|
Saturday 4th September 2004
The proposed housing development on land adjoining The
Croft in North Road is fast becoming a cause célèbre because of the
persistence of the applicants and the increasing resentment of the opposition.
Last week, heavy duty equipment moved in and destroyed an orchard of mature
fruit trees on the site, much to the dismay of many people living in the
vicinity who had enjoyed this view from their windows in past years, and on
Wednesday, there was more activity as two fifty-year-old chestnuts at the
entrance were felled. The trees have made this grassland an attractive spot, not
within but on the very edge of, the conservation area, and there are now fears
for the future of the avenue of chestnuts lining the main drive that have become
a landmark in this part of Bourne.
Since 1993, the developers have submitted four applications to build houses on
the meadowland adjoining the house and all have been refused but they have
appealed and a government inspector will hear the case in the autumn. Work on
the land in the meantime surpasses normal maintenance and we must therefore
assume that the developers have every expectation of pursuing their plans to
proceed with house building in the near future.
There are precedents elsewhere in Bourne in which similar preliminary work on
site proceeded prior to planning permission being granted and in view of the low
esteem in which local government is held, we may be forgiven for thinking that
perhaps they received a nod and a wink from the right quarter.
The tree felling around The Croft has reduced its visual appeal and altered the
street scene in North Road but will play no part in the public hearing, due to
take place at the Corn Exchange on Tuesday 2nd November, no matter how much
steam is generated by the elderly residents of Maple Gardens nearby. The
government inspector will address only the planning implications and devoid of
all emotive content, the case appears to be clear-cut and there is little doubt
that he will find in favour of the developers. His appearance therefore, is
little more than window dressing which is why he will be conducting an informal
hearing rather than a public inquiry. It will be the right decision legally, but
many will consider it environmentally indefensible.
What the local newspapers are saying:
The destruction of trees at The Croft
occupies almost two pages in The Local and the consensus is that the work is
vandalism on a grand scale (September 3rd). Town councillor Judy Smith said that
residents had approached her in tears of anger and frustration at what was being
done. “I am appalled and disgusted”, she said. “I cannot believe that the
developers have had the arrogance to do this before getting planning
permission.” Her views are echoed in several other interviews and all have the
opinion that the work has been carried out to negate the environmental value of
the site and so increase the chances of winning the appeal in November.
There is also a curious quote from Dr Antony Wright of the Galletly Medical
Practice whose premises and land are next door to The Croft. He was asked by The
Local to say something about the loss of the two chestnuts but replied: “We do
not feel that it is appropriate to comment on the felling of the trees at the
front of the house since the land on which they stood does not belong to the
practice.” It should be remembered that there was no statement forthcoming from
this quarter when the newspaper revealed last week that the Galletly practice
owned the land on which the orchard stood and has since been destroyed, turning
the site into a wasteland. In view of the strong feeling of resentment in this
town towards the proposed development and the perceived role of our doctors in
caring for the community, perhaps the time has come for a full and frank
statement from the practice explaining their role in all this.
Total annual allowances for the 77 county councillors in Lincolnshire are now
nudging £1 million, according to the County News that dropped through the letter
box this week (September 2004). The newspaper, which is produced by the county
council and distributed free to 314,000 homes and businesses each month, gives a
complete run down of their payments for 2003-04 which include a basic allowance
and additional amounts for special responsibility, travel and subsistence, and
the highest goes to Councillor Ian Croft, the member for Bourne Castle and
council leader, who collects £30,467.08. The payment of councillors is
comparatively new. In years past, those elected served without remuneration of
any kind and their duty to the public superseded all other considerations. The
amounts paid out that are listed by the County News would suggest that being a
councillor has now become financially rewarding, especially as many also belong
to other local authorities that make similar payments, and we may be forgiven
for thinking that it has now become a well paid part time job rather than a
public duty, usually for those who have retired and are already living on
substantial pension entitlements.
One of the biggest vacant buildings in Bourne, the former Freemans Distribution
Centre off Pinfold Road, is likely to get a new lease of life. The Stamford
Mercury reports that it has been bought by a private investor for £1 million and
will be converted into smaller units to house several new businesses that will
create additional jobs and boost the local economy (September 3rd). This is
welcome news because the warehouse has been standing empty since February and
during that time the hard-standing and surrounding grassland has been a target
for litter louts, making it one of the worst eyesores in the town. It is
therefore pleasing to learn that the plans also include landscaping, tree and
shrub planting to make the site more attractive.
The Stamford Mercury also reports that closed circuit television cameras in
Bourne will be used to catch litter louts in the future (September 3rd). The
crackdown by South Kesteven District Council follows a pilot scheme in Grantham
that also enables community support officers issue £50 on the spot fines for
anyone dropping rubbish, cigarette ends or chewing gum or even throwing it from
cars. This will please contributors to the Bourne Forum who have been pressing
for such measures in recent discussions and although the scheme may be difficult
to enforce, the council is intent on trying. Councillor Ray Auger, the cabinet
member responsible, told the newspaper: “Rubbish in the streets is a modern
menace and we have to act to show that we mean business. We have a successful
policy of prosecuting fly tippers and it is quite right that we should enforce
fines on the casual litter dropper.”
The most incongruous transformation of all our historic buildings in Bourne must
be the conversion of Monkstone House at No 12 West Street from a private house
for use as an Indian restaurant. This is one of the oldest secular properties in
the town dating from the early 17th century and built of the traditional red
brick that was used when stone became either too expensive or hard to find
locally although it does have ashlar quoins.
Few houses in which the townsfolk lived in earlier times have survived but this
one has remained virtually intact externally for the past 250 years and is
similar in style and period to the house nearby that is now used by Lloyds TSB.
The rear part of Monkstone House dates back to circa 1620 while the impressive
frontage was erected in the mid-18th century and the original doorway
incorporating a broken pediment and fanlight still graces the main entrance.
This handsome building rising to two storeys above the ground would doubtless
have been the home of one of the town's more affluent citizens. During the
1930s, the house was owned by the late Mr Jack Rayner, a teacher at Bourne
Grammar School who died in June 1990 at the age of 73. He was an expert in
timber and carpentry, and he spent much of his spare time filling the main rooms
with intricate wood carvings of foliage and small animals, particularly mice,
converting the drab interior into the splendour of a richly decorated
Elizabethan home. Later in the century, when the house fell vacant, it stood
empty for several years but was converted for use as an Indian restaurant in
1993, known as the Balti King and these adornments were preserved.
It is now under new management and will in future be known as the Montaz
although the owners have acknowledged the property’s historic past with a plaque
on the front giving its date of construction as 1617 and the name The Old
Monkstone House. The restaurant will specialise in Indian and Bangladeshi
cuisine, a sign of our changing tastes, influenced by foreign travel and the
influx of immigrants from the sub-continent. Incompatible this may be with a
traditional English market town but the building is being used and preserved and
that is the way it should be.
One of the main problems with the National Health Service is an insistence on
harnessing facilities to a Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, regime whereas ill
health and accidents are likely to occur at all times, often at night and
weekends, and during the holidays. An orderly attention to our indispositions
suits the institutional mind but reality is very different and sporadic
incidents that occur outside normal hours are often met with indifference and
inevitably, it is the patient who suffers.
We called in at the Anglia Pharmacy in Exeter Street on Saturday morning to
collect some pills and found two ladies, one young and one middle-aged, trying
to get into the Hereward Medical Centre across the car park. They were not
together but both were apparently seeking medical aid because each looked
agitated when they found the front door locked and one of them went into the
shop for help and an assistant suggested that she try the side door, but that
too was locked and the clinic was obviously deserted.
It was 11.30 am and although there is a Saturday morning surgery for urgent
conditions that cannot wait until Monday morning (in this case Tuesday because
it happened to be August Bank Holiday weekend), it only operates from 9 am until
10.30 am and so both left without seeing anyone and probably ended up
telephoning NHS Direct, the government’s nurse-lead help line that is available
to patients when their own general practitioners are not around.
I was reminded of this while reading The Times later that day because it carried
a letter in its correspondence columns from Mrs Gwendy Black from Upper
Farringdon, Alton, Hampshire, that will provide food for thought for all our
doctors:
We have recently returned from walking in the Greek mountains. Whilst there, I
sprained my ankle quite badly. The following day (Saturday) my husband insisted
on taking me to hospital in the local town, as I had major surgery on the same
ankle five years ago. Within one hour of arrival, I had seen a doctor, had it
X-rayed, seen a second doctor and then been taken up to the orthopaedic surgeon
who reassured me that it was just badly sprained, strapped it up and gave me the
X-ray to show to my doctor at home. At all times, I had someone with me (from
the hospital) who spoke English. There were no forms to fill in and there was no
charge. I wonder if an elderly Greek woman would receive such excellent, speedy
and friendly service in England.
From the archives: The painfully sudden death occurred of Miss Marie Nichols,
second daughter of Mr William Nichols, grocer, of North-street, Bourne, where
she worked. She was seized with violent pain on Sunday 22nd April. Medical aid
was summoned and Dr John Gilpin declared the young lady to be in a critical
condition and that nothing short of an immediate operation would save her life.
He proceeded in his motor at once to Peterborough and returned about five
o'clock accompanied by Dr Kirkwood. The latter pronounced the case too serious
to operate at home and she was removed to Peterborough Infirmary in Mr Thomas
Mays' motor and an operation performed on her arrival there. First reports were
that the operation was successful but on Wednesday, a telegram was dispatched
for the parents saying there was no hope of recovery and the young lady
succumbed a few minutes after six in the evening, the cause of the trouble being
the bursting of a substance in the stomach. There was not the least expectation
of such an early termination to her life as she had scarcely reached 21 years of
age and up to Saturday week, was performing her usual duties in the shop. – news
item from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 4th May 1906.
Thought for the week: Sometimes you have to wait until the evening to see how
glorious the day has been. – Sophocles, Greek dramatist (496-406 BC).
Saturday 11th September 2004
There is a certain irony in the plight of the residents
of Maple Gardens who are faced with the prospect of pleasant meadowland around
The Croft next door in North Road being turned into a new housing estate.
They have been vociferous in their condemnation of the proposed development
because they will not only lose an idyllic countryside view in the heart of town
but the new housing will also connect their small and exclusive estate with a
much larger urban sprawl that may even have an adverse affect on the prices of
their properties.
However, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is not so long ago that
Maple Gardens was also the green space around another large property, the
substantial and imposing William and Mary period house at No 20 North Road which
was the home of Mr Horace Stanton, a well known local solicitor and holder of
many public offices. He moved in with his new wife Dorothy after their marriage
in 1923 when Mr Stanton actually carried his bride across the threshold in
traditional fashion and in later years it was often the scene of many social
events and garden parties. Mr Stanton died in 1977 and his wife continued living
there until her death in 1989 and two years later, the house was sold.
Planning permission was subsequently granted for the building to be demolished
to make way for a new residential development that is known today as Maple
Gardens. The grounds also contained the largest weeping ash in England but that
too was destroyed, like the orchard adjoining The Croft and the fifty-year-old
chestnut trees at the entrance that have been felled in the past few weeks. Only
the front gate of the stone house remains on the main road as a reminder of its
former grandiose existence as a town house of some distinction.
Since then, Maple Gardens has become a retirement choice for many of the great
and the good of the town and I have heard it described as Geriatric Close or
even Jurassic Park, unkind references to the elderly and dinosaurian nature of
its tenants. Now they are banded together to stop this encroachment on their
privacy although I fear that they are fighting a losing battle.
Perhaps their united voice of protest would have made a difference when No 20
North Road was similarly under threat, and that may even be regarded as a
precedent for the present planning application, but where were all of these
upright and caring citizens when the clarion call of disapproval was needed
then? The answer, of course, is that they were all living elsewhere in the town
where the defacement of their immediate surroundings was not a threat to their
lifestyle and so the fine house at No 20 North Road was pulled down and their
present homes built on its attractive gardens with hardly a whimper of
remonstration from any of them.
The withdrawal of night and weekend cover by family doctors in Bourne is
now causing concern in Parliament. As waiting lists for appointments grow,
changes in working conditions for general practitioners currently being
introduced are expected to exacerbate the problem, especially when they are
relieved of the 24-hour duty of care to individual patients.
Practices can choose to opt out of night and weekend cover and the majority
intend to do so. Indeed, the two medical centres in Bourne, both part of
Lincolnshire South West Primary Care Trust that includes 23 others from
Grantham, Sleaford, Stamford, Market Deeping and the surrounding villages, have
been discouraging calls for help out of hours since April, directing patients
who need assistance to an Emergency Care Centre for urgent treatment and to NHS
Direct, the government’s nurse-led help line, for all other inquiries.
The issue was fully discussed in this column on August 23rd and this week, our
MP, Mr Quentin Davies, the member for Grantham and Stamford, wrote to the
Speaker of the House of Commons asking for an emergency debate on the state of
health services in South Lincolnshire. This was a direct result of the
announcement that all out-of-hours cover by general practitioners is to be
withdrawn in this area, and on Wednesday, he issued the following statement:
This is a quite disgraceful and unacceptable
situation. For the first time since 1948 it is no longer the case that a patient
can see a GP at any time. We are the only country in the EU where this will be
the case.
It is remarkable how often serious conditions arise at night or at the weekend –
sick patients will now be given a second class service and be diagnosed by a
nurse on a telephone or have to attend an A & E Department at a hospital.
I am sure that the nurses concerned will try and do the very best job possible.
But diagnosis is a doctor’s responsibility. And no-one can be adequately
diagnosed on the telephone – you do not have the medical records and above all
you cannot see the patient, feel his or her pulse, listen to the patient’s
chest, see whether there are swellings, whether muscles are functioning etc.
This is a frivolous and irresponsible abandonment of professional and medical
standards.
South Lincolnshire is now being used as a guinea pig in a pilot scheme which the
Government clearly intends to roll out throughout the country.
The experiment must be abandoned immediately – in the interests of us guinea
pigs in Lincolnshire, and in the interests of the whole country.
What the local newspapers are saying: Doctors have been quick to defend the out
of hours system and in a front page report in The Local they seek to reassure
patients that they will not be disadvantaged (September 10th). A statement from
the Lincolnshire South West Primary Care Trust insists that the new service was
set up with the full co-operation of accident and emergency specialists, the
ambulance service and local doctors and surveys have already revealed that 92% of
patients who have used it have found it “excellent” or “very good”. Dr Clive
Cole, a general practitioner at the Hereward Medical Centre, told the newspaper:
“People will always have reservations about big changes and it would not be fair
to say that the GPs do not have reservations too. Those running the emergency
service are a new breed of practitioner who have a huge amount of experience,
usually from a nursing background, and have been trained extensively to ensure
they are able to do the job and it is unfair to suggest that they are not
capable or that the public is being short-changed.”
This may be seen as an attempt to divert attention away from the real reason for
the change which is to cut costs. Doctors are highly paid, substantial salaries
negotiated over many years (the average GP now earns £66,000 a year), and additional hours mean additional payments but we have
reached the stage where the public purse can no longer afford to pay them for
these extra duties and so “the new breed of practitioner” appears on the scene
with a status between the nurse and the doctor, with less expertise and
therefore less pay. What we are
getting is in fact a cut-price service and as is demonstrated in other spheres
of life, this is no substitute for the real thing. Doctors are trained at our
expense and no one would wish to demean the time and dedication needed to pursue
this profession, but to make themselves unavailable for emergency care out of
hours is to negate the very purpose of their role in the community and they are
turning what was once considered to be a vocation into just another job.
The first ever local assembly for Bourne that was held by South Kesteven
District Council in the Corn Exchange on Wednesday is given extensive coverage
by the Stamford Mercury, concentrating on the town centre development which will
eventually envelop the land between North Street, Burghley Street and West
Street (September 10th). This will be one of the most dramatic changes for the
town in recent years and ten developers have already shown an interest. But not
everyone is in favour of seeing the old heart ripped out of the town because
local resident, Ted Kelby, told the meeting: “Bourne has always been a small
market town. Why on earth do we want to encourage development?” The answer is,
of course, progress and the statistics given by the Mercury indicate that new
shops will mean a more lively economy because 79% of current spending on
non-food bulky goods goes out of town as well as 70% on DIY items, 69% on
electrical goods, 51% on furniture and 37% on food and if that money remained in
Bourne it would stimulate both the economy and employment.
Mums will no doubt be out in force buying the latest issue of The Local because it carries one
of those photo features that the newspaper does best with a sea of faces staring
out from its pages (September 10th). There have been many such excellent
features in the past and this time, being the start of the autumn term, the
subject is “My first day at school” with a page of colour pictures of eager
young boys and girls taking their first step on the ladder of learning. Bourne
Westfield Primary and Morton Church of England Primary are the two schools
featured and no doubt we will be seeing others in the coming weeks. This is
local journalism at its very best, embracing both the family and the community
as well as providing those youngsters with a picture they will treasure for the
rest of their lives.
An open letter to the people of Bourne has been sent from North America by
someone who remembers the town’s hospitality and generosity during the Second
World War of 1939-45.
It has come from Dennis Staff, now a senior citizen living in Ontario, Canada,
who was evacuated here to escape the bombing of his home town of Hull where
British shipping in the North Sea port was a regular target for enemy aircraft.
Mr Staff’s letter arrived at the Bourne web site on Friday 3rd September to
coincide with the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the war against Germany.
He was just ten years old when he was evacuated to Bourne and it was his first
time away from home. He wrote:
With deepest gratitude, I thank you Bourne. You willingly opened your homes to
dozens of strange children who were frightened and afraid.
I was lucky because it landed me at the door of Mrs Lilian Grummitt and her
husband Ernest, at 42 Burghley Street, amidst a crowd of other evacuees yet to
find a place. I looked at the beautiful flower garden and the neat looking
privet hedge and crossed my fingers and huddled with my younger brother Gordon,
then prayed real hard. My wish came true and Gordon ended up two or three doors
down.
I was always made comfortable and told to feel that it really was my new home,
after all, hadn't Mrs Grummitt chosen me from among a lot of other kids. She
told me a long time afterwards that the reason she chose me was that I looked
very much like her son Maurice, the young man in a sailor’s uniform in the
photograph on the sideboard had looked when he was my age.
Maurice had joined the Royal Navy and I was thrilled to inherit his room and a
bed of my own, having previously shared a single bed with my two brothers in a
wartime emergency shelter in the slum area of Hull.
I learned to play their piano with two fingers, Chopsticks, God save the King,
popular songs like Silver Wings in the Moonlight and one or two of Mr Grummitt’s
favourites for our regular sing songs. He had been wounded in the Great War of
1914-18 and was unfit for further service but turned out most nights for duty in
the streets of Bourne as a fire watcher.
I got my first ever suit during my stay in Bourne because until then, it had
always been hand-me-downs, a jersey or jacket from my elder brother, and I still
wore short pants and stockings. But the suit with long trousers did make me feel
good when we attended morning service at the Abbey Church the next Sunday.
The Grummitt family were without any doubt the greatest influence upon my life
together with the encouragement of Miss Dent, schoolmistress at the primary
school in Abbey Road, whose wisdom provided a lifetime of inspiration for me to
follow. The confidence and determination she instilled in me was to stand me in
good stead in the years to come. I spent many an hour weeding the garden and
trimming the hedge at her house on West Road and had many glasses of lemonade
and tea on the patio (in the kitchen if raining). She gave me an outline for the
future in the many talks we had.
I wonder how many people in Bourne today would open up their homes and turn
their daily routine into chaos to provide a place of safety for strange children
who spoke with an odd dialect. It is only in my old age that I can appreciate
exactly the inconveniences they endured.
To all you Brunnians, I wish to express my boundless thanks to the best darned
little market town in the world, one that moulded a character like me. My
evacuation to Bourne opened up a new life for me, teaching many values which I
cherish today and I am truly grateful to you all. - Sincere regards, Dennis
Staff.
Mr and Mrs Grummitt are now dead and their son Maurice, who lived in St Paul’s
Gardens, also died recently. Dennis Staff subsequently emigrated to Canada and
joined the Royal Canadian Navy where he had a distinguished career as a naval
intelligence officer, later seconded to NATO and working for the Canadian
government on the Space Shuttle. He also successfully assisted in the campaign
for his friend Joe Clark to become Prime Minister of Canada in 1979. Now aged 73
and retired, he lives in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, where he is still active
with the Lions Clubs International of which he is a Past Regional Chairman.
Thought for the Week:
I appreciate that it is difficult
for parents but at nine or ten o'clock at night they should know where their
children are. - Tim Bright, head teacher of Westfield Primary School, Bourne,
quoted by The Local newspaper in a report that teenagers were to blame for an
outbreak of vandalism on the premises, Friday 10th September 2004.
Saturday 18th September 2004
Film shows are returning to the Corn Exchange later this
year if current plans come to fruition. The first movies are expected to be
showing by the autumn with audiences of between 80 to 100 people.
This is a direct result of the successful pilot showings during Market Towns
Week in May and is seen as the perfect opportunity to give the town regular
screenings of popular, classic and arts films, a venture that has received the
full support of the town council. Ivan Fuller, the Town Centre Co-ordinator,
said that bids had already been made to South Kesteven District Council to
provide the necessary equipment to make the Corn Exchange a regular venue. “The
pilot week in May was a success and we should capitalise on it”, he said.
Film shows at the Corn Exchange are not new because there have been screenings
in past times, the first during the Great War of 1914-18 although they were
mainly for a charitable, religious or patriotic cause. In the first week of
December 1916, for instance, dramatic film taken during the Battle of the Somme
earlier that year was given two screenings when the hall was packed on both
occasions and additional seating was installed to cope with the crowds. The
flickering images were probably the first pictures the audience had even seen of
the war, certainly of the mud and blood of the Somme, and stunned them into
silence while many were moved to tears and the £35 raised from the two
screenings by the Bourne Electric Theatre Company was donated to a fund to
provide Christmas parcels for the boys of Bourne who were serving with the armed
forces.
Then on the afternoon of Thursday 25th October 1917, a naval film was shown on
behalf of the Missions to Seamen and the following year, Mr H P Butler applied
to the magistrates for a licence to give a picture show there on Good Friday.
This particular day has a deeply religious significance and at that time, all
public entertainments were prohibited but the application was granted at the
petty sessions held at the Town Hall on Thursday 14th March 1918 under the
chairmanship of Alderman Edward Smith.
The justices were told that the application had been made on behalf of the Vicar
of Bourne, the Rev Harry Cotton Smith, and that the picture to be shown was of a
religious nature with all proceeds going to the Red Cross, a particularly
patriotic cause because the Great War was still raging in Europe. The film
turned out to be The Sign of the Cross, not a feature film but one made for
churchgoers about the significance of Easter, although the title was later used
by the Hollywood producer Cecil B De Mille for his 1932 masterpiece that
thrilled audiences around the world for the next decade.
A series of film shows began at the Corn Exchange in 1925 when posters were
carried by local newspapers advertising moving pictures on February 19th
including a feature about George V called Long Live the King and an animated
cartoon called Felix the Cat. These screenings were such a success that the hall
became a regular venue for further film shows on three nights a week, using a
portable screen and primitive projection equipment that was either housed in a
movable corrugated iron shed or sited outside the building from where the film
was projected in through the window. These precautions were necessary because
the nitrate-based 35 mm film used was highly inflammable and there had been many
serious fires caused by careless operators in other parts of the country
although it remained in general use until a safety film was developed in 1951.
The film shows at the Corn Exchange were so successful that a permanent cinema
for the town became a viable business proposition and in 1929, the Tudor Cinema
opened in North Street. The date was December 2nd when the first three nights
were devoted to a screening of the silent film The Sea Beast, a 1925 adaptation
of Herman Melville's famous whaling novel Moby Dick, starring Lionel Barrymore
and Dolores Costello. Admission prices were 1s. 3d., 1s., 9d. and 6d. in the
pre-decimal days when £1 = 240 pence.
The cinema continued showing silent films with a piano accompaniment until the
talkies arrived in 1931. On Monday 21st September, queues formed down North
Street to experience the wonder of the age when The Jazz Singer, starring the
vocalist Al Jolson, made in 1927 and containing the first spoken words on
screen, was shown to an astounded public and so a new age of cinema buffs became
addicted to the silver screen. The Tudor was never short of patrons and the
entertainment continued throughout the Second World War from 1939-45, usually
with twice-weekly performances of different films, from Monday to Wednesday and
from Thursday to Saturday, when the programmes included regular newsreels
showing the progress of the Allied armies on all fronts, one of the most popular
features of the cinemas during this period of our history.
When the war ended, the owners, Bourne Picturehouse Ltd, sold the Tudor to the
Star Group who re-quipped it in 1946. New projectors were installed together
with a brilliantly illuminated screen, the orchestra pit was declared redundant
and removed, new seating and carpets were fitted and the auditorium redecorated,
reflecting the Tudor theme of the frontage with heraldic shields emblazoned on
the side walls and the imitation cast iron Tudor roses on the front façade were
given a coating of gold paint. The now "deluxe" cinema also had a new name: the
Tudor Super Cinema and it was given a grand re-opening on Monday 9th September
1946 with the film The Valley of Decision starring Greer Garson, Gregory
Peck and Lionel Barrymore, playing for the first three days of the week followed
by the Technicolor musical State Fair starring Jeanne Crain and Dana
Andrews from Thursday until Saturday.
Wide screen entertainment such as Cinemascope and Panavision started to attract
filmgoers to nearby towns after it was introduced in 1953 and this signalled the
death knell for those rural and back street cinemas that were either too small
to install such facilities or could not afford them. The increase in car
ownership provided more convenient travel facilities and this exacerbated the
problem and attendances at the Tudor started to decline and closure appeared
inevitable but it came slowly.
The Tudor Cinema continued in business until 1972 when the pressures of
television and competition from the big cinemas in other towns forced its
closure and after a spell as a bingo hall, the building is now a Chinese
restaurant, dishing up portions of chop suey and fried rice instead of a feast
of Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.
What the local newspapers are saying: The possibility that Bourne Town
Council may have to hold its meetings at somewhere other than the Town Hall is
explored by the Stamford Mercury in a report about access for the
disabled (September 17th). The early 19th century building, which is also used
as the magistrates’ court, does not meet the latest requirements of the
Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 that comes into force in October. There is
no lift and so everyone must use the stairs and this is difficult for anyone who
is physically handicapped or even mums with pushchairs, although their
attendance at council meetings must be extremely rare. Mr Alec Prentice,
property surveyor with South Kesteven District Council, told councillors at a
meeting on Tuesday that if someone in a wheelchair wanted to attend their
meetings then the council should move.
This would seem to be a drastic solution before finding out exactly how many
disabled people actually attend council meetings and how often and if this were
determined, I imagine that the problem would be practically non-existent. Wake
House has been put forward as an alternative venue but that would be totally
unsuitable, as would the bungalow at the entrance to the town cemetery, a
property owned by the town council and also once suggested as a possible meeting
place but fortunately that idea was dropped. The Town Hall is the focal point of
our local administration and it would be ridiculous to send the town council
elsewhere merely to comply with an obscure regulation, however well intentioned.
Closing date for objections to housing development at The Croft is only a few
days away and The Local reports (September 17th) that the Mayor of
Bourne, Councillor Mrs Pet Moisey, is encouraging members of the public not to
miss the deadline. They must be sent this weekend to qualify and so there is
still time for anyone to express their views on a subject that has become a
major talking point after the developers felled a number of mature trees on the
site, including two fifty-year-old chestnuts at the entrance on North Road.
But, as is usual in these cases, lodging an objection is not the simple and
uncomplicated procedure it ought to be because you are required to write to the
Planning Inspectorate, 3/04B Kite Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple
Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN, and three copies of every letter must be enclosed to
arrive before Monday 20th September, each quoting reference
APP/E2530/A/04/1154735 and 1143547. This is a daunting bureaucratic exercise for
all but the most dedicated users of word processors and will most likely result
in only a handful of objections. Were the procedure to be made more accessible,
with perhaps a plain, straightforward form to fill in and send off, the number
submitted would far more accurately reflect the strength of opinion against the
development. As it is, objections will be mainly from those groups and
organisations with a vested interest and paid or voluntary clerical support and the voice of
the people may well be lost as a result.
Dissatisfaction with our local doctors and their reduced hours surfaces in the
correspondence columns of The Local with a bitter attack by Guy Cudmore
who is also a town councillor (September 17th). “Time was when the surgery was
open during the early evening after work and on Saturday mornings”, he writes.
“You could also count on a visit from your own GP if taken ill outside surgery
hours. They used to be able and conscientious practitioners who were dedicated
to serving their local community, seeing it almost as a mission in life to look
after the well-being of their patients. Nowadays it is just a plain job like any
other. Being a rural GP is a nine-to-five cruise in the comfort zone, handing
out pills being pushed by the latest drug company, referring the more difficult
cases on to a specialist to take responsibility. Opening hours are minimised and
an efficient receptionist is employed to limit the number of patients allowed
access. Many of the patients who are let through are seen by nurses or other
ancillary professionals – anyone competent at filling in the necessary
paperwork.”
Ouch! If any of our doctors wish to reply, then this web site will be happy to
give them space.
For the past year, I have been researching a rich vein of social
history that I found recently in the public library at Stamford consisting of
letters home to loved ones by Bourne boys serving during the Great War of
1914-18. It has taken several months of poring over the files and then copying
out every letter that I found and although it is not a large archive, it does
give us an insight into the thoughts of those young men suddenly whisked from
civilian life to the trenches of the western front and in other theatres of war.
By the time I had finished, I had discovered correspondence from 32 young men
from the town and at least four of them did not come back. The letter writers
were Private Albert J Adamson, Private John Bannister, Private
Martin Barnes, Private Vernon Bradley, Private Ernest Bull,
Private Joseph Bullimore, Lance Corporal Oliver Davies, Private
Victor Davies, Private W Davies, Private Fred Fisher,
Trooper Fred Flatters, Gunner Charles Garfoot, Gunner Edward
Garfoot, Private Stephen Grummitt, Driver Fred Hinson, Private
W Lane* (letter of condolence), Sergeant Cedric W Lloyd, Private
Percy Lunn, Private Percy Milan, Private E Moisey, Sapper
George North, Private T Phillips, Private Harold Robinson,
Private George Sherwin*, Lance Corporal H H Steel, Private J
Stevenson*, Private S Tipler, Lance Corporal Percy J Vickers,
Private W Watts*, Corporal Arthur Webster, Private J W Wyles
and Sergeant F A Yates. (* denotes later killed in action).
Many of them were former pupils at the Boys’ Council or Board School [now the
Abbey Primary School in Abbey Road] and before leaving for overseas they were
persuaded by their old headmaster, Mr Joseph Davies, to keep in touch by letter
and he replied to every one. This produced a considerable archive about life in
the trenches but only a small part has survived and much of what was written was
deleted by the war censors to avoid giving information to the enemy.
Nevertheless, the lads give accounts of their daily lives, often under
conditions of extreme privation, and sometimes describe the actions in which
they had taken part. They also speak of their hopes and fears for the future but
above all, they remain loyal to their king and country and to their family and
friends back in Bourne and to their old school that is remembered with deep
affection. Not once do they question the cause for which they were fighting,
despite the jingoism of the time that had led many of them to enlist, in some
cases, below the official age, and the horrific experiences of Flanders fields,
Gallipoli and elsewhere.
No one knows how many young men from Bourne enlisted for Kitchener’s new army
after the war broke out on 1st August 1914 and perhaps we will never know. But
the number of those serving in December 1916 was 234 because that is how many
Christmas parcels were sent from the town to serving soldiers and sailors,
including 30 in hospital and four prisoners of war, a very large number for such
a small community when the population at that time was only 4,310 (the 1921
census figure). The War Memorial, erected in 1956, contains the names of 97 who
did not return although local military historian Tony Stubbs, who has researched
the monument, suggests that at least 40 more names are missing.
My illustrated article Letters from the Trenches has been added to the CD-ROM A
Portrait of Bourne, now the definitive history of this town containing more than
2,000 photographs and half a million words of text, and an order form may be
accessed from the front page of the web site.
Thought for the week: Police hope that Bourne’s new £400,000 youth centre
will stop the large number of youths gathering in the town centre at night and
bring about a reduction in anti-social behaviour. – from the front page of
the Stamford Mercury, Friday 17th September 2004.
Saturday 25th September 2004
The Battle of Arnhem during the Second World War was
remembered last weekend when veterans gathered to commemorate the event and drop
again by parachute as they did sixty years before, even though some of them were
well into their eighties. It was a poignant occasion and one that has a
resonance here in Bourne because the town played its part by providing
accommodation and friendship for many of those who took part.
Arnhem is a city in the Netherlands and the airborne operation was launched in
an attempt to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, thereby opening the way for a
thrust towards the industrial areas of the Ruhr in Germany and a possible early
end to the war. It took place between the 17th and 26th September 1944 but was
only partially successful with 7,600 casualties and the action has since been
immortalised in Richard Attenborough's highly dramatised 1977 film A Bridge Too
Far.
In the months preceding the action, troops were massed in eastern England and
particularly in Lincolnshire, where the airfields within easy reach of the
Continent were situated and so began the intricate logistical operation of
finding accommodation for them until the fateful day and Bourne was chosen to
house the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment.
The unit had returned to England from Italy in time for Christmas 1943 having
been constantly in action with its two sister battalions for the previous 12
months, participating in the occupation of Algiers in North Africa, the seizure
of Tunis and in helping Montgomery's Eighth Army drive out Rommel's retreating
Africa Corps. The troops had established a reputation as an aggressive assault
force, despite suffering enormous casualties but the unit still went on to the
invasion of Italy and once that had been securely established, the battalion
sailed for home and awaited further orders.
An advance party came to Bourne at the beginning of November 1943 to start
making the accommodation arrangements and the entire battalion of 550 officers
and men arrived by train at the end of the month. They established a
headquarters at Grimsthorpe Castle and the various companies were encamped or
billeted at Bulby Hall and in and around Bourne itself, at the Bull (now the
Burghley Arms), the Angel and the Nag's Head public houses. The officers' mess
was set up on the ground floor of the Masonic Hall, which was then situated
behind Woolworth's store in North Street, while officers were given rooms at
private homes. Troops were also billeted at the former English Racing
Automobiles workshops in the Spalding Road that was taken over by the Delaine
bus company in 1939. This building had been requisitioned by the army for
military accommodation at the outbreak of the war and a total of 240
paratroopers were stationed here. A cookhouse and latrines were added to the
premises, both of which survived until building alterations in 1989-90.
Major Christopher Perrin-Brown, one of the battalion's company commanders,
remembered later: "Although these troops were not particularly well behaved,
there was a total absence of evil. The affinity between host and guest blossomed
overnight and in retrospect, like a happy marriage, the loves and laughs
remained. Joys and sorrows were shared and borne. Rationing was in force and
meat was hard to come by but the hosts had their ways and their pigs and the
guests responded with venison from the park, despite a near miss on a park
keeper that was later explained as weapon testing. And then there were the
bicycles! Suffice to say that if the lake at Grimsthorpe Park had been drained
after the troops had departed, it would have yielded a veritable treasure trove
of two-wheeled transport."
When the action became imminent, the First Battalion was briefed and then
confined to quarters ready to depart but there were five false alarms before
they eventually left on Sunday 17th September 1944. "It was a bright and lovely
morning", recalled Major Perrin-Brown, "and the townspeople of Bourne thronged
the streets as flight after flight of transport aircraft flew low over the town
from the nearby airfields at Colsterworth, Grantham and Barkston, supported by
massed formations of Lancaster bombers. Then suddenly, the guests had gone. The
town was empty."
Of the 10,000 troops dropped by parachute behind enemy lines over Arnhem, only
2,000 escaped back across the Rhine. Of the 545 members of the 1st Battalion who
had been stationed in the Bourne area, 459 were killed, wounded, captured or
reported missing. Major Perrin-Brown was captured and sent to a POW camp but he
escaped at Christmas 1944 and after returning to England, joined the training
brigade. He had already been awarded the MC for action in North Africa and the
Arnhem campaign also earned him the DSO. After the war, he went to live at
Folkingham. Other members of his unit returned after the war to marry local
girls they had met while stationed in the town and settled here.
Local organisations held an exhibition at the Red Hall in September 1984 to
commemorate the 40th anniversary of Arnhem and the town's part in the Second
World War and it was officially opened by Major Perrin-Brown. In the same month,
nine members of the Bourne and District Round Table organisation drove a 1944
American jeep 400 miles to Arnhem to deliver an inscribed plaque from the mayor
and citizens of Bourne to the burgomaster as a token of friendship between the
two towns and he sent back a similar plaque to Bourne by return.
Twenty years later, on Saturday 9th July 1994, streets on a new residential
development built in Mill Drove were named after places involved in the famous
campaign including Arnhem Way, Oosterbeek Close, Lonsdale Grove, Barkston Close
and Pegasus Close. An official naming ceremony and parade was held attended by
ex-servicemen and members of the Spalding branch of the Parachute Regimental
Association when their chaplain, the Rev John Moon, spoke of the significance of
each name before the Last Post and Reveille were sounded by bugler Steve Wand.
The following day, there was a service of remembrance at St James' Church,
Aslackby, to remember those who flew to Arnhem from the airfield at nearby
Folkingham and did not return. Veterans from France and the United States
attended and afterwards, there was a parade to the cemetery where a memorial
erected by the parish council to the Parachute Brigade and American airborne
divisions was dedicated. Then, exactly at 1 p m, the time the battle had
started, a Dakota aircraft that had been used during the airborne operations at
Arnhem, flew over in salute. It was a touching moment for the Arnhem connection.
On 29th April 2001, a plaque was unveiled in the Abbey Church to commemorate the
town's link with the Parachute Regiment and the part it played during the Battle
of Arnhem more than half a century before. This was a little known chapter of
the town's history when troops waiting to take part in this now famous action
established a bond that has never been broken.
One of the blights of modern living is anti-social behaviour whether it
be noisy neighbours, problem families, barking dogs, gangs of youths intent on
disrupting the lives of others or any other conduct that is contrary or
injurious to the interests of the majority. The law is blurred on this and yet
such incidents can cause untold misery for those intent on a quiet and peaceful
way of life. South Kesteven District Council is now addressing the problem by
appointing an anti-social behaviour officer to cover the Bourne area (as well as
Stamford and the Deepings) and who will work alongside the police, acting on
information received from the local authorities and the public.
The job has gone to Leigh Mockridge, aged 33, who has already worked with
Lincolnshire police for ten years both in the Criminal Investigation Department
and the children protection team and so her credentials would seem to be
perfectly suited for her new role. Only those who have been subjected to a
continual nuisance for a long period can testify to the effect it can have on
one’s well being and our councils do not have a reputation for being helpful in
this field. It is therefore hoped that her activities, as with so many new
appointments in our local authorities, will not be confined to attending
meetings and writing reports.
She will have at her disposal the full weight of the law through acceptable
behaviour contracts and anti-social behaviour orders that may be issued against
offenders although the collecting of evidence can be a protracted affair and the
culprits often shun mediation which is another weapon in her armoury. “The job
is all about trying to make the community a safer and more pleasant place to
live in and people not being worried about what is happening in the house next
door”, she explained (Stamford Mercury, Friday 17th September 2004).
Ms Mockridge should not, however, pre-judge the task ahead. “I won’t be dealing
with things such as children playing ball on public open spaces”, she said. Why
not? In some circumstances this can become an intense provocation, especially
for old people, and, more importantly, is likely to be the catalyst for far more
serious disturbances. This appointment is funded by the Home Office and although
it is mainly intended for serious cases, that is no reason to cherry pick those
high profile situations that would look good in the newspapers under sensational
“neighbours from hell” headlines which our government will no doubt be seeking
as proof that the job is being done. The smaller irritations ought to be given
equal consideration along with the bigger annoyances and the objective should be
an increasing public awareness that everyone has a right to live their lives
without interference, no matter how petty the infringements may appear to the
official mind.
There is now evidence from the doctors themselves that waiting
lists for appointments are lengthening because many patients have no real need
to be there. For instance, it would be an enlightening exercise to find out how
many of those in the two-week queue to see the doctor at our two clinics in
Bourne were there for reasons of diabetes, a disorder about which we have heard
more in recent years than at any other time in our history.
There was a time when it was relatively rare, recognised by loss of weight and
even lapsing into a coma, but now everyone will know someone who has been so
diagnosed and therefore requires monitoring if not treatment. The reason for
this is the lowering of the diagnostic criteria which was changed by the World
Health Organisation in June 2000 and resulted in a 10% reduction of the
qualifying standard and four years on we have 1.4 million diagnosed diabetes
patients in the United Kingdom, all seeking regular checks to ensure that it is
kept under control.
I am indebted for this information to Doctor Copperfield, an Essex general
practitioner, in his regular column for The Times (Saturday 18th
September). He suggests that if you had a blood test within a week of eating a
Mars bar then you might easily become a patient and be sucked into the system
with health checks twice a year and perhaps even pills to keep blood pressure,
blood sugar content and cholesterol under control. Other medical journalists
have suggested that that same situation affects many who are currently on pills
to keep their blood pressure under control and they too are a major factor in
the lengthening of our waiting lists to see the doctor for periodic medical
checks and medication reviews.
If all of this is true, then Britain does have a drug culture but it is not
necessarily one of needles and crack used surreptitiously in the park or some
private place but of prescribed tablets from our own general practitioners,
driven by the need for targets and performance within their practice and the
National Health Service. It would therefore follow that pressure on the clinics
is not necessarily being caused by the population explosion as we have been led
to believe but a shifting of the goalposts by the medical profession because a
fortnight’s wait to see a doctor indicates that their list of appointments
contains more people who are actually fit and well rather than those who are
really sick.
What the local newspapers are saying: The two medical centres in Bourne
may have to rethink their new telephone system of assistance for patients out of
hours, according to the Stamford Mercury (September 24th). Both are part
of the Lincolnshire South West Primary Care Trust that is employing highly
trained nurses to provide emergency cover at night and weekends instead of
doctors being available to give personal help. The newspaper says that new
government guidelines could stipulate that patients should be able to have a
home visit from their general practitioner if and when they need one, a factor
that is fully supported by our M P Quentin Davies, the member for Grantham and
Stamford, who also writes about the issue elsewhere in the newspaper. “Telephone
diagnosis is utterly irresponsible”, he says. “It is contrary to everything that
has always been taught in every medical school. It is in truth a contradiction
in terms.”
There is hope then that the new system may be changed in the interests of the
patients because the Mercury says that “health bosses have been
holding urgent meetings to try to establish how they will deal with such
changes”. They will also have a first class opportunity to tell the public what
they have decided because the trust is holding what it calls "a health event" at the Corn
Exchange in Bourne on Wednesday between 10.30 am and 4.30 pm when the public
have been invited to find out how health services in the town can be improved.
Now they know.
The queues of lorries and cars and the general chaos in the town centre at
Bourne of recent weeks will soon be over, according to The Local which
reports (September 24th) that work on the new traffic lights is due for
completion on Monday. “We are a week and a half ahead of schedule”, says the
site agent Gary Soal, “and even with the bad weather we have had the work has
been done in good time.” But don't celebrate just yet because
traffic signals engineer Mike Nicholls tells us that the important work of
testing the new equipment has yet to be completed and it may take a little more
time to fine tune the settings to ensure that they are working at peak
efficiency. We are also told that the £170,000 project has not been carried out
to ease traffic congestion in the town centre but to replace old equipment that
has come to the end of its useful life and to improve pedestrian access.
The old lights were installed in June 1973 at a cost of £10,000 which is £75,000
by today’s values and it is an indication of the way our money has devalued when
you consider that the same amount has been contributed towards the cost of the
present project by the developers of Elsea Park as part of the planning gain for
their 2,000 housing estate, money that became payable when the first 200 houses were
built. The traffic lights have never been popular in the thirty years they have
been operating, either with the public or our politicians, and it is to be hoped
that the new system will find more favour in the future although that will
depend entirely on their efficiency..
Thought for the week: You could easily teach a monkey to read the news.
– Sir Trevor McDonald, ITV newsreader and presenter, quoted by BBC Ceefax,
Wednesday 22nd September 2004.
Return to Monthly entries
|
