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Saturday 2nd February 2008
A remarkable literary co-operation between two poets
living on either side of the Atlantic has produced a translation of the work of
Robert Manning, the most noteworthy of all Bourne’s citizens from past centuries
who was instrumental in putting the ordinary speech of the English people into a
written form that is still recognisable today.
Robert Manning, or Mannyng, (1264-1338 or 1340), poet and chronicler, is best
known as Robert de Brunne from his long residence in Bourne Abbey, founded in
1138 for Arroasian canons, a branch of the Augustinians, and he became their
most famous member. He was the first man to write English as we read it now,
thus giving the language its present shape, by popularising religious and
historical material in an early Middle English dialect of great importance in
linguistic history. Nothing he wrote, however, was ever quite original for he
translated the writings of other men into English rhyme from the French and
whenever he found a subject on which he was more erudite than the author, he
would add his own words to illustrate a point. The result is that his judicious
omissions and additions made his version far more entertaining than the
original.
His first and best known work was called Handlyng Synne, a translation from the
French by Manuel des Pechiez, usually attributed to William of Waddington,
written between 1303 and 1317 while a canon at the Gilbertine priory of
Sempringham. It comprises 12,600 lines in an episodic, narrative form of rhyming
couplets and containing 65 stories dealing with pride, envy, anger, idleness and
other sins, and three of these tales and a prologue have been chosen for the
latest translation which has just been published in a dual language edition.
The two translators have been working together for several years and have
consulted many sources (we are honoured with an acknowledgment) but the unusual factor is that one lives in England and
the other in the United States. John Francis Haines, who is 61, a retired local
government officer, from Warrington, Cheshire, is a published author whose work
has appeared in more than 150 magazines worldwide while L A Hood, who is 57,
lives in McLeod, Oklahoma City, and after a spell in the United States Navy,
pursued a career in publishing while also writing poetry. Their work is the
first modern English translation of Manning, described by the authors as: “Porn,
paganism and the Prince of Darkness in rhyming couplets as the author himself
presented it during the 14th century.”
Now that these verses are more accessible to the modern reader, we are able to
make a better judgment of Manning’s literary worth. Until now, his work may have
been known to many but it was understood by few and thanks to Haines and Hood we
know exactly what is being related and his tales turn out to be the re-telling
of fables and folklore, some bawdy, others funny and many religiously admonitory
because, after all, the intention was to warn against the perils of sinning.
This is, of course, what Manning intended. The language he used was his own
native tongue and as he knew that rhyme was the most easily remembered form of
literary output, he therefore used it to give simple, uneducated people
knowledge, advice and above all, amusement and he hoped that his writings would
provide "solace in their fellowship as they sat together."
The three tales included here are The Sacrilegious Husband and Wife that Stuck
Together, a joke revealed in the title after the story has been read, The Tale
of the Sacrilegious Carollers, telling of a time when carolling was anything but
Christian and the carol a dancing song with strong pagan fertility rite
association, and lastly The Tale of How the Devil Came to be Shriven, an account
of Satan going to confession to receive forgiveness for his sins.
The translation will be a revelation to those with little knowledge of Manning’s
work and who may expect to find his writings full of deep philosophical
meanings. Instead, they are what he intended, fireside tales illustrating right
and wrong in a society ruled by the church and presented in a simple style
easily understood by everyone. This is a slim volume, just 60 pages, modestly
printed, but the beginning of further publications to explain Manning to a wider
public because the cooperation between the two poets across the Atlantic
continues.
NOTE: Three Mediaeval Tales and a Prologue by Robert Mannyng of Brunne is
published by Valkyrie Press, 490 Harris Drive, McCloud, Oklahoma 74851, USA, $6
plus $3.60 pp for the United Kingdom, $1.30 for the USA.
The following story has been related here before and it may even be
regarded as a modern fable but it has sufficient relevance for Bourne to be told
again for the benefit of those who are responsible for our old buildings.
The jewel in our architectural crown, the finest of our secular buildings among
the 71 listed properties in our care, is the Red Hall yet there have been two
attempts to pull it down. When the new railway line between Bourne and Saxby was
built between 1891 and 1893, the original scheme proposed the demolition of the
Red Hall to make way for new sidings to take freight traffic. The suggestion
caused some outcry and the protest was so strong that the railway company
relented and the Red Hall was preserved only to face further uncertainty when
the line closed almost a century later. The early 17th century building had been
used as the stationmaster's house and ticket office which was earmarked for
demolition, a move spearheaded by local councillors.
Among them was Councillor H L Hudson, a member of Bourne Urban District Council
and Kesteven County Council, now superseded by Lincolnshire County Council, who
told a meeting on Thursday 29th July 1954, that it was "a useless building". The
following year, when the future of the Red Hall was further discussed by the
county authority, he was again among the most vociferous of those speaking out
for it to be pulled down. A meeting was held on Wednesday 23rd February 1955 to
consider a recommendation from the planning committee that they should not take
it over but a report on the subject advised that the council would not be
justified in assuming ownership and financial responsibility for the Red Hall
because of the uncertainty of finding any real use for even two or three rooms
and the likely heavy liability for maintenance costs, despite the offer of a
£5,000 grant from the Historic Buildings Council. Renovation was estimated at
£14,000, the bulk of which was for the main building.
The meeting was mainly hostile to any suggestions that the council should save
the building and Alderman G A Jenkinson (Old Somerby) told members: “The people
of Bourne don’t want it under any circumstances and I will back them absolutely.
If Bourne doesn’t want it, why do we want it? I say let it fall down and the
sooner the better.” Councillor Hudson was one of two councillors from Bourne who
were similarly scathing. “Both Bourne Urban District Council and South Kesteven
Rural District Council have definitely turned it down as being a useless
proposition”, he said, while Councillor R A Collins described the building as
“nothing more or less than a white elephant”. Alderman C H Feneley (Deeping St
James) also added his view that “no historic building should prejudice the march
of progress”. There was a spirited defence of the building and one councillor
suggested that the people of Bourne should be consulted but it was to no avail.
The vote was 33 to 19 against the council taking over the Red Hall and so its
fate appeared to be sealed.
But help was at hand, notably through the efforts of the late Councillor Jack
Burchnell (1909-73), and after a long and determined fight, he ensured that
Bourne United Charities acquired the freehold in 1962 and remain the owners to
this day. The hall was in a dilapidated condition when they took it over but
with the aid of local funds and grants, it was carefully and sympathetically
restored to its former elegance and the building re-opened in December 1972.
Since then, the main rooms have been used as offices and as a meeting place for
local groups and conservation organisations.
Those who tried to have the hall pulled down on each occasion have long been
forgotten while those who were responsible for saving it have earned a place in
our history. These are matters we should ponder on when contemplating the future
of the old buildings we have left.
What the local newspapers are saying: One of our most recent town
councillors, Mrs Helen Powell, who took her seat for Bourne West only last May,
has brought a breath of fresh air to the council chamber, with new ideas, an
infectious enthusiasm and an optimism for the future of this town. Her motto
seems to be that there is always a rainbow and that anything can be achieved
provided the spirit is willing. Her latest scheme to create a leisure park to
the north west of Bourne, so saving it from yet more residential and road
development, is given front page coverage by The Local which reports that
she is already seeking support from landowners and the people to turn her dream
into reality (February 1st).
The proposed scheme would include a dry ski slope, fishing lake, winter skate
rink, lakeside hotel, conference centre, restaurant, self-catering lodges and
other associated facilities that would protect Bourne Wood at this point from
urban encroachment and ensure that it is preserved as a public space. The report
says that she is also seeking support for a petition to South Kesteven District
Council to be kept informed about any planning applications it receives in
respect of this land, a first step to opposing the building of new houses in
such a sensitive area.
One can imagine the frowns of disapproval on the faces of some older and less
adventurous colleagues in the council chamber who are already at a loss what to
do about solving the problem of the cemetery chapel and it is feared that they
may not support Councillor Powell in her endeavours. But she is right to press
ahead with her project which will receive the wholehearted support of the
community, barring a few Jeremiahs who refuse to recognise new and vigorous
ideas and prefer to stick to the old ways, which means little change and nothing
achieved. Radical proposals are inevitable in a forward looking society and, by
definition, they are the province of the young and those who embrace them will
be remembered while those who resist are as doomed as the dodo.
Thought for the week: The truth is more important than the facts.
-
Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, writer, educator and philosopher
(1867-1959).
Saturday 9th February 2008
Several newspaper
columnists who have a reputation as trend setters have suggested in recent weeks
that traditional antiques are a thing of the past. Brown furniture is particularly passé
although only thirty years ago every social climbing home had an oak gate leg
table or an Edwardian inlaid mahogany display cabinet and perhaps a collection
of silver, brass, copper, pottery and glass.
No longer. These fine pieces completed by craftsmen that once commanded high
prices now go begging in the salerooms while simplicity has taken over in the
fashionable home and less rather than the more of past times has become the
latest fad. The main reason given by the experts who appear on the many
television programmes devoted to the subject claim that the housewife no longer
wishes to have anything that looks dull or needs cleaning and so that rules out
most of the historic household adornments that come under the auctioneer’s
hammer.
Sheraton and Chippendale have been replaced by IKEA and John Lewis while thick
carpeting has given way to floor boarding and blinds have preference over
curtains. The rich and sumptuous Victorian splendour that was once a sign of
affluent living has gone and in its place we have a clinical minimalism that we
have come to expect from the hospital ward. Colour has also taken a back seat
and the reds and greens of the Regency striped wallpapers once favoured by the
upwardly mobile have been ousted and white and other subtle pastel shades now
predominate in the home.
These are the results of fluctuating fashion and although we must expect tastes
to change with the times the disappointing development in these latest trends is
the sad demise of the furniture and fittings from 18th and 19th century England
because if they are no longer popular then they are no longer valuable and
unless they find a home with a favourable patron they are likely to end up on
the rubbish tip.
Many of our old buildings may be about to suffer the same fate for although they
are protected by law, the decreasing availability of cash leaves them at risk of
falling into disrepair and eventual demolition. They are therefore becoming
unpopular. The Old Grammar School is high on the list of doomed properties in
Bourne and the cemetery chapel, although currently the subject of much heart
searching, may well suffer the same fate. Money to bring both back into useful
life is hard to get and those organisations that might provide grant aid
have too many other calls on their finances to even consider such small fry.
The state of the cemetery chapel is well documented and the Abbey Church
restoration appeal has just ended after twelve months of strenuous fund raising
by an extremely active band of volunteers yet still £20,000 short of its
£100,000 target. Meanwhile, other listed properties around the town are in need
of urgent maintenance work, Wake House in North Street for instance, is
beginning to look in a sorry state with window frames crumbling and the once
elegant façade taking on a dilapidated look in recent months. In fact, it is
mainly those properties in the public sector that are showing neglect whereas
those owned privately are reasonably maintained as would be prudent for an
investment of this magnitude, an equation that eludes the less imaginative of
our local authorities. We are therefore back to the question of money which is
in short supply from government at all levels, except when it comes to paying
the staff and providing their pensions. The maintenance of buildings is now a
low priority and our heritage will suffer as a result.
A survey or public consultation has begun in an attempt to determine what
should be done with the cemetery chapel, 153 years old this year and now in
urgent need of vital maintenance. The town council has distributed a
questionnaire to homes throughout the parish seeking opinions on the present
situation although there have been criticisms that the layout and contents of
the form are not as clear and concise as they might be for an assessment of this
nature.
The majority of the six questions are also too long and complex and some may be
considered to be loaded in the council’s favour. Instead of asking in a simple
and uncomplicated sentence whether the chapel should be restored, the first
question is whether council tax payers’ money should be spent on it which could
be construed as a means of producing the obvious answer especially as this is
followed by other detailed questions giving the cost at variously £396,000 and
£553,086, phenomenal amounts that will frighten most people.
There is a note of optimism in that the council has recognised the enthusiasm of
conservationists in wishing to restore the chapel, suggesting that a trust might
be formed were sufficient people willing to come forward to support it, thus
increasing the possibility of grant aid from outside sources. This one question
is likely to settle the fate of the building but it is up to the people to
decide whether they will participate and that the effort is worthwhile.
The questionnaire has been circulated as an insert inside a local trade
publication, issued therefore at the rate of one per household, provided that
the magazine is in fact delivered to every home in the district although even if
it is, many families throw away unsolicited advertising material with hardly a
second glance. In addition, one form per household does not enable couples to
make separate judgments or include other adults living with them and who may pay a
share of the council tax.
However, the town council tells me that 7,000 copies are being distributed in
this way and all should be delivered by Sunday (February 10th) to homes within
the parish of Bourne which also includes Dyke, Twenty and Cawthorpe. The
deadline for their return is Friday 29th February and a special council meeting
is planned for Tuesday 11th March to consider the outcome of the
survey and to set a date for a public meeting at which the various options may
be discussed and possibly, a recommendation made over the future of the
building.
The council has therefore acted wisely and responsibly once it realised that
there was a strong feeling in the community for preserving the cemetery chapel.
The Grade II listing announced last year by the Department of Culture, Media and
Sport, on the recommendation of English Heritage, thus giving it protected
status, provoked a near hysterical reaction in some quarters but it has proved
to be a welcome intervention in the unilateral action by councillors to
deconsecrate and demolish the building quietly and with as little fuss as possible. It is
now up to the public to decide its future and that, after all, is the democratic
way.
What the local newspapers are saying: The Croft is fast becoming an
eyesore and a cause for concern, according to a front page report in The
Local highlighting the deterioration of this prime site in North Road which
has been the subject of a planning dispute for more than a decade (February
8th). The meadowland around the once imposing house, built in 1922, is earmarked
for residential development but repeated applications to erect houses on the
seven-acre site have been refused and there has been deadlock between the owners
and South Kesteven District Council since the last one was rejected by a public
inquiry in December 2005.
The site has been neglected ever since and now the newspaper reports growing
unease by residents living in the vicinity about the continuing lack of care yet
still opposing the land being used for new houses. The Mayor of Bourne,
Councillor Jane Kingman-Pauley, said that the town council was receiving
complaints about the site but rightly points out that the problem is not their
responsibility although the current situation is to be discussed when the
highways and planning committee meets on Tuesday.
Feelings in the town have been running high for several years but the impasse is
between the developers and SKDC and the town council is in no way to blame for
the current situation. Nevertheless, it does have an input into planning matters
and perhaps the time has now come for every persuasion to be used in an attempt
to settle this unfortunate affair. Nimbyism is an obvious factor and those
living nearby, especially in North Road and Maple Gardens, have no wish for a
new estate to be built on their doorstep but then they are witnessing the
alternative with a once grand house and grounds being slowly reduced to an
overgrown and derelict plot.
Suggestions that it might be bought for use as a hospice, a theatre or perhaps a
community centre, are mere pipe dreams because these ideas would founder on the
financial rocks, adding to the list of projects around the town needing money
and strength of will to succeed and in the absence of both, destined to join
Bourne’s growing list of failed endeavours. In the long run, the current
deadlock can only be broken if both sides make concessions and it is hoped that
some form of consultation can be resumed. To do nothing is to leave this site to
degenerate even further.
Prudence in financial affairs in no longer a virtue and in the future you
may be treated with disdain by the banks for not running into debt regularly.
Those who spend wisely are being treated as pariahs while the profligate become
valued customers.
This is the apparent interpretation of the recent decision by the quaintly named
Egg Internet organisation which is withdrawing the credit cards of 161,000
people who they no longer wish to serve. Some of these accounts may indeed be
nothing more than nuisance value but the evidence is that many have excellent
credit records and their only transgression has been to settle their monthly
balances on time before they begin to attract the high interest rates imposed by
the company. No matter that all purchases with plastic carry at least a 4%
surcharge to the seller but now they also want a similar, higher return from the
buyer which is little short of usury.
Other credit card companies may well follow suit because the entire cash system
is slowly changing. Cheques which have been legal tender for decades are slowly
falling out of fashion and are no longer accepted by many retail outlets and as
it is unwise to carry large amounts of cash, which cannot anyway be used for
Internet and telephone transactions, plastic has become an essential part of our
lives.
Old people are particularly vulnerable. They are already baffled by the
inconvenience of standing orders and direct debits forced on them by the public
utilities and have only accepted credit cards as an unavoidable element of
progress. They also have a pride in handling their money wisely, the result of
long experience in never spending unless they can afford it, of paying in cash
whenever possible and of never being in debt. The indignity of poverty learned
from their childhood hangs heavily over their dealings and probity in money
matters is ever present.
Now they are being told that the credit card which is already an unwelcome
intrusion into their lives, carries with it the implied necessity that they must
use it to spend regularly and even go into debt for long periods to justify
their account. This is a totally irresponsible development by financial
institutions and one that cries out for government intervention as spenders
gallop irresponsibly towards the cliff edge of ruin like so many lemmings.
Thought for the week: Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz
happens immediately, and it gives you a lift. The hangover comes the day after.
- Dr Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and advice journalist who has
published a daily syndicated newspaper column in the United States for the past
40 years (1929- ).
Saturday 16th February 2008
Pocket money in
my boyhood seventy years ago was a Saturday penny, handed out before my father
went off to work with a solemn warning not to waste it but always spent by
lunchtime on sweets or sherbet at the corner shop. In those days before decimal
currency, there were 240 pennies to the pound and as both halfpennies and
farthings were still in circulation, its value may be more easily understood
today. Most spending was in coin, ten shilling or £1 notes, and if anyone did by
some rare stroke of fortune come into possession of a £5 note, a large white and
crisp treasury bill grandly printed in Gothic script, then they were required to
sign the reverse before passing it on to the recipient.
The only time I ever possessed a silver threepenny bit or perhaps even a
sixpence was when a visiting uncle called at Christmastide and that too burned a
hole in my pocket and was soon spent, perhaps on a bus ride into town and a
visit to the cinema for an afternoon matinee, a rare treat. Having money was a
novelty and no children that I knew ever kept a coin in their pockets for very
long. There was little to save and most
families only had enough to make ends meet yet the more careful still made the
effort to put a few pennies by for a rainy day and their attempt at financial
prudence was inspired by the many small banks that had sprung up for that very
purpose.
In the mid-19th century, banks would not normally accept a deposit of less than
one shilling (twelve pence) which was well outside the means of most working
class families able to make regular savings and so penny banks sprang up, small
philanthropic organisations frequented by the poorer sections of the working
classes, those for whom putting money by was a difficult even sacrificial
effort. They were run by volunteers, usually local businessmen with some
experience of finance, but were enormously successful, thus proving that the
guidance given out from pulpit and lecture platform to save for a rainy day had
not gone unheeded.
In those days, debt meant the workhouse or even prison and was the subject of
many plays and novels with Charles Dickens using such situations to great
effect, not least in David Copperfield written in 1849, in which Mr Micawber
hands out his oft-quoted guidance on keeping personal spending in credit even
with such narrow a margin as a halfpenny. This was the social climate in 1858
when the first Penny Savings Bank opened in Bourne, inspired by two local
businessmen who became joint secretaries, Robert Mason Mills, founder of the
town’s aerated water business, and William Sang, a stationer, who ran the
business from his premises in North Street (now the Norwich and Peterborough
Building Society), although at the start opening hours were restricted to an
hour or two on selected evenings.
The bank was an immediate success with 100 members within a few weeks and when
the first annual report was issued in October 1859, it revealed that £130 16s.
8d. had been received in small sums from 300 depositors. Within seven years of
opening, the bank had 723 members and deposits were averaging £100 a year,
totalling £816 18s. 6d. by December 1865. This was a forerunner of the present
Trustee Savings Bank, founded in the 19th century and was for many years located
in the Town Hall, opening only once a week on Saturday afternoons and eventually
moving to premises at No 6 West Street in 1955 when there were 1,536 depositors
with £212,000 standing to their credit. The bank was subsequently swallowed up
by Lloyds TSB and the West Street premises closed in March 2005.
These institutional developments reflect the revolution in the use of money
since the days of the small savings banks in which cash has given way to cheques
and then to credit cards. Pennies no longer command any value and many regard
them as a nuisance. I even saw one young lad leaving a shop recently and then
throwing one into the gutter when he realised that it was all the change he had
been given. It was not even worth his while putting the coin in his pocket.
Changing times, changing values and even the pound will buy you little today.
But perhaps the most marked transformation is our attitude towards money for
whereas the penny banks encouraged the people to save, today’s financial
institutions prefer you to be in debt. Putting something by is no longer a
priority and most people live on money that has not yet been earned. Thus, Mr
Micawber’s advice that has for so long been the watchword for the financially
stable has been turned on its head. Whether this is right or wrong is not really
the issue. That is the way it is, the path that society has chosen.
Very soon, South Kesteven District Council will be asking us for more
money, although it will be a demand rather than a request and one enforceable by
the bailiffs. The reason will be that the extra cash is needed to maintain
public services but this is far from the truth because that which it is supposed
to provide declines as the years progress.
The fact is that further finance is required to give its 730 staff a pay
increase and to ensure that their holiday and pension entitlements do not flag
and the situation is similar with Lincolnshire County Council, employing in
excess of 12,000 people, which takes a large slice of the council tax receipts.
It matters not that much of this money comes from the elderly living on fixed
incomes that have not increased since they retired and, in many cases, the
opposite is true because most pensions and annuities on which they depend have
declined in value. To meet a rise in their council tax, therefore, they must cut
corners elsewhere, on what they spend on food and heating, while the additional
money they are forced to find will go towards the rising salaries of highly paid
staff with grand sounding titles, an increasing number being paid in excess of
£50,000 a year yet all working nine to five, five days a week. Not for them the
worry of having too much month at the end of their money because they are the
beneficiaries of what is known as feather-bedding, the practice of ensuring that
life is comfortable and free of financial worries.
It is not an equal system and those who have diligently paid their dues in life,
settled their bills on time and kept their National Insurance payments up to
date, now find themselves disadvantaged and the promises made by the state and
the pension companies no longer valid. Yet they are still called upon to support
those in full and well paid employment and to ensure that their regular annual
increments are honoured, even though many are in utterly useless jobs that they
themselves would be hard put to justify or even explain.
In my youth, when discussing the disadvantages of society, because we also had
them half a century ago though on a different scale, we used to say that come
the revolution, things would be different. However, the revolution, a mere
figure of speech, never came and instead we have been enveloped in a universal
affluence where everyone has money except the very institutions that need to
spend it for the public good, central and local government, the health services
and public utilities. Capital to maintain the services we had in the past is in
short supply but the people they employ are thriving on high salaries and a
comfortable life style. Something, somewhere, has gone radically wrong.
What the local newspapers are saying: It’s an ill wind that blows nobody
any good and so it is with a report in The Local that many patients are
not turning up for their appointments at our medical clinics here in Bourne
(February 15th). The Galletly Practice in North Road claims that 157
appointments were missed in December, equivalent to 27 hours of wasted clinical
time, no doubt based on a ten-minute consultation for each, and this does
indicate a total disregard by those patients who did not turn up. The result is
that the practice manager, Delia Ledger, appears to be advocating charging for
missed appointments, as do dentists, and although penalties such as this would
also hit those who had a reasonable excuse, it would seem to be the answer,
provided some discretion were applied.
However, the situation is less of a problem at the Hereward Practice in Exeter
Street where there are only a handful of missed appointments each week and
practice manager Bob Brown says optimistically: “These can actually be quite
useful because we can slot late calls in at short notice.”
Perhaps Mr Brown may have hit upon the solution to another complaint that has
been plaguing our clinics where it has often been impossible to get an
appointment for seven to ten days, even for those in some pain or distress. A
little fine tuning of the system to (a) absorb missed appointments and (b)
facilitate urgent requests to see the doctor, could remedy both shortcomings at
a stroke, so turning a bad experience into good housekeeping for the future.
From the archives: Ann Roulin, a girl of 20, left Bourne Union
[workhouse] on Saturday the 20th November, only fourteen days after giving birth
to a child. She attempted to walk to Castle Bytham but was too feeble and was
obliged to stay all night at Witham-on-the-Hill from which place she was
conveyed to Castle Bytham next morning where she lingered eight days and died.
Is it not lamentable that a girl under such circumstances should be allowed to
leave the union before a proper and decent time has elapsed? - news report
from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 3rd December 1858.
The topple test currently being carried out on graves in the town
cemetery may not be the end of those stone memorials that fail to reach the
required safety standards after all. There have been fears that tombstones which
were in danger of falling over might disappear altogether but help is at hand
from the one area of society upon which we can depend, voluntary effort.
The painstaking task of checking the stability of tombstones began in 2004 to
ensure that they were safe and unlikely to fall on unsuspecting visitors. The
survey is being undertaken by Bourne Town Council after concerns were raised by
the Health and Safety Executive that many memorials were in danger of causing
accidents, especially to children, and indeed some have already occurred
elsewhere including one at Harrogate in Yorkshire where a six-year-old boy was
killed.
Some stone memorials have already been laid flat as a safeguard but this is
detrimental to the appearance of the cemetery and not popular with descendants
and those researching family history because it is then impossible to read the
inscriptions. Those in need of attention are now being renovated by volunteers
co-ordinated by Lincolnshire County Council who have already repaired a large
number of graves in the churchyard at Castle Bytham and are now busy working
their way through the town cemetery, a project that is doing much to improve its
appearance.
Thought for the week: The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words
left unsaid and deeds left undone. - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American writer,
philanthropist and author of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
(1811-1896).
Saturday 23rd February 2008
Lorry Warner at the door of his Abbey Road shop in April
1926
The dedication of past pioneers is often overshadowed by
the reputation of the business they founded and we tend to forget that nothing
succeeds today without hard work and long hours. Such it was with Lorenzo
William Henry Warner, born in 1901, the eldest of four children who left school
at the age of thirteen to become an apprentice house painter.
He was mainly employed at Grimsthorpe Castle where his father, a former petty
officer with the Royal Navy, worked as night watchman and lived with his family
in an estate cottage at nearby Elsthorpe. But the work did not suit Lorry, as he
was known, and so he moved to Foley’s agricultural engineering firm in
Meadowgate, Bourne, which involved getting up at 5 am each morning for the
four-mile walk into town and then back again at night, whatever the weather.
When the Great War broke out in 1914, his father, also called Lorenzo, was
recalled for naval service but money was short at home and so Lorry helped
support the family and tried to take his father's place while he was away. These
were times of real shortages and the children often went hungry and without
decent shoes and clothing. When his father returned after the Armistice in 1918,
Lorry suggested that he follow his example and join the Royal Navy but he was
turned down as unsuitable.
Instead, in 1919, he began delivering newspapers for W H Smith to homes in the
surrounding villages of Morton, Edenham and Grimsthorpe, a journey that involved
a daily cycle ride of 14 miles but despite this onerous task, he felt he could
do more and so, with the help of his sister Lily and his younger brother Ernest,
he started an additional enterprise by selling rabbits shot in the locality to a
firm of game suppliers based in Leicester. The only way they could deliver the
dead rabbits was by collecting them from the various farms, hanging them on the
handlebars of the bicycles and pedalling to the railway station at Morton where
they were packed into baskets and put on to the Leicester-bound train.
The depression that followed the war affected many families and Lorry's father
lost his job at Grimsthorpe. He helped for a while with the newspaper deliveries
but one day, he left home abruptly, leaving a brief note explaining that he had
gone away to find work but he never returned. Lorry was 20 years old and
confessed later that he felt deserted.
But his partnership with brother Ernest flourished and Lorry eventually decided
that there was more money to be made from newspapers than from rabbits but this
too could become more lucrative if he became a distributor himself rather than
work for W H Smith and soon he was collecting the newspapers from Essendine, the
nearest station on the main line from London, and ensuring that they were
delivered well ahead of those from their competitors. The venture started with a
weekly turnover of 3s. 9d., working from 4 a m to 7 p m, but the hard work
brought its rewards and soon a shop was opened in Bourne and a second at 53 High
Street, Stamford, acquired from Greaves and Co in 1925, and by 1927, Warners
(Midlands) Ltd was born.
The first shop in Abbey Road soon became too small for his operations and in
1926, he bought the business of R M Smith and Co at 13 West Street, Bourne, so
acquiring larger premises with a printing works at the rear. Ernest, however,
decided to emigrate to Canada in September 1928, leaving Lorry to run the
business himself and it has thrived ever since.
Lorry continued with his active life until well into his eighties and was busy
at the works most days. He was also a life-long member of the Methodist Church
and served as a trustee to many local chapels and was for a number of years a
circuit steward of the church in Bourne. He attributed much of his success to
his faith and the influence on his life of the many Methodists he had met over
the years. He had married Edna Ploughright, a local girl who had come to work
for him, at Bourne Methodist Church on 4th March 1936 and their marriage was
long and successful. He also took an interest in sport as patron of Bourne
Cricket Club and in local affairs and in 1960, he was elected as a member of
Bourne Urban District Council and became chairman for the year 1970-71.
He died suddenly on 15th February 1995 at the age of 94, a few days before he
and Edna were due to celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary. The Abbey Church
at Bourne was packed for his funeral service which was followed by cremation at
Grantham. A friend, Terry Bates, summed up the mood of Bourne after the service:
"Lorry was one of the best known people in the town. His contribution to the
community was considerable in a variety of ways and he will be sadly missed."
The business that he founded continues to this day, now known as Warners
Midlands plc, a firm that has become synonymous with Bourne and is currently
celebrating its 80th anniversary, now based at a 10-acre site around the Old
Maltings in West Street and employing 500 people. It has also become the seventh
biggest combined printing and publishing company in the United Kingdom
generating more than £50 million in annual revenue yet remains a family run
business with Lorry's grandson, Philip Warner, at the helm as managing director,
a worthy tribute to the industry of a young newspaper boy who spotted a gap in
the market eighty years ago.
Plans for new houses on the laundry site at the corner of Manning Road
and Recreation Road in Bourne have been condemned by the town council because of
the high density of dwellings proposed and therein lies a problem with new
housing estates being built today. Developers want to use the land for as many
units as possible and as government regulations require the inclusion of what it
calls affordable housing, this will obviously mean smaller properties.
In the past thirty years, we have seen new build houses shrink in dimension with
claustrophobic rooms, pocket sized gardens and garages hardly big enough to
squeeze in a family car. Now a small mix of houses that can be sold more cheaply
is being included in most developments although the sale price for them remains
relatively high, despite the drastic economies in size.
Larkfleet Homes has applied to build 47 homes on the Manning Road site
which covers 1¾ acres (0.7 hectares) and is currently
occupied by Bourne Services, comprising 16 apartments, seven two and a half
storey houses, 15 of them affordable, 19 two storey houses and five coach
houses. But town councillors complained that
this would be oppressive over-development, visually intrusive and likely to
cause road and safety problems, and that even 25 properties might be too many.
Objections, though, even from our own local council which has first hand
knowledge of the locality, are being ignored and a planning report from South
Kesteven District Council says: “It is considered that the proposed scale and
layout reflects those of other residential developments in the surrounding
area”, which is clearly not the case as anyone who knows the district can
confirm.
This was obviously the reason why the application was approved by the council’s
development control committee on Tuesday despite two of our own district
councillors who sit on that committee putting forward perfectly valid reasons
why it should not go ahead but they were defeated by ten votes to five, the
majority of those opposing being members from the Grantham area although it is
not known whether any of them have actually seen the site.
Government policy is that housing is a basic human right for all and local
authorities are instructed to meet the requirements of the entire community.
Affordable housing, therefore, is meant to encompass both the low-cost market
and subsidised accommodation which should be made available to those on low
incomes who cannot afford to buy on the open market. The situation has been
created in the main because most local authorities have stopped building council
houses and their responsibility in this has in many cases been passed over to
housing associations which SKDC tried to do with its 6,300 properties (535 of
them in Bourne) in 2006 but was thwarted by the regulatory ballot in which 73%
of tenants voted against a transfer.
Ironically, the answer to housing density for affordable homes from past times
can be seen in the immediate vicinity because the site is surrounded by council
houses, in Harrington Street, Ancaster Road, Recreation Road and Alexandra
Terraces. These were all solidly built by Bourne Urban District Council for rent
by large families in the three up and two down style during the last century,
mainly between 1914 and 1960 when the population was less than half of what it
is now, and are still providing serviceable accommodation with a long life
expectancy ahead. Many have also been bought under the Right to Buy scheme
introduced by Margaret Thatcher under the Housing Act of 1985, thus allowing
sitting tenants own the homes where they lived at discount prices.
Council houses are spacious with large gardens and lend themselves to continuous
development, maintenance and even enlargement by enthusiastic owners and they
have held their value, selling for much higher prices than the so-called
affordable houses of today which are frequently bought by housing associations
and rented out to problem and needy families. The policy of locating them within
new residential areas of up market Georgian style properties is questionable and
the evidence is that some tenants are causing friction with the neighbours,
which appears to be happening at Elsea Park.
Soaring land prices mean that developers need to cram each acre with as many
houses as possible to maintain their high profits and the result is that they
are being built upwards instead of outwards, a hybrid of houses, flats and
maisonettes, but they are becoming smaller still with minute gardens and parking
spaces rather than garages while many forecast that the close density and sparse
accommodation provided in some estates is creating the slums of the future.
SKDC appears to be intent on approving every housing application that comes its
way, if not at first time of asking then certainly on appeal, because more homes
mean more council tax which supports the authority’s high-employment-high-salary
ethic but does little for the appearance of the town which is fast becoming a
dumping ground for every unwanted residential development, irrespective of
style, suitability and space. The people of Bourne are saying that enough is
enough and those in the corridors of power at Grantham have a duty to take heed
of what is being said at local level.
What the local newspapers are saying: The Manning Road development is
described as “complete madness” by the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Jane
Kingman-Pauley (Bourne West), in a report by The Local on the decision by
South Kesteven District Council to allow building go ahead (February 22nd)
despite the observations from Bourne Town Council which has an input on planning
matters. “The scheme is within the guidelines but common sense has not been
followed and this could be an accident waiting to happen”, she said. “We live
here and know the town and we have made our comments and passed them on but it
seems that we are wasting our time.”
Town councillor Guy Cudmore (Bourne East), who attended Tuesday’s committee
meeting as an observer, was equally scathing. “There is an argument that the
site needs to be redeveloped and probably for residential use but this is a very
congested area and the plan is excessive”, he told the newspaper. “If it was in
the middle of Birmingham or Sheffield fair enough but Bourne has no need for
housing of this density and the plan can change the face of the town.”
Thought for the week: It is dangerous to be right when the government is
wrong. - François-Marie Arouet, French writer, essayist, philosopher and
defender of civil liberties, better known by the pen name Voltaire (1694-1778).
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