Bourne Diary - October 2009

Saturday 3^rd October 2009

The Sempringham memorial to Princess Gwenllian

A mountain in North Wales has been named after a princess who was imprisoned in a convent near Bourne for more than 50 years. Carnedd Uchaf in the Ogwen Valley of Snowdonia will in future be known as Carnedd Gwenllian in memory of the daughter of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd who was killed in battle with Edward I in 1282.

Llywelyn was the last ruling Prince of Wales and the country subsequently came under Edward’s control but Gwenllian was heir to the throne and although only 17 months old, her mother having died during childbirth, he feared that she might threaten his suzerainty and snatched her from her home, reputedly in her cradle, and sent her to be cared for by the prior and prioress at Sempringham, then a Gilbertian Abbey, eight miles north of Bourne. He asked them to admit her to the order and habit "having the Lord before our eyes, pitying also her sex and age, that the innocent and unwitting may not seem to atone for the iniquity and ill-doing of the wicked and contemplating specially the life of your Order" and she remained there until she died on 7th June 1337 after 54 years of virtual imprisonment by the order.

Other mountains in the area are already named after her family but the Ordnance Survey (OS) agreed to put her on the map after a campaign by the Princess Gwenllian Society and consultation with the National Trust and the Snowdonia National Park Authority but to avoid confusing ramblers, the old name will remain on maps in brackets.

"Any changes need to be carefully considered because they are relied on by the emergency services and mountain rescue teams to help find stranded climbers", explained OS spokesman Paul Beauchamp. "But an agreement has been reached and we are delighted to reflect the name change and to play a role in reuniting Princess Gwenllian with her father, mother and uncle among the mountain peaks of her homeland."

The renaming ceremony took place at the Bulkeley Hotel in Beaumaris, Anglesey, on Saturday 26th September 2009. The national anthem was sung as dignitaries gathered to mark the event. Princess Gwenllian Society member Kathryn Pritchard Gibson, who lives in the house where Gwenllian was born, said the renaming was a "fitting tribute" to the princess and added: "It is good to remember somebody who was taken in that way and never allowed to have a life. She was just locked behind the world, never allowed out from that monastery. The mountains here are named after her mother and father and uncle, so to rename another is a great tribute and almost brings her home in a way."

There is already a memorial to the princess at Sempringham, erected in 1993 and financed by public subscription raised by the society. Coach parties of Welsh pilgrims regularly visit the site to pay their respects and the memorial was later blessed by the Bishop of Bangor. Unfortunately, it was damaged by vandals during the late summer of 2000. They shattered the heavy Welsh slate capping and punctured the inscribed tablet but the culprits were never found. The society however replaced it at a cost of £6,000 during the summer of 2001. Their secretary Mrs Mallt Anderson, said: "We have been grateful for the support of friends in Lincolnshire who have helped us so readily in the past in our determination to maintain and care for this tiny corner of an English field that is forever Wales."

The famous St Mary's Priory was founded at Sempringham by the crippled priest St Gilbert in about 1139 as a home for his white-robed Gilbertian order, the only purely English monastic order and the only one which catered for men and women alike. It was sited to the south of the present church of St Andrew's but was surrendered and destroyed in 1558 and all that remains today are signs of earthworks, although excavations have been carried out that revealed the foundations together with fish ponds and the old well. Remains of stained glass, pottery, coins and carved masonry have also been found and stones from the original buildings are thought to have been used in the construction of some houses in the locality and in marking the well, now an attraction to visitors as the Holy Well.

The name of Sempringham was once known throughout the land but today it is a difficult place to find, way off the beaten track at the end of an isolated farm road but once there, the rewards are great. Funeral corteges and wedding parties must negotiate this hazardous and uneven route to reach the church for it appears to be often used and the graveyard is full with recent burials. It is also extremely clean and tidy, far better than most of the churchyards in this part of South Lincolnshire and well worth a visit.

What the local newspapers are saying: Those who have lived in Bourne for decades know the way it was and even allowing for small exaggerations from faulty memory, it appears that one contributor to the letters column of The Local newspaper finds our streets sufficiently deserted of shoppers on those days when they should be busy to liken it to “a ghost town”.

Mrs Doris Robinson, of West Road, Bourne, tells us that she has lived here for 84 years and was prompted to write to the newspaper by the recent discussion of the proposed £27 million development of the town centre, first mooted in 2001 and still a pipe dream. “All this talk about it makes my blood boil”, she wrote (September 25th). “Why did they take the market stalls off the street? They could have left them all each side of North Street and closed the road like they do at Stamford. It would be no problem. We have so many roads round the town, Cherryholt Road onto to Spalding Road, the new bypass on to West Road and Beech Avenue and Exeter Street all join North Street at the bus station. What a waste of money. It will never be a town centre. It is all talk. So many shops have closed that Bourne has become ghost town. It needs some life putting back into the streets.”

Mrs Robinson has, of course, hit the nail on the head. Redesigning the town centre is not the way forward and it is surprising that the course of action she suggests has not been pursued by those people who run our affairs because the solution would not only have been less costly but also far more effective because the answer to all of our ills is a bypass for the two main roads which run through Bourne and turn what is left into a pedestrian precinct such as that in Stamford. This would then allow the town centre to develop organically, a slow and gradual growth utilising the buildings and vacant sites that we already have rather than grafting a new precinct on to an old and totally unsuitable area while leaving the current problems unsolved.

Returning the market to the streets is not an option in the current climate but once the through traffic has been removed by bypasses for the A151 and particularly the A15 then stalls on market days would be an attractive proposition. Other Lincolnshire market towns, such as Spalding, Sleaford and Brigg, have proved that traffic and shops do not mix but town centres were slowly rejuvenated once isolated from passing vehicles which not only create a constant danger to pedestrians but also spew out fumes which are detrimental to health and pose a threat to roadside buildings through vibrations.

In years past, Bourne was little more than two main roads which intersected to form the market place, a quiet town where the pace of life was unhurried, but during the past 100 years, the motor vehicle has turned it into a dangerous place to be yet instead of seizing the opportunity to remove that hazard, our planners merely want to attach a new town centre and leave the old problem intact. Mrs Robinson, perhaps unwittingly, has pinpointed the malaise which needs addressing and identified a solution that should have been implemented 50 years ago, before our streets were defaced with traffic lights and yellow lines, but in view of the sluggish pace at which our local government moves, the safe and busy environment she envisages may never materialise in our lifetime.

South Kesteven District Council has begun removing the metal waste recycling banks sited at various locations around the district such as car parks, village halls, schools and retail outlets on the grounds that they have become redundant. The decision to end this valuable community amenity came after a most unsatisfactory public consultation exercise in which there were a mere 26 replies from residents to the authority’s questionnaire and only 30% of them supported a withdrawal of the service.

There are several of these green-painted metal containers in Bourne, notably in the supermarket car parks at Sainsburys and Rainbow and on the spare plot of land behind Wake House, and they always seem to be in use and filling up whenever we pass by. But the council says that since the kerbside wheelie bin scheme was introduced, more than 25,000 tonnes of waste has been redirected from landfill to recycling and composting and this has had a dramatic affect on the amount collected from our recycling banks. “We therefore think this is the right time to ask residents if this service still offers value for money, considering it costs between £60,000 and £70,000 a year to provide”, said a spokesman.

A report in the Stamford Mercury however suggests that the silver wheelie bins for recyclable waste which are currently emptied only once a fortnight may not be sufficient for some households now that the alternative disposal sites are being phased out because a council spokesman told the newspaper (September 25th): “The majority is taken away via the kerbside scheme but extra waste can be put out next to the silver bin. We will take as much as they can give us but we ask that residents do not put it out in black plastic bags.”

The facility therefore appears to have been axed for the sole purpose of cutting costs whereas it is the authority’s duty to provide public services when and where they are necessary and it can be no coincidence that the countryside is currently experiencing a proliferation of abandoned rubbish on roadside verges and farm gate entrances which often lingers for weeks before finally being cleared away by landowners.

The course of the Roman waterway known as the Car Dyke through Bourne has never been precisely determined and it is generally accepted that the present route is the result of various diversions over the centuries to keep pace with an expanding town. More details are likely to emerge with the prospect of excavations by Heritage Trust for Lincolnshire which has been given permission to make an archaeological evaluation of the land currently occupied by the Rainbow supermarket and the Raymond Mays garage premises, an area between Manning Road and Spalding Road extending to over five acres which is destined to be developed for new housing, although the scheme is currently on hold because of the economic crisis.

The site is recognised as being of archaeological importance because the original trajectory of the waterway is thought to have run through it or nearby and a search of the area in advance of building work is likely to establish further information about it as well as revealing artefacts from a mediaeval pottery thought to have been operating in the vicinity.

The great channel known as the Car Dyke runs for a distance of 75 miles from Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire to Torksey near Lincoln, skirting the western limits of the fens, and can be seen at several points around Bourne. It was built by the Romans early in the second century AD, probably for drainage purposes to increase crop yields but also for the transport of men and supplies by barge for the invading armies in the north. It has never been fully explored and has been the subject of much speculation and therefore any additional information which adds to our knowledge of this remarkable feat of civil engineering from past times is to be welcomed.

Thought for the week: The real leader has no need to lead. He is content to point the way. - Henry Valentine Miller (1891-1980), American novelist and painter also known for his travel memoirs and essays of literary criticism.

Saturday 10^th October 2009

The Internet has become one of the seven wonders of the modern world in that it provides infinite intelligence at our finger tips, a cornucopia of information far more comprehensive than the contents of the public library and so much easier and more convenient to access.

But this facility should be used with care to avoid becoming inundated with theories that may look good in supporting an argument but are often misleading and frequently useless. This is particularly true with anyone writing history because the wealth of material available is immense but sources are not always reliable and those that are must then be applied in the context to which they were intended.

My Diary item last week suggested that the course of the Roman waterway known as the Car Dyke had never been precisely determined as it runs through Bourne and this has brought some criticism from contributors to the Forum who felt that we know everything that can be known about it, irrespective of what the experts believe. One writer, as expected, had been busy with Google, looking up sites to support his claim and of course believed that he had found some while another even suggested that the route of the dyke was well known to everyone aged over 50, although I find it hard to believe that granddad had any idea what happened to it in the middle ages let alone early in the second century AD when it was constructed.

Historians tread a fine line between fact and fiction but should always retain an open mind because those who disapprove can be dogmatic, regarding a differing opinion as a criticism of themselves and thrash around for any snippet to support their theories whereas an open mind is a much better way forward. There are many examples of this, notably the current discussions on global warming and wind farms, two subjects well aired on the Internet where you will find as many arguments for as there are against and so you may take your pick.

Another instance of this locally is the misguided conviction or a loyalty to a tradition over the existence of Bourne Castle as a massive battlemented fortification of Disney-like proportions which appears to be the popular conception even though the documentation on this belief from the search engines is sparse, almost non-existent, yet to express an alternative opinion in this town is to invite opprobrium from all quarters.

These examples should serve as a warning to those with ready fingers that Google is not a catch-all solution because it will throw up just as many examples against your views as is does to support them and to cherry pick those which merely corroborate your opinion is intellectually dishonest.

The Car Dyke runs for a distance of 75 miles from Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire to Torksey, near Lincoln, skirting the western limits of the fens and can be seen at several points around Bourne. During the 1,800 years of its existence, it is inconceivable that its course has not been altered, particularly in urban areas where growth has been slow to keep pace with an increasing population and provision of additional housing and other amenities. Many of these changes were not documented or the relevant paperwork lost, a situation that predominated prior to the 18th century, and so no one can say with any certainty that its present course, or that which existed in 1950, was the original one. Archaeology can help provide those answers and that is exactly what will be happening in Bourne as future development projects get underway within the vicinity of the present waterway, a most worthwhile task which is sure to produce fresh information about this massive feat of Roman civil engineering and no amount of Googling will prove otherwise.

A large sign has appeared on the old corn warehouse in Burghley Street suggesting that it is about to be the subject of a new development. Whether this is some fresh project conjured up by South Kesteven District Council or a feeble attempt to cling to the ill-fated £27 million redesign of the town centre we are not told and perhaps a statement from Grantham might clarify the issue.

The red brick and blue slate building overlooking the car park in Burghley Street was originally built in the early 19th century as part of the corn trade which flourished in Bourne at that time and resulted in the construction of many similar wholesale warehouses around the town and although most have disappeared, some survive and have been converted for modern commercial purposes or have been demolished and the sites redeveloped. Unfortunately it is not, as many people believe, a listed building and so is not protected from demolition by the current rules and regulations governing properties of architectural and historical merit, if indeed it does come into that category.

The four-storey warehouse was used for flax processing in the early 20th century and until recently for storage and distribution by Nursery Supplies (Bourne) Ltd although this firm has now closed down. The building was later acquired by the local printing firm, Warners Midlands plc, and used sporadically for storage, but then stood empty for a while although occasionally maintained and was re-painted during 2002.

In 2008, it was bought by SKDC for £350,000 with the intention of including it in the proposed town centre scheme but this has been delayed by an unsuccessful search for a suitable developer which has been aggravated by the current economic crisis. In the meantime, the building has been kept up to standard and the area around it, particularly at the north end of Wherry's Lane, cleaned up to make it more attractive to visitors although the building remains empty.

Various uses have been suggested for the warehouse such as residential accommodation, a library and even an arts centre, although no decision on the future of the building has yet been made. Now the council has posted a notice on the north wall announcing its intention to utilise the building as part of the forthcoming redevelopment scheme although no details of how it will be used have been given. It is, however, reassuring to know that there has been a promise to preserve the warehouse after concerns by conservationists that it was excluded from the redevelopment plans which went on display at the town hall in 2005 when there were fears that it might be pulled down but it was subsequently promised that the warehouse was safe and would most probably be converted into flats.

Which brings me back to that pristine new metal sign and whether it does in fact relate to the town centre redevelopment and if so, whether it will be there for very long, if it will have a short life, soon to be taken down as work gets underway, or perhaps destined to remain in situ, rusting away as the years go by without a single brick being laid, a permanent reminder of the council’s failed endeavour.

The season for flu jabs is with us once again and their administration is one of the benefits of the National Health Service for old people who are reckoned to be at risk during the winter months, a vaccination carried out swiftly and efficiently by our local clinics at weekends to avoid clogging the usual daily round of appointments and treatment.

We never fail to marvel at this each year, arriving unannounced and without an appointment for our dose and finding ourselves in and out within minutes and wonder why this cannot happen in other spheres of health care and treatment without the inordinate delays that have become part of the system. The staff at our clinic, the Hereward Practice in Exeter Street, were at their best, cheerful and swift in despatching several hundred oldies during their five-hour stint on Saturday morning with a similar session scheduled for next weekend while the Galletly Practice in North Road has arranged to deal with its own list of pensioners over three weekends.

It is inevitable that we meet the Jeremiahs afterwards, those who are of a certain age yet refuse the jab, usually on the grounds that it is likely to have serious after effects, a tale from folklore that does the rounds each year at this time and can often be heard on market day when oldies gather to discuss their ailments and treatment. But the professional opinion is that this is a calumny against a most beneficial precaution and one that should not be refused lightly because influenza among the elderly and those who have certain medical conditions can be a killer as the pandemics of the past have proved.

There is also a reassurance that the jab is unlikely to cause serious side-effects from Dr James Stuttaford, resident doctor of The Oldie magazine who writes in the October issue that despite stories about people developing “the worst attack of flu they have ever had” after vaccination, he has never known it happen in fifty years of medical practice although he has known many cases in which someone has had a transient fever and felt unwell for a day or two afterwards. The advice is therefore to go along and have the jab although they may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists are already working on a one-off vaccine whose effects will be permanent and once again we anticipate that eventually this will be another of the benefits of our much maligned National Health Service.

Anyone who addresses the public will recognise the scenario, the know-all pointing out insignificant yet irritating errors, the smart aleck who merely wants to put you down and the pedant intent on impressing his knowledge on others through self-importance. They are the occupational hazard of the author who writes for publication and the speaker who regularly airs his pet subject to a wider audience and as all readers and listeners are valued, no matter how irksome and exasperating they may be, they must be suffered silently.

An example of this particular misery is described by Phillip Pettitt, verger of this parish until he resigned last month after five years of dedicated care at the Abbey Church where he has become a familiar figure for worshippers and visitors alike. In a farewell message printed in the October issue of the parish magazine, he describes his work at the various services and ceremonials, part of the furniture rather than a theatrical figure, but admits that there have been exasperating moments.

“The verger's duties are many, from unlocking the church, preparing for and taking part in the services and clearing up afterwards“, he writes. “Not to mention climbing those dusty and steep steps to the top of the tower to put up the flag on saints days. Visitors are always welcome, whether they be individuals on bikes just passing through the area, or relatives who have just come after thirty or forty years to see where they were baptised or even married. Coach parties of so-called specialists are a frightening breed. Archaeological societies, history groups, English Heritage and so on, they all seem to know more than I do, even when I am armed with my folder of all the historic notes I can get hold of. They always seem to want to argue about dates and styles of architecture. One visitor recently was a guide at Gloucester Cathedral and he gave some useful advice: 'Just say that it is understood that or I read that so and so happened'. I tried it and it works wonders.”

Despite giving up the job as verger, Phillip remains a stalwart at the Abbey Church, together with his wife Alison, who between them are responsible for many fine traditional meals in the church hall, especially at Christmas. They are the very stuff of voluntary work in any parish and Bourne would be the poorer without them.

Thought for the week: Humility makes great men twice honourable. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a noted polymath, author, politician, scientist, inventor, statesman and diplomat.

Saturday 17^th October 2009

One of the landmark relics of our industrial history has been removed from Bourne after being on public display for the past 35 years. The massive oil-driven pump used to distribute tap water to the town and surrounding district has been on display outside the Anglian Water depot between Abbey Road and Manning Road since 1974 but has now been sold to a collector.

The engine was one of two made by the world famous firm, Tangye Limited of Birmingham, for installation at Bourne waterworks in 1922 and subsequently gave Trojan service for the next half a century until being phased about by a new £350,000 pumping station which was built in 1974. New automated machinery comprising six electrical pumps each capable of delivering 1.5 million gallons of water daily were introduced to provide a water supply to one quarter of a million people in South Lincolnshire and Peterborough at the rate of six million gallons a day with the result that the two original beam pumps that had been working continuously since they were commissioned became redundant.

One was sold but it was decided that the other was worth preserving in its original position in front of the control building in Manning Road as a permanent monument to the engineering skills of an earlier generation. The base was concreted and all metal parts treated to resist rust and then given a fresh coat of paint and there it remained on show until last weekend when it was sold by Anglian Water to a private collector and on Friday, a heavy duty crane and low loader arrived to dismantle the unit and move it to its new location at Aldeby, near Beccles, Suffolk.

The new owner is Stephen Green, aged 48, an engineer who runs his own business and also collects large engines as a hobby. He already has nine similar units weighing from five to forty tons and is excited at the prospect of acquiring the Tangye pump and for the future prospects for his museum. “It is like a dream come true”, he said. “The engine is extremely rare both in type and size. There are only about five others of these early cold start type units known to have survived for preservation but the others are all much smaller in size, the biggest being only 20 hp whereas the Bourne unit is rated 120 hp and the largest built by the company.

“All of the engines I have are unusual, even unique, the last surviving examples of an almost forgotten time when British engineering was the best in the world. They are currently in store and not available for public inspection but they are recognised as a very important and historical collection and I am currently completing a move to a more suitable property where I plan to open them up as a museum. The Bourne engine will be a remarkable addition and I have been trying to buy it for twenty years. It has done its turn for the water authority and will now have a whole load of money thrown at it in the hope that it will run once again."

The sale of the engine is the latest development in the supply of water to Bourne stretching back more than 150 years. The Bourne Waterworks Company was formed in 1856 and taken over in 1927 by Bourne Urban District Council which continued in control until 1962 when administration was handed over to the South Lincolnshire Water Board. Responsibilities for the water supply and sewage undertakings passed to the new Anglian Water Authority when it was formed in April 1974, becoming privatised in 1989 and is now known simply as Anglian Water, currently providing water for 2.6 million properties and covering an area of 27,500 square kilometres while presiding over a continuous programme of improvement ever since to ensure that supplies reach the consumer quickly, efficiently and in top quality.

What the local newspapers are saying: Bourne will have to put up with just one petrol filling station for the foreseeable future after the public house chain Marston's plc axed plans to develop a prime site alongside the A15 to the south of the town. The Local reports that the Wolverhampton-based company has pulled out of the scheme and that the planning application for the land has expired (October 16th). The town now faces several more years with just one petrol outlet, the Tesco/Esso filling station in North Road which has frequently been deemed to be unsatisfactory because the site is too small and has poor, even dangerous, access, and is frequently packed with cars and delivery lorries making service slow, but there is no alternative locally. This is detrimental to the economic life of Bourne because if motorists buy their petrol elsewhere it follows that they will also purchase other things while they are about it, groceries, clothing and so on.

South Kesteven District Council began negotiations for the sale of the vacant land off the A15 at the southern entrance to the town last summer, the 4.2 acre site opposite Elsea Park in South Road having been on the market for almost ten years after plans for an ambitious business park fell through. The original scheme for this location was for a Southfield Business Park covering some 17 acres to be developed at a cost of £10 million, including a restaurant, fast food outlet, petrol filling station, public house and hotel, the site accessed from a new estate road and roundabout and the remainder of the land developed for a range of uses including offices, light industrial units and warehousing. It was intended to be one of the most ambitious commercial undertakings in the history of Bourne but never materialised, the scheme finally being shelved in May 2001.

There followed many reports and rumours about various uses while much of the original land in the vicinity was chipped away for housing but in August 2008 came details of real interest from Marston's plc, one of the country’s leading companies which owns four breweries and controls some 2,272 pubs, to build a long-awaited second petrol filling station for the town together with a family pub and restaurant. There was general relief in Bourne that at last something was happening to alleviate the current situation but the town is now back at square one, a situation fully appreciated by the leader of SKDC, Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West). "Clearly the highest priority here was to create a second petrol station for the town", she told the newspaper. "The problem is about expectations being raised which have now been dashed which was probably related to the economic downturn and I do not know what will now happen to the site."

The opening of the Tesco/Esso filling station in August 2002 has not been an entirely satisfactory project and apart from the establishment of the much criticised road system in North Street with its two questionable mini-roundabouts, a price war was also created, resulting in the closure of two other petrol outlets which could not compete. Motorists therefore have nowhere else to go locally and this is an absurd situation for a town with a population of 15,000.

Many are asking why Marston’s plc should pull out at this stage and one theory has been advanced in the letters’ column of the Stamford Mercury. H Overton of Beech Avenue, Bourne, writes that he was dismayed by the decision and suggests that the reason was that a permit to include a petrol station in the project was refused (October 16th). He goes on: “It would be very interesting to be told who rejected it. I have lived in Bourne for many years and have seen the town grow all out of proportion. We need a modern pub, restaurant and petrol station to get us into the 21st century. With the town still expanding, we need a petition by all of the residents to the people responsible for not allowing us a petrol station and their reasons why Esso should have the monopoly.”
 

The mere fact that this suggestion has been made in a newspaper requires a statement from South Kesteven District Council and it is hoped that one will be issued very quickly to dispel any doubts that may be causing public concern.

Family history remains one of the main interests of Internet users because the ease of communication with others around the world and the information available is invaluable in the compilation of a family tree. As a result, many web sites have sprung up devoted to specific names and methods of tracing ancestors and this has spawned an entire industry devoted to this one preoccupation.

The primary source of information is the place of death and this means parish registers and, most importantly, graveyards and cemeteries where the tombstones provide names and dates of those who went before, but these are now in the care of town and district councils and unless they provide facilities for the dispensation of this information it is up to the individual to visit and see for themselves, often involving a long journey and sometimes an overnight stay. Many local authorities are slowly putting this information online but it is an expensive process and not a priority in these straightened times and unlikely to be so for the foreseeable future.

Tim Crampton, who lives in Australia, has emailed to say that many web sites in his country now provide this information and he has suggested that Bourne and the surrounding villages might wish to undertake this task, perhaps with volunteers using digital cameras which would make the work cheaper and easier and although this is a most commendable suggestion, I can foresee problems of organisation and the recruitment of volunteers for although everyone would agree about the value of such a facility, its implementation would be another matter if they were asked to participate.

Several companies have produced the necessary software to dispense this information which is costly and then the hours necessary to input the data is daunting, especially for a cemetery such as that in Bourne which has been in use since 1855 and now has around 10,000 burials, and so a town council with a limited budget and other pressing concerns is unlikely to consider this a priority. We will therefore have to depend on personal contact for the time being, that is email and letter to this web site and to the Town Hall for information, but even then much can be achieved in this way. The town council scanned cemetery records in 2004 to protect the old books from decay and this has now enabled staff make alphabetical searches when inquiries are made, thus speeding up the process of finding a name, dates of burial and grave location.

Tim has been particularly successful in his endeavours over the past ten years. He lives at Lake Tyers Beach, Victoria, and has already amassed an impressive archive about his family dating back to his great-great-grandfather, William Crampton, who was born at Spalding in 1798 and was married at the Wesleyan Chapel in Bourne, now the Methodist Chapel in Abbey Road, on 12th May 1822 to 19-year-old Sarah Allen. Four of their children, two daughters and two sons, sailed for Australia to begin a new life and as a result, more than 1,000 members of the Crampton family are scattered throughout the continent today with branches in West Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

We have even discovered that a great great aunt, Jane Crampton, who was sentenced to one month in jail at the House of Correction at Folkingham in 1854 for stealing while in service with a veterinary surgeon in Eastgate, later married James Akred, aged 28, and they sailed for Australia with their newly born son, settling in Queensland where she died in 1897, aged 66. This story illustrates one of the advantages of the Internet that enables researchers in different countries and on other continents, not only to keep in touch, but also to check and verify their findings immediately. It also helps create a pool of information for anyone wishing to find out more about their families with a speed and efficiency never experienced in the past.

The Bourne web site has a very busy Family History section and currently contains almost 400 local names being researched by amateur genealogists around the world. Not a week goes by without someone from somewhere seeking information and even a photograph of a grave and we are always willing to help whenever possible, even though it means yet another email to the council clerk, Nelly Jacobs, and a trek down to the cemetery.

Message from abroad: Please add my name to your list of regular Bourne watchers. My great great grandfather, Richard James Mate, emigrated to the United States from the Bourne area in 1844 along with his wife, Betsy Wyley, and my great grandfather, Fred. - email from David Shargel, Port Angeles, Washington, USA, Monday 12th October 2009.

Thought for the week: If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish-born playwright and ardent socialist who lived most of his life in England, wrote 60 plays and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Saturday 24^th October 2009

A major drawback for voluntary community effort is the snail’s pace at which our bureaucracy moves and so it has been with the handover of the cemetery chapel although there is now light at the end of the tunnel and a distinct optimism that agreement may soon be reached between the town council and Bourne Preservation Society for the handover of the Victorian building in order that it can be preserved for future use.

The two sides have been at loggerheads for almost 18 months over the terms of a pre-lease agreement with the society anxious to get moving on its plans to restore the chapel and the council anxious to ensure that what is proposed is feasible and, more importantly, financially achievable.

This column suggested earlier this year that the impasse between the two could only be resolved by a face to face meeting which should be convened before the end of the year and we are pleased to say that this has now been held with some success because the Stamford Mercury reports that the society is now confident of not only taking over the building but also of working with the town council in the future (October 16th).

“It was a positive step”, said chairman Jack Slater, “because it meant that both sides were now in helpful discussions for the first time.” The clerk to the council, Mrs Nelly Jacobs, was equally optimistic. “Councillors seemed much more positive towards the project and that the society could carry it forward”, she said.

Added to this, there have also been meetings between the town council and the Architectural Heritage Fund, a registered charity founded in 1976 to offer advice, information and grants to groups trying to promote the conservation of historic buildings, and money from this source would enable the society employ surveyors and structural engineers to advise on repairs, intended uses and, most importantly, the final cost. Nevertheless, the timescale still seems inordinately long because the newspaper suggests that a survey is unlikely before next summer when a lease can be signed.

The society was formed in April 2008 in an attempt to succeed where the town council has failed, by bringing the chapel back into useful life. The building has been deteriorating for many years and when the town council voted for demolition, English Heritage carried out an inspection and recommended a Grade II listing which was subsequently granted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in April 2007.

It is the society’s intention to protect not only the chapel but also other buildings in the town that may be at risk and perhaps enhance the Conservation Area, last designated in 1977 and now in need of a reappraisal. In the meantime, it has become an active organisation with an interesting web site, its members meeting monthly with regular speakers on a wide variety of topics, usually relating to history and preservation.

What the local newspapers are also saying: Just when we thought that Bourne had enough new houses comes the announcement that more are on the way on land that was once thought be to protected from any future development. South Kesteven District Council has revealed several potential sites for new housing and many of the surrounding villages which will dramatically increase the residential accommodation and population in this town.

A report on the council’s Local Development Framework published by The Local (October 16th) sets out planning policies over the next 20 years and breaks all of the promises of the past, notably that once Elsea Park was finished Bourne would get no more homes in the foreseeable future and that land between the town and Dyke village, reprieved from housing development when the 300-acre estate was approved in 1999, is now firmly back in the frame.

In Bourne alone, there are 32 pieces of land detailed in the document, “suggested by landowners, residents, developers and community groups”, including a 40-acre site to the west of Meadow Drove which would hold 1,604 new houses and land north of Mill Drove, again for new homes. The two sites would effectively close up the half mile gap between Stephenson Way and Dyke village, currently occupied by farmland, and swallow up this ancient community into the urban sprawl.

For those with short memories, it is worth recalling a statement on this subject at the time from district councillor John Smith (Bourne West), then serving as a cabinet member with responsibilities for economic and planning matters. On Saturday 8th February 2004 he outlined the benefits of the Elsea Park estate through an S106 agreement, the official description of the planning gain, most of which has still not materialised, and his statement said:

If the planning application for Elsea Park had not gone ahead the houses would still have to be provided, probably next to Bourne Wood or towards Dyke village, causing terrible traffic problems in Bourne. The town council approved the proposal, feeling that it would help future prosperity and the avoidance of the town becoming run down. The site was preferred as it was on the Peterborough side of the town, so preventing even worse traffic problems in the town centre. Also, I well remember one of the councillors saying that development on the north side would result in Bourne becoming "Long Bourne". The south-west would produce a more balanced curtilage.

If these latest proposals go ahead at some time in the future, then this appraisal will have proved to be misleading because Bourne will be getting new housing on the alternative site rejected at the time of the Elsea Park development, thus turning Bourne into a rural conurbation, the “long Bourne” which was feared ten years ago, without the appropriate infrastructure or employment opportunities in place and unlikely to be in the next decade.

There will be a public consultation over these new proposals and according to the newspaper, residents are already being urged to have their say between now and Friday 4th December through an interactive service on the council’s web site although past experience has proved that such exercises intended to test people’s reactions over unpopular decisions are totally unsatisfactory because they are not given sufficient publicity, the results badly analysed and frequently ignored and therefore unlikely to sway the final outcome which is usually a foregone conclusion.

The flood of new housing therefore appears to be inevitable and the much heralded planning gain regularly trumpeted by the local authorities as a benefit to such developments likely to end up, as in the past, as a trail of promises unfulfilled. Expansion for Bourne through new houses alone, benefits only the landowners and developers through huge profits and the local authorities by increased council taxes while the victims are the schools, the medical centres, transport and public utilities which are never improved commensurately to keep pace with the expanding population and become overstretched as a result.

One of the great successes of this web site has been the Picture Gallery which was introduced seven years ago to provide visitors with the opportunity to show the best of their photographs to a wider public and as we are read around the world, this means that anyone who has taken a memorable shot now has the chance to share it with enthusiasts from other countries because many of our 2,000 visitors a week log on from abroad, including some extremely exotic places.

Almost 50 photographs have been posted since we began on 6th July 2002, some of them quite stunning, and now we have a small success in that a photograph taken by Mandy Lee last spring has so appealed to a Suffolk artist that he sought permission to paint it which we were happy to arrange through this web site and his finished canvas has now gone on public display.

Mandy submitted her picture on Sunday 5th April 2009 with the following description: “I was out in Morton Fen when the sun broke through the early morning mist, heralding the start of a beautiful spring day and this picture was not to be missed.”

It was spotted by Patrick McCormack who lives in Ipswich and paints almost exclusively scenes from East Anglia, ranging from boats and beaches to dilapidated sheds and rusting corrugated iron, and the sunrise had a particular appeal and so he emailed seeking permission to paint it. Mandy agreed and the painting is now complete and currently hanging for sale with more of his work in the Fox Inn at Bury St Edmunds. “He has captured everything perfectly”, she said when seeing the finished painting. “It has all been so exciting.”

Mandy, who has lived in Morton for the past 18 years, works as a dental receptionist in Bourne and is married to Richard and they have five children. She is a keen photographer with no special equipment, just an ordinary digital model which she always takes on her walks across the fen. “In summer, I leave every morning come rain or shine, well before six o’clock and take our three dogs”, she said. “I usually follow the numerous public footpaths that crisscross the fields around Morton but in winter when it is dark, I go with Richard. Summer mornings are best because of the wildlife, even though at first glance the fens seem an empty place. Taking photographs is a matter of being in the right place at the right time and this was the case with this particular picture. It was one of three that I took that morning and I am so pleased with the outcome.”

We hope that this tale will encourage others to submit photographs but please do not send in pictures of the everyday scenes and buildings from around Bourne because we have plenty of those already. What does interest our ever increasing band of camera enthusiasts is that unusual view or occurrence that happens perhaps once a year but is good enough to share with an appreciative audience and leave it for posterity because all of those which appear in our Picture Gallery are also included in A Portrait of Bourne, now the definitive history of the town on CD-ROM.

From the archives: On Wednesday night, an inquest was held at Pointon, near Bourne, by George White, gent., coroner, on the body of Elizabeth Gunn who had died under circumstances somewhat extraordinary. The deceased, who was the daughter of very creditable parents at the decoy in the fen, was in the service of a respectable family at Billingborough and had been charged with stealing a gown belonging to a lady of the contiguous parish of Horbling, whilst it was hung out on a hedge to dry. The offence seemed to be so clearly brought home to her that her mother was sent for and the girl dismissed from her service after a severe and suitable reproof. Stung with shame and apprehension, the wretched creature accompanied her mother to Pointon on Monday night the 7th but seemed in a state of stupefaction and in the course of the night died in her bed. It was apprehended that she had taken poison but on her body being opened by two surgeons for the satisfaction of the coroner, no intimation whatsoever was afforded of her having done so and the jury therefore, under all the circumstances of the case, returned a verdict of "died by fright or terror". - news report from the Lincolnshire, Rutland & Stamford Mercury, Friday 18th July 1813.

Thought for the week: Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them. - Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author, essayist, biographer and historian who also served as the United States ambassador to Spain.

Saturday 31^st October 2009

Litter in the town centre in April 2003

Fifty years ago this month, the first litter lout in Bourne appeared before the local magistrates at the Town Hall accused of dropping a fish and chip paper in North Street. The case was the beginning of a campaign to clean up the nation’s streets following the introduction of the Litter Act of 1958 which had been made law the previous year.

Litter had become a major problem in Britain during the years after the Second World War of 1939-45 and the first national campaigns to prevent it were organised to coincide with the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the crowning of Elizabeth II in 1953 together with a new slogan Keep Britain Tidy which galvanised future efforts from organisations around the country. There followed a new enthusiasm for cleaner streets from the local authorities and late in 1957 The Times reflected the change in the national mood with an editorial which won government support and the Litter Act subsequently came into being.

The first Bourne culprit was prosecuted on Thursday 1st October 1959, a 28-year-old man from Morton whose name I will not give to save him any embarrassment for such a dubious honour if he is still with us but suffice it to say that he was truly repentant, so sorry in fact that his mother wrote to the court on his behalf pleading for leniency because her son had been ill and was not fully acquainted with the new legislation.

Nevertheless, Bourne Urban District Council, which was then responsible for maintaining our highways in a reasonably clean state, pressed for a conviction and the accused was fined 10s. which is only 50p in today’s money but was then a tidy sum at a time when the average weekly wage was around £3. The council clerk, Douglas Reeson, who prosecuted, told the court that litter bins had been placed in conspicuous places around the town in the hope that this would make the public more litter conscious and the authority intended to summons all offenders in the future. His evidence was corroborated by the police, one Constable L Burrell telling the magistrates that he had seen the accused throw the fish and chip paper down although there was a bin only four yards away and another within ten yards.

This vigilance was to be commended at a time when litter was becoming a major problem for local authorities throughout the country and as someone who lived through those times, I can vouchsafe that we were aware of the punishment that awaited wrongdoers and ensured that the discarded detritus from the passing parade at that time, cigarette packets, sweet wrappers, newspapers and bus tickets, once often dropped in the gutter as we walked by, was deposited from then on in the bins provided.

Unfortunately the honeymoon for the Litter Act is now well and truly over. The clean streets from the years which followed its introduction are less frequent and the vigilance which was once the watchword of the populace has disappeared. The disciplines of personal behaviour have relaxed with the changing social climate and street litter, once mainly the province of the careless and thoughtless, is now often a deliberate act.

There have been many proposals to deal with the problem such as closed circuit television cameras which operate in most town centres, the naming and shaming campaigns occasionally pursued by our local newspapers and demands for fast food takeaways to clear up the rubbish which has emanated from their premises, but none of these suggestions provide a solution of public pillory provided by the court case of 1959.

The absence of litter is now largely due to the conscience of the individual rather than the enforcement of the law because as there are practically no policemen to be seen on the streets, it is left to sporadic forays by the local authorities using totally inadequate methods such as motor cycle rangers and even unpaid volunteers to issue fixed penalty notices which means that the stigma of conviction after a court hearing has become quite rare. As a result, people left to their own devices tend to ignore or forget the rules and although litter is no longer the major problem it was half a century ago, it is quite obviously back with us and the evidence is out there in our streets, particularly in the early mornings at weekends after the late night revellers have gone home.

Most of us would like to be remembered when we are gone but as it is not a subject often considered when we are alive and unless specific instructions are left, the form of the memorial is decided by those left behind. The tombstone has been a favourite for centuries although now being superseded by trees for those who care for our environment while seats are also popular but these are now at risk as space in our cemeteries is being filled and even here in Bourne, there are fears that we may have too many.

As a result, a notice has gone up in the South Road cemetery telling visitors that permission to site any more memorial benches is on temporary hold while the town council considers the position and as the situation is giving cause for concern, it seems inevitable that the final decision will mean either a restriction or perhaps even a complete ban on them in the future.

In the meantime, there are also fears that there is insufficient land for future burials at the cemetery and an appeal has gone out to farmers and landowners to come forward with suitable areas they might like to sell, an unlikely prospect when development for housing is such a profitable transaction today and so it has been no surprise that there have been no takers so far.

The alternative is to re-use old graves which is what happened in the churchyard at the Abbey Church when it became crowded during the mid-19th century with interments placed on top of one another, two and sometimes three times, thus forcing its closure and the subsequent opening of the town cemetery under the Burial Act of 1855. Using the same graves remains a possibility and also a legal option provided they are more than 100 years old but this is not really an acceptable or popular solution because graveyards should retain the respectful permanence that death bestows and not be disturbed on the whim of official change.

The clerk to the council, Mrs Nelly Jacobs, told the Stamford Mercury that the number of burials in Bourne is down this year (October 17th) and although she suggests that they may rise again in the future, this is in line with the national trend and perhaps we are witnessing a dramatic change in the traditional method of disposing of our dead because cremations have been steadily increasing ever since they were introduced at the beginning of the last century with the passing of the Cremation Act in 1902. It is a more efficient method than burial and with the introduction of gardens of remembrance, such as those in the town cemetery, the ashes of the departed may still be buried and the spot marked with a stone or marble tablet, much smaller memorials than the tombstones and sarcophagi of the past but the advantage is that they take up far less space.

Major changes in the practices surrounding the disposal of our dead have in the past been driven by necessity and perhaps the time has come for central government to consider the whole future of our way of death and to formulate an acceptable policy that no longer taxes our environmental resources. But this is a delicate subject and one that will not be readily tackled by our legislators and so we most probably face the prospect of a very long wait indeed and the problems now being experienced by those who run our burial grounds are likely to increase as a result.

A fear of being robbed on the road was widely prevalent in years past when there were no street lamps in country areas and a journey outside town after dark was a dangerous undertaking. Thieves abounded, footpads and highwaymen, and anyone carrying money or valuables was at risk. The highwayman has aroused much romantic interest and as a few were of good family and education, avoided physical harm to their victims and were renowned for their courtesy and chivalry, they have even enjoyed a reputation as gentlemen of the road although the best remembered of them, Claude Duval and particularly Dick Turpin, who may have operated in this area, were little more than ill-mannered ruffians.

The perils of travelling a lonely road at night were very much in the mind of Mr V Stapleton, a solicitor who lived at Thurlby, while on his way to Bourne by horse and gig to attend a property sale at the Bull Inn [now the Burghley Arms] on the evening of Thursday 15th December 1864. As he passed Elsea Wood, a man suddenly darted out and attempted to stop the horse but Mr Stapleton urged the animal forward and as it went, he felt the wheel of his gig pass over something which he thought to be the person who had attempted to stop him. On arrival at Bourne, he reported the incident to the police and a constable was sent to the scene to investigate. He found the spot described by Mr Stapleton and there were signs that a man had been lying on the ground but there was no one about.

The matter remained a mystery for several days and rumours that a highwayman or footpad was preying on travellers abounded in Bourne. But the case was solved when a gentleman on horseback who had also been on the road at that time was subsequently interviewed by the police. He said that he had overtaken a man who claimed that he had been run down by a horse and gig but it turned out that he was not a criminal but a drunken tailor trying to find his way home to Braceborough after a day out at Bourne market but amazingly, he was not seriously hurt.

That redoubtable couple Jim and Brenda Jones are off to Buckingham Palace on Thursday when Jim will receive his MBE from the Queen, an honour bestowed in the Birthday Honours List in July as recognition of his impressive voluntary work on behalf of this town, notably at the Heritage Centre in Baldock’s Mill. Brenda has a new hat and Jim will be in morning dress. This is a well deserved honour for them both, for the Civic Society and for Bourne and we all wish them and the family a most enjoyable and rewarding day meeting Her Majesty which must surely be the crowning moment for anyone who has given so much to the community.

Thought for the week: Castles in the air - they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build as well. - Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828-1906), major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet, often referred to as the father of modern drama.

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