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Saturday 3rd April 2004
Advertisements were placed in our two main local
newspapers last week singing the praises of South Kesteven District Council.
This expenditure was obviously sanctioned by the chief executive, Duncan Kerr,
because he was quoted extensively on the current record of the authority.
The content of these public notices, produced in full colour, was based on a
survey of spending by six neighbouring authorities in the wake of the recent
council tax increases conducted by the Peterborough Evening Telegraph
which indicated that the authority’s 6.7% increase in council tax this year was
the lowest of all and that a national league shows them as having the 18th
lowest charges in the United Kingdom.
These advertisements are ill advised on two counts. Firstly, they have cost a
lot of money, for design content and newspaper space, that has been spent
needlessly at a time when the bills for this year’s council tax have just
dropped through our letter boxes. All show a dramatic increase, my own, for
instance, in Band C, is for £968.56, an increase of £54.56 over last year and a
massive rise of £516.06 since 1993, which as anyone with even an elementary
knowledge of mathematics will know is almost double.
What then prompted the chief executive to take large and eye catching spaces in
our local newspapers for such an ill-advised self-congratulatory exercise?
Newspaper surveys are not the most reliable indicators of performance but SKDC
was obviously attracted to the results of this one because it showed them in a
favourable light. The council goes to great lengths to tell us that they keep
only 10% of the money they collect, the rest going to the county and parish
councils and the police authority, yet are able to deliver all of its services
for less than £2 a week of public contribution. “By anyone’s standards that must
represent value for money”, says the chief executive. “In today’s terms, £2
hardly buys a pint of beer or a seat at the cinema.” Now which public relations
adviser inspired that catchy comparison?
One section of their advertisement attracts particular scrutiny because it says: “We employ
good staff and we are taking more note of residents’ priorities in how we spend
our money.” In fact, the council employs well over 650 people to administer a
spending budget in the region of £50 million. Perhaps the chief executive will
tell us how much of this year’s 6.7% increase in council tax will go on salary
increases and how much on public services? While we wait in vain for his reply,
I can tell you that some 70% of what we pay them will be soaked up by
administration costs and the rest might find its way into one of those
attractive looking spending performance pie charts that were included in the
advertisements.
We would also like him to explain why he did not take advertising space to give
us the result of this year’s examination by the Audit Commission, an independent
body working to check that public money is being spent well. SKDC achieved only
a “fair” grading, on the scale of excellent/good/fair/weak/poor. Not a
favourable
report. Certainly not sufficiently encouraging for the chief executive to give
the go ahead for more of our money to be spent on telling us how good they are
when we know they are not. The commission quite clearly stated that the
authority had many areas that needed improvement and that consultation to find
out public needs and expectations were inconsistent and underdeveloped. It was
also unclear about what its priorities were and what it wants to achieve for
residents, a factor currently manifest in the pay parking charges about to be
foisted on Bourne when the entire town opposes them. Why was not this
information provided for the public in large colour display advertising space in
our local newspapers?
The answer is a simple one in that the council, like many other local
authorities, cherry pick their bouquets and quietly ignore their brickbats. They
should also remember that they are handling public money and to spend it at such
a sensitive time on the business of self-aggrandisement, like a bunch of stage
struck luvvies seeking adulatory attention for their first night performance, is
not part of their agenda. SKDC is a legally constituted authority that exists
with the sole objective of delivering public services and to spend money on
prestige advertising, as it is known in the trade, can only be justified when
they have achieved that status of honesty and trust among those they are
supposed to serve, when their name is an acceptable household word for
unquestionable efficiency, and I must tell the chief executive that this time
has not yet come.
What the local newspapers are saying: It does not appear to have been a
good week in Bourne either for local government or democracy, according to
reports of an open meeting at the Corn Exchange on Wednesday to enable the
public comment on proposals to develop a new town centre on a triangle of land
between West Street, North Street and Burghley Street. The meeting was arranged
by South Kesteven District Council and the Bourne Town Centre Management
Partnership to bring residents up to date with this controversial scheme that
was first put forward in 2001 but the Stamford Mercury devoted its front
page (April 2nd) to an account of the evening that “ended in chaos” with furious
traders and residents complaining bitterly about the consultation process. They
also demanded to know how long they would be left “in limbo” before firm
decisions were made.
A similar story was carried by The Local in which reporter John Taylor
writes that “the meeting descended into farce and left those present none the
wiser about what is likely to happen” (April 2nd). Questions from the floor, he
said, received non-committal answers and even a simple show of hands to gauge
public opinion was abandoned because the organisers could not decide what
question should be put to the vote. In fact, says the report, there was so much
frustration among the audience because no one was able to give definite answers
that many got up and left.
However, this may not be the whole picture because elsewhere in The Local
is a letter from someone who also attended, although they have declined to have
their name published. He, or she, writes: “There seemed to be many people in the
audience who went there with their minds already decided. They did not want any
redevelopment on the site and did not listen to anyone with an opposing view.
The speakers were constantly talked over when they tried to answer questions and
I felt intimidated to say anything in favour as the mood was certainly militant.
This is not what I expect from the people of Bourne and I thought that some
people who should have known better were behaving like schoolchildren, although
I must stress that this was only a minority.”
Both newspaper reports appear to indicate that the organisers made a faux pas by arranging a public consultation when there was in fact nothing
to consult about as Councillor Linda Neal, leader of SKDC, explained in The
Local: “Essentially, the message is that at the moment there is an idea to
improve things but nothing is certain and we don’t know it if will happen. You
will be consulted when there is something to be consulted about.” As I have
mentioned in my previous item, the council has already been criticised this year for its
poor record on public consultation and if what is reported is true, then it appears that nothing has changed.
The sampler worked by a pupil at the village school at Dowsby, near
Bourne, which I featured last week, has stimulated widespread interest and those
who were curious about its origins might like to know that we have discovered
more about the girl who made it. The small, rectangular piece of linen is filled
with letters of the alphabet and numbers embroidered in red wool together with
the name Fanny Letitia Michelson and the date 1881 and the woman who owns it,
Jacqueline Smith of Guildford in Surrey, has been checking the census returns at
the Public Records Office for that year.
These have revealed that Fanny was the nine-year-old daughter of a farmer,
William Michelson, aged 49, and his wife Sarah, aged 52, who lived at nearby
Milthorpe, also spelled Millthorpe, and they had three other children, an
18-year-old daughter Maria and sons Robert, aged 16, and Richard, aged 12.
Milthorpe is not marked on many maps because it is little more than a hamlet
with a population of 70 in 1881. It is almost a mile to the north of Dowsby, and
in the absence of motor cars and public transport, we must assume that Fanny had
to walk to and from school every day along a country road or perhaps taking a
short cut using farm tracks across the fields.
William Michelson was an established farmer with land in Aslackby fen and is
listed in Kelly’s Directory for 1876 and again in 1886 although by 1904, his son
Robert had taken over but we have no idea what happened to Fanny after her
schooldays, the most likely eventuality being marriage or domestic service.
There is the distinct possibility that relatives of the Michelson family may
still be alive and living in the area and if there are, I will be happy to put
them in touch with Jacqueline if they send me an email.
The 2,000th photograph was added this week to the CD-ROM A Portrait of
Bourne and with half a million words of text, it has now become a formidable
archive of this town’s history from the earliest times to the present day, and
superseding all others. Barely a day goes by without some addition being made to
the disc that now contains almost 160MB of material and that will give you an
idea of its size.
I have often been asked about the possibility of printing it out in book form to
make it accessible to a wider readership but this has now become most unlikely,
even impossible, because it would extend to several volumes of what we call
coffee table size and so the sale price would be prohibitive. Also, the CD-ROM
is the most convenient medium for a developing subject and despite the fact that
Bourne is only a small market town, I am discovering fresh information weekly
and so the work continues.
The subjects covered chronicle the history of Bourne and its people, the
influence of the fens, the growth of agriculture, our buildings, schools and
education, hospitals, the railway age, business and industry, sport, social,
community and voluntary organisations, local government, roads and transport,
crime and punishment, law and order, our role in recent conflicts including the
Crimean, Boer and two world wars, the biographies of almost 200 people and
illustrated histories of 60 surrounding villages. Copies have been lodged with
our local schools, public libraries and Lincolnshire County Archives, and if you
wish to delve into the history of this very interesting town, you may have a
copy by completing an order form that can be accessed from the front page of the
web site.
Message from abroad: Your Red Hall is one beauty of a building. When we visit
England in the summer of 2005, I am keen to see this lovely house. It is
awesome. We live with wooden structures for the most part up here and the
history does not go back nearly as far as in your country and so my entire
family cherishes any time spent seeing really old places. - email from Kathy
Gates, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, North West Canada, Saturday 27th March 2004.
Hereward the Wake has returned to Bourne after an absence of almost 1,000 years.
A larger than life model of the Saxon warrior who opposed the Norman occupation
of England after the conquest of 1066 is now on display in the Heritage Centre
at Baldock’s Mill in South Street.
It has been presented for permanent exhibition by the Church Farm Museum at
Skegness where it was on display last summer as a representation of Ulrick Sven
who was part of a Viking exhibition that ran from April to October. After being
moved 40 miles, the seven-foot high image has made the transition from Danish
invader to Saxon rebel.
The model was made by Steve Andrews, aged 37, from polystyrene and then coated
with cement before being hand-painted. It took him five days to complete but
then Steve has a lot of experience in this field because he regularly designs
and builds the displays at Christmas and other occasions for the Hildreds
Shopping Centre at Skegness where he works as deputy manager. Hereward will also
speak in time for the summer visitors. Steve is currently adopting the voice
box, operated at the push of a button, when he will say: “My name is Hereward.
Are you friend or foe? Do you want to trade or fight?”
Members of the Civic Society who run the Heritage Centre are busy creating a
theme corner for Hereward on the ground floor by painting a mural on the wall
behind and adding some rustic furniture and when complete, he will be standing
in a corner of olde England about to repel the Normans, with sword and shield at
the ready.
Hereward the Wake flourished circa 1070 AD. History is unclear about the role he
played in the events of his time but here in Bourne, we have taken the Saxon leader to our
bosom and regard him as our hero. Much of what we believe about him was written
as fiction by Charles Kingsley, the Victorian clergyman and author, who stayed
at Edenham vicarage while completing his popular novel Hereward the Wake in
1866, a book that owes more to the imagination than historical fact.
Nevertheless, tradition is that Bourne was his home although no evidence can be
found for the popular belief that he was born at Bourne Castle and died fighting
the Normans in Bourne Wood or is buried in the chancel of the Abbey Church, or
according to another legend, Crowland Abbey, after being taken there by boat
along fenland waterways by a party of monks.
Our polystyrene model is about as shaky as the various myths that surround him
but then it is only a bit of fun.
Thought for the week: All of our ancient history is no more than accepted
fiction. - Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), French writer and philosopher
(1694-1778).
Easter falls next weekend and so we are taking a short break. The web site
remains open and the Bourne Forum will be available for anyone who feels like
letting off steam. Our message to everyone in these welcome springtime days is
to enjoy the holiday and keep the garden in trim.
Saturday 17th April 2004
During an Easter Monday walk in Bourne Wood, we
encountered a family group looking for locations of the famous film Gladiator
that was reputedly made here in the year 2000. Mum, Dad and two kids, were all
enthusiastic in their quest and they had with them as a reference, a copy of the
spring and summer issue of the Forestry Commission’s magazine Forest Life. This
lavish colour publication trotted out the myth that the film was shot here
but the production was certainly not part of the “filming bonanza” they claim
for the forests under their control and they might just as well have suggested
that the wood was also the venue for the original teddy bears’ picnic.
This is an old tale for readers of this column because I have had many requests
for information about the film from fans who seem to think that Bourne Wood was
the setting for some of the battle scenes. The last such inquiry was in February
2002 from a chap who collects information about locations within the United
Kingdom that have been used for film making and as Bourne is mentioned in the
closing credits, he assumed that it was Bourne in Lincolnshire. I have
reluctantly disillusioned him and perhaps the Forestry Commission would also
like to take note.
The spear and sandals saga was made in two or three different countries but some
scenes were shot at a place called The Bourne at Farnham in Surrey, a site over
100 miles to the south of us that includes an old quarry. Director Ridley Scott
decided that he had no need to re-create an ancient Europe overrun by Visigoths
when a computer and 300 extras in a stretch of wasteland in the Home Counties
could do the job just as well. I am told that he digitally cut and pasted his
cluster of raucous Romans until they became a seething mass in a largely
computer-generated landscape, the kind of technology that could revolutionise
the location business and even do away with it.
Bourne Wood would not have been a suitable venue anyway because it is managed
for conservation and an influx of technicians and extras with their cameras,
wires, vehicles and as many camp followers as a Roman army might have attracted,
would not be welcome even if it were chosen as a film location. However, these
woods that cover over 400 acres, do have a colourful history. The area was once
part of the primeval forest of Brunswald and oak, ash, beech and elm trees have
covered this site for over 800 years and possibly as far back as 117AD which is
well before Marcus Aurelius became Emperor of Rome. By way of compensation
however, I have told the Forestry Commission of the legend of our Saxon hero
Hereward the Wake who is reputed to have defended Bourne against William the
Conqueror's invading army in the 11th century, and met his death at the hands of
the Normans in these woods but I have also warned them that like much of the
film Gladiator, both his life and death are more fiction than fact.
The Christmas Fat Stock Show in Bourne has been wound up after
being a feature of the farming life of this town for more than a century. Its
demise was observed with a final meeting at the Angel Hotel last month when long
serving members were honoured with presentations to mark their loyalty. This was
the end of a proud tradition, as The Local newspaper called it (April
3rd), although it began much earlier than the date of 1899 which they suggested.
My own records indicate that the event was thriving in 1885 and I have an
account of the show being held the following year, on Friday 17th December 1886,
in a paddock owned by Mr John Baxter Shilcock, landlord of the Nag's Head Inn and
joint show secretary with Mr Thomas Hardwick.
The show had the advantage of an influential list of patrons and entries were
restricted to those living within ten miles of the town unless the competitor
had been a regular user of the Bourne stock or cattle market, then held at a
site off Hereward Street behind the Marquis of Granby public house. The entries
were considerably in excess of the previous year, there being 68 beasts, 90
sheep, 10 pigs and 62 poultry, a total of 230. At the conclusion of the show,
there were 160 animals for sale although prices were somewhat low, fine beasts
selling from £30 to £32.
Afterwards, members attended a dinner, presumably at the Nag's Head Inn because
Mr Shilcock was renowned for his catering, presided over by Mr John Compton
Lawrance of Dunsby, the Member of Parliament for South Lincolnshire since 1880,
a constituency which at that time included Bourne, although the dinner in later
years moved to the long room at the Angel Hotel and this became a show tradition
until its final years, as was the singing of Who Killed Cock Robin? at
the close of these convivial proceedings where on one occasion, 106 diners
consumed 110 bottles of Scotch.
The following year, another successful event was held, as reported by the
Stamford Mercury on Friday 23rd December 1887:
Christmastide: There is abundant energy
being manifested in the seasonable decorations of the various business
establishments at Bourne. The butchers have quite a fine show. Mr Mays [George
Mays, butcher, Eastgate] has killed 300 sheep (two of which have been lately
exhibited at the Smithfield Show, one weighing 211 lb. the other 187 lb.) and
nine beasts. Mr Williamson [Joseph Williamson, butcher, North Street] has on
view one of the prize beasts at the Bourne show. Mr Mansfield [William
Mansfield, butcher, Church Street] had a splendid show of fat stock on Tuesday,
including Mr J Grummitt's [John Grummitt, farmer, North fen] prize beast at
Bourne show.
In the ensuing years, the show survived long interruptions for
two world wars, two foot and mouth outbreaks, a country-wide epidemic of BSE and
the closure of Bourne cattle market in 1982, but continued at Stamford cattle
market until that too closed in 2001, and then struggled vainly on with a
Lincolnshire sausage and pork pie competition at the Corn Exchange. But the die
had been cast and so a part of our farming heritage has now been consigned to
the pages of our history.
The obituary columns provide a wealth of information about the lives of
other people, rich and poor, important and humble, and they tell us much about
the way they live. One entry in The Local on Friday 9th April under the
headline “Sad loss of a charitable lady” was particularly touching because is
also reveals the isolation that some feel in old age when the world has left
them behind although they still cling to their old values. Mrs Margaret “Peg”
Currell, who spent her final months at the Qu’Appelle retirement home in West
Street, died recently at the age of 82, having lived in Bourne all her life,
serving in the ATS during the Second World War of 1939-45 and attaining the rank
of corporal, and later running a shop in the town, raising a son and nursing
sick relatives.
She married Fred in 1944 and was widowed in 1993 shortly before their golden
wedding anniversary but her life was rich indeed because the obituary says:
“Much of it was devoted to others. She gave freely of her love to many people
and was a charitable person in the traditional meaning of the word, someone who
was kind and sympathetic and who would give help to someone in need. Her love
and charity was not confined to significant events though they occurred
throughout her life. She was a great cook and loved cooking and every year she
would bake huge quantities of cakes, savouries and sweets for the Abbey Church
festival on the vicarage lawns. At Christmas time, she would bake mince pies and
sausage rolls by the hundred which would end up at parties and in homes and
offices everywhere. Knitting was another great love and she carried on long
after she ran out of family and friends to knit for. She would simply buy wool,
knit some cardigans or jumpers and give them away to charity shops. Until her
eyes and hands gave up, she continued to knit squares for blankets sent to
developing countries.”
I found this obituary intensely moving because it tells in simple terms the life
and times of a lady who loved and was loved in return and who knew the true
meaning of charity, that generosity of spirit which inspires the giving of help,
of money and of the self to those in need, an altruistic dedication to others
that is a rare gift in our world today.
What the local newspapers are also saying: The long running saga of
the public lavatories in South Street is over and at a quiet ceremony last week,
they reopened after being shut for 18 months. The Stamford Mercury
recorded the event (April 9th) with a photograph showing two community support
officers standing by as vociferous campaigner Ted Kelby welcomed all comers to
spend a penny once again. The lavatories were closed by South Kesteven District
Council in October 2002 on the pretext that they were being vandalised and had
become a meeting place for paedophiles and perverts and it has been a long and
hard road for Bourne to get them back but a new arrangement with the town
council will ensure that they are once again available and will be cleaned and
inspected regularly. What then was all the fuss about? If an acceptable solution
can be found now, then the problem could similarly have been solved in the first
place but instead, we are treated to the sorry spectacle of local government
being unable to fulfil its primary role, that of serving the public, with any
degree of efficiency.
Local assemblies have been proposed by South Kesteven District Council in an
attempt to appease critics of their policies, according to The Citizen
(April 13th). The suggestion is that new forums in the outposts of the
authority’s area such as Bourne would help tackle controversial issues
before decisions are taken, a response to the Audit Commission’s criticism earlier this year that the
council still had a long way to go in improving
their policy of public consultation. This would seem to be an unnecessary
addition to our system of local government because Bourne Town Council already
acts as a safety valve whenever unacceptable policies are put forward, such as
the closure of the South Street toilets and, more recently, the introduction of
pay parking charges for the town. It is not another assembly, forum or debating
group that we need, full of
hot air and little power, but a willingness of those in charge at Grantham to
listen to what is being said and that is invariably articulated in some detail
by the town council but all too often falls on deaf ears. Another tier of
consultation will be no guarantee that the wishes of the electorate will be met
and can only add to their frustrations when decisions that are detrimental to
their community are made.
The Stamford Mercury returns this week to the dental crisis facing
Bourne, a situation the newspaper first highlighted last September with concerns
that many people were unable to register for treatment on the National Health
Service with local practices. Their latest report (April 16th) says that the
North Street practice, one of our biggest, is sending out letters to patients
saying that in future, they will have to register privately and in the absence
of state subsidies for treatment, that means higher costs. The principal
dentist, Dr Liam Fitzpatrick, explained that the decision had been forced on
them by a new government contract system due to come into force next April which
would no longer make the work financially viable. Meanwhile, there is a wait of
up to 12 months before new NHS patients may be accepted by the Bourne Dental
Practice in West Street and so the outlook is not good, especially for families
moving into the new housing estates springing up around the town. “I regard
Bourne as a problem area”, said Richard Seppings, dental adviser for
Lincolnshire. “The county just does not have enough dentists and we are being
forced to recruit them from Spain.”
From the archives: Frederick Rouse was apprehended by Superintendent
Willerton Brown on a charge of stealing various articles from the shop and
premises of Mr F J Green, grocer and wine and spirit merchant, of North Street,
Bourne, in whose employ he was up to Saturday night last when he left. In
consequence of some irregularities in Rouse's conduct, Mr Green's suspicions
were aroused and the prisoner's house was searched on Sunday when a quantity of
lard and soap, several bottles of gin and wine and some empty bottles, were
found, all of which were identified by Mr Green as his property. A flitch of
bacon was also found in an outhouse in Mr Green's yard and had apparently been
placed there for the purpose of being removed on a favourable opportunity. The
prisoner was subsequently taken into custody and on Monday, taken before Major
William Parker who remanded him to the petty sessions to be held at Bourne on
the 21st inst. when he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. - news
report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 22nd August 1879.
Thought for the week: Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to
do anything. – John Kenneth Galbraith, American economist, diplomat and
presidential adviser, now aged 95.
Saturday 24th April 2004
The former site of the Bourne gasworks has been under
discussion in the Forum this week and perhaps contributors might like to know
more about this undertaking and exactly where it was located. A gasworks existed
for more than a century, providing light and heat for much of the town until
electricity started to compete because of its cleaner operation and safer
installation.
The Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company was formed in 1840 and took over a site at
the top end of Eastgate. There were five trustees of the company, one of them
being the vicar, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, and £10 shares were issued to those
who wanted a financial stake in the venture.
The gasworks were erected at a cost of £2,000 and the enterprise prospered and
in 1868, it was necessary to enlarge the premises that had become known as Gas
House Yard. Further extensions to installations were carried out in 1878 when
new and much larger mains were laid as far as the Market Place where a junction
was formed with the old mains, thereby affording consumers a more adequate
supply of gas. By this time, coal gas was not only being used for heating and
lighting in homes, shops and business premises, but also for street lighting and
there were 56 public incandescent gas lamps at various points around the town.
Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire reported in 1885: "The town consists
principally of four streets diverting from the Market Place, all remarkably
clean and lighted with gas." In February 1898, the parish council, who footed
the bill for street lighting, asked the gas company to ensure that the lamps
were lit on every dark evening and that they were left on all night on Saturdays
and Sundays.
There was also a campaign by the company to persuade housewives use gas for
cooking and demonstrations were held in the town to show them how. The
Stamford Mercury reported 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.
The gasworks flourished and in the summer of 1894, a new
gasometer was erected, the third to be built on the site and the largest so far.
The structure was telescopic and designed on the Gadd and Mason's patent
principle, without guide framing. It had a capacity of 40,000 cubic feet,
whereas the old gasholder held only 22,000 cubic feet and the one before that
5,000 cubic feet. The inner lift of the new holder was 42ft. 6in. in diameter
and 14ft. in length. The outer lift was 44ft. 6 in. by 14ft. in depth. On the
outside of the inner lift were five spiral guides of steel rail fixed at an
angle of 45 degrees and the guide rollers of the outer lift worked on them. The
installation was carried out by Messrs R and J Dempster of Newton Heath,
Manchester, a firm with an international reputation that had been called in as
consultants for public gas undertakings in many places, particularly St John's,
Newfoundland, in 1888.
Further extensions were carried out in 1895-97 but on 31st March 1914, the Bourne
Gas Light and Coke Company Ltd ceased trading and went into liquidation prior to
being sold to Bourne Urban District Council although the business was not handed
over until the following year. The council paid almost £14,000 on 11th February
1915, being the purchase price of £12,500, stock and fittings £900 and interest
to date £585. Prior to the liquidation, a dividend of 8% was declared and a
return of £25 per share was paid to shareholders. The manager was retained in
his post at a salary of £2 a week with £1 per quarter extra for meter reading
and a house, coal and gas supplied free of charge. His wife was also to receive
two shillings a week to attend to customers at the gas showrooms in Eastgate and
to keep the premises clean.
Explosions were not unknown, similar to that which occurred on the evening of
Friday 21st October 1898 at Mr Thomas Carlton's drapery shop in North Street.
There had been a small leakage of gas that seeped into a drain through a grating
at the roadside and a match thrown down by a passerby caused an explosion.
Damage was not extensive and the leak was located and repaired.
By 1927, gas consumption in the Bourne area had increased to such an extent that
the council purchased more land for £450 to add to the number of purifiers
needed in the production process. In 1934 the service was extended to Dyke when
the urban council laid a mains pipe to the village from Bourne and the streets
were lighted with gas lamps for the first time, the switching on taking place on
Saturday 1st September. Until then, twelve oil lamp standards had been used to
light the streets but these appliances were replaced by gas burners and the
number reduced to nine because their increased brilliance required fewer of
them. The old system of lighting and extinguishing the lamps by hand was also
abolished in favour of an automatic clock system that switched them on at night
and off in the morning.
This prosperity continued for another twenty years but re-organisation within
the gas supply industry brought about their closure in 1957. The buildings in
Gas House Yard were demolished in January 1960 and the following April, new
workshops for the construction of the BRM racing cars were built on the site by
the company run by the motor racing pioneer Raymond Mays although the huge gas
holder or gasometer as it was known, remained in use on the opposite side of the
road. By 1965, Bourne's supply was being piped in from North Killingholme on
Humberside and there were 1,400 consumers in the town at that time with the
demand rising steadily.
The popularity of gas as a domestic fuel remains undiminished, being much
cheaper than electricity, but today the gasometer has gone from Bourne and our
supply no longer comes from coal but from the North Sea and is brought into the
town through a complicated pipeline network from the east coast.
An indication that Bourne has become the poor relation of other towns in
South Kesteven can be found in Stamford this week. The public lavatories in Red
Lion Square are currently closed for a major refurbishment, way beyond the scale
of our own in South Street.
While these toilets are unavailable to the public, four temporary unisex
portable loos have been erected near to the bus station, all operating cleanly
and efficiently as I found out when I had the need to pop in this week. The
units are plumbed in with running and flushing water and wash basins, and
although not exactly Savoy standard, there was little to fault them.
As the small room is the perfect place to contemplate on the inequalities of
life, I wondered how much all of this was costing and why such a facility was
not offered to Bourne when Councillor Peter Martin-Mayhew, the cabinet member of
South Kesteven District Council responsible for the decision, took it upon
himself to close our lavatories in October 2002 without a satisfactory
explanation, together with those in Red Lion Square, although in that instance,
the decision was hastily reversed.
The refurbishment of the lavatories in Red Lion Square is obviously a major
project because the passageway alongside has been closed to allow room for the
contractors who are there mob-handed to carry out the work over what appears to
be an extended period yet the lick of paint given to the South Street loos in
Bourne before they were re-opened took just a couple of days and only then after
a financial arrangement over their future maintenance with Bourne Town Council.
It is therefore slowly beginning to dawn on the people of Bourne that we are way
down in the pecking order of priorities. Not only is Stamford getting public
lavatories of a much higher standard than those in Bourne but they have also
been given quite comfortable temporary loos while the work is carried out
whereas we in Bourne were told by Councillor Martin-Mayhew that we should use
those in the shops, pubs and cafes in the town if we needed to go while the
South Street lavatories were closed, a suggestion that did not endear him to our
traders.
It is interesting to compare the costings of the two lavatory refurbishments
because the bill for that in Bourne was approximately £4,400 while that in
Stamford, a much bigger project, was allocated a budget of £110,000 and this has
included listed building alterations and the entire fitting out of a new public
convenience facility. We know that Bourne has been promised up to date public
lavatories at some undefined time in the future but the current exercise does
put the town firmly in its place at the bottom of the expenditure ladder.
Perhaps our six district councillors might wish to raise these matters at the
council meeting on April 29th when the amenities of this town will again be
under threat, this time with another controversial proposal, namely pay parking
which is likely to be imposed in the coming months despite no valid explanation
and almost total opposition from Bourne.
What the local newspapers are saying: Bourne Outdoor Pool is the town’s
favourite leisure facility during the summer months and it therefore comes as a
surprise to learn that it may not open this year because of a shortage of
lifeguards. The Local devotes its front page to the search for qualified
staff (April 23rd) who need to be on duty at all times but the response has not
been good and Hazel Duffy, a committee member of the preservation trust which
runs the pool, is not optimistic. “We were due to drain the pool this weekend
ready for the summer”, she said, “but this will not be done until we know that
we can open.” The pool is due to begin the season on Saturday 22nd May but this
will now almost certainly be delayed while the search for lifeguards continues.
Letters are the lifeblood of our newspapers, particularly those which serve
small communities like Bourne, because they not only act as a barometer of local
feeling on issues of the day but also make readers aware that they are part of
the publication which they buy every week to keep them in touch with their town
and neighbourhood. The number of contributions published by The Local in
the last two weeks has dropped to one for each issue and it is to be hoped that
this is not a new trend because letters to the editor, as with messages to the
Bourne Forum, are one of the few ways in which the people can be heard on
matters which concern them. The Letters Page is also one of the most popular
features in any newspaper and editors should be aware that it is unwise to cut
or curtail it and they do so at their peril.
The Stamford Mercury continues with its two full pages of letters and all
are as interesting as most of the stories contained in the editorial. One of
them was written by Natalie Howard of Thurlby in response to the dental crisis
which was featured in last week’s edition complaining that the Bourne practice
to which she belongs is asking patients for £15 a month to remain on their books
if she wishes to continue receiving treatment. I have also heard this from other
sources and there is much confusion over its implications so perhaps the
newspaper might follow up this letter with a more explanatory report to let us
all know exactly where we stand because on its face value, the arrangement
sounds like feather-bedding at its most extreme.
The pay parking issue is to be decided by South Kesteven District Council on
Thursday, the most important story of recent months, and The Local
reports (April 23rd) that 4,000 people have now signed their protest petition
while the Stamford Mercury devotes two pages to the subject with lists of
quotes from several leading personalities and 48 local people under the headline
“Bourne says ‘No’ but is anyone even listening?” The newspaper has also promised
to give us the result of the meeting in next week’s issue.
Whenever unusual things happen, there is always someone on hand ready to
paint a scenario as to why and it is usually totally inaccurate. We are in the
habit of visiting Sainsburys on Saturday mornings shortly before midday to
purchase a few essential items to see us over the weekend. Car parking spaces
are always at a premium and it usually takes some minutes to find one.
Competition is so keen that road rage frequently surfaces as drivers vie with
each other as they become available and frustration is clearly evident while
frayed tempers are a common occurrence.
Last Saturday, there was no problem because the car park was half empty as was
the store. Usually, it is crowded with shoppers but on this occasion there were
few people about and the aisles almost trolley free while there was little of
the usual wait at the checkout. Now why should this suddenly happen for no
apparent reason? Sporting events, such as the Cup Final and the Derby, keep
people at home, glued to their television sets, but there was no big national
event on Saturday and so we sought an explanation from the staff who had also
noticed that trade was unusually quiet. One of them told us that the school
holidays were to blame and that families had gone away to the seaside but would
be returning that afternoon to stock up at Sainsburys. A likely story!
The explanation is that there is not one. Things happen for no apparent reason
although the effect suggests that there must be a cause. The best description we
have is coincidence, a chance occurrence of events remarkable for either being
simultaneous or for apparently being connected. This is certainly a more
reasonable justification for being able to shop at Sainsburys in comfort on a
Saturday morning than Bourne having decamped en masse to Hunstanton for the past
fortnight.
Thought for the week: Everything is what it is, and not another thing.
Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what
they will be: Why then should we desire to be deceived?
- Joseph Butler,
Bishop of Durham (1692-1752).
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