be an anachronism but if Parliament can have its pomp and ceremony, then why cannot we have a little of the same. It achieves nothing but the chain of office does symbolise a dignity and a civic pride in our town and for that reason alone, it is worth keeping.

A list of all Mayors of Bourne has been added to the Town Council page on the web site.

What the local papers are saying: The activities in our council chamber should be of the utmost concern to our local newspapers but the Lincolnshire Free Press does not appear to know that we even have a mayor. They reported the annual meeting of the council held last week and that Councillor Trevor Holmes was elected chairman but there was no mention in their report (May 13th) that he was also elevated to the mayoralty for the coming year. This was particularly unfortunate because the page on which it appeared was entitled Focus on Bourne when in fact it was no such thing and contained only two local stories while the rest was devoted to advertising. 

Their account of the council meeting however did highlight the concerns in the town about speeding drivers, mainly in West Road and Mill Drove, although complaints in our own Bourne Forum indicate that there is also a problem in North Road. The Citizen suggests that a mobile electronic warning system is likely to be used to alert drivers when they are exceeding the speed limit (May 13th) although the police are being urged to launch a general crack-down on all offenders. Gone are the days when a polite letter to the culprits would have done the trick, as in the early years of the last century when the roads were far less crowded than they are today. At their quarterly meeting on Tuesday 3rd July 1923, the committee that administered the Butterfield Hospital in North Road received a complaint about the excessive noise created by motor cycles speeding past which was prejudicial to the condition of patients in a serious state. The committee decided that the best course of action was to write to the honorary secretary of the Bourne Motor Cycle Club asking members to slow down and drive quietly past the hospital which they did without question. The Automobile Association was also requested to provide notice boards on the highway warning drivers about their speed because there had been ten accidents along that stretch of road in the previous three months. I imagine that all current protests about speeding in Bourne will go unheeded, even by the police who should be protecting us from the madcap drivers.

The Civic Society has stepped into the controversy over the number of new houses being built in Bourne with a letter to The Local from their secretary, Robert Kitchener (May 16th). He cites the new developments at Elsea Park (2,000 homes), Hereward Meadow (140 homes) and the two recent schemes in South Road, on the old hospital site (71 homes) and the land originally earmarked for light industry (80 homes), and suggests that this is far too much for this town. He writes: "The original principle behind the designation of growth areas and the locations for residential development was to base these on existing towns with support infrastructures already in place, i e public transport, medical centres, schools, shopping, leisure facilities and police. The expansion of Bourne over the last ten years has already overloaded most of the existing infrastructure, in particular schools and medical facilities. Indeed, the infrastructure support has been shrinking rather than expanding with the closure of small hospitals, the police station, public toilets and the removal of some local authority functions. There has been little or no evident proactive attempts by South Kesteven District Council to plan or encourage infrastructure improvements commensurate with population growth now or in the future."

These matters have been consistently addressed by this column in recent years and the closure of various public amenities appears to have kept pace with the chase to build even more new homes but despite promises by the bigger developers to address this issue, nothing has been done. The Stamford Mercury details the make up of the new Cabinet which will run SKDC following the local elections earlier this month (May 16th) and perhaps it would be wise to give this subject some priority at its first meeting before Bourne ends up as one huge housing estate totally dependent on its services from elsewhere.

Bourne is part of the Grantham and Spalding parliamentary constituency which came into being in 1997 after government boundary changes and our M P is the Conservative member Quentin Davies. Prior to that, he represented us in the Stamford and Spalding constituency and has won himself a reputation as a doughty campaigner for national and local causes. He is committed to defending our local hospitals and to securing a relief road for Bourne as well as protecting our grammar schools and helping to get more policemen back on the beat, all issues that have been aired in this column in recent times. In 1998, Quentin Davies received the Backbencher of the Year award and is currently Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Despite a massive workload, he has agreed to contribute an occasional article to the Bourne web site and as our representative at Westminster, we are pleased to have him on board. His first contribution from the Commons gives us an appraisal of the resignation speech by Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, who quit her job on Monday.

The village of Folkingham, eight miles north of Bourne on the A15, occupies an important place in the history of Lincolnshire because it was once the seat of the Quarter Sessions, the higher court that dispensed justice for the area, which is why the austere House of Correction, or prison, was built here. It has a fine church and many period buildings, not least the Greyhound Inn whose magnificent red brick façade dominates the market square. It is also well know to the people of Bourne because it was here, on the old airfield, that Raymond Mays, the international motor racing driver and designer, tested his cars 50 years ago before taking them on the track. But Folkingham also has a sinister secret, one that even the local people know little about, for during the Cold War, nuclear rockets were sited here. Brynley Heaven of the Sleaford Civic Trust has been finding out more and his article has been added to the web site today.

Thought for the Week: If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human races remaining the same, there would be: 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western hemisphere, both north and south, 8 Africans; 52 would be female, 48 would be male; 70 would be non-white, 30 would be white; 70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian; 89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual; 6 people would possess 59% of the world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States; 80 would live in sub-standard housing, 70 would be unable to read; 50 would suffer from malnutrition; 1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth; 1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education; 1 would own a computer. If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank and spare change somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. And if you can read this message, you are more blessed than more than the two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. - from Global Village, A Weekly Posting from Cyberspace, The Times Magazine, Saturday 10th May 2003.

Saturday 24^th May 2003

The problem of unemployment has dogged governments for centuries but there has never been a simple solution. From the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), when the vagrant or vagabond class had increased to require legislative attention, the only remedy the state had to offer was the Poor Law system which extended relief but ignored the distinctions between the destitute caused by trade depression and the congenital loafer.

The worst period for unemployment in Britain was between the two world wars of the 20th century. The situation had begun to deteriorate soon after the First World War ended in 1918 and by 1921, the number of unemployed had risen from 700,000 to over two million. The general election of 1929 was largely fought on the unemployment issue and resulted in a Labour victory, due mainly to the hope of more jobs and the promise of greater benefits. But the economic depression of 1931 followed, when the number of unemployed in Britain reached its highest total of 2,947,000, or 22 per cent of the working population, and as other countries were similarly affected, it had assumed the importance of an acute world problem.

The number of jobless in Britain was so high that it could not be ignored politically because life in the more distressed areas was miserable and causing unrest and social concern. The government therefore decided that its strategy to cope with the problem would include the opening of instructional centres and the introduction of physical training classes. 

The scheme was based on the premise that long spells of unemployment made men soft and demoralised and they were therefore unsuitable candidates for regular employment. The camps were designed to give the men manual work in market gardening, forestry or the building of recreation grounds, coupled with a programme of physical training, and so through a regime of strict discipline, the rekindling of the work ethic and the enhancement of their skills, they would become accustomed to regular hours and hardened up for the heavy work needed under ordinary industrial conditions.

The removal of the men from their own communities was deemed to be essential if the experiment was to succeed. "The progress of re-conditioning will be quicker and more effective if carried out away from the distressed areas", said a report from the Ministry of Labour. "Attendance at the camps is therefore proposed for 12-week periods with efforts to place trainees in jobs initiated after eight weeks. Trainees will receive an allowance dependent on good behaviour and progress, in addition to their unemployment benefit, and expenses to cover lodgings and the cost of transport. Clothing will be provided free, a pair of boots, overalls and oilskins, at a cost of 35s. per man."

The Labour government, with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister, also warned that a tough line would be taken with those refusing to attend training courses and in 1930, the Ministry of Labour declared: "The stage has been reached when such men should have their benefits disallowed if they refuse without good reason to take a course of instruction when it is offered to them."

Unemployment, however, remained high, the vast majority being men aged over 18 years, but the new instructional centres were absorbing only a modest number, about 10,000 men a year. In 1934, new legislation provided for temporary summer camps in tented accommodation but attached to the permanent centres. 

The first of the camps was opened at Blackpool in May 1929 but by 1937, there were 22 centres including permanent and temporary summer encampments, housing about 21,000 men a year, among them a residential camp at Bourne with associated summer camps at Kirkby Underwood, Pickworth and Aslackby. A Ministry of Labour training camp was already in existence at Bourne and is clearly marked on a map of 1904 and these premises were used for the new experiment of intensive training for the unemployed. 

The huts at Bourne were wooden and sited on the edge of the wood, but other purpose-built camps in Britain consisted of Nissen hut colonies located on land also controlled by the Forestry Commission. The trainees attended for three-month periods of military-style discipline and pick-and-shovel labour. They were given clothing on arrival, corduroy trousers, a jacket and working boots, knife, fork, spoon and enamel cup. There was a dining room with wooden forms and tables covered with oilcloth on which were served wholesome and plentiful meals, handed out from an adjoining kitchen through hatches to the trainees as they filed in. There was also a washroom for ablutions and laundry with hot and cold water, a recreation room, library and sick bay. The huts were large and well built, weatherproof, well lighted and comfortable.

Work began at 6 am and lasted from ten to 12 hours. The tasks were manual, usually digging ditches, cutting down trees or building roads, and former police officers or army sergeant majors were employed to oversee the workers. Camp life was austere, the living conditions Spartan and in the evenings or at weekends there was little to do as the camps were deliberately built in remote spots, far from the temptations of the pub or the dance hall. In Bourne, it was a mile outside the town as it was then. For their trouble, the inmates received two or three shillings and a packet of Woodbines each week.

A memorandum from the Ministry of Labour elaborated on the arrangements at the camps such as Bourne: "All these centres are residential, unemployed single men being brought here from the depressed areas. They receive their board and lodging and in addition, a small sum weekly for pocket money. Against this expenditure is set off the amount of unemployment pay to which they are entitled. Where necessary, working kit is served out to them. The residential centres provide the most effective method of improving the employability of the men." 

Each work camp took trainees from a designated area, initially from the distressed mining communities, but from 1934, recruitment was broadened to cover any place in the country with high unemployment. Attendance was supposedly voluntary, but there was a great deal of pressure on those individuals selected to accept a place and they were told that existing benefits could be lost if they refused. 

Assessment of the labour camps has been divided with favourable and hostile evaluations. Contemporary critics dubbed them slave camps and one trainee, Willie Eccles, said that his experiences at Glenbranter in Argyllshire, Scotland, mirrored the way the Nazis treated people while Wal Hannington of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, described them as compulsory labour camps which constituted a big step nearer by the government to impose a fascist administration in Britain.

Instruction centres such as Bourne received a substantial number of participants. Between 1928 and 1938, over 120,000 unemployed men spent time in them but few were eventually placed in real jobs. Unemployment persisted until 1939 but with the outbreak of the Second World War, it ceased to be a problem.

The labour camp in Bourne was closed and converted for use as a Home Office approved school for delinquent boys aged from 15 to 18. By this time, it consisted of an oval complex containing around twenty wooden huts on the very edge of Bourne Wood, twelve of them for accommodation and the others used as a dining room, library and recreation room, clinic, offices and staff quarters, all connected by footpaths while the field to the north of the camp, now in the vicinity of Poplar Crescent, was used as a sports ground and the establishment was known simply as the Hereward School. The minutes of the Bourne United Charities contain references in connection with arrangements for the boys to use the open-air swimming pool which had by that time come into their possession. 

The yard that still exists off Beech Avenue was the forestry depot of that time and the bungalows next to it behind the houses in Beech Avenue were part of the complex and used as staff quarters but are now private homes. The camp itself was on the site of the houses in Forest Avenue and Woodland Avenue and on the green between them, which has been retained as an open space. The avenue of Lombardy poplars, which can be seen today, was the entrance road to the site and some surviving brickwork from the foundations can still be found in the grass as a reminder of these two social experiments both of which foundered with the passing of time. 

A rare legal document relating to Bourne market has been presented to the town's Heritage Centre for permanent display. It shows details of an agreement between the Marquess of Exeter and a local man, John Henry Pool, appointing him Collector of Tolls and is dated 20th December 1921.

A market has been held in Bourne for more than 700 years under a royal charter granted to the Lord of the Manor, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279, and the original charter document, dated two years later, is now in the British Museum. It gave permission for a market to be held on a Saturday and this tradition has continued until the present day although a Thursday market was later added and this has become the more popular of the two. 

The manorial rights were subsequently acquired by the Cecil family whose distinguished member William Cecil was the first Lord Burghley, and this entitled his descendants, the Marquesses of Exeter, to receive the market rents. They appointed various agents to collect these tolls and in December 1921, the job went to John Henry Pool (1886-1956) of No 10 Harrington Street, Bourne, and an official deed of contract was drawn up and signed by his lordship (then William Thomas Brownlow) to this effect. The document has remained in the family until the present day and Mr Pool's son, Trevor, aged 77, who lives at Halifax in Yorkshire, has presented it to the Heritage Centre for display after renewing links with his home town though this web site.

"I wanted the document to be preserved and at the same time be available for anyone who is interested to see it", he said. "The Heritage Centre was therefore the obvious place for it to be preserved and I am glad to let them have it."

The Heritage Centre opened at the early 19th century Baldock's Mill in South Street, Bourne, in August 1999. It is administered by the Civic Society and now contains an expanding museum devoted to the town's history and heritage. The document has been framed together with a short history of the market and hung in the centre on permanent display.

The marquess subsequently sold his ownership of the market rights to Bourne Urban District Council and these passed to South Kesteven District Council under the re-organisation of local government in 1974. The market continued in the town centre, along the western kerbsides in North Street and West Street, until the closing years of the 20th century when increasing traffic flows made road conditions too hazardous for shoppers and on Thursday 13th December 1990, it was moved to its present location at the purpose built paved area behind the town hall, planned as part of the Burghley Arcade and Corn Exchange developments on the site of the old cattle market that closed in 1981.

The Outdoor Swimming Pool, one of the best-loved leisure attractions in Bourne, opened last weekend for the season after a team of volunteers worked long hours to prepare for the summer influx of visitors. This is one of the few traditional outdoor swimming pools or lidos remaining in Britain, dating back to 1138 when it was a carp pond to provide fish for the monks at Bourne Abbey but was converted into public swimming baths by keen local swimmers during the Great War of 1914-18 and its progress has been one of improvement and enhancement ever since. 

Thousands of children have learned to swim here, among them Barry Sheppard who was born in the town 1958 and who discovered the history of the pool on this web site. Barry was educated at the Abbey Road Primary and then Bourne Grammar School before leaving the area at the age of 20 when his career took him to pastures new and he now works for the Environment Agency in the Home Counties and is responsible for waste and water enforcement and legislation along the River Thames but memories of those days at the pool more than thirty years ago stay with him. His article has been added to our feature Memories of Times Past together with an evocative photograph of the pool from 1946.

What the local papers are saying: The opening of the outdoor pool gets many column inches this week, particularly the stark warning from Mandy Delaine-Smith, chairman of the preservation trust which runs it. "Us it or lose it", she told The Local in an attempt to attract more swimmers during the coming months (May 23rd). Years of fund-raising by volunteers have kept the pool going and there is a constant need for cash to meet continuing overheads, otherwise its future can never be secure. "We are hoping for a hot summer", said Mandy, "but unless we manage to attract swimmers, we will struggle to open next year."

The Stamford Mercury carries a similar story and highlights the need for more public participation to ensure the future of this popular amenity (May 23rd). "We made such a significant loss last year that we really need a profitable season to keep us going", said Mandy. "What we need is new people to come forward who are prepared to get their hands dirty and who can come up with fresh fund-raising ideas."

Now that the dust has settled from the local council elections, South Kesteven District Council is getting down to work for the coming year and among their first tasks was to give themselves a pay rise. The Stamford Mercury reports (May 23rd) that allowances for the 58 councillors are to go up by 3.5%, an increase above the rate of inflation and one which will cost the authority £250,000 a year. Individual councillors will get a basic £3,312 although others will also be paid special responsibility allowances on top of that, £12,031 for council leader Linda Neal, £8,594 for deputy leader Peter Martin-Mayhew and £6,875 for each of the five remaining cabinet members. Not everyone at the annual meeting was in favour and Councillor Ian Selby was in no doubt about the merits of making such payments. "This debate actually makes me want to vomit", he said. "It's like a big pot of honey for councillors to get their hands in. Some members here don't deserve to be paid in washers." I wonder who on earth he could mean?

Thought for the Week: We must do more than attack the scourge of unemployment. We should also get rid of dead-end, low-paid work with no prospects. - Labour politician Tony Blair (now Prime Minister), quoted by The Independent newspaper on 14 June 1994.

Saturday 31^st May 2003

There has been great concern about the potholes in the roads approaching the waste recycling centre in Bourne and it is good to see that something is now being done about them. They have been a hazard to motorists ever since the facility opened last year but only now has Lincolnshire County Council got round to repairing them. 

The saga of this long awaited maintenance however, is not a happy one. The potholes in the Pinfold Road approach from the main Spalding Road have been filled in but the others on the approach from Manning Road, which are far larger and much more dangerous, have not been touched.

The machinations of the bureaucratic mind are a mystery but experience indicates that it operates on a level between idiocy and impracticality and reasoning appears to be based on the premise that if no problem exists, then one will be created and this is the perfect example of this phenomenon. Why did the road gang which was already on site with shovels, tarmac and heavy duty roller, stop when they reached the second stretch of road and left its enormous potholes, some as big as buckets, as accidents just waiting to happen?

The answer is that the council has not yet discovered who owns this bit of road. Never mind that it is used by more people bearing rubbish to the depot than the other access, but as it does not comply with their rules and regulations, their guidelines and schedules of practice, the roadmen were not allowed to touch these potholes with a bargepole, let alone a shovel full of much needed tarmac.

The waste depot opened on Saturday 27th April 2002 when this problem was well known to the county council yet despite employing 12,000 people, they have still not located the owners. In that case, this is one instance in which those officers responsible might have put the rule book on one side and while their workmen were busy filling in the potholes in Pinfold Road, they should have been told to complete the job round the corner which would have taken no more than an hour or so. If the owners objected, then they would say so and what better way of tracing them. 

Instead, motorists using this popular route to dump their rubbish are still at risk from huge potholes that could seriously damage vehicles and even put lives at risk. This is the unacceptable face of officialdom, too many jobsworths refusing to take even the simplest of decisions if it is not covered by a county council ordinance. There are times when our local authority officials need to exercise a little imagination and initiative and this is one of them.

What the local newspapers are saying: Police have been drafted into Bourne to tackle the misery of youths running wild, according to The Local. A front page report (May 30th) says that two community support officers will patrol the town on a regular basis after many disturbances with youngsters using the roads as race tracks late at night, intimidating shoppers and taking drugs. This is a commendable move by the police and we wonder why they have waited so long because this is a nuisance that has been with us for many years. Several sensitive locations are mentioned in the report that paints a bleak picture of behaviour by teenagers and I wonder if two officers will be sufficient to cope with the problem.

A two-page feature in the Stamford Mercury provides food for thought for all those people who thought that Bourne was a quiet little market town when they came here to retire because we are now told that it is becoming one of the fastest growing centres in the region. The report says (May 30th) that Bourne is one of the key areas for growth in South Lincolnshire and development is gathering pace with large new housing estates springing up and new employment opportunities from  business and commerce. The rate of expansion is amply illustrated by a map and a picture index showing the growth areas, giving a pictorial illustration of the town's changing face. But there is also concern over whether the town can support such drastic expansion which will mean additional traffic and increasing pressure on services such as doctors and dentists, schools and community facilities, all of which will have difficulty in coping with such a large influx of people. Bourne may have been a sleepy town in past times but those days are long gone.

The letters page of a local newspaper is always the place to tap the mood of a community and three contributions dominate the columns of the Stamford Mercury, all dealing with the activities of South Kesteven District Council. The first upbraids the authority for its decision to order the owners of the Angel Hotel in Bourne to change its green and cream colour scheme back to the original black and white at a time when other more important issues are at stake yet seem to have been ignored. A second letter in similar vein is far more critical of the council and after itemising a number of issues which have been badly handled, suggests that Bourne is getting a poor deal from councillors who are only too ready to claim their expenses when much of their time is spent in robbing the public of its services. Finally, Councillor Linda Neal, leader of SKDC, fights back with a vigorous defence of the council and its past record, and reminds all of those who might question whether they are being properly represented that she and her colleagues have just been re-elected for another term, although she conveniently omits to mention that the overall turnout by voters was less than 30%.

Street names have been occupying the attention of our town councillors of late because many new ones will be needed as a result of the extensive residential developments now underway in and around the town. At a recent meeting of Bourne Town Council, it was suggested that streets be named after our war heroes and this is an excellent suggestion and one that has paid dividends in the past, particularly with Sharpe's Close, a small cul-de-sac off Beech Avenue which is named after Charles Sharpe, the local man who won the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for bravery, while serving in France with the Second Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment on 9th May 1915.

When the subject was discussed by councillors recently, it was suggested that some names from the War Memorial in South Street, which remembers our dead from two world wars, might be commemorated in this way and that is a commendable idea. It is not recorded how many men left the town to join the armed forces during the 1914-18 war but it is known that 97 men lost their lives and their names are inscribed on the stone cenotaph. It also includes the names of 32 men who did not return from the conflict of 1939-45 and a further three who died on active service in other parts of the world before the century ended. 

Selection of those to be honoured in this way will be a difficult task and one that should not be undertaken lightly because once chosen, those names will be recorded for posterity in our streets. There has also been a suggestion that former town councillors might be remembered in this way but very few from the hundreds we have had since our local councils began in 1894 have made any real impact on the town or its development and alongside those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, it would be right that they should take a back seat on this occasion. War has been proven to be a futile exercise but those who died had no choice and so their names should serve as a reminder of the way it was and the part they played in the freedoms we now enjoy.

Bourne is lucky to have an excellent war historian in Tony Stubbs who ought to be consulted by any council committee formed to draw up a list of suitable names and his suggestions and advice should be heeded before any decision is taken. Nor should those who served in the Boer War of 1899-1902 be forgotten. Apart from the many regular soldiers from this town serving with British regiments, H Company, the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, which was based in Bourne, provided 28 men for the campaign in South Africa and only 22 arrived home safely but their service tends to be overlooked by the two worlds wars of the 20th century and apart from a commemorative plaque in Bourne Abbey to one soldier, there is no memorial in the town to those who died and records of the victims are sparse. But there is an alternative way and by naming a road after one of the more memorable campaigns, Kimberley, Ladysmith or Mafeking, in which most of them served, we would also be remembering that Bourne too played its part in this war and some of its sons died in the fighting.

Empty beer cans, bottles and fast food containers can be seen floating on the Bourne Eau in South Street most days because many people still find this a suitable and convenient place to chuck their rubbish, despite the large number of litter bins that can be found around the streets. This stretch of the river is among the most pleasant places in the town yet there are those who persist in spoiling its appearance, either deliberately or by thoughtless behaviour, and the result is there for all to see, most particularly visitors who arrive in large numbers at this time of the year hoping to see a typical Lincolnshire market town and all that it has to offer.

This is not a new problem and I have discovered a report in the archives from thirty years ago that indicated a similar concern but it also revealed the existence of a worthy organisation called the Bourne Saturday Club lead by a local clergyman, the Rev Tony Sparham, curate at the Abbey Church, and consisted of thirty boys and girls who had volunteered to keep our town spick and span. In those days, the picture was very much the same but in the summer of 1972, they mounted a clean-up project, wading for hours in the thick mud and slime to remove every offending item until the river was devoid of rubbish. But the work they carried out did not last long. The Stamford Mercury reported the following year on Friday 23rd February 1973:

The Saturday Club would have been disheartened had they seen the Bourne Eau a few days ago, littered with cans, papers, empty cigarette packets and other rubbish. The shallow river, in gentle flow along South Street, adds greatly to the town's scenic beauty as a foreground to the Memorial Gardens. For travellers from the south, it is a pleasant invitation to Bourne. It is difficult to catch the miscreants in their acts but a little vigilance and co-operation from Mr John Citizen would help the police to land the offenders.

We are now into a new century and yet litter in the streets and along the Bourne Eau is still a problem but the youngsters who were sufficiently civic-minded to help improve the environment are no longer available. This is a pity. Groups like that inspired by Tony Sparham are an asset to any community and given such encouragement, I am sure that schoolchildren would come forward to help today. It is not their job to pick up other people's rubbish but while offenders persist in such anti-social practices, and the police and the local authorities continue to ignore the problem, then it is up to those who take pride in their town to seize the initiative. Bourne would benefit from a Saturday Club but who out there will be its inspiration?

Bank holidays have become a tradition in England, dating back to an Act of Parliament introduced by Sir John Lubbock, later Lord Avebury, in 1871 when the banks were closed and bills and notes due on such days generally becoming payable on the next day. The term is now used more broadly to cover both public and officially designated holidays and although the dates of some have been changed and others added, the Spring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May which was observed this week has become one of the most important when attractions abound and the seaside starts its summer season.

Today, the majority of people depend on organised events for their entertainment but in times past, most communities observed the Bank Holiday with an optimism that something special should happen and as it was usually up to them to make it so, picnics and sports gatherings were among the most popular activities. In country areas particularly, it became a tradition for the gentry to contribute either by helping to foot the bill or providing a place for them to be held. On the August Bank Holiday, Monday 1st August 1887, for instance, the Baroness Willoughby de Eresby invited townspeople to picnic in Grimsthorpe Park and the occasion was reported by the Stamford Mercury:

Several wagons were drawn up in the Market Place at Bourne for the convenience of children and others who desired to avail themselves of that mode of conveyance. An excellent meat tea was provided in the deer park by Mr Thomas Hardwick of the Crown Hotel, about 100 sitting down. The company had greatly increased towards evening when dancing commenced. An efficient string band under the conductorship of Mr Mooreson (acting for Mr Rippon who was ill), played selections during tea and throughout the evening. Games were provided and cricket, tennis and quoits were popular. Dancing was carried on with spirit, the moonlight being favourable for the fascinating exercise. The picnic was so successful as to justify a repetition of the experiment and those who conceived and carried out the enterprise are to be congratulated.

Such innocent events have all but disappeared and in their place we have the all day barbeques with licensed bars, lager and hamburgers, followed by a disco until gone midnight. What a joy it would be to step back in time and sample the simple pleasures of yesteryear. 

Thought for the Week: When you're abroad, you're a statesman; when you're at home, you're just a politician. - Harold Macmillan, Conservative Prime Minister, 1957-63.

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