Bourne Diary - March 2007

Saturday 3^rd March 2007

When Horace Stanton died, the people of Bourne were urged to look around them because much of what we enjoy in this town was his epitaph. During his forty years as clerk to Bourne United Charities, he persuaded the trustees to pursue a policy of adding to our public amenities and this was achieved in no small measure.

It was mainly through his efforts that today we have the Wellhead Gardens and War Memorial, both purchased and developed through his prudence, prescience and ambition to improve this town for the benefit of the people. He was also responsible for refurbishing the interior of the Red Hall, particularly the long gallery, and a plaque records his endeavours.

Mr Stanton (1897-1977) was a local solicitor who served with distinction as a Royal Artillery officer in the Great War, returning to civilian life to pursue his career in Bourne where apart from his law practice, he also held many important appointments and when the Second World War came, he took command of the Home Guard. He was also active in many other spheres of life, sporting and social, but it was his clerkship to BUC that gave him the most pleasure because it was in this area that he could do the most good and it was on his advice, when there was a move to use the land for residential development, that the trustees acquired the playing field which was to become the Abbey Lawn, completing the final design himself.

He died on Monday 18th April 1977, aged 79, and his funeral was held at the Abbey Church the following week conducted by the vicar, the Rev Gordon Lanham, who said in his eulogy that Mr Stanton had first and foremost learned the lesson of service and added: “He has served his country, his profession, the church and the community for nearly 60 years” and, recalling the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren in the words of his son that are inscribed over the north door of St Paul's Cathedral in London which he designed: "If you would see his monument look around." The vicar went on: "How true that was of Horace Stanton. The provision of the Memorial Gardens on one side of the church and the Abbey Lawn on the other, with all of its facilities for recreation and pleasure, was due to his foresight so that we and all others who come after us can have the benefit of them. And so we remember him with respect."

Mr Stanton was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Abbey Lawn, the opening of which he regarded as one of the high points of his public service. There is therefore, no memorial stone in the cemetery and no plaque in the church and although Stanton Close has been named in his memory, the work he did for Bourne is largely forgotten.

There was an attempt to remedy this six years after his death with the opening of a memorial garden on the edge of the Abbey Lawn in 1983. It consisted of a paved area with shrubs and a seat and was built by pupils of the former Bourne Secondary School as part of a Project Respond scheme sponsored by the National Westminster Bank in which schools were given financial help to carry out community projects. The garden was handed over during an opening ceremony on July 20th to the chairman of the trustees, Councillor John Smith, by the chairman of the school governors, Mrs Aimee Burchnell, but there was no plaque to remind visitors of its dedication. Now, less than 25 years later, the garden has become overgrown and neglected. The flower beds are downtrodden, frequently used as a shortcut by walkers and children with their cycles, while the seat has disappeared, the wrought iron gates at the entrance are permanently locked and the short driveway is choked with last year’s fallen leaves. It looks a forlorn and forgotten place for this is how we so often remember those who gave distinguished and dedicated service to this town.

The trustees of Bourne United Charities are also about to enclose the Abbey Lawn with a high fence, despite Mr Stanton’s promise that it would be an open space for all in perpetuity. This decision, and the current state of his memorial garden, does little to honour the memory of a man who did so much for Bourne and without whose efforts, the Abbey Lawn may well have become a housing estate.

What the local newspapers are saying: Progress on a commercial development on the outskirts of Bourne is being held up by a colony of water voles which are protected by law. The Stamford Mercury reports that hundreds of them have been found on the three acre site in South Road where a petrol station, restaurant, takeaway and family public house, are due to be built and they must be moved to a safer environment before work can begin (March 2nd). They live close to a watercourse which runs through part of the land and experts from English Nature have been called in to advise on the best way to proceed which will involve persuading them to move to the edges of the development with as little disturbance as possible although the task must be completed speedily because their breeding season starts in April and any upheaval might reduce their numbers drastically.

Water voles are among the most numerous of English mammals, a close relative of the rat and mouse but distinguished from both by a blunt snout, tiny ears and short tail. The species was also immortalised by Rat in The Wind in the Willows, the evergreen children’s novel written by Kenneth Grahame in 1908 and still a favourite today with readers of all ages.

It is difficult to imagine how Bourne Town Council can now proceed with demolishing the cemetery chapel in the face of the mounting opposition outlined by The Local in its front page report detailing the public campaign to save it (March 2nd). Leaflets are being distributed, more than 50 letters and emails have been logged at the Town Hall and there promises to be a lively attendance at the Open Forum which precedes the monthly council meeting on Tuesday. The zeal with which this campaign has been carried out is voiced by Mrs Brenda Jones, chairman of the Civic Society, who told the newspaper: “We will do our utmost to save the chapel even if that means I have to lie down in front of the bulldozers. I am passionate about this town. It is my home and I don’t want to see it ruined.”

Once again, people power has demonstrated that our councillors are often mistaken and perhaps this is the time for those who voted to pull down the chapel to take a large helping of humble pie and admit that they were wrong.

Our wheelie bins have now been in use for a sufficient period to judge their effectiveness and the preliminary assessment is that they are a good thing, albeit with reservations. Firstly, they are achieving their original objective, that of increasing the amount of recyclable materials, an unassailable argument, and we have noticed that well over 70% of our household waste now goes into the silver bin rather than the black which is destined for a landfill site.

Our domestic experience is reflected by figures issued last month by South Kesteven District Council which has recorded a massive increase in the amount of rubbish being recycled as residents enthusiastically embrace the new scheme. The council currently has more than 15,000 homes using them and the entire district will be by July this year but the latest figures already show that recycling rates have rocketed from 14.4 per cent to 44 per cent where wheelie bins are being used.

The downside is that they are bulky, unwieldy, difficult to clean and manoeuvre down the passageway for emptying each week and unless you have an out of the way place to stow them, they can be unsightly. It is also difficult to retrieve anything accidentally thrown away, something that can only be accomplished by tipping the lot out on the floor to find what you want.

But the consensus is that the bins are preferable to the old black plastic bags which were targets for the neighbourhood’s marauding cats and foxes which regularly left the contents scattered over the garden or pavement while the pay by weight idea, which is why those dreaded micro-chips were installed in the lid, causing such a furore last year, appears to have been shelved. Whether the bins will begin to smell and become contaminated with maggots and vermin between the fortnightly collections when the hot weather arrives is something we will have to find out this summer.

Few systems, however, are perfect, but this appears to be the best we can have. It is certainly a tremendous advance on rubbish disposal since it was first introduced in Bourne in 1911 when it consisted of little more than a horse and cart with a bell attached to alert homeowners they were in the vicinity while the collected waste was then taken to the old brick pits in West Road for disposal. If you missed the cart then you tipped your waste in the streams and dykes, as in the past. Door to door weekly collections were not introduced until 1930 when each home was issued with a galvanised bin and since then, other methods have been tried, including the black plastic bags which were in use from 1979 until today. The wheelie bins are by far the most efficient method therefore for almost 100 years and although there may be improvements to streamline collections as the months go, they are, I suspect, here to stay.

An email has arrived from Jack Wallhead who must be our oldest visitor. He is almost 91 and although he has had a computer for 18 years, did not connect to the Internet until his wife bought him a laptop for his birthday last May and he has not looked back since although he admits like most of us that he still has a lot to learn.

Apart from keeping in touch with events through the Bourne web site, he also has a regular email correspondence with his niece in Tucson, Arizona, USA, and has even started sending her photographs. The last one was of Brook Lodge in South Street which I featured as Picture of the Week on January 20th, a house in which he has an interest because he owns the small cottage which is attached to the main building where his son Roger now lives.

Jack was a Bourne lad who started work in the motor trade when he left school in 1930 but was called up for military service in August 1940, subsequently joining the Royal Air Force at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, before being posted overseas for service at Aden, Egypt and the Western Desert, and finally to Italy where he spent eight months before going home to Stafford until discharge in 1946. He returned to the motor trade in Bourne, working for Forsyth and Ferrier Ltd for over 50 years, latterly as a sales representative for new and used cars and trucks.

Jack keeps busy at his home in Lawrance Way, Thurlby, and has even written his life story, as yet unpublished, but is sure to be good read about times past in Bourne. In the meantime, if anyone out there who visits this web site regularly can match or beat his 91 years, please email and let us know.

Thought for the week: Some folk are wise, and some are otherwise. - Tobias George Smollett, British novelist and journalist (1721-71).

Saturday 10^th March 2007

An architect's drawing of the proposed chapel - see "Further research . . . "

The town council was left in no doubt about public feeling over the decision to demolish the cemetery chapel when almost 100 people turned up at the open forum prior to the monthly meeting on Tuesday night and it was this attendance, coupled with the wave of letters and emails of protest, that brought about the inevitable climb down.

Councillors agreed to defer further moves to pull down the Victorian building until my listing application has been determined by English Heritage, a decision that may not be far off because it has already been passed from London to the area office in Cambridge for consideration and on Wednesday, a representative carried out an on the spot investigation in the company of the council clerk, Mrs Nelly Jacobs.

It is, however, by no means certain that the 150-year-old chapel will be scheduled Grade II which will prohibit demolition without special permission and also require the council to bring it back into serviceable condition. If it fails, and we cannot lose sight of this possibility, the town council must not return to its original decision because the current campaign has demonstrated the strength of feeling in this town to preserve it and it would therefore be prudent if negotiations were to start immediately on a detailed costing of the work required to make the building an asset to the community.

There has been a suggestion that the chapel be handed over to a board of trustees to raise the necessary finance and to run it independently but existing legislation and legal niceties would make such a transfer a tortuous procedure and although a novel idea, it must be regarded as a remote possibility. The onus is therefore firmly on the town council to shoulder the responsibility it has neglected in the past and begin the evaluation of the building that is required.

Councillors have made great play about the cost of restoration with the figure rising commensurately with the volume of protest and the estimate has now reached a phenomenal £250,000 which, of course, is quite absurd. Councillor Mark Horn (Bourne East) even appealed to the public to help them raise funds when he told the meeting: “Where are we going to find this money? If anyone has any ideas then the council is all ears." He seems to have forgotten that councillors are there to solve these problems and not to seek solace in soliciting help from the people when inspiration eludes them. It is also a fact that not a single application for grant aid on behalf of the chapel has been made during the 33 years it has been under the jurisdiction of the town council and so perhaps now is the time to start. There was little difficulty in finding the £40,000 necessary to pay for new Christmas illuminations in June 2001 and it is up to councillors to accept their liability in this matter with a similar determination to raise whatever finance is needed to save part of our heritage.

As I have pointed out previously, the council has sufficient money for work to begin with £80,000 in its contingency fund, half of which is already earmarked for cemetery use, and it would be a most welcome gesture if members were to embark on some remedial work rather than squander the goodwill generated by the reversal of the demolition decision. The local elections loom and although the 15 vacancies on the town council are normally uncontested, there is talk in the town of more people coming forward to stand while the current controversy has stimulated even more interest and so the old guard should not take their seats for granted.

What the local newspapers are saying: Both of our main publications give extensive coverage to the council meeting on Tuesday with the Stamford Mercury devoting its entire front page to a report from James Westgate who revealed that the campaign leader, Roger Callow, has since resigned from the Save Our Chapel action group (March 9th). His reasons are his own but the battle if not the war has been won and this is largely due to his energy and enthusiasm over the past few weeks.

The Mercury report also reveals that the Civic Society has being busy doing what many think the town council should have done by trying to find money for the restoration. Secretary Robert Kitchener told the newspaper: “While the listing process is going on we must convince the council to gift the building to a group of trustees we plan to set up called the Friends of Bourne Cemetery. We have already begun looking for funding streams for the restoration and an anonymous donor has given a substantial donation to the fighting fund.”

Reports of the meeting and opinions of those who attended illustrate the underlying determination of some councillors that we have experienced throughout the current debate to pull down the chapel come what may in defiance of public opinion which is a total negation of the democratic process but past events have demonstrated that the wishes of the people will prevail. There has been a comparison with an unfortunate episode in Bourne’s history concerning the proposed demolition of the Red Hall in 1955 when, if the objective of certain councillors had been successful, this fine building would have been lost to the town. As it a was, good sense won the day and those who planned its demise are only remembered today with derision.

Further research into the origins of the cemetery chapel has revealed that the architect was almost certainly Edward Browning (1816-82), son of Bryan Browning, the man who designed Bourne Town Hall. There is also evidence that he envisaged a far more ambitious building than that which was intended by the Bourne Burial Board when it embarked on the project in 1854.

An architectural sketch of the twin chapel building and the lodge, pictured above, probably drawn by Browning himself, both to be built in stone and Collyweston slate in the Victorian Gothic manner, also shows that a bell tower and spire were included in the original concept of the chapel. It would therefore appear that once the estimated cost became known by the burial board, plans for a tower were scrapped.

An understanding of the financial climate of the time is necessary to appreciate the need for such economy. The establishment of a cemetery was forced on parishes throughout England by the Burial Board Act of 1854 which authorised the setting up of public burial boards outside London to cope with the demand for grave space because many churchyards had become full. The site chosen for Bourne was four acres of meadowland in South Road purchased from local landowner Sir Philip Duncombe Pauncefort Duncombe for £420 but added to that would be the cost of laying out a cemetery, building the twin chapels, a lodge and an enclosure wall, all of which was to be paid for by a levy in rates upon parishioners by the burial board.

The board eventually agreed a final figure of £2,000, having cut out any unnecessary expenditure to avoid an undue burden being placed upon ratepayers which, as now, would not be a popular move, by economising with the chapel building and so the tower and spire were removed from the plans and never actually built because they are not referred to in a description of the chapel carried by the Stamford Mercury when the consecration service was held on Saturday 26th May 1855. In addition, the earliest known photograph of the chapel taken around 1900 shows no tower or traces of one that might had been built and later demolished for some reason.

The records of the Bourne Burial Board cannot be traced but I have made a thorough search through the newspaper archives for the relevant period and although the name of the architect is not mentioned so far, there is every indication that it was Edward Browning who had achieved some distinction at this time, having taken over his father‘s practice in Stamford. He had been doing work on the Abbey Church in Bourne and was later to be commissioned to design the Ostler memorial in 1860 and so his reputation was well known in the town. He would therefore have been an obvious choice for the design while the actual construction work was carried out by the Stamford builder, Moses Peal.

The similarities with the chapel at Stamford, which Browning designed in 1854, is also a factor because the two buildings have the same circular window, a doorway with a pointed arch and a door with decorative hinges while the Stamford chapel also has a bell tower similar to that originally envisaged for Bourne.

The documents of the Bourne Burial Board would have made research simpler but they do not appear to have survived. The board operated from 1854 until 1899 when its duties were taken over by Bourne Urban District Council but this too ceased to exist on 12th March 1974 when it was swallowed up under a re-organisation of local government by the newly constituted South Kesteven District Council and a mass of its records and paperwork were destroyed, dumped in a skip outside the offices in North Street and carted off to the rubbish tip. The only records of the burial board known to exist are the architect’s sketch reproduced above and a plan of the cemetery layout by the surveyor, Mr P Parker, both now preserved at the county archives in Lincoln.

The people of Bourne have begun raiding their attics in a bid to raise money to pay for repairs to the Abbey Church, costed at over £100,000. On the premise that one person’s unwanted property is someone else’s treasure, an assortment of surplus items can therefore be found on the last Thursday of each month on a stall at the Thursday market manned by Philip Pettitt and his wife Alison, tireless workers for the church, ably assisted by other dedicated helpers.

Here you may pick up a bargain. Ornaments, vases, jewellery, books, CDs, videos and other bric-a-brac, all at knock down prices, because as the famous slogan beloved by the organisers of sales throughout the world declares, everything must go.

Profit is on their side and although we live in a disposable age, nothing need be thrown away because there is always someone out there who will want it, cherish it and give it a good home. Take a look around your house to see what you do not need. Reduce the clutter and take it along to the Church Hall in Church Walk where the weekly sales are being organised. There will always be someone ready to snap it up and at the same time, help a good cause.

Thought for the week: The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. - Brooks Atkinson, American writer and theatre critic for the New York Times (1894-1984).

Saturday 17^th March 2007

The Raymond Mays memorial plaque before and after - see "Damage caused . . . "

This year above all others has brought a renewed interest in Bourne’s affairs and with it the activities of the town council have come into sharp focus with constant criticism that the old guard is out of touch. But it is no good sniping from the side trenches. Only a commitment to participate will suffice and that means standing for office.

The local government elections are due to be held in May and the town council is a good place to start for those who are interested. There is a great deal of scepticism over whether becoming a councillor at this level has any point but of course it does, if only for the invaluable experience of local government and its procedure and the opening for further advancement with district and even county authorities. The council also administers several aspects of our affairs, has an input on planning matters and carries some weight in an advisory capacity in many areas. It is also the first point of contact with the public.

The town council has fifteen members, eight for Bourne West and seven for Bourne East, but at present, only one has actually been elected. The others hold their seats, and some have done for many years, because they were returned unopposed which is not good for democracy. An election gives a definite result of popular choice whereas anyone who has their name down may find themselves a councillor on polling day purely through public apathy and, as has happened recently, mayor within three years which is hardly justifiable. Some of the elderly members have indicated that they would willingly stand down if new candidates came along and to enable that to happen, a definite commitment is needed from among the great deal of youthful talent that does exist in Bourne.

Now is the perfect opportunity although time is not on the side of anyone who is contemplating standing and speedy action is required. The deadline for nominations is imminent because the required papers need to be deposited in Grantham between March 27th and April 4th. If there is anyone out there who is considering such a step then they will need to act soon and not be deterred by the documentation, because if Bourne is to become an even better place to live, then new blood and new ideas are of paramount importance.

There is a strong geriatric presence in the council chambers around England because many men and women who are past full time employment see this as a new career in retirement, one that is paid at district and county level and one that brings a perceived, though often mistaken, social elevation in the town or parish. This may be one of the factors of the present problem because old people become set in their ways and are less receptive to new ideas, vigorously opposing any opinions other than their own. Unfortunately, there is insufficient appeal in standing for election because many feel that they would be unable to make a difference yet the paradox is that if change is to come, then young people’s voices must be heard.

What the local newspapers are saying: South Kesteven District Council is also calling upon people who wish to stand for parish, town or district council seats to take the plunge and The Local quotes encouragement from chief executive Duncan Kerr (March 16th) who said: “If you need advice, don’t be afraid to ask but please don’t delay. The closing date will not wait.” The electoral services officer, Sue Gibson, is equally enthusiastic for new recruits. “You could make a real difference to your community and play a key role in local democracy”, she said. If you wish to take up the challenge, then send her an email for more information or telephone 01476 406125.

A security fence has been built across the front of The Croft in North Road in an attempt to keep vandals out of the house and grounds which have been the subject of a planning dispute over the building of new homes since 1993. The Stamford Mercury reports that contractors moved in this week on the orders of the owners and erected a barrier of concrete posts and wire mesh across the main driveway to deter intruders following reports of damage, including an outbreak of a fire which is believed to have been started deliberately (March 16th). A scheme to build 51 houses on meadowland adjoining the house was rejected following a planning inquiry in 2005 and since then the property has been boarded up and neglected while the grounds have become littered with bottles and other debris left by intruders. The erection of the security fence has now added to the eyesore and there is a feeling of despair in the town over the entire situation that has been allowed to develop over what was once a most attractive spot.

It sounds like a scene from one of those old silent comedy shorts because who else but Mack Sennett would think of employing a flying squad to stop dogs doing their business in public places. Yet South Kesteven District Council has appointed enforcement rangers to patrol streets, paths, parks and the countryside and each has been given a Honda Transalp 650 cc motor cycle equipped with a video camera to do just that. The Local reports that they are currently targeting the streets of Bourne (March 16th) ready to issue spot fines of £75 to anyone failing to collect the excrement from their pets and anyone who does not pay should be warned that footage from surveillance equipment is acceptable as evidence in court which is empowered to impose a maximum fine of £1,000.

Certainly the town needs to be kept clean but it is doubtful if this expensive solution is the best and most cost effective way forward. SKDC covers a wide area in south west Lincolnshire, a total of 365 square miles, extending from Grantham in the north to Bourne in the east and Stamford and Market Deeping in the south, and it is doubtful if any of the urban rangers are likely to be zooming past, camera rolling, at the exact moment when Fido is doing his business on the pavement, especially as any dog owner knows, first thing in the morning or last thing at night is their favourite time. The law of averages therefore is not on the side of the biker rangers added to which the very sound of a supercharged engine bearing down on them is likely to send any dog scampering down the nearest alley to complete its unfinished business elsewhere.

No, this is not a joke dreamed up for the Keystone Cops, but a very expensive exercise, costing around £100,000 a year and pushing up the staffing level at SKDC which already employs over 700 people. It is also increasing expenditure at an unfortunate time because the council tax is about to go up by almost 5%. Our councillors, because it is they who are ultimately responsible, should think more seriously about priorities and decide whether keeping the streets clear of dog poo by using such ridiculous methods is the right way to spend our council tax.

Cash problems are bothering the Round Table, organisers of the annual Bourne Festival which has been held at the Wellhead Field for the past five years. The Local reports that the last three-day event of beer and music lost £6,000 and the prospect of another deficit has cast doubt over whether it will go ahead this summer (March 9th). Several factors have been blamed for the shortfall, with thousands bringing their own drinks rather than buy them on site, a poor sale of programmes and the high cost of renting the necessary marquees. Round Tablers are now trying to find sponsors to ease the financial burden to ensure that the festival can go ahead and to continue raising money for charity which has always been at the heart of the event.

Damage caused by a particularly emotive act of vandalism in Bourne which occurred in January 2007 has been rectified. The metal plaque commemorating the life of one of our most prominent citizens, the international racing driver and BRM founder Raymond Mays (1899-1980), erected on the wall outside the house in Eastgate where he was born, was daubed with spray paint.

It looked in a sorry state after the attack but Jim Jones, a committee member of the Civic Society, has removed and restored it, a task that took many hours of painstaking work, and it has now been put back in position.

Vandalism is an anti-social menace, perpetrated mainly by young people for reasons that escape the psychologists, but their evil work during the space of one night can deface entire neighbourhoods and give them the appearance of a neglected inner city. Fortunately, we have volunteers who work endlessly and unselfishly for the community who are prepared to put right such wrongs and it is worth a moment's reflection to wonder what our town might look like if we did not have such dedicated people and all cases of wilful damage were totally disregarded.

From the archives (1): An inquest was held on the 8th inst. by Mr William Edwards, coroner, at Haconby, near Bourne, on the body of William, the son of Ann Sturges, aged about two years and a half. In the momentary lapse of his mother, the child went too near the fire, its clothes ignited and were quickly a heap of flames. His grandmother was in bed in the same room, almost helpless, and in her futile attempt to rescue the suffering child, she very nearly fell a sacrifice to a similar fate and was much burnt about the hands and face. Indeed, her life was saved only by the promptitude and courage of a neighbour who rushed in and took means to extinguish the fire which would soon have destroyed the house also. No blame appeared to attach to anyone and a verdict of accidentally burned was returned. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 16th February 1855.

From the archives (2): On Saturday evening, Henrietta Arden, the six-year-old daughter of Mr William Arden, a wine and spirits merchant, of West Street, Bourne, with two other children, was left in her bed gown in the nursery, which is upstairs, whilst the servant went below for a few minutes and notwithstanding the fire was protected by a guard, her clothes ignited and before the flames could be extinguished, the upper part of her body was so severely burned that death resulted the next morning. A verdict of accidental death was recorded by the coroner, Mr William Edwards, when an inquest was held at the Golden Lion, the following Monday. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 2nd March 1855.

Message from abroad: In tracing my family history in the records of colonial Virginia, USA, I learned that my ancestral name is Bourne. Owen Bourne arrived in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, circa 1691 and I guess the pronunciation of the name became Bunn since the second generation spelled their surname Bun, and the third Bunn but I haven’t found a record of where in England Owen Bourne was born. After looking at the map on your excellent web site, I realised that on my last trip to England ten years ago I passed very near to Bourne, that is down the highway from York, Peterborough and on to King’s Lynn. I loved your photos and historical commentary of Bourne. Hopefully I will return for a visit. Thanks. - email from Mike Bunn, Kissimmee, Florida, USA, Friday 9th March 2007.

Thought for the week: Don’t you dare be ill out of hours! - front page headline in the Daily Mail over a report that the re-organisation of out-of-hours family doctor services is a shambles, Wednesday 14th March 2007.

Saturday 24^th March 2007

Winning congratulations to Prince Bira from Raymond Mays

A modest photo exhibition commemorating the life of the colourful international racing star Prince Bira has been added to the Raymond Mays Memorial Room at the Heritage Centre in South Street. This is a fitting place for his career to be chronicled in words and pictures because he and the founder of BRM enjoyed a friendship and racing rivalry lasting for almost fifty years.

Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh was a member of the royal family of Siam [now Thailand], a grandson of King Mongkut who opened the country to Western influence in the late 19th century and was made famous by the musical comedy The King and I. He arrived in Bourne in 1935 at the wheel of his Bentley, having driven up from London to meet Raymond and to discuss the possible purchase of a car made by ERA, the firm which he was running at that time.

“When I entered Bourne I drove directly into the centre and got hold of the first man I came across”, the prince recalled later. “He had no difficulty whatsoever in directing me to the home of Mr Mays who was very well known in the town.”

The prince had become successful under the generous patronage of his cousin and guardian, Prince Chula, who had come to this country to complete his education at Harrow and Cambridge and was running a team called White Mouse Racing. He was six years older than Prince Bira who eventually followed him to England to go to Eton but both were to marry English girls and make their homes here.

Prince Bira was then only twenty years old when he made that visit to Bourne and had recently begun motor racing but believed it was time to have a faster car than the sports models he had been driving in various races. The meeting was successful and the new blue-painted car he ordered from Raymond was delivered in time for his 21st birthday party but only just, arriving one hour before midnight but causing sufficient excitement among the guests who took turns to sit in it. The prince named it Romulus, quickly becoming one of the main exponents of this voiturette class of international racing and winning the Coup de Prince Rainier at Monte Carlo while the car remained in his ownership until his death half a century later. Two other models followed, in 1936 and 1938, which he named Remus and Hanuman and for the next few years, Bira remained consistently successful.

Although he loved the bright lights and having fun, Prince Chula was a serious man and ran a highly organised racing team. His cousin also took driving seriously although less bothered about where the money was coming from. Bira remained in England during the Second World War of 1939-45, living quietly at a cottage in Cornwall, and afterwards, recommenced his motor racing pursuits with a new Maserati. But the sport was becoming more expensive and in 1947, Chula decided to give up but Bira continued on his own account, often driving for other teams, winning the Grand Prix des Frontieres in Belgium and finishing fourth in the French Grand Prix at Rheims. He raced until the end of the 1954 season when he married for the second time and scored his final victory in the non-championship New Zealand Grand Prix before retiring.

Thereafter he returned to live in Thailand although he maintained a European base in the form of a three-masted schooner berthed at Cannes, close to his Riviera villa at Mandelieu. Chula died in 1963 aged 55. Meanwhile, Bira, a versatile and cultured man, undertook many business ventures but was less fortunate in his dealings. He collapsed and died from a heart attack at Baron’s Court underground station in London on 23rd December 1985. He was 71.

A handwritten note was found in his pocket and so Scotland Yard sent it to be analysed at the University of London, where it was identified as being written in Thai and addressed to Prince Bira. The Royal Thai Embassy was notified and it was then realised that the old man was Prince Bira, a forgotten hero who had once made such an impact for Thailand where he was so well known. A traditional Thai funeral service was held at the Wimbledon temple and the prince was later cremated according to Thai and Buddhist customs.

The Heritage Centre display has been compiled by Peter Putterill, a former secretary of Bourne Civic Society, and committee member Jim Jones, and if you have not been to see the Raymond Mays Memorial Room, then it is well worth a visit.

What the local newspapers are saying: The old stories are always the best, as my first editor used to say, and we have an example of this in the Lincolnshire Free Press this week with the report of a 186-year-old hot cross bun from Deeping St James, near Bourne (March 20th). Whether this particular piece of confection has that longevity and was actually baked in 1821 is a matter of conjecture but during my half a century in journalism I have come across similar tales a dozen or more times and they become more convincing as the years go by. All stemmed from the belief that hot cross buns, which have been around since 1733, never go mouldy and were often preserved for their miraculous healing powers.

This is most probably true although whether any have survived for almost two centuries is rather unlikely. My own opinion therefore, is that in the absence of a bakery in England during the Georgian period that specialised in culinary curiosities with a shelf life reckoned in centuries rather than days, then their ancient origins are extremely doubtful. In fact, I consider them to be in the same fictional league as the Loch Ness monster and the Abominable Snowman but as long as fanciful tales such as this persist in impressing young reporters then they will continue to end up on the front page.

The determination of some town councillors to demolish the cemetery chapel is apparent from reports of the amenities committee meeting on Tuesday carried by both The Local and the Stamford Mercury without a single statement of encouragement for those who wish to see the Victorian building preserved (March 23rd). Councillor Mark Horn (Bourne East) suggested that many of the alternative uses put forward would not be possible due to constraints placed upon the building by its covenants which could only be removed through a lengthy and expensive process in the High Court yet the town council has already been successful in applying for the deconsecration of the building which was granted by the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev John Saxbee, on 1st December 2004, thus removing the chapel from all religious restraints and although there may be legal and administrative hurdles for other uses, they are unlikely to be as complicated were the building still under the jurisdiction of the Church of England. The clerk, Mrs Nelly Jacobs, has been asked to produce copies of the covenants currently in force in order that the public may be better informed and perhaps it might be worthwhile to see if the small print contains anything that might also exclude demolition.

The current state of the chapel was also mentioned by Councillor Derrick Crump (Bourne East) who told the meeting: “”It is a bad building, badly built, and while we cannot be held responsible for that we are responsible for how it is now looked after.” It is in fact, a good building, sturdily constructed, having survived since 1854 when it was designed by Edward Browning who was also responsible for the cemetery chapel at Stamford, built at the same time to a similar design and remaining in regular use today as offices and other accommodation, a perfect example of what can be achieved were councillors dedicated to solving problems rather than throwing up their hands in desperation at each obstacle. Furthermore, the Bourne chapel was in perfectly good order when responsibility for its upkeep was handed over to the town council in 1974 and has only deteriorated since through neglect and lack of maintenance. Even now, the best interim solution that can be suggested by councillors it to cover the roof with a tarpaulin to stop it leaking in wet weather which would be just as unsightly as a previous absurd idea, that of replacing the building with two sea storage containers.

There was also much talk about £50 being added to the annual council tax bill to pay for restoration although there was no mention of the £80,000 currently in the council’s contingency fund, half of which was intended for cemetery expenditure, and not a single official letter has been written to pursue grant aid or to take up offers from distinguished conservation organisations for advice on how to proceed. Instead, councillors intend to sit on their hands until after the local government elections in May before doing anything about this pressing problem when they will no doubt return to their policy of demolition, knowing that it will be another four years before they need seek further public endorsement for their seats.

The disappointing aspect about this entire episode is that despite being fully aware of public feeling about the future of this building, we have not had a single positive statement from the council that might help save it and all councillors seem able to do is to berate the people for not coming up with acceptable ideas which is, after all, the responsibility of those who represent them.

From the archives: Several cases of ptomaine poisoning were reported in Bourne on Saturday last and in the early stages of the outbreak, looked somewhat serious. The first case was that of Mr Charles Moisey, a bricklayer, who in the course of his work on Saturday afternoon, was seized with violent sickness and had to be conveyed home in a cab. Upon being medically attended, the complaint was pronounced to be ptomaine [food] poisoning. Later in the day, several other cases of a more or less milder form were notified. Amongst other persons affected were Mr and Mrs M Shipley and one of their children, and a child of Mr J Bannister from Woodview. The cases had occurred, it is believed, through each of the persons affected having eaten some collared head [a cut of beef] which had been purchased locally. All the patients however, have considerably improved and Mr Moisey, whose case was by far the most serious, was able to get up on Tuesday for a short time and is well on the way to recovery. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 29th August 1913.

Thought for the week: The Old Grammar School is historically more important than the cemetery chapel, being 200 years older. I have a weary feeling of inevitability that we will soon be told this building is going to have to be destroyed too. Over the years, much effort seems to have been directed into trying to rid Bourne of its heritage and with it, the town’s future. Bourne will not prosper until we can all have confidence that its history is in safe hands. - letter to The Local newspaper from Anthony Jennings, Dowsby, near Bourne, Friday 23rd March 2007.

Saturday 31^st March 2007

The existence of ghosts has been the subject of debate for centuries and one that has occupied man's thoughts since he first trod on this earth. Today, in these more enlightened and even sceptical times, tales of spectral occurrences are treated with great caution although there are many who still believe implicitly in the supernatural and even claim to have first hand experience of it.

Few places in England are without the legend of a ghost, witch, poltergeist or other mysterious being, and they occur frequently in country areas such as Lincolnshire. Most of the more spectacular of the recorded sightings are confined to the north of the county but there are sufficient hereabouts to satisfy the curious although they are not always what they seem, especially where an enterprising journalist is involved.

A ghost was once reputed to haunt the old vicarage at Thurlby, near Bourne, now demolished, and although the story persisted for a quarter of a century, later evidence revealed that this had been an invention. In the summer of 1944, Matthew Coady, a reporter with the Stamford Mercury, had tea with the vicar, the Rev William Glenny Summers, to discuss the future of the building and the vicar confessed that he would be prepared to sell it for £10 rather than go to the expense of having it pulled down.

"With the ghost?" asked Mr Coady jokingly and, entering into the spirit of the conversation, the vicar replied: "Yes, of course, that goes without saying." A report on the proposed sale of the vicarage subsequently appeared in the newspaper and Mr Coady made his account more interesting by saying that it was going on the market complete with its own ghost. It was eventually demolished circa 1955 and has since been replaced by a modern building.

Twenty-five years later, Mr Summers, who had retired as vicar in 1965, confessed that the story had been invented. In an interview with the newspaper on Friday 25th April 1969, he said: "At that time, I was being plagued by parishioners calling most evenings with non-existent problems and I saw the ghost story as the ideal way of ridding myself of them. I spread tales of foul deeds and ghostly occurrences at the vicarage around the village and, not surprisingly, my troublesome visitors avoided my home during the hours of darkness."

But there was a sequel. Three years after the ghost story had been invented, the vicar was sitting at home one evening when he heard a loud knocking at the front door but when he went to answer, there was no one there and it would have been impossible for a practical joker to escape from sight in that time. "I thought it strange at the time but never connected it with anything supernatural", he said.

At that time, Mr Summers was unaware that a previous vicar, the Rev Gerald Marchant Davis (1925-31) had undergone an identical experience twenty years before. Tradition has it that unaccountable knockings are widely believed by the superstitious to herald a death in the family although those at Thurlby vicarage were never investigated by experts such as the Royal Society for Psychical Research.

The Rev Frederick George Craigan Long, who was vicar in 1969 when the revelations about the fictitious ghost were made public, told the Stamford Mercury that he had heard nothing of any unusual happenings at the vicarage which by then had been pulled down. The ghost of Thurlby vicarage, therefore, was most probably nothing more than the invention of an enterprising journalist on the lookout for a good story. Matthew Coady certainly had the imagination. He later joined the Daily Mirror and became a political writer and a colleague because I worked for the newspaper at the same time in the early 1960s. He died on 27th January 1997, aged 73.

One of our most experienced councillors is calling it a day. John Kirkman, who has represented Bourne at all three levels of local government, town, district and county, for almost three decades, is standing down and will not be seeking re-election in May. This will be a loss to the local government scene because he was well versed in his knowledge of council affairs and particularly rules of procedure and committee work and although some did not agree with his exacting standards, there is little doubt that he was always right.

Councillor Kirkman was born at Boston but moved to Bourne over thirty years ago. In December 1999, at the age of 60, he retired as senior meteorological officer working for the Ministry of Defence at RAF Cottesmore, near Stamford. He became a member of Bourne Town Council in 1979, serving as Mayor of Bourne on two occasions, from 1985-86 and again from 2000-01, but resigned last year. He was also a member of Lincolnshire County Council (Bourne Abbey division) for 16 years from 1989-2005 and is still a member of South Kesteven District Council, holding his Bourne East division seat since 1983 and was chairman for the year 2005-06. Now he has decided to give this up too.

Since he first took office, the duties of councillors have increased considerably and the arduous workload precludes other private activities, an omission he intends to put right by playing more golf, pursuing more leisure activities and taking more holidays although he remains chairman of the governors of the Abbey Primary School in Bourne and a trustee of Bourne United Charities.

As he is an independent councillor, there will be no party machine to name a successor and in the current climate, the vacancy will no doubt be filled by someone on either the Labour or Conservative ticket. Whoever it is, they will benefit from the knowledge of one particular factor in Councillor Kirkman’s successful career in which he polled first place in every election he fought without the benefit of the organised campaigns enjoyed by his opponents. He always believed in the old fashioned method of door-stepping and at each election visited every house in his ward to show his face, an approach I would commend to all candidates if they wish to win the trust and allegiance of the people, particularly those councillors who never take to the streets, believing that they have a right to the popular vote without making any effort whatsoever.

Visitors will have noticed that the grass is receding in the War Memorial and Wellhead Gardens. You will look in vain this year for the beautiful show of daffodils flowering along the Bourne Eau where it runs along South Street, once a splash of golden yellow in early spring but few are blooming there this year because the bank is little more than a stretch of mud.

On the far side of the War Memorial, popularly known as the moat section of the river, the grass has all but disappeared while muddy patches are evident elsewhere in the grounds, ready to catch the unwary on damp days. I did not realise how bad the situation had become until I compared photographs taken this week with those from two years ago when all of the stretches mentioned were a luxuriant green, even in March. The picture is much the same in many parts of the adjoining Wellhead Gardens, particularly along the main path from West Street to St Peter‘s Pool where last year‘s fallen leaves were left where they fell throughout the winter months, stifling new grass growth.

This is a public park and should be the flagship of our open spaces but the truth is that it is not up to the standard of past years which does not auger well for the forthcoming efforts being made to secure a place in the East Midlands in Bloom competition due to be held this summer. Bourne won a silver grading last year which reflected the hard work of many volunteers but what will the judges think when they make their visit in July and see public gardens that are not up to their best with many areas in such a poor state of maintenance? Perhaps those who are organising the town trail for the judges necessary for the competition might be advised to steer them away from this part of Bourne which is unlikely to win us any prizes and does little credit to those responsible for their upkeep.

What the local newspapers are saying: When the redevelopment of Bourne town centre was first mooted in 2003, South Kesteven District Council gave a solemn undertaking that it would be financed privately and not a penny would be needed from the public purse. But The Local reveals this promise to be so much hot air with a front page report that taxpayers will have to contribute £1.5 million if the scheme is to go ahead and even then, it is unlikely to be completed before 2011, which is four years behind schedule (March 30th). The original scheme stalled after the preferred developer was dropped because it could not make the £27 million project viable and now their successor has expressed similar doubts and so additional money is required, most probably £750,000 from SKDC and a similar amount from the government-funded East Midlands Development Agency.

This is not a popular decision and Trevor Holmes, one of our more outspoken town councillors who is never afraid to speak his mind, does not mince his words because he told the newspaper: “The council is going against everything it said about the scheme being totally self-funding. The additional money will be providing extra profit for the developer, money which is sorely needed for important things in our community, like a proper transport service for the elderly and infirm and the provision of proper public amenities. The extended timescale is going to create an even greater amount of turmoil and loss of business for the town, to the detriment of the shopper and the established and necessary businesses that presently grace our high street. If, out of the district council taking our council tax to fund this development, it will be a more closely aligned development to what would be more sympathetic in a conservation area, I could be supportive. But if it will be used to generate a bog-standard, off-the-shelf shopping centre, I would be outraged.”

Fewer policemen for the future is the theme of a disturbing story in the Stamford Mercury which reports on plans to replace 100 uniformed officers in the county with civilian staff (March 30th). Despite having a budget this year of £108.6 million (£8.4 million up on last year), Lincolnshire Police claims to be under funded and the proposal is intended to cut expenditure by £1.4 million. The move is a necessary cost-cutting measure, says the newspaper, and would not mean fewer bobbies on the beat but would improve the efficiency although the report gives no explanation as to how this might be achieved and the police authority chairman, Mrs Angela Crowe, says enigmatically: “Rather than reduce the number of front line officers, this may actually increase the number of operational officers.” The Police Federation is obviously not pleased by the proposal. “Do the maths again”, said chairman Andy Rolfe. “Go back to the Home Office and say this should not be done. Leave the police in Lincolnshire. Don’t reduce officer numbers.”

From the archives: At a meeting of the magistrates at Bourne a few days ago, Elizabeth Whitfield, a single woman, late of Stainfield, was committed to Folkingham Castle for one year for having a bastard chargeable to the parish. This is the third present which the above woman has made to the parish officers within the space of 4½ years. - news report from the Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury, August 1811.

Thought for the week: Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music. The world is so rich, simply throbbing with treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself. - Henry Valentine Miller, American writer and painter (1891-1980).

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