Bourne Diary - August 2008

Saturday 2^nd August 2008

The parish church at Wood Walton - see "The architect of . . . "

There appear to be problems with the use of incense at services in Abbey Church which has not found unanimous approval and some have stayed away as a result. It was introduced on special occasions earlier this year to test the reaction of the congregation and if they found it agreeable, the intention was that it should become an integral part of worship in the future.

Unfortunately, incense is associated with Roman Catholic rites, the smells and bells so beloved of its clergy but frowned upon by the traditionalists of the Church of England who prefer their Sunday worship simple and uncluttered by ritual and consider even the slightest whiff as a sinister and sickly intrusion and likely to result in rows of empty pews at services. The experiment at the Abbey Church comes after the parochial church council agreed to use it for a one year trial on high days and holy days, at those services which are celebrated at Epiphany, Easter, Whitsun, Christmas, and other festivals. The reaction of worshippers will then be considered when the situation is reviewed at their meeting in February 2009.

Opposition, however, has already surfaced, a problem addressed by the vicar, the Rev Christopher Atkinson, in the August issue of the parish magazine, who believes that incense is an important part of Christian worship but understands that some dislike it on health grounds while others prefer to attend services without it, as they have in the past. “Everyone is entitled to their view”, he writes, “but I think it is insufficient to base that view simply upon the assertion that ‘We’ve never done it that way before’. After all, if they were able, the walls of Bourne Abbey would remind us that they had absorbed 400 years and then some of holy smoke!”

This presumably refers to services at the church prior to the Reformation and may or may not be true for although incense was used in many, it was not used by all and certainly not in the poorer parishes which could not afford it. There is also the danger of harking back to the past in an attempt to prove a point in the present because, as L P Hartley so eloquently pointed out, the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

A far more important consideration today is the current state of the Church of England, threatened by schism and endangered by declining congregations. Any move therefore which alienates worshippers should be shunned and even if only one stays away because of unpopular ritual then the experiment has failed.

The architect of the cemetery chapel, Edward Browning, is emerging as an extremely busy man involved with many church projects throughout the country. I researched his life while compiling information for English Heritage which subsequently led to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) granting a Grade II listing to protect the building from demolition by the town council and I have now been contacted by a voluntary group trying to raise the profile of the redundant church of St Andrew with which he was associated, standing isolated in a field near the main east coast line between Huntingdon and Peterborough.

The church dates back to the 13th century but major restoration was carried out under Browning’s supervision between 1856-59 when the aisle walls, the tower and the porch were rebuilt and a vestry added and although now closed, there is sufficient interest in preserving the building for its historic interest. It has been cared for by the Friends of St Andrew’s since September 2000 although the churchyard is still open for interments and remains in the ownership of the Church of England and its day-to-day administration is the responsibility of the Abbots Ripton with Wood Walton Parochial Church Council.

Browning (1816-1882) is known to have carried out similar work throughout the country having established a reputation for his sound judgement and reliable supervision. He was the son of Bryan Browning (1773-1856) who was in practice at Stamford during the 19th century and was responsible for many famous buildings in the area including the Town Hall at Bourne, the Baptist Chapel, the workhouse [later St Peter's Hospital] and the House of Correction at Folkingham.

Edward also trained in the profession, becoming equally successful, based at his father's offices at No 16 Broad Street, Stamford, where he soon had a large practice and a good reputation as an ecclesiastical architect, working on many new and restored churches and chapels in the region, including Bourne Abbey, extensive alterations to the parish church at Uffington and the small Victorian apsidal chapel at St Andrew's Church, Sempringham. There are around thirty listed buildings attributed to him or associated with him, including the stone bridge erected over the River Welland at Stamford in 1849 (Grade 11) while his ecclesiastical commissions included the design of several rectories such as the one at Lowick, Northamptonshire (Grade 11 listed, 1855-56) which famously inspired many literary guests. Edward and his father both worked on alterations to Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire in the 1850s and he also designed the National School in Eastgate, Bourne [now demolished], in 1857, and was chosen to design the Ostler memorial fountain in 1860 dedicated to a local worthy that once stood in Bourne market place but because of traffic problems was moved in 1962 to the town cemetery where it can still be seen.

He became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was active in the community as a justice of the peace and Mayor of Stamford from 1862-63. He retired in 1881 and moved with his family to Dudlow House in Upper Tooting, London, where he died on April 14th the following year, aged 65.

John Chance, who leads the volunteer group at Wood Walton, (quite by chance he also went to my old school), has written to say that the church is being opened each afternoon during the Heritage Open Weekend, Thursday to Sunday, 11th-14th September, from 2 pm until 5 pm when they plan to provide as much information as possible for visitors, including these biographical details of Edward Browning.

Dedicated volunteers such as this can be found all over the country, devoting their time to preserving old buildings that would otherwise be destined to fall down through neglect or be wilfully demolished because they are no longer economically viable. Their historic worth is devalued by the current financial climate which dictates that all expenditure must have a monetary return. But they are part of our tradition and, like our cemetery chapel, worthy of preservation and those who cherish our heritage must remain ever watchful because the vandals are always at the gate.

A discussion in the Forum reveals that there is widespread interest in the osprey and whether it can be seen in the Bourne area, one contributor writing to say that he had spotted one over Bainton Pits in recent years. A breeding programme is underway at Rutland Water, near Stamford, and although the nesting site is a closely guarded secret, these magnificent birds can be seen by anyone who has the time to spend there watching the skies which can be a rewarding experience.

In May 2004, conservationists were horrified to learn that an osprey was shot in Lincolnshire. The bird was not killed but found in time for its injury to be treated although they do not survive easily in captivity. There were fears that the bird was one of those that had recently been introduced to Rutland Water but it was not ringed and therefore came from elsewhere.

The osprey (Pandion haliætus), also known as the fish hawk, is a moderate sized raptor normally seen near lakes, broads and estuaries outside the breeding season. It lives entirely on fish and this may be the reason why it was harried to near extinction in Britain in past times because it was competing for stocks of trout. Then after an absence of almost 50 years, a pair of these large brown and white birds set up their nest in a tree near Loch Garten on Speyside in Scotland in the mid-1950s and their presence has been nurtured by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ever since, with nesting sites closely guarded in many other parts of the country.

Ospreys have a slow flapping flight but they also soar, hover and drop from a height on to their prey feet first, and they have a shrill, cheeping cry, rather like the call of a young game bird. In early spring, before the female arrives at the eyrie, the male performs spectacular flights, climbing as high as 1,000 feet, hovering briefly with tail outspread, and then plunging earthwards. It can sometimes be seen in this locality but sightings are a rare occurrence because it is still a threatened species despite the perseverance of conservationists.

During the 19th century, they were a common sight but because of their magnificent appearance, they frequently fell victim to the guns of hunters who sold them to taxidermists for mounting in glass cases, a practice banned today by law. Bourne was one of the centres of this trade in Lincolnshire, mainly through the expertise of Mr John Evans who had shop and workshop premises in West Street where he would accept any attractive or unusual bird or animal for stuffing and the Stamford Mercury reported on Friday 19th October 1883:

A splendid specimen of the osprey is now to be seen at the establishment of Mr John Evans, taxidermist, West-street, Bourne, to whom it has been entrusted for the purpose of preservation. It was shot by Mr Ward on the 21st of September in Deeping Fen, near Tongue End, and measures 23 inches from end of the bill to tail end and 5 feet 3 inches from tip to tip of wings.

This was a magnificent adult bird that was shot for no good reason other than to adorn some Victorian sitting room but it was the practice of the time to take a gun to any attractive or unusual bird that might be spotted in the countryside and although our attitude to wildlife has changed drastically since, the shooting of an osprey in recent years is proof that not everyone shares the same sentiment.

It has been suggested that the enforcement rangers I mentioned last week may no longer be employed by South Kesteven District Council to pursue and film anyone dropping litter, scrawling graffiti and allowing their pets to defile our pavements. Two of these mobile cops were recruited in March 2007, each issued with Honda Transalp 650 cc motor cycles fitted with video cameras and briefed to patrol streets, parks and countryside ready to issue fixed penalties of £75 to miscreants.

A mere 16 spot fines have been issued in the intervening 16 months, one a month therefore, and the number of rangers now reduced to one but a contributor to the Forum says that even he is no longer employed and so this particular project which cost £100,000 to launch has become yet another failed initiative. But what we need to know is what has happened to the motor bikes. Are they languishing in the council’s garage at Grantham or still being put to some use, perhaps by councillors or officials to zoom to and fro between home and work, or have they been sold off at knock down prices on the second hand market?

I think we should be told. Perhaps Councillor Nick Craft (Conservative, Belmont), can enlighten us. He is chairman of the group which monitors all aspects of the council’s spending and who considers his role as that of running a business. Somewhere in the balance sheet, therefore, are two £5,000 motor cycles, valuable machines which should appear under assets and as the main source of the council’s income, we have a right to know of their fate. There are a couple of these models currently being advertised on eBay. Oh, surely not!

Thought for the week: It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, once elected, a local council automatically becomes self-important and incompetent. - Rod Liddle, columnist, writing in The Spectator, Sunday 27th July 2008.

Saturday 9^th August 2008

New filling station site  - see "The opening of  . . . "

The Bourne web site is ten years old this week, a small milestone in the scheme of things but we are proud to have been published continuously since August 1998, making us the longest running community project on the Internet for a market town of this size.

From small beginnings, developed from a suggestion by my son, Dr Justin Needle, we began with a handful of pages and photographs and were lucky to attract a few dozen visitors, but we have since expanded to a formidable size of 426 pages and 620 photographs, with over 2,000 people a week dropping in from around the world and consulted by a wide variety of organisations including academic, commercial, business and government. The web site could be larger but I constantly trim the content to under 50MB, not only to keep down the cost but also because past experience has proved that anything larger is too much for one person to control with any accuracy which has always been our watchword.

At first, it was difficult to become accepted by the search engines but we persisted and have topped the Google ratings now for many years which means that anyone in the world who wishes to know about our town will automatically be directed to this web site and although we are often snowed under with email inquiries, all are answered and information provided whenever possible and details of those who have logged on can be found in our list of Visitor Countries which makes impressive reading.

We carry no advertising and have resisted all approaches to do so because commercial intervention means restrictive editorial practices, as our local newspapers know to their cost, whereas we remain unfettered by financial considerations and meet the overheads ourselves, an expense that becomes more difficult for an old age pensioner on a fixed income but one we regard as our contribution to the community. The result is that I can speak my mind on topics of the day in my weekly Diary for which I have written well over one million words in the past decade, and although this has not always found favour in some quarters, we are gratified to know that we have influenced events in this town and, hopefully, for the better.

Our Photograph of the Week was introduced soon after the web site began and almost 500 pictures of the town and locality have been used since, showing most of our interesting buildings, parks and open spaces, roads and waterways, flora and fauna. The number of messages we receive prove that this feature is a popular one and a lady who lives in the United States emailed to say that she prints each one out and keeps them in a scrapbook as an illustrative account of this town. Readers also began sending in pictures they had taken themselves demonstrating a wide variety of talent that could not be ignored and so we began the Photo Gallery as a showcase for their work.

One of the most important features of the web site is our Family History section which has brought together families from all parts of the globe seeking information about ancestors who originated in Bourne. A total of 350 names are currently listed for research and rarely a day goes by without an inquiry from overseas, usually Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand, the former colonies which attracted the more adventurous of our past residents who left to seek their fortunes and whose descendants are compiling family trees and are anxious to find out about the place where they originated.

The Forum is the most widely read in Lincolnshire, a discussion group of people with something to say, whether on local or national issues, serious and light-hearted, but always intelligent and informative, a platform that has produced contributors of real value and with views on the human condition that are enlightening and give food for thought which is the very essence of debate. We also carry a list of Friends of Bourne, more than 100 people living around the world who are anxious to keep in touch with the town and to contact old friends.

Our Notice Board is the most extensive available for Bourne, updated daily and providing details of dozens of organisations which keep this town alive, from the Abbey Church and the town council to those smaller organisations which provide enjoyment and friendship for minority interests. There are those who complain that there is nothing to do in Bourne but they only need to consult this list to find out that perhaps they are out of touch with what is really going on. We also carry links to more than 400 other web sites connected with the town, government and local authorities, schools, churches, business, social, sporting and charitable organisations, the media, surrounding villages and guides to places of interest.

The web site carries regular articles on our history and heritage and many outside contributions, notably from our M P, Quentin Davies, who writes fortnightly when the Commons is in session, and several councillors who wish to keep in touch with the people they represent, although we are prepared to give space to anyone with something so say or share their memories of times past.

The research involved in keeping the web site going subsequently spawned a permanent record of our town, a definitive history under the title of A Portrait of Bourne that has since developed into a massive archive of people, places and events on CD-ROM running to almost 350MB which has been variously described as “a masterpiece in local history” and even “a modern Domesday Book“, two descriptions of which we are justly proud. Copies have been sent to schools and other organisations in the town and are also available in the county libraries and so this work will survive for the benefit of future generations.

The past ten years have been a rewarding experience and although there are times when I have flagged and thought seriously of packing it in, my wife Elke, all round helper and trusty proof reader who is responsible for our envied error free presentation, a rare occurrence on the Internet, has urged me to carry on and her confidence is reinforced by the many kind messages we regularly receive from around the world. It therefore seems that we will continue for the time being and although I will be 78 next month and cannot count on a 20th anniversary, it is business as usual for the time being.

What the local newspapers are saying: The town council has overruled a decision by its finance and general purposes committee not to provide cash aid to the newly formed Bourne Preservation Society to restore and maintain the 19th century cemetery chapel by agreeing a £5,000 grant to help the project on its way. But The Local reports (August 8th) that the decision was not unanimous with two councillors still voting against and one of them, Councillor David Higgs (Bourne West), saying: “We had a clear and concise vote by the people of the town and they were against using taxpayers’ money for this purpose” which is not strictly correct.

To put the record straight, the council carried out a survey in February which included a loaded question suggesting that the council tax would have to be increased by a frightening amount to pay for a restoration costed at £400,000 and few therefore agreed to this course of action. A total of 7,000 questionnaires were sent out but only 443 people filled them in (6.3%) which means that 93.7% did not reply which hardly justifies the “clear and concise vote” that has been claimed. At no time did anyone suggest that the £40,000 already accrued by the council for cemetery preservation should not be spent for the purpose it was intended and to imply otherwise is a red herring. There were, however, sufficient people who wanted the building to be restored for the council to explore the possibilities and this has led to the current situation.

The Victorian chapel has been under the stewardship of the town council since 1974 and as it is now a Grade II listed building, the authority has a legal duty of repair and maintenance and to foot the bill. Under the new arrangement, this liability would be passed to the Bourne Preservation Society and one would have expected unanimous support from councillors for those dedicated volunteers with the heritage of this town at heart who are prepared to do the work which they have neglected and that the sum of £5,000 is a small price to pay in return.

The opening of the Tesco Esso filling station in August 2002 has not been an entirely satisfactory project for Bourne, from the establishment of the much criticised road system in North Street with its two questionable mini-roundabouts to the price war it created, resulting in the closure of two other outlets which could not compete. Motorists therefore have nowhere else to go. Relief may now be on the way because the Stamford Mercury reports that South Kesteven District Council has begun negotiations for the sale of the vacant land off the A15 at the southern entrance to the town (August 1st). The 4.2 acre site opposite Elsea Park in South Road has been on the market for almost ten years after plans for an ambitious business park fell through.

The original scheme for this location was for a Southfield Business Park covering some 17 acres to be developed at a cost of £10 million, including a restaurant, fast food outlet, petrol filling station, public house and hotel, the site accessed from a new estate road and roundabout and the remainder of the land developed for a range of uses including offices, light industrial units and warehousing. It was intended to be one of the most ambitious commercial undertakings in the history of Bourne but never materialised, the scheme finally being shelved in May 2001.

Since then, there have been reports and rumours about various uses while much of the original land in the vicinity has been chipped away for housing but now we have details of real interest from Marston’s plc, one of the country’s leading companies which owns four breweries and controls some 2,272 pubs, to build a long-awaited second petrol filling station for the town together with a family pub and restaurant.

The first is badly needed but there appears to be little necessity for the second although that will be the price we have to pay. Nevertheless, everyone seems to be relieved that at last something is happening to alleviate the current situation over an additional petrol outlet although there has not yet been a formal agreement between the council and the company and so celebration is still some way off.

A new sound has joined the buzz of activity to be heard in the quiet and secluded byways of suburbia with the rumble of wheelie bins being moved to the front gate in the morning and then back again in the evening when they have been emptied. Until now, the most frequent violation of our urban tranquillity has been the lawn mower in season, the steady throb of a Briggs & Stratton two stroke as husbands toil to keep the grass at bay, but the current recycling initiative inspired by our local authorities has replaced this with a once a week race to ensure that these massive containers are not missed when the refuse collection vehicle calls.

The rumble of small plastic wheels on patio and pavement at nearby properties is akin to distant thunder and more than once, when expecting a fine spell, I have risen quickly from my chair to check the barometer in the hall in case my earlier reading has been inaccurate only to discover that the sudden change in the weather I had assumed was happening was nothing more than a manifestation of domestic efficiency by the neighbours.

With two wheelies for each house, black and silver, this has been a regular occurrence but now I see that the long awaited green bins for garden waste, promised to those who ordered them from South Kesteven District Council last year, are at last being delivered with even more banging and crashing in the street and so in the future we will be hearing the bins thundering to and fro even more frequently than the usual once a week and when a storm does threaten, the cry wolf syndrome means that we are likely to ignore the warning sounds until the tempest is actually upon us.

Thought for the week: Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. - Samuel Butler, iconoclastic Victorian writer, critic and classicist, and author of the Utopian satire Erewhon (1835-1902).

Saturday 16^th August 2008

The Car Dyke at Dunsby Fen . . . see "The origins of . . . "

The £50,000 project to fence in the Abbey Lawn to protect it from vandals has been abandoned in favour of security guards. Bourne United Charities has decided not to install iron railings around the ground for the time being and to rely instead on regular patrols to deter intruders who have been responsible for so much destruction to the sporting facilities in recent years.

At the same time, the Abbey Lawn Action Committee formed in 2006 to find ways of protecting the grounds, has been re-formed as the Abbey Lawn Sports Association representing the various activities held there including football, cricket, tennis, petanque, swimming and bowls which administer between them facilities worth some £2 million.

The problem of restricting access is believed to be the reason for the change of policy and certainly the closure of the grounds at any time would not have found favour with the public because it contravenes the wishes of the trustees who acquired this land seventy years ago for the use of the town in perpetuity and may even have been challenged under the Countryside Rights of Way Act of 2000 and could still be if the gates are locked at night. At the same time, there is much sympathy with those clubs battling to deter intruders causing mayhem and damage and ruining the enjoyment of others and there is a widespread acceptance that something must be done.

Fencing, however, will not prevent the most determined from getting into the grounds because a walk round the perimeter will reveal many places where this will still be possible and the first intrusion would mean that the money had been wasted. Unfortunately, security guards patrolling the Abbey Lawn are likely to be equally ineffective because their powers are limited and they are unable to detain or arrest intruders. Vandalism and other forms of anti-social behaviour have become endemic in society and will persist as long as the police refuse to shoulder their responsibilities by initiating a policy of zero tolerance which has proved to be so effective elsewhere. There is no substitute for the bobby on the beat as has been proved in past times when their presence was ubiquitous at all hours and therefore assistance and a deterrent to criminal acts never far away.

The individual was at risk from even the slightest infringement of the law as I remember to my cost as a teenager some sixty years ago after cycling past a halt sign at a road junction, even though there was no traffic or anyone else about at the time except for a vigilant constable on a bicycle who pedalled furiously after me to take my particulars down in his notebook and warn that I had committed an offence. Fortunately, I was let off with a caution from the chief constable but from then on I cycled with extreme care and always observed the rules of the road. Fear of the police tempered with a healthy respect for their powers was universal in those days because they were ever present in our daily lives and breaking the law was treated accordingly. Today, they are notably absent from our streets and this is at the heart of the problems at the Abbey Lawn.

The origins of the Car Dyke continue to engage the attention of historians and in recent weeks I have received several communications from people studying this unique waterway and speculating whether it was built for transport or as a flood defence. Although there have been many learned treatise on the subject no absolute conclusions have been reached.

For those new to the subject, I should explain that the Car Dyke was probably built during the Roman occupation in the early part of the second century AD, one of their most ambitious civil engineering projects, a watercourse of 75 miles in length, starting at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire then crossing the River Welland and entering Lincolnshire at Deeping St James and thence through Bourne. From here, it skirted the western limits of the fens and joined the River Witham at Torksey below Lincoln, and so extended for a distance of 56 miles through Lincolnshire.

We only need to consult one of the earliest historians to consider theories on its intended use because Dr William Stukeley (1687-1765), Lincolnshire born antiquary and one of the founders of field archaeology, wrote that the word càr was Old English with a transport connotation and applied to raft, sledge and vehicles of carriage, which may therefore have given rise to its present meaning in the modern motor car.

It is known that the dyke was traversable, not by sailing ships as may be imagined, but by low barges and rafts drawn by horses or manpower, and was probably used by the Romans to move supplies between East Anglia and the armies in the north, the main cargoes being corn, wool for uniforms, leather for tents and shields and provisions such as salted meat, returning laden with coal and building materials and locally made pottery. In later years, it was probably used for the transport of stone from various quarrying operations in the county, a valuable commodity for building houses and important buildings such as churches, and in 1717, a bell weighing 12 cwt was transported on a raft from Henry Penn's foundry at Peterborough for installation at Lincoln Cathedral, passing through Dyke village, thus indicating that the waterway was still navigable more than 1,500 years after it was built.

Other historians have suggested that the name means nothing more than a fen dyke and the fens in the Ancholme area in the far north of the county were once known a carrs. In fact, Dr Stukeley admitted that car and fen were practically synonymous, a term used in Lincolnshire to signify low unenclosed watery and boggy places and it has since been established that the name is most likely derived from an old Norse personal name, hence Kárr’s dik and subsequently Car Dyke.

The waterway had a meandering course along the eastern side of the high ground which extends in an irregular chain up to the centre of the county from Stamford to Lincoln, and thus received from the hills all the draining and flowing waters which took an easterly course and but for this catchwater drain would inundate the fens. The conclusion is therefore that the waterway was built for the primary purpose of transport while the route chosen also meant that it would be useful when flooding was threatened.

Today in most areas, the Car Dyke is difficult to identify except for those who are looking for it because as the fen has been intensively drained since the 17th century, it is indistinguishable from any of the other watercourses which are a feature of this part of England. It can best be seen locally in Manning Road where it crosses underneath the carriageway on its way north and in the villages along the route, notably Dyke and Dunsby Fen where it has a particular prominence. In 1807, it was described as being 60 feet wide in places with a broad, flat bank on either side, but today it is much narrower and even choked with weed in some places but although no longer navigable, still serving a useful function as an integral part of the rural drainage system.

From the archives: On Saturday morning last, an accident occurred in Bourne which, had it not been for the remarkable fortitude and self-possession of the lady occupying the vehicle, might have proved of very serious consequence. After the departure of the 8.30 am train, Mrs L C Lawrance, of Dunsby Hall, was proceeding from the train in a small four-wheeled carriage driven by her coachman when the horse became unmanageable and started off at a furious pace along South Street. When opposite the Mason's Arms, the coachman was thrown out but Mrs Lawrance, with extraordinary presence of mind, immediately assumed the driver's seat. The coachman's legs got entangled with the reins by which he was drawn along the ground between 30 and 40 yards and it is miraculous how he escaped with his life. The horse ran its head into Miss Barwis's window and a considerable portion of the stone wall underneath the window was displaced by the collision, the fore wheels of the vehicle at the same time coming into contact with the kerb stone, which is about six inches higher than the road, whereby the horse was thrown down and Mrs Lawrance pitched out of the vehicle, fortunately, however, sustaining very little or no injury. Nor did the coachman or horse appear to be seriously injured. - news item from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 28th August 1863.

A drive through the English countryside at this time of the year gives us a glimpse of what is happening in the villages and hamlets of this green and pleasant land because every few miles we see a roadside sign or poster advertising the multifarious activities in pursuit of pleasure. These are known as the lazy days of summer but there is much going on in and around our little town and these makeshift signs announce fetes, feasts and festivals, gala days and fun evenings, because this is the season of village revels that have their origins in the mists of time.

People do remarkable things under the guise of merrymaking. They roll cheeses, kick bottles, run around in sacks, pelt Aunt Sallies and do various things with eggs and there is always the beer tent to ensure that they generally make fools of themselves. But there is a serious sociological background to the public gatherings of high summer.

Our ancestors had only the hedges around the fields as their horizons and in those fields they ploughed and hoed and harvested and with no artificial illumination in their homes other than expensive candles and rush lights, they went to bed at sunset and rose at dawn which coincided with their working day. The pattern of village life has always been closely linked to the perennial rounds of ploughing and sowing, new crops, first fruits and harvest, and these weeks of hard work were punctuated by periods of relaxation, during which the traditional festivals, fairs and holidays were held. High summer gave them longer days and therefore additional hours to enjoy themselves just before the back breaking work of the harvest and so the tradition of the village feast during these months grew up when for a few hours they could forget their endless toil and socialise with their neighbours.

Most of these ancient customs survive today as a means of fund-raising for various charities and good causes and they continue despite our notoriously inclement weather and the assurance that the event will go on "in barn if wet" has become an ominous reminder that storm clouds may gather on the day although enjoyment is never dampened by the rain.

Meanwhile, more recent customs invade our senses and as the cornfields have turned a golden yellow, we hear the smack of leather on willow from the Abbey Lawn where cricket is a regular weekend occurrence and the smell of barbecued food drifts down the street to remind us that the outdoor life is the preferred one while the sun shines. It has always puzzled me why millions of us head for foreign climes at great expense during July and August when these are the very months that we can usually enjoy good weather here at home in our own back gardens without the hassle of crowded airports, uncomfortable accommodation and poor food at overrated tourist destinations. Travel is the perception of being somewhere else and it is a seductive illusion that we pursue, rather like a mirage in the desert, but as those of us who have abandoned such peregrinations years ago have discovered, the grass is seldom greener in those faraway places than it is here at home.

Thought for the week: Summer afternoon . . . the two most beautiful words in the English language. - distinguished America-born novelist Henry James who spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death (1843-1916).

Saturday 23^rd August 2008

Sign on hoardings in Church Walk - see "One of the few . . . "

There is a growing tendency in government and with other organisations which deal directly with the public to tell us something continually that is blatantly untrue thinking that if they say it often enough people will believe it. Too often we are presented with a fictional scenario dreamed up by spin doctors to suit the system whereas the majority are not convinced and the reputations of those who dispense this unreliable propaganda suffer as a consequence.

Contributors to the Forum have recently highlighted experiences which illustrate that not everything we are told can be taken at its face value, the first concerning our wheelie bins, the inadequate frequency of collection and whether or not they smell, and the other being the speed in which we are able to book an appointment to see the doctor which is way outside the 48-hour maximum proclaimed by our clinics.

South Kesteven District Council repeatedly tells us that the fortnightly collection system for our household rubbish, one week for recycling materials and the other for landfill kitchen waste, is quite sufficient and working well without complaint and that the bins do not smell which appears to be totally out of touch with reality. Anyone reading the messages on the Forum will find many home owners with another tale to tell, of unhealthy odours and even maggots in their black bins while the silver bins are fast becoming inadequate and overflowing if left un-emptied for two weeks.

The problem is that the council is trying to impose a new collection system within the budgetary constraints of the old and it will not work. What is required is a fresh approach with the needs of the householder in mind as advised by our elected councillors at grass roots level and not the financial requirements demanded by treasury officials which will invariably result in inefficiency and dissatisfaction at the kerbside. Both bins need to be emptied weekly, as refuse bins have been since they were first introduced more than a century ago, and to leave them any longer is not only a false economy but may even be a health hazard which brings the entire refuse collection service into disrepute.

The Forum also highlights frustration by many patients seeking an appointment with the doctor at our two clinics where a wait of a week or more appears to be the norm yet the Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust, of which our two town clinics are a part, reports that 88 per cent of those who tried to get an appointment within 48 hours were able to do so (Stamford Mercury, July 25th). No figures were given for those who participated in the survey or the time span over which the data was collected which therefore implies that everyone who wants an immediate consultation gets one yet anecdotal evidence from Forum contributors does not bear this out and a recent check with my own local clinic revealed a wait of around 10 days to see a doctor.

The Galletly Practice announced in June that it would be initiating additional appointment times on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, a progressive decision that will be welcomed by those with jobs who may think twice about taking time off work for some nagging complaint that may or may not be serious and can only be determined by expert diagnosis. This must be the way forward for general practice which in recent years has reduced the hours a doctor is available to his patients by restricting times at the surgery which have only been open nine to five (or thereabouts), Monday to Friday, even though ill health does not keep office hours. But the need to reduce waiting times to see the doctor must still be addressed and no amount of publicity from so-called patient surveys will convince the public otherwise.

It must be stressed that there is no complaint about the medical services offered and that patients are now receiving better attention than at any time in the past and there is a widespread acceptance that we are in good hands. The National Health Service may have its shortcomings and there will always be cause for criticism but there is a problem at local level in some areas. Speedier appointments and access at evenings and at weekends is necessary and as the patients cannot initiate this, it is left to the doctors to decide if and when they will.

What the local newspapers are saying: The problem is that no one is listening to the people any more whether they be customers, clients, patients, householders, taxpayers or subjects of the realm. There are repeated promises of care and consultation whereas the reverse is true and nowhere is this more evident than in government, especially at local level where councils have been given unprecedented police powers in recent years to impose their will.

The introduction of car parking charges in Bourne will have far reaching effects on the economy of this small market town, already suffering form the closure of a large supermarket, and despite having been roundly rejected several times in the past decade, South Kesteven District Council has merrily dragged the scheme back on to its agenda and the Stamford Mercury devotes its front page to a report suggesting that parking charges could be in force by next April (August 22nd).

The reaction from civic and business leaders is as expected with the mayor, Councillor Shirley Cliffe, roundly condemning such a move and Jane Good, chairman of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce, spelling out the consequences. “Paying to park would just kill the town”, she told the newspaper. “It is hard enough to survive at the moment and we already have a lot of empty shops. If people have to pay to park, they will shop elsewhere.”

Car parking has always been free in Bourne and charges have been resisted on several occasions, 1998, 2001 and notably in 2004 when the scheme was eventually shelved by SKDC after a public protest campaign raised a petition signed by more than 4,000 people. If charges are introduced then it will be bad news for both traders and their customers and a major deterrent for any company planning to move here under the proposed £25 million redevelopment scheme for the town centre. Yet the council blithely carries on, seeking money from whatever source to supplement the next salary increase for its massive staff while the public services it is supposed to provide continue to deteriorate.

One of the few blank public hoardings in Bourne that have not been defaced by graffiti can be found in Church Walk where a dozen or so sections of chipboard have been erected to screen the site of the corn mill flats development. Hardly a single mark can be found on these pristine surfaces yet they invite the attentions of the yobs with spray cans and felt pens to do their worst but appear to have gone unnoticed. Perhaps our urban artists think it is not actually illegal to scribble or draw here because a notice purporting to emanate from South Kesteven District Council stencilled on one of them announces that the wall is a designated graffiti area and so many will presume that it invites attention with the blessing of the developers and the local authority.

The sign, however, appears to be an elaborate spoof, a variation of others that have appeared elsewhere in the country, usually claiming to be issued by the National Environment Agency although this one has been amended to read that it originated from the district council. Not therefore, a case of if you can’t beat ‘em join ’em, although artistic endeavour is so far absent, even from those who think they may be officially empowered to have a doodle. But there is still time because the current slump in the housing market has resulted in a halt to building work on the site and as it is unlikely to resume until the middle of next year, we can expect this blank canvas to be filled with some creative examples from those with an irresistible urge to cover every inviting surface in the street scene with colourful if uneducated artwork.

Petticoat power is firmly in control of our town council following the co-option of the latest member, Mrs Kirsty Roche, aged 33, to fill the seat in the Bourne East ward vacated by Councillor Guy Cudmore who resigned last month. She joins a redoubtable band of ladies who are now running our affairs at local level, filling eight of the 15 seats and leaving only six for the men, while also holding all of the responsible positions, the current mayor being Councillor Shirley Cliffe with all of the committees being chaired by others including Councillors Judy Smith (amenities), Pet Moisey (finance and general purposes) and Jane Kingman Pauley (highways and planning).

As there is currently a vacancy in Bourne East caused by the resignation of Councillor Mark Horn on August 2nd, the gulf between the sexes is likely to widen even further, and the appointment of a new candidate in the autumn, whether by election or co-option, could consolidate the female majority nine to six. Political correctness, of course, decrees that this should not be a factor but that is rather like denying the obvious fact that Margaret Thatcher is a woman.

We also have a very able and efficient lady clerk to the council in Mrs Nelly Jacobs and although none of this ought to be a consideration when the vacant seat is filled in October, we cannot ignore the female factor and that the young lady newcomers currently in office are making their mark in this town with refreshingly new opinions and actions which are already beginning to influence events. Perhaps the gentlemen who now sit with them in council and committee need to look to their laurels and not to take so much for granted in the future.

The death of Kath Cox earlier this month at the age of 97 has robbed Bourne of our oldest and certainly one of our most well-known and interesting characters, a woman with a fund of stories to tell about our past. Many of these tales, usually with a well remembered saying, were recalled during her thanksgiving service on Thursday 14th August held at the United Reformed Church in Eastgate which she and her family had supported for many years.

Friends and relatives gathered in the schoolroom afterwards to remember this remarkable lady who became a familiar sight in the town, chauffeuring Dr John Galletly in his declining years and later pedalling around on her cycle, often popping up at public events and always in time for tea, a theme used when refreshments were served under the heading “Food, glorious food.”

Florence Kathleen Sones was born on 2nd April 1911, named after Florence Nightingale who had died the previous year, and her contribution to public life had begun in 1918 when she wrote dozens of letters to businesses in London to help raise funds for the church, then the Congregational Church, enclosing a copy of her photograph with each one and although only seven years old the appeal raised a much welcome £59 2s. 1d, a phenomenal amount in those days. She was married to Bernard Cox, a local bank manager, and survived him, continuing to live at their home in Mill Drove and supporting many organisations in the town, notably the Royal British Legion and the Outdoor Swimming Pool where she eventually became its oldest patron and always attending its important functions. She died on 5th August 2008 and will be missed by many.

Thought for the week: Do what you feel in your heart to be right for you'll be criticised anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't. - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 who after the death of her husband, Franklin D Roosevelt, worked to enhance the status of working women (1884-1962).

Saturday 30^th August 2008

Although the reception to proposals for the development of The Croft as a complex of retirement bungalows has been largely favourable, we must also remember that this will mean the loss of a large open space within the urban area, a greensward that will disappear under bricks and mortar. At a time when the countryside is being raided by house builders seeking prime pastures, we can ill afford to lose such a meadow especially as it is not actually a brownfield site, no matter how it is designated by the local authorities.

Unfortunately, there is little else that can happen to this property except residential development, suggestions that it might be bought for use as a hospice, a theatre or perhaps a community centre, being merely pipe dreams because these ideas would founder on the financial rocks, adding to the list of projects around the town needing both money and strength of will to succeed and in the absence of both, destined to join Bourne’s growing list of failed endeavours. But this does not mean that we should consign this space to housing without a reminder of what might have been.

The grassland surrounding the house has never been built on and indeed this entire stretch of North Road was open countryside until the late 19th century when it became a much sought after out of town location for prosperous traders and businessmen who bought plots and built new homes well away from the artisan’s cottages inhabited by the hoi polloi. There is a revealing description of these nouveau riche in one of the diaries I recently edited in which a young girl describes how, in 1905, the great and the good could been seen on a Sunday morning walking down North Road into town dressed in their best clothes to attend morning service at the Abbey Church, most having made their mark in the professional or commercial life of Bourne.

The parkland surrounding The Croft, and indeed the house itself, has become the relic from a bygone age, one of wherewithal and of privilege, and now the site is likely to be inhabited very soon by those of lesser importance but who have the cash to buy themselves a place in the sun as their forbears did before them. Now, as then, money talks, but what we will lose is that green open space and that is a great pity.

My picture of the meadow around The Croft comes from an aerial photograph of Bourne by John Nowell, one of many he has taken of Lincolnshire for a new book just published. To get this and other bird’s eye views of the county, he flew from the Fenland Airfield in a Cessna 172 in September 2007 and completed a total of 8 hours 10 minutes with two stops for refuelling. The flight was part of a dawn-to-dusk competition originated by the Duke of Edinburgh in which he took fourth place and used the resulting pictures for the book with his wife Chris writing the text.

A Day Above Lincolnshire* is a beautifully produced volume in glorious colour giving a totally new aspect of places that may be familiar and the pictures are reproduced with such remarkable clarity that it is easy to follow the routes and identify houses and public buildings. Although Bourne in confined to a two page spread, there is sufficient interest from other places in the county, particularly Lincoln itself, to make it a worthwhile investment for your own bookshelves or even as a present for that special friend or occasion.

There is evidence of immigrants to the colonies leaving their identities behind and adopting new ones to begin a life abroad, for whatever reason. The change of surname often came about deliberately because they wanted to make a fresh start but also through incorrect entries in immigration documents and in many cases the name of their place of origin was chosen as a replacement.

We are not sure whether either of these explanations fits the case of Calli Bourne who left these shores in the early 20th century and sailed for the West Indies but his descendants have begun the quest to find out and fill in the sketchy details already compiled for their family tree. He arrived in Barbados but later moved to St Lucia in the Windward Islands where he started a business at Castries but it was burned down during the disastrous fire of February 1927, one of four major outbreaks during the past two centuries which have hindered and then helped shape its development as the capital, commercial centre and main cruise port of the island Caribbean nation.

His great-grandson, Turq-l Dujon, has now emailed for help in tracing the origins of Calli Bourne and seeking information in case he came from this part of South Lincolnshire and adopted Bourne as his surname. He is 19 years old and lives in Gros-Islet, the newest town in St Lucia having been recently upgraded from a village, and is working as an accounts clerk while studying for a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Turq-l has already started amassing information about his ancestors and has discovered that his late grandfather, who was Calli’s son, had changed his name to Dujon which survives as the family name, and that after his business was destroyed, Calli moved back to Barbados. “I also know that he had a sister named Mary Bourne who I believe was a magistrate in Barbados”, he said.

The search continues and he now asks: “Were these the first Bournes in the Caribbean?” Perhaps someone out there can provide a clue to help in the quest. The name Bourne is already being researched by many families on the other side of the Atlantic including Tennessee, Arizona and Florida in the United States and Ontario in Canada, and is included in our family history section along with 350 others, thus making this feature one of the largest genealogical facilities in Lincolnshire.

The circus was a wondrous experience of my childhood, a thrilling and enchanting event with exotic animals and tumbling clowns, trapeze artists and daredevil horse riders, and the memory of the spectacle stayed with us for weeks afterwards. Today, this form of entertainment has largely disappeared due to public disfavour with performing animals and the last big top to be erected in Bourne was in a field in Mill Drove more than 20 years ago, although the shows were poorly attended.

The popularity of the circus in past times however was unquestionable and any small town was in a state of excitement for weeks before its impending appearance, such as here in Bourne in 1858 when Ginnett's equestrian troop paid a visit. On the day of arrival, Wednesday 28th April, the artistes and their animals paraded through the streets at midday to advertise the show, two performances each day, one in the afternoon and the other in the evening. Then as an added incentive to attract customers, they gave a sample of what they could expect on the river in South Street. Here is how the Stamford Mercury reported the event the following Friday:

At 1 o'clock, a vast number of persons assembled on the banks of the Bourne Eau navigation to witness an exemplification of "A Tale of a Tub", or in other words, to see a clown upon the water in a washtub, to which four geese were attached; but to say that the geese draw the tub, the clown, and the two half-hundredweights which are placed in the tub, is the very reverse of the truth. There is a pole attached to the tub about the centre of the front end, to which the geese are literally bound fast and made secure. At the sides of the tub are fixed paddles, by which the occupant propels it along and forces the geese forward "whether they are willing or not".

The publicity worked because the performers played to packed houses for the next four days and everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable time. This equestrian troop was an early form of the travelling circus owned by French-born Jean Pierre Ginnett who founded the Ginnett circus dynasty. He died in 1861 and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery in London although the circus was later carried on by his son and three grandsons and is still in business today. But the magic of the sawdust ring is now a thing of the past and it is doubtful if a similar troupe would attract a paying audience in Bourne today while the spectacle of geese being harnessed to a makeshift boat on the river would certainly attract the attention of animal rights activists, Health and Safety officials, the RSPCA and most probably the police.

The most commonly misspelled word in the English language is supersede which usually appears as supercede, according to a news report in The Times this week (August 25th) and that is probably correct because the survey by lexicographers was carried out by Collins, the book company which specialises in dictionaries, and was compiled after an analysis of the printed word in published documents and on the Internet.

It is certainly among the favourites although several more common words are also wrongly spelled, especially in the discussion forums and elsewhere, such as religion (religeon), consensus (concencus) and puerile (peurile) and there are many others. Poor spelling in job applications is likely to deter employers, official reports cannot be taken seriously while examination papers will suffer because in each case the writers have proved themselves to be unreliable and even sloppy in their composition as all words can be checked for accuracy if they were prepared to take a little time and trouble.

It has been suggested by an academic, lecturer Ken Smith of Buckinghamshire New University, that common mistakes should be valid as variant spellings and he cites argument (arguement), truly (truely) and twelfth (twelth) as examples, claiming that acceptance of them would be preferable to complaining about the state of the education system year after year. But many purists would regard this development as being totally unacceptable and likely to set a precedent for students, giving them the opportunity to make alterations in any subject in which they failed to achieve.

These are modern ideas and as someone who was trained in the old school of journalism where everything you wrote down had to be accurate at the risk of your job, I support the opinion of my old editor that it is unforgivable for anyone who writes anything for publication to misspell words because it demonstrates a cavalier attitude both towards their readers and to their profession and demonstrates a sloppiness, even laziness, that could easily be remedied through the use of a dictionary or spell checker, both of which are now freely available.

If it is not correct, then money has been wasted because one mistake reflects badly on the whole and is a poor example for those who are currently studying the English language in our classrooms and may be forgiven for thinking that if their betters cannot spell then why should they bother.

Thought for the week: It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word! - Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), seventh President of the United States and part of American folklore as the originator of O K or “Ole korreck“ for “All correct” when endorsing documents because of his bad spelling.

* A Day Above Lincolnshire by John and Christine Nowell is published by Zodiac Publishing UK Ltd and is available from Walker’s Books, North Street, Bourne, price £19.99.

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