Bourne Diary - November 2008

Saturday 1^st November 2008

Is the town cemetery at risk from Mr Mole?

Few of our town councillors appear to be familiar with one of the gems of English literature, The Wind in the Willows, which endeared the mole to generations of children and made the very thought of killing one abhorrent. The story which reflects a pastoral vision of England through the lives of anthropomorphised animals inhabiting the countryside and particularly the riverbank is a simple one with villains and heroes, told by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) as a bedtime story for his son and published in 1908 to find a place in the hearts of the nation, never having been out of print since.

Anyone who has read the book could never countenance the extermination of those animals which inhabit its pages, the mole being among the most engaging and lovable, loyal, trusting and always optimistic, yet were he alive today he would find Bourne Town Council an unsympathetic enemy bent on the annihilation of his species and in doing so will incur the wrath of generations of people of all ages who have found such delight in these pages.

In the 100 years that have passed since The Wind in the Willows first appeared, the mole has become the dreaded enemy of all those who administer grassy areas, whether a lawn in the back garden, the meadowland of a public park or, as in this case, the neat and tidy landscape of a town cemetery, because these animals live underground and regularly excavate new burrows, leaving piles of earth in their wake, which does not please those in charge of these open spaces which are rendered untidy in the process.

Moles are now making their presence felt at the cemetery in South Road and their underground activities have even been blamed for destroying graves and headstones (a likely story). The town council’s amenities committee is suitably outraged, deciding at its meeting last week (October 21st) to purchase traps to kill them off. This does seem to be a desperate measure because no one wishes to see our little furry friends removed with such finality and perhaps councillors are making a mountain out of a molehill because there are plenty of alternative methods available today, particularly electronic and sonic devices which will do the job equally effectively without the need to slaughter our wildlife. It is not as if they are particularly widespread because the mole population has been estimated at a mere four per acre and so the problem in the cemetery cannot be as acute as has been suggested.

Killing them off may also be a bad idea because scientists suggest that no matter what is used, gas, poison or traps, the mole is here to stay and therefore battery or solar powered electronic repellents which are guaranteed to work are a far more advisable solution and can be obtained for as little as £20 each (including delivery). Half a dozen of them would therefore be a comparatively cheap alternative to a killing spree that may not be successful anyway.

Animal lovers everywhere will deplore this course of action and lament the fact that the town council does not have access to wise old Badger who would advise strongly against such drastic measures. Killing a living creature is demeaning and expediency is not always the best solution especially when it infringes morality. Those councillors who endorse it should go away and read The Wind in the Willows before the decision comes before the full council for approval on November 18th because the appeal of this book is far too emotive to be ignored by even to most callous and hard-hearted. Some of them are also governors of the Bourne Abbey CE and Westfield County primary schools where the preservation of our flora and fauna is high on the curriculum and they will have great difficulty in justifying the murder of Mr Mole to the children next time they visit.

Descriptions of the dire effects the mole is having on the cemetery could well be a ruse to push through an unpopular decision, working on the tried and tested principle frequently adopted by official organisations that if you paint a sufficiently frightening scenario then folks will agree to anything. But those who follow this creed ought to remember that there is always a day of reckoning and as the people are becoming more aware of what is going on, the policy should be quietly replaced by one of openness and honesty.

The cost of restoring the cemetery chapel is a case in point, originally estimated at £40,000, a figure that suddenly rocketed to £400,000 once the public began to take an interest and it became Grade II listed in 2007, thus putting the responsibility firmly on the town council which has neglected the building since taking it over in 1974 and was pressing for demolition. Many people questioned this strategy because they knew that the Victorian chapel was worth saving and so formed the Bourne Preservation Society.

I now hear on the grapevine that another structural survey has been carried out which reveals that the chapel is in no worse a state than many of our churches and many other historic buildings and that the cost of bringing it back into a useful life is nowhere near the official estimate. If the town council had its way, both the chapel and Mr Mole would disappear from our landscape without a trace and it is to be hoped that a little more wisdom and understanding could be applied when considering both issues.

What the local newspapers are saying: A curious story appeared in the Stamford Mercury last week (October 24th) appealing for information about the trophies and other artefacts belonging to the late Raymond Mays (1899-1980), the international racing driver and designer whose famous BRM car won the world championships in 1962. The story claimed that a nephew was anxious to trace items that had “vanished into thin air” after his death, including trophies and his CBE, and he was anxious to retrieve them for his family history and for the Brooklands Motor Racing Museum with which he is closely affiliated.

In the first place, Raymond Mays never had a nephew, being an only child who did not marry, while all of his possessions were legally disposed of when his estate was wound up after his death. The CBE, awarded 1978 for his services to motor racing, passed to relatives and was subsequently sold at Sotheby’s auction rooms in London in 1994 for £400, while the trophies remained with Rubery Owen Holdings Limited, the engineering firm that eventually took over the motor racing company founded by Raymond Mays, until June 2005 when they were handed over to the Civic Society for permanent display at the Heritage Centre in South Street where there is a special room devoted to his life and work filled with memorabilia from his past.

The news item demonstrates a remarkable lack of knowledge about the great man’s affairs and about Bourne because it appeals for help in tracking down “Raymond Mays’ belongings” and perhaps the gentleman who is making the inquiries should go along to the Heritage Centre where answers may be found to all of his questions.

The economic downturn is having an unwanted effect on our social life in that the pensioner’s lunches on offer at our public houses are either being phased out or downgraded. These cheap meals for senior citizens, usually around £6 for two courses, were introduced a few years ago as a means of boosting weekday custom when the lunchtime drinks trade started to falter and it has worked admirably with most landlords reporting brisk business, especially at the country inns and in town on market days.

We have been taking advantage of them for many years both as an outing and as a break from cooking and a poor lunch has been a rarity but now one of our favourite inns has withdrawn them completely and customers have to choose from the usual menu and pay the full price, often double, while another has reduced both the variety and quality of the dishes on offer. This is ill advised and landlords should remember that their reputation is only as good as the service and quality of the last order. Whilst acknowledging that they are having problems in the current financial climate, they ought to remember that the most discerning customers they will ever get are the old codgers who know all of the wrinkles and they will not keep them by tampering with a winning formula and dishing up inferior or expensive cuisine.

The clocks went back an hour last weekend as summer time ended and as usual the newspapers carried stories of collectors around the country committed to many hours of work as they adjusted the several hundred timepieces around the house, a tale that has been a good column filler since I started in journalism more than half a century ago.

My own labours in this department were confined to a mere dozen dials and digital displays because the computers and television adjust themselves automatically but I always carry out this task wondering if it is all worthwhile and why on earth cannot we adjust them permanently once and for all? I have asked this question many times but have never been given a satisfactory answer, not least from politicians who have the final say, and the reason is that they just do not know why and so we carry on in the same disruptive manner to our schedules.

Daylight saving, as it was known, was officially introduced during the Great War of 1914-18 but then, as now, it did not please everyone. Clocks throughout Britain were put forward by one hour at 2 am on Sunday 21st May 1916 after the government told M Ps that hundreds of thousands of tons of coal would be saved by the change in an attempt to help the war effort. The prospect of lighter evenings was widely welcomed, with the clocks being put back again in October, although there were objections to the new arrangement as the Stamford Mercury reported the following Friday: “Farmers in the Bourne district are not putting the new Summer Time Bill into operation but are retaining the former times for commencing and leaving off work. In all other business concerns, the new times have been worked with general advantage. Various comments had been made as to the proposed change, there being some who declined to alter their clocks and looked upon the proposal with suspicion that it meant another hour’s work a day with no corresponding recompense.”

The question is whether it is still necessary and whether the time has come to adjust our clocks to remain static all year round. The evidence is that remaining on British Summer Times (BST) would reduce the use of gas and electricity, cut road deaths and injuries and save the National Health Service millions which are currently spent on treating injuries associated with daytime darkness. Past attempts to impose regularity however have not been successful and M Ps voted against it in 1971 while farmers in Scotland have always been opposed to change because northern areas would be left in darkness until around 9 am each day. In fact, the emotive factors that have swayed the argument against have always been its possible effect on road accidents, disruption to dairy farmers and construction, delivery and postal workers, and so the status quo remains.

There are some around the country who refuse to tamper with the time and leave their clocks and watches on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) from spring until autumn, unwilling to accept that it is necessary, although this must play havoc with their lives whenever they are off to catch a train or tune in for a favourite television programme but then it takes all sorts although following a different drummer today is not popular and those who do are usually regarded as eccentric. As with most controversial issues, the majority put up and shut up.

Thought for the week: Lost time is never found again. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a noted polymath, author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat.

Saturday 8^th November 2008

The old glue factory at the Slipe - see "Unpleasant smells are  . . . "

The continuing casualties among our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are a reminder of the horrors of war and that we should not forget their sacrifice. Although armed conflicts between nations are caused by the politicians, it is the ordinary people who have to settle them on the battlefield and they should be honoured for their patriotism, professionalism and duty.

Remembrance Sunday is mainly an act of homage for those who lost their lives on active service, during the two world wars of the last century and particularly the Great War of 1914-14 which began it all, but also embraces the Second World War of 1939-45 and those smaller though no less significant conflicts since. The living connection with the victims who fell in Flanders recedes as the years progress as those whose fathers and uncles went off to fight also pass away but their memory lives on and it is this sacrifice that is commemorated this weekend and by the Poppy Day appeal.

This year marks ninety years of remembrance, an annual homage to our valiant dead, an act of faith at the war memorials in towns and villages across England which began to appear on our village greens and elsewhere after the Great War, often financed by the lord of the manor whose son most probably died in the trenches while commanding a unit consisting of country lads, many of whom may have worked on his own family estate. After the Armistice, when the conflict officially ended at the 11th minute of the 11th hour on November 11th in 1918, there was optimism that this had been the war to end all wars, a forecast sadly found to be wanting, and so these cenotaphs large and small have become the place for added inscriptions that reflect further loss of life in causes that have been long forgotten.

Our own War Memorial in South Street is of recent origin, just half a century old, erected in 1956 on land bequeathed to the town by Alderman Thomas Atkinson (1874-1954), a farmer, alderman and magistrate, the design based on the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, and is the work of the architects W E Norman Webster and Son. It is not recorded how many men left the town to join the armed forces during the Great War but it is known that 97 men lost their lives and their names are inscribed on the stone cenotaph although there have been suggestions that the figure is nearer 140 and that 40 names may therefore be missing.

The memorial also includes the names of 32 men who did not return from the conflict of 1939-45 and a further three who died on active service before the century ended. There is still space for more and unfortunately, as unrest continues in an increasingly dangerous world, there is every indication that it may be filled at some time in the future. Whether their names are recorded or not, we should remember them.

Unpleasant smells are again causing problems in the streets of Bourne and The Local newspaper reports that the areas currently affected are West Street and Elsea Park which have brought a flood of complaints and the promise of an investigation by Anglian Water (October 31st).

Obnoxious odours in West Street are not new because the nuisance has surfaced frequently over the past twenty years and there have been several attempts to find the cause with the area towards the traffic lights being excavated on more than one occasion but they always return. Anglian Water has admitted that a partial blockage of a drain or sewer may be to blame and this would seem to be the most likely cause and so another round of road works will mean a temporary closure next week while they investigate and it is to be hoped that this attempt will be more successful than on previous occasions.

The other stink has been reported from Elsea Park and the newspaper reports that a vegetable processing factory in Cherryholt Road could be the source. As this is an agricultural area, processing factories are inevitable and the nuisance they can cause is not new because industrial odours have been a recurring problem in Bourne for well over a hundred years although recent complaints pale into insignificance when compared with the terrible smell that once emanated regularly from the animal waste processing plant at the Slipe in South Fen.

The factory was owned by T W Mays and Sons Limited, a company with diverse agricultural interests, particularly fallen stock which was collected and processed at a slaughterhouse and skin yard on the banks of the Bourne Eau behind Eastgate and the meat and offal dealt with in a by-products factory while the manufacture of fertiliser was a major boost to its business. Carcasses of livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep were brought in by cart and it was the firm's proud boast in a tradesmen's catalogue of 1909 that "every atom of the carcasses reaching these works would be turned to some commercial account". Hooves, horns and bones were sent to the Slipe to be turned into glue, a malodorous process and one that plagued the town, particularly during hot weather when the stink became so pungent that it wafted in from the fen whenever an east wind was blowing and penetrated shops, houses and schools and as a result, the premises soon became known as "the Bovril factory".

For twenty years, townspeople put up with the smell and the company spent large sums on special equipment designed to reduce the nuisance but the odour persisted and by the summer of 1978, Bourne decided that enough was enough and so many complained to South Kesteven District Council that firm action became unavoidable. A report on the problem was drawn up by the Chief Environmental Health officer, Geoffrey Fox, and the environmental health committee met in July to consider it and decide whether the firm should be ordered to either curtail the nuisance or face an abatement notice which could have forced them to end production.

The company insisted that steps were being taken to reduce the smell but their new equipment was not yet fully operational and in the meantime, anything that was done to hamper production at the factory could jeopardise the future of the firm and the jobs of thirty workers employed there. But committee members were on fighting form and Councillor Douglas Reeson was unequivocal in his condemnation of the annoyance and even the health hazard it was causing because he told the committee in an eloquent address:

Perhaps the firm has tried to do something about it but that does not help the people living in Bourne who have to put up with this stink. I live a mile and a half from the factory and can clearly detect it when the wind is in the right direction. The smell is quite appalling. One cannot explain just how abominable it is. I would like to be able to bring a sample of it here in a can in order that members can experience it for themselves. We should warn this company that unless this stench is contained, we will be taking further action against them. The people of Bourne cannot live with it whether there are thirty jobs at stake or not. This is a nuisance that has been dragging on for years and the horrible aroma has been coming from this factory ever since I started attending council meetings. I do not think that anyone should be asked to live with this sort of unpleasant odour. I feel very strongly about the possibility of people being put out of work but there are thousands of others living in this town who might reasonably expect some relief from this awful nuisance.

There was a further complaint at the meeting that many also found the company’s practice of transporting animal remains through the town centre in open lorries totally objectionable and this was considered by councillors to aggravate what had become an unacceptable annoyance. The committee voted unanimously that the situation could not continue and agreed to give the company one last chance to end the nuisance and it was obvious that the writing was on the wall to ensure that the smell disappeared completely.

But the complaints persisted and although the intensity of the smell was reduced it was never completely eradicated and eventually the problem was overtaken by events because the firm's prosperity was not to last. By the 1980s, economic conditions and changing patterns of trade dictated the end of their operations. Their various activities were either closed down or taken over and soon the only remaining signs of the firm’s presence in Bourne were Mays' Sluice at the end of Eastgate which regulates the water levels along the Bourne Eau and the old glue factory that had long since closed down its operations. The building was used in recent years as a practice location for the local fire brigade but soon became badly neglected and dilapidated and awaiting a buyer while the tall chimney remained a landmark on the skyline for a few more years, a reminder of its once prominent place in the commercial life of the town until it was demolished in 2005. It was the end of an era and farewell to the terrible pong.

Bad odours however still frequently permeate the town but from different industrial sources and it is to be hoped that councillors have the will to tackle them with the same zeal and fervour that their predecessors did thirty years ago.

My observation a few weeks ago (September 27th) that our farmland birds are declining has been reinforced by the latest figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which show that we are seeing fewer of 19 species whose numbers have halved since 1970. They include many popular favourites such as the tree sparrow which is down by an astounding 93% while others such as the yellow wagtail, linnet, starling, corn bunting and lapwing are also fast disappearing from our rural landscape.

We have witnessed this flight from the land since moving to this house on the very edge of the fen a quarter of a century ago and it is my belief that man’s destructive nature with intensive farming practices is to blame. Many people share this opinion, especially those who make a special effort to attract birds into their gardens with bird tables and feeders yet there are fewer takers as the years pass. The increased use of pesticides and herbicides, particularly powerful selective weed killers, have turned land that was once meadow and field into highly efficient monocultures whilst miles of hedges that once surrounded them and provided safe havens for a wide variety of flora and fauna have been uprooted.

Conservationists claim that much of this decline has occurred since 2005 (The Times, Saturday 1st November) when farmers were paid to make environmental improvements to their land such as the creation of wild bird habitats but since then additional acres are being planted on the instructions of the European Commission to counteract the global shortage of wheat and so scrapping the controversial set-aside payments. Until then, idle land became a haven for birds but these halcyon days have come to an end.

This theory is supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds but farmers disagree. “It is much too simplistic to lay the blame at the door of farmland management”, say the National Farmers’ Union which cites other elements such as climate change, encroaching urbanisation and increased traffic as relevant factors. Whatever the reason for the decline in our bird population, the problem is most certainly man-made and the English countryside of yesteryear is slowly changing for the worse.

Thought for the week: The morning chorus is fading into silence in the fields. - headline from The Times, Saturday 1st November 2008.

Saturday 15^th November 2008

Restoration of the Ostler memorial is finally being arranged by the town council after it was listed Grade II last year by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the recommendation of English Heritage. Unfortunately, plans are afoot to encircle it with iron railings which appear to be a misguided attempt to protect it in the future.

The drinking fountain, 18 feet 6 inches high, was financed by public subscription and erected in the market place in 1860 to commemorate the philanthropy of John Lely Ostler (1811-59) whose generosity helped found schools and other community facilities but was moved to the cemetery in South Road in 1962 to avoid being damaged by passing traffic. Wind and weather have taken their toll on the Portland stone structure over the years and refurbishment is likely to cost around £15,000 but contributions are already coming in, notably from Lincolnshire County Council which is giving £3,000 towards the cost.

This is an historic monument and care must be taken in the restoration so as not to usurp the vision of the architect, Edward Browning (1816-82), who was also responsible for the cemetery chapel, but railings played no part in his design and would look quite inappropriate were they included now. The stonework may have been subjected to occasional damage by vandals during the 100 years it stood in the market place but was never a major problem and certainly not since it was moved to its present location. Railings would need to be at least six feet high and even then might present a challenge rather than a deterrent and would therefore create an eyesore, an unwanted intrusion to a perfectly acceptable monument and one that English Heritage found sufficiently pleasing to preserve in its original form.

Unfortunately, English Heritage does not have any further responsibility for buildings once they have been listed and it is up to the local authority to determine changes in the light of its Grade II status, in this case South Kesteven District Council, and so we must depend on their officers to decide whether the railings will constitute an unwanted addition which threatens the aesthetic appearance of the monument when the planning application is received. A moment’s thought by those councillors who suggested that an iron barrier might “protect it from further damage” would have spared us this embarrassment because the restoration should remedy the effects of the elements rather than shield it from vandals who are not exactly thick on the ground in the cemetery but fortunately there is still time to change this detail before the planning application is submitted.

Iron railings were, however, originally part of John Ostler’s grave which can be found nearby. His plot in Section 21 is covered by a grand stone sarcophagus sculpted in Gothic script and surmounted by a ceremonial sword but the ornate railings that once surrounded it are missing, probably taken down during the Second World War when metal from many public and private locations in the district was salvaged as raw material for the manufacture of munitions, or they may have been stolen and sold to scrap merchants, but whatever the reason for their removal, the base slab was damaged at each corner by this operation. The tomb is also of historical significance because it is the work of Thomas Hinson (1816-1902), a monumental stonemason whose name is sculpted into the base slab. He was established in the town during the 19th century and many of his memorials and headstones can be found in the cemetery and in other churchyards in the locality.

If the town council is so intent on installing new railings to preserve the memory of John Ostler then perhaps they would look better where they were first intended, around his last resting place. This would return both the grave and the memorial to their original condition rather than fence off the fountain which would be totally out of keeping with the artistic conception of both the architect and those who paid for it.

Street parties may be coming back to Bourne. Lincolnshire County Council has come up with the idea of encouraging towns and villages to hold them next year and are arranging workshops for volunteers to learn the practicalities and benefits of these community celebrations. They are, says the council, a great way for residents and neighbours to meet because they help reduce fear of crime and foster friendship, provide opportunities to get together and talk about local issues, help improve relations between different backgrounds and ages and give children a chance to play together in their street for a day.

Workshops are being held at Lincoln later this month and anyone can go along and find out how these events can be arranged, financed and staffed. Among those interested is one of our busiest town councillors, Helen Powell (Bourne West) who hopes to get a street party organised next year. "This is a wonderful way of promoting a better community spirit, helping us understand the neighbours and give more consideration to the elderly", she says. "They would be very good for Bourne and I do hope we can get a few street parties going."

Few people today have been to a street party but anyone who lived through the Second World War of 1939-45 will remember the celebrations for VE day while in more recent times similar events were held to celebrate the Queen’s Coronation on 6th June 1953. But perhaps 8th May 1945 when the country celebrated the end of the war in Europe was a landmark because few streets were not lined with tables filled with austerity food and hordes of children ready to tuck in while parents cavorted around to serve and entertain. These were wonderful occasions when even the most reserved of residents let their hair down and there cannot be many oldies alive today without affectionate memories of the old joanna being hauled out of someone’s front room on to the pavement to end the day with dancing in the street, a rousing sing song and a few choruses of Roll out the Barrel.

There were many such parties in Bourne and photographs survive to show how much they were enjoyed, in the Austerby and the Alexandra Terraces for instance, although few streets were without this communal entertainment on the great day that came as such a relief after five years of air raids, gas masks, blackouts, rationing and other wartime restrictions. The outpouring of relief cannot be imagined by anyone who did not live through these momentous times which remain in the memory and cannot be erased. If the street parties currently being arranged by the county council can create even a spark of the spirit of 1945 then they will be well worthwhile.

The continued advertising by the major banks in the expectation that the public still has confidence in their services is a cause of wonderment for many. The radio station Classic FM broadcast such an appeal by Lloyds TSB on Tuesday evening when a young lady announcer came on to ask listeners whether they were having difficulties in handling their money and if so then they could call upon one of their financial advisers for assistance who would be pleased to see them at any Saturday opening branch and put them back on the road to fiscal prudence.

As a long-standing customer of Lloyds TSB I was particularly amused at this audacity especially as the recent economic ineptitude of our banking institutions, once regarded as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, has persuaded many savers to return to the old and more dependable method of depositing our spare cash under the mattress rather than trust it to their care.

It so happens that I am trying to solve a small problem with this bank myself and if they have financial advisers to spare at weekends then perhaps they might sort out my own difficulty before taking on any further commitments. Last July, the interest on my current account dropped from the usual £5 or so to as many pence and although I spotted this anomaly, I waited until my statement came through before complaining. There followed three visits to the bank where on each occasion I was promised that the fault would be rectified and in September I received an apology on my monthly statement and the interest was reinstated thereafter, but not the July payment which remains outstanding. I therefore wrote to the manager pointing out what had happened and asking for the matter to be sorted out.

That was two weeks ago and he replied promising action but since then, total silence. I will be writing again because pensioners such as myself can ill afford to lose pence let alone pounds, but in the meantime, I have been considering the effects of their inaccuracy. No matter how complicated it may be tackling the electronic giant which administers our accounts to find a solution, there is a simple equation which demonstrates how mistakes such as this are always on the side of the bank. Lloyds TSB currently has 16 million personal customers at more than 2,000 branches across the country. Not everyone pursues small errors and those that do often give up through frustration similar to that described above and so if a similar £5 mistake were replicated in every account during a one year period then the bank would benefit to the tune of £80 million.

On Friday last, this web site logged 1,249 visitors, an all time record since we began ten years ago. The figure is normally between 250-300, or 2,000 a week, statistics that are regularly logged by StatCom and therefore totally reliable, the highest previous number being 548 on Sunday 29th January 2006. We cannot explain exactly why so many people should wish to log on to a web site devoted to a small Lincolnshire market town in one day but as we top the search ratings with Google perhaps the reason is that Remembrance Sunday was imminent and my Picture of the Week which was posted at 8 pm that evening featuring the War Memorial in South Street was picked up in the requested links. Or it may be that my latest article which was also added that evening was devoted to the lads from this town who wrote home to their loved ones, and appeared under the heading of Letters from the Trenches.

This does not mean that the photograph or the article were particularly special, merely that many people are interested in the events of that time and particularly the Armistice of 1918 which ended the Great War, and as a result we were included in the many references that were provided for anyone searching for information on this subject which has provoked tremendous awareness this year. The War Memorial in Bourne therefore and the letters home from ordinary chaps who lived in this town and volunteered to serve king and country were seen by more than 1,200 people from around the world in just a few hours although by the following Friday when our usual changes were made, the figure had reached almost 3,000 in a seven day period.

Thought for the week: Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in the senate. - Orson Welles (1915-1985), American Academy Award-winning director, writer, actor and producer for film, stage, radio and television.

Saturday 22^nd November 2008

The Town Hall is to become a Community Access Point or one-stop centre for local government, according to a report in The Local which says that services provided by our three councils are being centralised under the same roof (November 14th). Lincolnshire County Council, South Kesteven District Council and Bourne Town Council have agreed to go ahead after receiving positive feedback during a public consultation in August although we are not told how many people actually participated and so it is more likely to have been a dozen or so rather than hundreds.

But therein lurks yet another bureaucratic nightmare on the same scale as our town centre redevelopment, for which not a single brick has been laid since it was first mooted seven years ago, because no project can go ahead with speed and efficiency when so many organisations are involved and all will be putting in their three penn’orth of perceived wisdom.

The scheme is for the Town Hall to house a multitude of services such as a customer counter, computer suite, offices and a meeting area for the town council, offices for the district council, the public library, a lift to the first floor to solve the ongoing problem of disabled access and probably the relocation of the registrar of births, marriages and deaths, currently based in West Street. All of these aspects of the project, and no doubt more will be added as time goes by, are the responsibility of different authorities and departments and as all are wildly overstaffed by people anxious to justify their existence and will need to be consulted, the resulting mayhem can only be imagined.

We may therefore expect several years of protracted negotiations with nothing being done other than keeping an army of jobsworths employed, the calling of numerous meetings to make our councillors and officials feel involved and frequent site visits suitably scheduled to include lunch at the Angel Hotel across the road, on expenses of course.

These and other similar projects that have become the hallmark of local government may be likened to the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel, as related in Genesis 11:1-9, the great building project planned for Shinar in the Kingdom of Nimrod the Hunter, a city and a tower with its top in the heavens but God disapproved of this co-operative effort of man trying to make himself omnipotent and divided it with language barriers, scattering all of those involved, and the great tower remained unfinished. So it may well be with our stairways to the stars.

Ownership of the Town Hall has changed over the years although it has never been bought or sold. This is one of the anomalies of life today in that something which was financed by public subscription for the benefit of the people should end up in the hands of a local authority, in this case Lincolnshire County Council, although it is doubtful if it could substantiate the claim before a court of law.

The progression from a public amenity purchased by the people to a fixed asset owned by the county council is so deeply buried in past administrative procedures that the ramifications would be impossible to unravel and provide a goldmine for grasping lawyers. The original deeds have most probably been lost and were anyone to contemplate contesting ownership by LCC, the legal fees would deter all but the stout hearted and well heeled. But we do have sufficient archive material to prove that what has been swallowed up by the black hole of bureaucracy was once owned by the community.

The Town Hall was built in 1821 at a total cost of £1,640 plus £811 15s. 1d. for extras that had been decided after the original plans had been approved. It was financed mainly by voluntary subscription and the names of those who made donations can be seen on the wall of the old magistrates’ court, an inscribed list detailing a total of 122 individual subscriptions above £1, the highest being £105 from the Countess Willoughby D’Eresby, while there were a number of donations amounting to just a few pence from Haconby. The subscriptions totalled £1,363 6s 6d and this sum was complemented by a further contribution from the county rate towards the final cost. The list is a cross section of the town at that time, from the landed gentry, lord of the manor, chief constable and magistrates, doctors and clergymen to farmers, shopkeepers and tradesmen, a fund raising effort that took place over an entire year at a time when money was not as plentiful and as easy to come by as it is today and the population a mere 2,242 (1821 census).

Administration of the building was originally the responsibility of the magistrates but later in the 19th century passed to the Vestry meeting which had complete control over the town and its activities, church and civil, and embracing all spheres of public life from the levying and collecting of taxes to the welfare of the individual. This arrangement continued until the Local Government Act of 1894 when the present council system was created, separating church and state at parish level and putting the administration of our local affairs in the hands of councils with elected councillors to run them.

This meant an end to the vestry meeting and the formation of a rural council to administer the country areas and a parish council for the town but the latter lasted only five years because during that time, the authority applied for urbanisation on the grounds of its population and size, and this was granted by Kesteven County Council in May 1898 and came into force the following year. The rural and urban councils for Bourne were swallowed up by the newly constituted South Kesteven District Council during a nation-wide reorganisation of local government in 1974 which also led to the creation of a parish or town council for Bourne while Kesteven became part of Lincolnshire County Council, and so we now have a three tier system for the administration of our affairs at local level. The Town Hall has therefore run the gamut of ownership from people to parish to county and those who dug into their pockets to pay for it almost 200 years ago are long forgotten.

The ornate wrought iron gates at the main entrance of the Abbey Lawn are to get a new lease of life. Bourne United Charities which administers the playing fields has decided that they need refurbishment and they are to be removed to allow the work proceed. The project has been prompted by concerns over the condition of the gates and the two central supporting piers following a recent structural examination. They will be strengthened and the gates removed, repaired, shot-blasted, re-painted and re-hung, although permission for the work to proceed will be needed from South Kesteven District Council because they stand within the Conservation Area.

This handsome pair of gates that has dominated the street scene for the past seventy years has an interesting history. They are at least 200 years old and were hand-forged by a blacksmith during the 18th century when they were made to order for a stately home in Derbyshire where they graced one of the entrances to the estate. In 1933, the owners decided to replace them and they were sold off as surplus to requirements but were spotted by local solicitor Horace Stanton, then clerk to Bourne United Charities, who bought them and arranged for them to be transported to Bourne to be installed by William Friend, an agricultural engineer and specialist in metal work, who was in business here at that time, and when they arrived, he made the two smaller side gates to match.

The entrance had just been built as part of the improvements to the Abbey Lawn. The land originally formed part of the grounds of Bourne Abbey and in later years was acquired by a syndicate of local businessmen who rented out the rights for cricket and football but when it came under threat from housing development, Bourne United Charities decided to buy it for the benefit of the town. The trustees made the purchase with the intention of preserving it as an open space and sports ground for the town in perpetuity and since then there has been a continuous programme of improvement and upkeep for both the sports playing areas and the outdoor swimming pool which is part of the complex.

A plaque on the left hand column at the main gate says: "These grounds were purchased in the years 1931-34 by the Trustees of Bourne United Charities in order to preserve the same as an open space for ever and the work of levelling and laying out the grounds was carried out by trainees from the Ministry of Labour Instructional Centre, Bourne." There is a second notice on the opposite column that says: "The trees and shrubs in these grounds were planted to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of HM King George the Fifth, 6th May 1935."

I have been unable to identify the stately home from where the gates originated or how much was paid for them but no doubt this information can be found in the dusty records of BUC either at the Red Hall or in the archives of the legal firm Andrews, Stanton & Ringrose at No 11 North Street.

Many years ago, I was sent to interview a young English poet named James Kirkup, then relatively unknown and making his way in the world, but who I see is still with us at the age of 90 and much honoured for his work. I asked him if he had any hobbies and he replied: “Yes, standing in shafts of sunlight”, something I have remembered ever since. I am reminded of this by a recent scientific report claiming that sunlight, especially that which filters through stained glass windows in our churches, can be turned into an air-purifying force field and that standing in it has life saving properties.

Australian scientists have discovered that mediaeval European stained glass windows have powers that are scientific rather than spiritual because the colours in them contain tiny gold particles which, when energised by the sun’s rays, create a magnetic field that pulls apart pollutant chemicals in the air. The precise analysis behind this theory is too complicated for the layman to grasp without some study and so anyone who wishes to believe it must take it at its face value but then there are far wilder presumptions accepted as fact by both people and government and so in these credulous times, anything goes.

Anyone who wishes to test the hypothesis, however, need look no further than the Abbey Church which contains sufficient stained glass to satisfy the most enquiring mind, notably the east window in the chancel dedicated to the memory of a past vicar, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth (1797-1877) and his family, which catches the morning sun. Other large and colourful windows can be found in the sanctuary and the south aisle and provide similar opportunities to discover whether standing in their sunlit rays is beneficial or just another passing scientific fad but either way, it is worth a visit just to take a close look at the marvellous inheritance we have in these examples of vivid and vibrant fenestration from past times.

Thought for the week: The destruction of wildlife continues across the country and the planet because there is a curious assumption in high places that it doesn’t really matter. It is thought to be something that is of concern only to the children, the childlike and the cranks. - Simon Barnes writing in his weekly Wild Notebook in The Times, Saturday 15th November 2008.

Saturday 29^th November 2008

One of the most dangerous roads in the area must be Toft Hill, three miles south of the town on the way to Stamford, a winding section of the A6121 with a steep incline and sharp bend which runs from farmland on the uplands to the west of Bourne through the village and out into the open countryside, a distance of about one third of a mile. The hazards of driving this way are acknowledged by those who know the route and the many warning signs, both on the carriageway itself and on the grass verges, because a moment of lost concentration could end in disaster.

It is therefore surprising to discover that Raymond Mays (1899-1980), the motor racing pioneer and champion of the international circuits, used this hill to test his cars and not all of these trials were successful. One of his early models was a Bugatti known as Cordon Bleu (pictured above) which he eventually sold to a young Oxford undergraduate, Francis Giveen, who was new to the sport and needed to be taught how to handle such a fast car. But he was determined to race and so Raymond invited him to spend the weekend at Eastgate House where Mays lived in order to polish up on his driving in readiness for a hill climb meeting later in the year, the opening event of the season at Kop Hill, near Tring in Hertfordshire, in April 1925.

Giveen had already owned the Bugatti for two months but had found it difficult to handle such a fast, light machine and after several runs through the narrow lanes around Bourne, Raymond decided to pit him against his favourite slope, Toft Hill, where they duly arrived one morning with friends and relatives to supervise the course and warn of any approaching traffic.

Raymond took Giveen as passenger for several fast runs which went off without mishap and then it was his turn to try himself. “He seemed quite happy and obedient to my strict instructions to do several runs and work up his speed gradually”, said Raymond when recalling the event in later years. “But then he came in for some special racing plugs to give the car a full throttle effect. Cordon Bleu roared up the narrow lane emitting that lovely and unique exhaust note, round the acute left hand corner which was followed by a bend to the right. But as he was leaving the corner, Giveen skidded and, with his foot hard on the throttle, hit the right hand bank with a sickening thud, shot across the road broadside, hit the opposite bank and turned the car completely upside down.”

Dead silence followed and there was no sign of life and those attending the trials rushed over to the crash scene. They lifted the car on its side and found Giveen underneath, alive and practically unscathed, saved by a small Triplex screen that had borne the whole weight of the vehicle while upside down and had so saved his life, while the car was hardly damaged except for a few dents.

Raymond spent another day with Giveen trying to give him confidence but was unhappy at the thought of him driving in competition some weeks’ later. In the event, he ran off the track while approaching a bend, leaped into the air, jumped a small sandpit, knocked over some spectators and disappeared from view but miraculously rejoined the course and finished the race although he could remember nothing about it afterwards. No more cars were allowed to run that day and ironically, as a result of the incident, hill climbs on public roads in England were stopped for ever. Fortunately, no one was killed and all of those injured recovered but ironically, it was Giveen’s crash that sealed the fate of these classic events that had been pioneered by Raymond‘s father, Thomas Mays.

A suggestion that a BMX circuit be established in Bourne Wood is little short of foolhardy yet it is presented as a serious proposition that is actually being considered by the Forestry Commission. It is only a few months ago since this organisation was being pilloried for contemplating building a road through the woods as part of a major new housing project but fortunately the idea was dropped after a vigorous campaign by the people and I foresee a similar protest if the latest scheme gets even the slightest encouragement.

Now The Local newspaper reports that Bourne Wood may yet be used for this purpose (November 21st) and quotes spokesman Kevin Stannard as saying: “There may be a small number of suitable sites in the woods but the BMX riders would need their own insurance and approach us as a properly constituted group. The track would have to be approved by the correct planning authorities and not have any ecological effects.”

Despite the current economic crisis, a recent newspaper headline suggested that a BMX track for Bourne should be given a priority by both the town and district council but town councillors who have agreed to meet local youngsters to discuss their demands have warned that its establishment depends on finance and as it is not usual for local authorities to pay for this kind of project, the money will have to come from trust funds and donations to cover the cost and so the urgency demanded by the press is unlikely to materialise.

BMX, or bicycle motocross, is a form of cycling that requires specially designed machines with 20 inch wheels that can do untold damage to sensitive areas of the countryside while one offshoot of the pursuit known as Freestyle BMX has distinct disciplines, one of them called Dirt which conveys the outcome when practiced over sensitive terrain. The sport which originated in the United States is barely 30 years old but has become so well established that it now has its own world championships and was represented at the Beijing Olympics earlier this year. It is therefore here to stay and we all hope that a suitable venue may be found but not in Bourne Wood which is the place for deer and foxes, badgers, dormice and a wide variety of birds. Nightingales can be heard on summer nights and rare bats and dragonflies fly over the ponds at twilight. This is their natural habitat and is protected for their benefit.

Woodland should be sacrosanct. England has little of it left as it is and the loss of even a spinney or copse should be a cause for national mourning. To introduce a sport such as BMX would be inviting trouble even with a clearly defined circuit on the fringes which would be far too tempting for some and soon the nearby rides which are often soft underfoot and can even be damaged by horses would be churned up and impassable for woodland walkers. The present economic climate may therefore be a blessing in disguise if it prevents this from happening.

Few people will have realised until they read The Local newspaper last week (November 21st) that the controversial politician and former television presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk is our Member of the European Parliament. The East Midlands region, for which he was elected as a representative of the UK Independence Party (or UKIP) in 2004, includes Bourne and the Deepings and despite launching a new party called Veritas the following year, he retained his seat last September but this time as an independent candidate and although his political affiliations may be obscure, he is still our MEP.

We are therefore entitled to ask whether he should be working at his proper job (annual salary £62,000 plus allowances) or dashing off to faraway places participating in the latest series of a tacky ITV programme called “I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me out of Here” in which those who have achieved fame or notoriety in life volunteer to undertake a humiliating and extreme life style in jungle or wilderness conditions with few creature comforts for a reputed fee of £25,000. The current production requires two weeks of filming by ten celebrities parachuted into a stretch of remote Australian rainforest, although within easy reach of their luxury hotel, but colleagues have already criticised Kilroy-Silk for his absence on the grounds that he should be in Brussels serving his constituents instead of cavorting before the television cameras down under.

His involvement in this dubious entertainment also raises the question of whether politicians, or indeed anyone concerned with government, should cross the dividing line between prominence and celebrity and if in doing so they are likely to demean their profession. If such appearances are rare and undertaken with panache, they retain their novelty appeal without loss of dignity, as has been proven in the past with presidents, prime ministers and even royalty, but the chosen vehicle needs be one of quality rather than the bandwagon of dross that currently trundles nightly across our screens dragging this embodiment of vulgarity and bad taste in its wake.

A contributor to the Bourne Forum has suggested that a little tidying up along Wherry’s Lane would be most welcome and certainly this must be one of the most unattractive thoroughfares in the town because the current state of disorder has been a cause of dismay in the town for at least a decade. The western end particularly has been allowed to deteriorate into a dirty and forbidding alleyway even though it is used daily by hundreds of pedestrians and by many people leaving their vehicles in the car park behind the Post Office and walking into the town centre. Why this short stretch of lane should have become so unkempt and run down is not exactly clear but most of our council services that are responsible for street cleaning and the collection of litter appear to pass it by and the owners of surrounding properties cannot benefit from its appearance.

There is always rubbish along the verges, plastic bags, bottles, packaging and even an old television set, while nearby walls and fencing which do no present an exactly pleasing appearance anyway, are frequently daubed with graffiti and there is always a slippery surface underfoot in wet weather. It is certainly no advertisement for the town centre which is so close and although the other end which leads directly into North Street struggles to retain is respectability this too is often marred by litter and cigarette ends.

Over the years, there have been repeated complaints yet nothing is done and so Wherry’s Lane remains the place that time seems to have forgotten. It falls within the Bourne West division which is represented by seven councillors on the town council and three on South Kesteven District Council and perhaps one of them might take a look and find out who is responsible and then make suitable approaches to the appropriate department with a view to cleaning up this eyesore.

From the archives: On Monday last, a somewhat novel wedding (McCarrick and Clark) took place at the Abbey Church, Bourne. The groom, who is an Irishman, presented himself first at the church, the bride following at a short interval with a shawl over her head and a white apron on. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 26th November 1875.

Thought for the week: Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. - George Washington (1732-1799), the first President of the United States.

Return to Monthly entries