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Saturday 7th February 2009
The snowfalls of recent days closed roads and schools and
generally disrupted life around Bourne but we were still lucky to escape the
more serious conditions that have been experienced in past times. History
records many instances of exceptional weather, particularly the winter of
1739-40, although local records are sparse and accounts of only a few instances
of problems caused by snow since then remain.
One of the worst snowstorms occurred in Bourne during the General Election of
1910, a straight fight between the Conservative candidate, Major Claud
Willoughby, son of the first Earl of Ancaster, of Grimsthorpe Castle, and the
Liberal candidate, Mr G H Parkin. Polling day was fixed for Friday 28th January
and the Corn Exchange chosen for the count the following day and although it was
expected to be a straightforward campaign, the candidates had reckoned without
the weather.
During the night, there had been a heavy snowfall which had settled to a depth
of several inches in many places, Bourne being particularly affected, while the
forecast was not good and the day dawned with yet more snow, thus hampering
voters from outlying districts in reaching the polling booths. The continued
severe weather was also a bad omen as cars were being used for the first time in
a local election to take people in to cast their votes added to which Bourne at
that time was part of a very large constituency containing over 150 parishes and
extending from Beckingham in the north to Crowland in the south, a distance of
almost 60 miles by road and 27 miles from east to west.
The snow was therefore a major setback for the candidates, Major Willoughby for
instance having more than 100 vehicles at his disposal which had been loaned by
friends and relatives, and the effect was soon evident when they started
skidding and sliding on the icy roads and then began breaking down and as they
were either towed away or abandoned, some electors experienced the novelty of
being taken to the polls on a sledge. The only incident of an unpleasant nature
occurred at Stamford where Mr Parkin was struck in the face by a snowball and
received a slight injury.
The weather was still bad the following day when the candidates assembled for
the count at the Corn Exchange where Major Willoughby was elected by a majority
of 356 votes. He received a tumultuous reception when he addressed the waiting
crowd but there was another heavy snowfall as he began a triumphal tour of the
town with a motorcade of 20 vehicles, he and his wife Lady Florence in the first
car which eventually broke down because of the freezing temperatures but
supporters refused to be beaten and so they hitched ropes to the axles and
pulled him for the rest of the way.
Another exceptional occasion for snow in Bourne was a blizzard in 1916 which
caused major disruption to public services and left a trail of damage across the
district. The wintry conditions prevailed throughout Tuesday 28th March when trees were uprooted in various parts of the town, four on the Abbey Lawn,
three in Mill Drove, two near the villas in West Road, three in a field near the
railway station at the Red Hall, two at the bottom of Eastgate and one close to
Dr John Gilpin's surgery at Brook Lodge in South Street.
The telephone and telegraph services were cut off and on Tuesday evening it was
reported that not a single telephone subscriber could be reached while the
following morning telegrams were not being accepted by the Post Office because
they were unable to send them. One telegram sent before noon on the Tuesday was
not delivered until 9 o'clock the following morning, an unheard of delay. Rail
services were badly disrupted and trains due into Bourne from Saxby just before
11 am on Tuesday were held up by deep snow drifts at South Witham and had still
not arrived by midday the following day. The 12.15 pm express to Leicester
reached South Witham but was forced to return with its passengers to Norwich.
All trains were running late on the Great Northern system and the journey to
Grantham took about four hours. A train which left Bourne for Spalding at 3 pm
to bring home passengers from Spalding market arrived in Bourne at 7 pm in the
evening after the electric signalling system at Twenty failed.
The motor mail cart bringing in the morning mail from Peterborough which was
usually due at Bourne at 4 am did not arrive until after 7 am on both Tuesday
and Wednesday and on the Tuesday run it was held up by telegraph poles that had
blown down across the road. The Great War of 1914-18 was in progress and among
the passengers stranded at Bourne railway station were three soldiers who were
given beds for the night at the Vestry Hall which had been converted for use as
a Red Cross hospital for convalescent servicemen. The surprising feature of the
storm was that it caused only a small amount of structural damage to property,
mainly dislodging slates, tiles and guttering that collapsed under the weight of
snow but the town was virtually isolated for several days.
Serious snowfalls in recent years have been relatively few although the life of
the town was badly disrupted in 1920 and again in 1947 and 1963 while a fall in
1987 saw tractors clearing the town centre. The documentary evidence seems to
indicate, however, that people in the past made a more concerted effort to
continue with their daily round rather than succumb and take a day off but then
it must be remembered that paid leave of absence for whatever reason was
virtually unknown until recent times.
What the local newspapers are saying: As predicted by this column, South
Kesteven District Council is to increase its council tax demand by 3.5%. No
matter what is happening in the world outside, some local authorities intend to
raise the money they need to featherbed staff salaries and pensions on the
pretext that the extra cash is needed for public services. The Local
reports the council leader, Linda Neal (Bourne West) as saying: “I think this
reflects the consultation we carried out. We have tried to tighten down a lot
and I think this does reflect the recession. We are mindful of the impact on
people‘s pockets.” (February 6th).
Perhaps we can be given the details of this consultation, exactly how many
people have given opinions, when and where, and how did they vote. The two
public forums held in the Bourne area and quoted by this column in recent weeks
were attended by 40 people of whom only 21 voted for a 3.5% increase. SKDC
administers an area with a population of 130,000 and we need to be told how many
of them have voted for an increase and, more importantly, how many have not.
Public consultations are regarded as a questionable method of seeking support
for unpopular and morally unjustifiable decisions while platitudes are no
substitute for the proof of the pudding.
Meanwhile, Lincolnshire County Council is planning a 1.75% increase while the
Lincolnshire Police Authority is waiting in the wings with their twopennyworth
and so between them we can expect to be squeezed for another £40-£50 a year. The
public spending juggernaut therefore trundles on irrespective of what is going
on in the real world and as our local authorities have no intention of
preventing these increases despite the financial exhaustion of the people they
represent, it appears that we can expect to be weighed down with this millstone
round our necks for evermore.
The Big Brother society predicted by George Orwell has finally arrived,
and that is official. Surreptitiously, and without warning, we have become a
surveillance society where our actions are being increasingly monitored, mainly
by closed circuit television cameras or CCTV with over four million of them
spying on us throughout the country, about one to every 14 people.
If this regulation were in the hands of the police we might have less to
complain about but the power to control the equipment and impose penalties has
now passed mainly to our local authorities, originally formed under the Local
Government Act of 1894 with the sole intention of providing public services. But
some of these are proving to be so unpopular that central government has
empowered councils to enforce them, so creating the bizarre situation under
which we are being punished by organisations which are funded by its victims
through the council tax.
Figures issued this week reveal that these special surveillance powers have been
used in Lincolnshire on 217 occasions in the past three years, 25 of them in the
South Kesteven area which includes Bourne. The proceedings were brought under
the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) which allows the use of what
is called covert human intelligence sources to help prevent crime and terrorism
by allowing suspects to be observed by cameras placed in crime hotspots but the
evidence is that the system has also been used to snoop on benefit cheats,
fly-tipping, litter louts, dog fouling and even householders who put the wrong
materials in their wheelie bins.
There are now fears that this surveillance could be intensified and that in the
next few years will embrace all areas of modern life and although it is often
stressed that only the guilty have anything to fear, there is always the risk of
an intrusion into our privacy and that data collected in this way may fall into
the wrong hands or be misused by those who collect it and the governments who
store it. It has also been suggested that covert tactics such as this are being
used to supplement the incomes of public organisations through the imposition of
heavy fines, thus creating an additional layer of unofficial taxation. We have
been warned.
A discussion over the spelling of Haconby, the village three miles off
the A15 to the north of Bourne, has again surfaced, this time in sktoday, the
news magazine published by South Kesteven District Council, yet despite a
spotlight feature on its history, fails to give the correct explanation even
though the authority in its previous constitution was instrumental in fixing the correct spelling half a
century ago. “Haconby or Hacconby? That is the question”, says the article.
“Although you’ll see it spelled both ways, the single c is widely accepted as
the norm.”
For the benefit of the council therefore, the name Haconby, spelled with one c,
was officially adopted in 1960 after many years of confusion. The Ordnance
Survey were busy preparing new maps for the area and on discovering the
variation in spelling between Haconby and Hacconby in previous publications,
decided to seek the opinion of the local authorities. South Kesteven Rural
District Council (superseded by the district council in 1974) met at Bourne on
Thursday November 17th to discuss the issue when the meeting was told that
extensive research had produced evidence of common usage for both variants from
old books and ancient documents. Hacconby was used in the marriage, burial and
baptism registers for the parish as early as 1755 and in the Hacconby Highway
Book containing payments by the Overseers of the Poor and which began in 1807
although there was a short period when Hackonby had been used. A similar version
could be noted in the parish church which had Hacconby on the chalice of 1832
and Hackonby on the paten of 1834.
Haconby Parish Council insisted that the name of the village should be spelled
with one c and several councillors supported this but the votes for Hacconby
were so numerous that they were not counted. In the event, the final decision
was taken by Kesteven County Council, now superseded by Lincolnshire County
Council, who chose Haconby, the spelling that is in use today, although examples
of Hacconby still survive on old road signs and several tombstones in the
churchyard.
Thought for the week: History is the version of past events that people
have decided to agree upon. - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), military and
political leader who became emperor of France and one of the most influential
figures in European history.
Saturday 14th February 2009
The new youth centre built at Bourne in 2005 at a cost of
£430,000 is probably one of the best in the county yet it opens only four times
a week, Tuesday to Friday, and then for only two and a half hours at a time.
This would seem to be an inordinate amount of money to spend on such a vital
amenity which is then denied to those it is intended to serve for most of the
week and particularly at weekends.
The present youth club system was established after the Second World War of
1939-45 when the government instructed local authorities to introduce amenities
for young people in their area to keep them off the streets. I remember
enrolling as one of the first members of the club which opened in my own
locality in a prefabricated hut in 1946 and although facilities at the outset
were restricted largely to table tennis and a wind up gramophone for dancing on
a Saturday night, it was open seven evenings a week from 6 pm until 10 pm as
well as additional sessions on a Sunday morning for special pursuits.
There was a full time leader whose wife and daughter provided the refreshments
of tea, lemonade, biscuits and home made cakes but otherwise the club was run by
the members who soon organised various sections for this and that, particularly
sport, and within a year or so the football team had become a formidable
opposition in the local league with a keen cricket eleven making a similar
impression. Enthusiasm was the watchword and there was nothing that the club
could not achieve but the essential ingredient was the opening hours for this
was the place where the young people of the neighbourhood congregated in those
days before other diversions such as television were available for them.
Today, although alternative interests are many and varied, four short sessions a
week is insufficient for a youth club to operate. The opening hours are
considered by many to be quite inadequate. There is no time for leaders to get
to know members or for the serious pursuance of the varied activities envisaged
in the original concept of the youth club system. Yet not only are the Queen’s
Road premises used extensively by outside organisations but we now hear that
they are to be extended for another purpose, that of a children’s centre, one of
the first of 48 to be established in the county over the next twelve months
under the government’s SureStart programme.
This will enable all families and their carers with young children to benefit
through help and support, health advice, play for lively toddlers, fun
activities including libraries and sensor rooms, all of which will enable both
parents and children to meet and make friends. The centre may be a worthy
project but if the opening hours are as restricted as the present youth club
next door, then it will hardly fulfil its intended objective or justify the
additional cost.
There are grave misgivings about the proposed move of the public library
to the Town Hall because the available space is thought to be insufficient. The
scheme which is currently being considered by our three local authorities will
entail putting all of their services under one roof but those with knowledge of
the building feel that it will be like trying to fit a quart into a pint pot.
The Town Hall already houses offices for the South District Council and Bourne
Town Council but several other departments are lined up to move in including the
county registration services, currently housed in West Street, and the public
library in South Street. The courtroom which was phased out by magistrates last
year is likely to be used as the library but whether the existing number of
books and shelves will fit in is another matter and space will also be needed
for the extensive reference section, reading and study area, computer suite and
offices for the staff.
One man who should know is Ted Kelby, now aged 82, stalwart of local government
in past times having served as a member of Bourne Urban District Council for
fifteen years and as chairman for 1968-69, and he has already made his views
known to the Bourne area Open Forum last month (Stamford Mercury, January
23rd). “It bothers me that with all of the organisations that are interested
whether we can really fit the library in”, he said. “In any case, we have a
perfectly good building in South Street.”
Certainly the problem of access must be addressed because the front steps are
out of the question for regular daily use, especially by the elderly and
disabled, being narrow and tortuous and perhaps even dangerous. The town council
is already aware of these difficulties which is why some of their open meetings
are rescheduled for the Corn Exchange rather than risk the front entrance to the
Town Hall which has been the subject of continual complaint. A lift is planned
but it is doubtful if this can handle the large number of visitors to and from
the library, especially at busy periods, while parking may also be a problem,
especially on market days and Saturdays when Budgens car park is full and the
area behind the Corn Exchange jammed with stalls. But a major problem will be
that of space, of fitting everything in to ensure that the library can function
as smoothly and conveniently as it does at its present premises and that it a
doubtful prospect.
The proposed move has recently been discussed by contributors to the Forum and
most realise there is a problem, one even making the suggestion that higher
shelves might be built and library ladders installed to reach them although it
is doubtful if this bizarre solution would be well received by some of the older
book borrowers with stiff joints and aching limbs who spend their lives avoiding
steps at all costs. Unfortunately, the decision is likely to be taken in far off
places such as Grantham and Lincoln and we can only hope that those councillors
involved will come and take a close look before committing the people of Bourne
to something that might well turn out to be a white elephant and there is a
growing body of opinion in the town that perhaps they ought to observe the old
adage that if it ain’t broke then don’t try to fix it.
The snow of recent days has revealed the fragility of the world in which
we live with roads, railways, airports, schools, shops, and offices closing
while services were curtailed and supermarkets began to run short of goods
through panic buying. Power cuts left large areas without heating, the meals on
wheels did not get through to the needy, hospitals cancelled operations, clinics
closed, rubbish collections curtailed and life generally was reduced to a crawl
or even a total halt. But although the conditions were not extreme, they served
as a reminder that we are living on a knife edge and the combination of several
similar calamities that plunged our public services into chaos would mean a
major catastrophe and even an end to life as we know it. The question is whether
we will learn from the experience.
This was not a major occurrence on the Richter scale of snowfalls, barely six
inches in most places yet sufficient to paralyse all but the more determined. We
escaped the worst of the weather here in Bourne where history records far more
serious events, notably in 1916 when the entire town was cut off by a blizzard
for almost a week. In those days, this was a serious hardship for many because
there was no Sainsburys to replenish supplies of groceries and schools only
closed when the pupils deserted the classrooms for potato picking or some other
seasonal farming activity to supplement a meagre family income, yet by all
accounts life was rarely so seriously disrupted.
Although the effects last week were widespread throughout England, The Local
newspaper may have been guilty of journalistic hyperbole with its front page
story proclaiming that “a blast of Siberian weather had buried Bourne under a
blanket of snow” (February 7th). But exactly how serious can such an occurrence
be when the children were in the streets, the parks and the woods sledging and
snowballing and making giant snowmen. If the kids could be out and about at a
time like this surely the rest of us might have followed suit and pursued our
normal routine as best we could. While all this was happening, I received
regular emails from friends of this web site describing snowfalls of 2½ ft. deep
(Ontario, Canada), 2 ft. feet since November and added to on a regular basis
(Toronto, Canada) and 5½ ft. so far this winter (Alaska) but life was going on
more or less normally for a February day.
My own memories of heavy snowfalls seventy years ago are of long hours outdoors
enjoying the novelty of a white winter, returning home blue with cold and as
hungry as an ox but we never missed a day off school and I cannot remember my
father ever being away from work because of the weather. It all seems so
different today. Perhaps the soft option has become a way of life when only the
slightest excuse is needed to avoid work and responsibility, to shut the schools
on the least pretext and to stay at home from the office or factory whenever
possible. That may be a harsh assessment but there certainly seems to be a
different reaction today from those days of yesteryear.
Shop Watch: The snow also revealed the continuing shortcomings of two of
our major retail outlets. The Tesco/Express garage in North Street, the town’s
only petrol filling station, was forced to close because the forecourt was
dangerous and even after it reopened many of the pumps were out of action for
several days through inadequate supplies with the result that long queues built
up, often tailing back into Exeter Street. Sainsburys too was having problems
because of the car park which is inadequate for the number of customers using
the store at busy periods with queues of vehicles again blocking Exeter Street
while drivers waited for a space. Inside, shopping at times reached frenetic
levels and some shelves were empty, either a reflection of panic buying or of
problems of restocking. The difficulties at both outlets have been apparent for
some time and were accentuated by the effects of the snow on shoppers and
motorists but it must be a case of grin and bear it because the lack of
competition has made both essential to life in Bourne today and we could not
afford to lose them.
History is largely bunk as we are so often told by those who echo the
thoughts of the American car maker Henry Ford (1863-1947) and he certainly had a
point. Local history, for instance, depends largely on amateurs such as myself
to record it and occasionally others have a shot at it such as sktoday,
the magazine published by South Kesteven District Council and circulated free to
its 55,000 homeowners.
The latest issue contains a potted history of Haconby village, three miles north
of Bourne, telling us that Oliver Cromwell is reputed to have slept in a
brewhouse in the grounds of Haconby Hall at the time of the battle of
Sempringham during the English Civil War of 1642-49 although this is the first
time I have heard this particular tale. A more popular one is that he stayed the
night at Heggy’s Cottage, a mud and stud habitation nearby, but was disturbed by
the Royalist forces and fled in a state of dishabille leaving his boots behind
although his footwear has not survived the passage of time as well as the
telling of this tale.
Another local Cromwellian link occurs in the brief account of the public house
signs in the town that has just been added to my history of Bourne. Among them
is the Royal Oak in North Street which refers to an incident in which Charles II
is reputed to have hidden in an oak tree to escape capture by Cromwell's army
after he had invaded England to avenge the execution of his father. This is only
one of our thirteen pubs and I am sure readers will find some of the other
connections just as tenuous as those at Haconby.
Thought for the week: There is much pleasure to be gained from useless
knowledge. - Bertrand (Earl) Russell (1872-1970), English philosopher,
pacifist and ardent campaigner for nuclear disarmament.
Saturday 21st February 2009
Trees at the St Peters Road entrance to the Wellhead Gardens
Not even a poem is as lovely as a tree, according to the
old ballad, and so there is great concern in the town about plans to cut back
the weeping willows alongside the Bourne Eau which runs through the War Memorial
gardens in South Street that have become a much loved feature of this public
amenity since it was opened in 1956.
The proposal has come to light because this part of the town lies within the
Conservation Area designated in 1977 and therefore subject to planning
permission which must be sought from South Kesteven District Council. In turn,
Bourne Town Council has to be informed and although this authority does not have
the power to decide such applications, it does have an input into the planning
procedure and as this authority represents the town at grass roots level then
its opinion needs to be observed if democracy is to rule.
The War Memorial gardens and adjoining Wellhead gardens are the responsibility of
Bourne United Charities which administers money left to this town by benefactors
from past times and although meetings and deliberations were always held in
public in previous years, the present trustees prefer to meet in private, making
no public statements or issuing press releases about their activities and would
therefore be unaware of the furore this proposal was likely to create.
Fortunately, their planning application is subject to scrutiny and was fully
discussed when it came before the town council last week when it
was not well received.
In fact, according to the Stamford Mercury, the reception was distinctly
hostile (February 13th) and it was decided that felling four of the willows and
reducing the size of the others by between 50 to 60 per cent would ruin the
ambience of the area. Councillor Kirsty Roche (Bourne East) was particularly
scathing about the proposals and echoed the thoughts of the majority. “This is
an area of absolute beauty and the level of work proposed is astronomical”, she
said. The council therefore quite rightly refused to support the planning
application and suggested that any work that is required should be spread out
over the years to reduce the visual impact.
The weeping willow (Salix x Chrysocoma) is among the most characteristic
of our English landscape, especially near water where it can grow to heights of
65 feet and here on the river bank in a public park, the damp soil provides the
perfect environment. They are among the first of our native species to burst
into leaf each year and by early summer their slender and colourful branches can
be seen cascading over the water and hanging like silken drapes gently brushing
on the surface, a truly wonderful sight that should be preserved.
If the trustees are so concerned about the state of the trees under their
control then perhaps they ought to look more closely at others which are badly
in need of attention, notably those which were brought down during the gales of
January 2001 and still lie where they fell, presenting a hazard to visitors,
especially adventurous children who will insist on using them as a climbing
frame, a distinctly perilous pursuit. In addition, one of the willows on the
banks of St Peter’s Pool which died off and was removed last year is still in
need of replacement, while the two trees at the entrance to St Peter’s Road have
been cut back beyond recognition and are now in an extremely distressed and
unsightly state and it is hoped that their appearance is not a precursor of
things to come. All of these tasks need to be addressed rather than to start
mutilating a perfectly healthy line of riverside trees
that bring pleasure to so many.
Perhaps the latest criticism from the town council will spur the
trustees to a greater understanding of their role, that of handling affairs on
behalf of the people and not to continue making decisions behind closed doors
without due consideration of vox populi. In the meantime, it is hoped
that they will take notice of the current public apprehension and observe the
words of the popular song: Woodman, spare those trees.
The front page of The Local was devoted last week to a banner
headline urging us to Buy it in Bourne together with a photograph over four
columns showing supporters of a campaign backing the town’s traders during the
current recession (February 13th). This is all very worthy but a closer check on
the identities of those in the picture reveals that this is little more than a
political stunt because six of them are prominent Conservative Party councillors
while the face at the back is that of Nick Boles, our prospective Parliamentary
candidate. Will he, we wondered, be moving on to Grantham and Stamford, which
are also in the constituency, to proclaim the same message there?
By all means buy locally when convenient but it should be remembered that
shopkeepers are not exactly altruistic and are more concerned with making a
profit than serving the community. When their working days are done they will
happily shut up shop and take retirement on the proceeds to Brighton, Benidorm
or wherever, totally unconcerned at the effect it will have on the town while
those customers who depended on what they sold will go elsewhere, even to
Peterborough and beyond. The loyalty demanded by the current campaign does not
exist and never will. It is an unknown quantity, a perceived ideal when we do
not live in an ideal world.
Shoppers require convenience and low prices yet neither are always available in
Bourne, despite the insistence of county councillor Sue Woolley (Bourne Abbey)
who has volunteered to find unusual items in the town to prove that shoppers
have no need to drive elsewhere to fulfil their needs. This is obviously a
futile challenge because there are many commodities that are either difficult to
find locally, restricted in variety or so highly priced as to be outside the
budget of most working people and so apart from filling newspaper columns it
will prove nothing. After all, this is not the first time that the Buy it in
Bourne slogan has surfaced and during a similar campaign in July 2000, one
councillor suggested that if customers could not get what they wanted then they
should settle for something different for the sake of shopping locally which is
rather ridiculous. We are in a buyer’s market and mobility gives us choice. If what
is required is not available in the town then we will travel any distance to
find somewhere where it is.
Councillor Woolley and her colleague on Lincolnshire County Council, Charlotte
Farquharson (Bourne Castle), are prominent in the newspaper’s front page
photograph, thus raising their public profile, and it can be no coincidence that
both will be fighting to retain their seats at the county council elections in
May when both can expect considerable opposition.
What the local newspapers are also saying: Consultants gobble up a large
part of government money, men in suits drafted in to do tasks that should be
done by the salaried staff. Why else do they employ so many? It is therefore no
surprise to read a report in The Local that South Kesteven District
Council is to spend £41,000 on reorganising refuse collections to make the
rounds more efficient and presumably to cut costs (February 13th). In this case,
the survey is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra) which is of little consolation for those who deplore the waste
in public spending because in the final analysis it comes from you and me.
The council plans to spend the money on reorganising routes for refuse
collection lorries to make them more fuel efficient but the recruitment of
expert assistance from outside to address a domestic problem would appear to be
a sign of failure from a professional organisation employing 720 people
administering to the needs of a mere 55,000 households and one would have
thought that this could be handled in-house, especially as the waste management
department employs so many officers answering to grandiose job descriptions in
this field.
Meanwhile, as predicted by this column, the squeeze on our purses continues with
the Lincolnshire Police Authority chipping in with its demand for a 2.9% per
cent increase in the council tax to keep its force of 1,200 uniformed officers
and 800 civilian staff well paid and pensioned in the coming year. The Local
reports (February 13th) that last year’s fiasco in which they claimed a 79% per
cent rise, a shameful demand which resulted in government intervention to curb
such excesses, cost £460,000 in re-billing, £11,000 of which was spent by SKDC
on those ubiquitous consultants, all of which unnecessary expenditure could have
been avoided were members of the authority sufficiently aware of the situation
but then it is so easy to spend someone else’s money.
This means that the police authority, the county, district and parish councils,
are all demanding more, totally impervious to the fact that this money is coming
from people who are losing their jobs and their homes and from old people whose
income has been slashed by falling interest rates on their savings. The
injustice of it all is not lost on some politicians however for there are now
moves by the Conservative Party at national level to make local authorities more
accountable and even confine increases in the council tax to those agreed by
referendum, although those days may be some way off.
Someone needs to say it, that we have had our fill of television cooks
using one of the basic human activities of survival as entertainment and
spoiling perfectly good food in the process of creating their concoctions. The
days of Philip Harben and Fanny Craddock are long gone and the common sense
approach to the kitchen which they espoused has given way to a generation of
shock jocks whose massive egos have elbowed out perfectly good recipes that have
been replaced by stomach churning dishes liberally garnished with expletives.
No more the perfectly boiled egg by Delia Smith or a soft and spongy spotted
dick from the galloping gourmet Graham Kerr and even the passing fad of nouvelle
cuisine has been relegated to the back burner by a burgeoning band of chefs who
toil over the chopping board not for the sake of the perfect dish but rather
to improve their image. One wonders if anyone actually eats the stuff they
prepare or whether it ends up in the studio wheelie bins after the show and I
have yet to meet anyone who actually went through the motions of cooking one of
the dishes they recommended after switching off.
The television chefs and their producers fail to understand one important point
about food and that is, as my mother never tired of telling us kids, it
shouldn’t be mucked about with which is all they do when on the telly while
garnering everything they touch with liberal helpings of the F-word. Ask any
London executive what he would like for lunch and it is a sure bet that he will
plump for steak and kidney pudding followed by jam roly-poly and custard rather
than five courses culled from Pellaprat and ruined by a superstar chef with an
eye on the ratings.
Unpalatable food from unappetising people has been the main ingredient of too
many television programmes and this unrelenting fare of dodgy culinary
pretentiousness from a surfeit of celebrity chefs is now in danger of causing a
nationwide epidemic of indigestion.
Thought for the week: What is food to one man may be fierce poison to
others. - Titus Lucretius Carus (circa 99-55 BC), Roman poet and philosopher.
Saturday 28th February 2009
The coming of the railway during the 19th century gave
the people of Bourne fast access to other parts of Britain and turned the town
into a rail junction where two lines crossed. The building of a track to connect
the town with the Great Northern line at Essendine was completed in 1860 when
the route was opened for both passengers and goods traffic, an undertaking that
was not a particularly difficult engineering feat because the 6½ mile stretch of
line needed no tunnels and there were no demanding gradients.
Details of the Bourne to Essendine rail link were reported in the House of
Commons by the examining committee in June 1857 when it was announced that the
proposed capital of the company was £48,000, one third of which (£16,000) was to
be taken up by a loan. The amount subscribed in shares was £33,990 of which
£3,399 had already been deposited. The length of the proposed railway was 6
miles, 2 furlongs, 8½ chains, and the steepest gradient was 1 in 107. It was
intended to cross three roads on the level. The estimated cost of the railway
was £45,000 and the quantity of land required 53¾ acres. The engineer was Mr W
Hurst and the committee were satisfied of the fitness, from an engineering point
of view, of the proposed railway.
The bells of the Abbey Church rang out on Saturday 1st August 1857 to celebrate
the passing of the bill by the House of Lords and work was well underway on the
line by 1859, exciting great public interest in the town. Early the following
year, completion was in sight and the Stamford Mercury reported on
Tuesday 21st February 1860 that:
An engine for the first time reached the
Bourne station. In the course of the afternoon, two of the company's directors,
the Rev Joseph Dodsworth [Vicar of Bourne] and Mr Edward Hardwicke, together
with Mrs and Miss Dodsworth, rode the whole distance from the station at Bourne
to the ballast hole near Essendine and back upon the tender of the engine. The
whole journey is said to have been performed in first-rate style, some part of
it at the rate of 40 miles per hour, and without any casualty. The line is now
nearly finished, except the levelling of the station yards, and it is expected
that it will be ready for goods and coal traffic in the course of three weeks or
a month.
The railway company also bought the Red Hall, together with the
adjoining buildings and five acres of land, for £1,305 for use as the
stationmaster's house and ticket office, and the line finally opened in May
1860. The date of May 10th was fixed for the opening but the required official
certificate of competence had not arrived and so it was postponed and passenger
services actually began on Wednesday 16th May. Large crowds of sightseers
gathered at Bourne station to witness the first departure at 9 am, a train
pulling five carriages but only 35 passengers. The bells of the Abbey Church
rang out again throughout the day to mark the occasion although there were no
other formal celebrations and the public dinner that had been promised did not
materialise.
The Midland and Great Northern Railway Company which was responsible for the
project then began to expand further with the opening of the line to Spalding in
1866 and this gave a direct connection from Melton Mowbray in the west as far
eastward as King's Lynn and Cromer in Norfolk. Surveyors also began mapping out
the route of the line between Bourne and Sleaford in February 1870 and it was
eventually opened in 1872, giving access to the northern parts of Lincolnshire
and, more importantly, trains began to run between Bourne and Little Bytham
junction in 1894, from where the track continued to Saxby and this east-west
route became the most important of the lines which served the town, carrying a
considerable amount of both passenger and freight traffic. Thus within the space
of just over thirty years, Bourne had become a railway centre of some
importance.
The boom was not to last and despite protests from local people, the final
passenger train from Spalding ran in 1959, arriving at Bourne on February 28th,
an event that did not pass without notice. The 9.20 pm train arrived from
Spalding with 94 passengers on board, although the average for each journey in
the previous months had been only four. The front of the engine also carried a
farewell headboard bearing a cartoon of the last train and the message: "That's
yer lot!" The Lincolnshire Free Press sent along a reporter to travel on
the train and he wrote afterwards:
The railway line met its death bravely and
defiantly, with epitaphs and slogans on its passenger train engine and amid a
challenging din of deafening fog detonators, sirens and whistles. Up and down
the line throughout the day, drivers, firemen and guards made their final
journey on the old, friendly, familiar route. Hundreds of passengers of all ages
accompanied them, carefully preserving the last souvenir tickets. The final
curtain came late at night when crowds gathered at Bourne, Spalding and at
intermediate stations and crossings, as the last train, whistle blowing, slowly
puffed out into the darkness like old friends gone forever. The locomotive
carried a wreath and the epitaph, "Goodbye all, for we may not pass this way
again." One woman was weeping.
Freight facilities continued for the movement of sugar beet but
that too finished in 1965, virtually ending the railway age for Bourne and in
the following years, the platforms were demolished and although the remaining
red brick station buildings were retained as part of the central depot and
offices of Wherry and Sons Ltd., the agricultural merchants, they too were
finally pulled down in 2005 and the site developed for housing. Many of the
railway stations in the surrounding villages survive, some converted for use as
business premises or private homes, while evidence of the great steam age is all
around us.
A significant contribution to our railway history has been made by
Jonathan Smith who has assembled a new exhibition of photographs which opens at
the Heritage Centre in South Street today to commemorate the ending of the
railway steam age in Bourne fifty years ago. For the past few months he has been
collecting images and other memorabilia connected with the closure of the line
to add to his already extensive archive and the results
now form a comprehensive record of the event.
Jonathan is well known in Bourne having lived in the town for more than forty
years and has been a prominent journalist and photographer for much of that time
as well as being active in many spheres of community life, notably the Civic
Society and he is currently editor of their monthly newsletter. His display
contains almost 100 photographs illustrating this period in the town’s history
from the opening of the line in 1860 and subsequent expansion through to its
closure between 1951 and 1959, the lifting of the track and demolition of
railway buildings. It can be seen over the next few weeks at the Heritage Centre
which is based at Baldock’s Mill in South Street and details of the opening
hours are on our Notice Board.
What the local newspapers are saying: Our local authorities continue to
spend money unnecessarily, a cardinal sin in these straightened times, while
closing their ears to the voice of reason. They have been told time and time
again that the primary role of our councils is to provide public services and
not to publish newspapers yet both Lincolnshire County Council and South
Kesteven District Council insist on turning them out at great expense which tell
us little that we do not already know.
Both are aware of the public concern about this expenditure because readers have
contacted the Stamford Mercury to complain yet according to a report on
the problem (February 20th), there is no sign of contrition despite the evidence
that most copies end up in the silver wheelie bin without being read or on the
bottom of the bird cage. Instead, there is a note of defiance in the replies
from the councils who have made it quite clear that they intend to continue with
these futile projects.
● Inside Lincolnshire is a
20-page colour newspaper distributed free to 329,000 homes ten times a year by
the county council at a cost of £427,000 a year.
● sktoday has 16 pages,
also in colour, and is delivered to 58,000 homes six times a year by the
district council at a cost of £56,000 a year.
Neither has anything new to say in the content which is largely
useless, sometimes incorrect, and often little more than propaganda, puffs of hot air
to eulogise councillors and officers and articles to defend unpopular decisions,
notably the continual increases in the council tax which this year will cost
most households another £50 a year despite a statement in the latest edition of
Inside Lincolnshire by the council leader, Martin Hill, who informs us:
“The council is acutely aware of the difficult financial situation facing
businesses, householders, individuals and savers at this time of recession.”
Well, that is good to know although he then goes on to tell us that despite
their understanding, the authority is still going to squeeze us for another
increase of 1.75%, making the excuse that this is one of the lowest increases in
the country. Add this increase to the 3% being demanded by the district council
and the 5% for police authority and most household will still have to find
another £50 a year even though inflation stands at 0.1%.
The Stamford Mercury reports that neither council accepts the complaints
about the validity of the newspapers and that they will continue to appear.
“Scrapping it would go against the majority view”, said a spokesman for the
district council without a word of explanation as to how they know this.
The crux of the problem is that local authorities suffer from tunnel vision.
Despite the unprecedented economic misery being experienced throughout
Lincolnshire, their fixed objective remains one of raising money to keep
burgeoning workforces in employment and well pensioned irrespective of their
roles within the authority while at the same time, new and often obscure tasks
are found which need to be filled by yet more staff which is why they have become
such a target of derision over the many ridiculous job descriptions for highly
paid appointments which appear regularly in the employment vacancy columns of
the national newspapers.
If the cobbler were to stick to his last and local authorities concentrated on
their delegated task of delivering public services instead of extending their
realm to other spheres of activity amply covered elsewhere, then these sad and
sorry publications would be axed together with those departments which run them
and this would be the first step towards cutting the council tax rather than
raising it year after year with such alarming regularity.
Council tax bills have more than doubled since 1999 while public services have
declined, notably household refuse collections which have been reduced to once a
fortnight for the first time in 100 years. The attitude of those responsible for
fixing the rate is amply demonstrated in a report from BBC Lincolnshire
Online that the county police force is opting for a 5% increase (February
25th), the same organisation which last year caused a public outcry with a
shameful demand for an extra 79% which resulted in government intervention to
cap spending and an additional charge of £460,000 for re-billing householders.
Chairman Barry Young says that the situation is different this year because of
the economic climate but is quoted as saying that a large number of people had
told him that they were “prepared to pay more if demonstrably we get more” yet
we have been paying more year after year to finance a diminishing police
presence. Perhaps he should get out more to find out the true feeling in the
county.
Thought for the week: English police forces are the most expensive in the
world and are in need of dramatic change. They are inefficient and costly
fiefdoms accountable only to weak police authorities. - report from the think
tank Reform quoted by BBC Ceefax Thursday 26th February 2009.
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