|
Saturday 2nd January 2010
The decision by Tesco to build a new supermarket on the
outskirts of Bourne has caused very little stir, perhaps because the development
has an air of inevitability about it. The company has been waiting in the wings
to establish a significant presence here for almost twenty years but in 1996 an
application to build a super-store on a 17-acre site adjoining the A15 to the
south of the town was turned down and so they settled instead for an express
shop which opened on the Esso filling station site in North Road in 2002, a
restricted outlet and regarded by many as an unsatisfactory location.
Ironically, much of the original site they wanted which had been earmarked by
South Kesteven District Council for a business park is still standing idle while
their new chosen location is in the vicinity, the former Opico premises on the
corner of Cherryholt Road where building work will start this summer provided
planning permission is granted. The project will be a store of some size,
covering 40,000 square feet with parking space for 338 vehicles and employing
300 staff, and so a welcome addition to Bourne both as an additional retail
outlet and as a prospective employer in a town where jobs are at a premium.
Yet all of this was forecast almost twenty years ago despite objections from
shopkeepers to similar developments away from the town centre. In May 1993,
plans were afoot to redevelop land for out of town shopping off South Road close
to Bourne Hospital, which was then a much used medical facility, and a survey
suggested that 58% of the people shopped in town and as the Chamber of Trade
were anxious to keep as much of the remaining 42% , they were opposed to such
expansion. The chairman, Ernest Fytche, told The Local newspaper
(May13th): “We want to see Bourne develop in the right way but we ought not to
be too negative. The scheme is good in principle but not where it is.”
However, not everyone had the same point of view and a detailed letter to the
Chamber of Trade not only outlined the benefits of the development but in
hindsight also forecasts the inevitability of it happening, albeit two decades
later. The letter was written by local businessman Mr James Wherry who urged the
chamber to think again because the town was already losing a vast amount of
trade to the larger supermarkets and major dealers in neighbouring towns such as
Stamford and Spalding and he added: “Within the next few years it is likely that
a national supermarket company will target Bourne, whether it is on the Opico
site or elsewhere. When this happens, a few thousand people will return to
Bourne to carry out their shopping.”
Which is exactly what is now happening. Granted, we have Sainsburys and even
Rainbow, but neither are of the size envisaged by Tesco which will become a
magnet for thousands from the immediate area and provide increased retail choice
at good value. The only drawback is that the scheme does not include another
much needed filling station for the town. It had been hoped that any new retail
development on South Road would also include a petrol outlet which Bourne badly
needs at this time but there is no such proposal with the current project
although there is still time for a company reappraisal of this priority before
the final plans are approved.
The curious aspect about the proposed Tesco development is a statement
from the Anglia Regional Co-operative Society which sold them the site for their
new store. The company had planned to develop it themselves for a supermarket to
replace Rainbow in Manning Road but now complain that the competition is likely
to put this outlet out of business with a subsequent loss of jobs (The Local,
December 18th). Chief executive John Chillcott told the newspaper that his
priority was to achieve maximum opportunity for them in respect of long term
employment although the store would continue to trade for the foreseeable future
until the full implications of the planning application became manifest.
It will not have been deduced by most readers that had the Co-op not parted with
the site to a competitor then the current situation would not have arisen. But
Mr Chillcott explained to the newspaper that the sale went ahead because of the
collapse in commercial property values making it impossible to generate interest
in the [three] retail units that were also proposed for the new development.
The Rainbow site is currently part of a larger scheme which includes the old
Raymond Mays garage in Spalding Road now standing empty and derelict although
the sign outside, pictured above, says it all.
The Heritage Centre in South Street continues to attract items from our
past, donated by many generous people and so adding to our knowledge of the
history of the town while at the same time increasing the appeal of the museum.
The latest exhibit is a porcelain pin tray or sweetmeat dish, made by one of the
Staffordshire potteries during the early years of the 20th century and decorated
with a painting of the Red Hall.
This building dates from circa 1605 and became famous after widespread national
publicity over attempts to pull it down in 1892. At that time, it was being used
by the Great Northern and Midland Railway Company as the booking office for
Bourne station and was earmarked for demolition to make way for new freight
sidings but was saved by a campaign of public protest which included a four-page
petition signed by every important citizen in the town. The unwelcome publicity
was too much for the railway company which relented and the building was saved
but by then the Red Hall had become so well known that visitors flocked to see
it and it became the subject of picture postcards and giftware.
Many small items in pottery and porcelain decorated with a print of the
building were stocked by local shops and so visitors would buy one as a memento
to take back to friends and relatives as a reminder of their stay, much as we do
today. This is the most probable explanation for this particular dish which has
been donated by Mrs Judy Adams who lives in Lincolnshire although its origins
are obscure yet an indication of how ubiquitous these small gifts became.
Judy tells me that the dish was given to her by her mother who is now 93 who had
received it from her mother whose family came from Cheshire and so one of them
either visited Bourne or knew someone that did, perhaps the well-to-do family
that employed her as a cook when she was a girl. No matter what the provenance,
the tray is now on display at the Heritage Centre with a suitable card about how
it came to be there together with dozens of other artefacts relating to our
history and for anyone interested in our past then they are well worth a
visit.
Newspaper reports from past years reveal just how
much change there has been in our society in a comparatively short space of
time. Few people today, for instance, are so poor that they have holes in their
shoes while petty theft is widespread and goes unpunished and beggars plague the
streets in many towns without fear of recrimination. Less than a hundred years
ago, none of this would have been tolerated and such conduct would have been
punished with the full force of the law.
An everyday case that illustrates this point came before the magistrates at the
weekly police court in Bourne on Thursday 2nd April 1914 when John William Beck,
of no fixed address, was charged with theft and begging. The court was told that
he had been released from Lincoln Prison on March 27th when he took a train to
Sleaford and then on to Bourne. When the train reached Essendine, the guard on
duty found that the leather window strap from the carriage in which he had been
travelling was missing and reported it to his superiors. Later that day, Beck
was arrested while begging for money in the streets of Bourne and when the
police searched him, they found the strap in his pocket, his explanation being
that he had taken it with the intention of using the leather to repair his boots
which had holes in them.
Today this case would never have come to court. Beck would have left prison with
decent clothes, money in his pocket and in the care of various rehabilitation
organisations that would have ensured his welfare until he got back on his feet.
But there was no such safety net in those days and Beck got little sympathy from
the magistrates. They sent him back to prison for 14 days for begging and two
months for theft.
Cold calling should be banned by law. It is little more than coercive
selling by pushy salesmen. They have no right to knock on the door or ring the
bell and then try to sell us something. It is an unwanted intrusion into our
privacy and we advise everyone who receives such a visitation to black the
company concerned and pass this information on to their friends.
In years past, cold calling spread like a virus through urban England as though
salesmen had been given carte blanche to persuade whoever they called on to buy
stuff they did not want whereas the basis of buying is of opting in rather than
opting out, in other words of going out and choosing a source rather than having
to refuse one on the doorstep which by definition must be inferior otherwise
pressurised sales techniques would not be needed.
The obvious solution is not to answer the door which has been our policy for
many years but this fails when you are expecting someone who is there by
invitation. The arrival of Neighbourhood Watch schemes curtailed the activities
of these pests because members were given notices for their doors telling
callers that they did not buy on he doorstep and that they will seek
identification from everyone. But the evidence is that these unwanted callers
have now dreamed up a new ruse to dodge this advice firstly by insisting that
they are not selling anything and secondly by wearing badges carrying their
photographs and claiming that they are “registered” although they fail to say
with whom.
This particular annoyance is one of many that have appeared in recent years to
make life difficult although Neighbourhood Watch has done much to reduce
crime in our streets and the Trading Standards Institute has called for a ban on
all unsolicited calls to members of the public in their homes, whether in person
of by telephone. But there has been a distinct lack of initiative at government
level. Fortunately, we can end those intrusive calls on the phone by registering
with the Telephone Preference Service but regulation is needed as a matter of
urgency to prevent this form of door-stepping which is not only a nuisance and
an intrusion to our privacy but is part of a system of hard selling that is
likely to frighten the old and the infirm and others living alone.
We were always brought up to believe that an Englishman’s home is his castle but
this safe haven is no longer impregnable to some of the more determined who will
go to any lengths to sell their wares. The problem is that the government is
presiding over a society that has become increasingly duplicitous and that
anything we hear, from whatever source, is not necessarily true and we must
beware of every “and” and “if” and especially the “buts” and if insistent
salesmen join in this continuous assault on our freedom then there is really
nothing we can do about it except keep the front door firmly closed whenever
strangers are in the neighbourhood.
Thought for the week: He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who
finds peace in his home. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German
writer whose works spanned the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology,
philosophy, humanism and science.
Saturday 9th January 2010
Presgrave's Tea Emporium in the mid-19th century
The Conservation Area which protects the centre of
Bourne is to be extended. The changes are part of a review being
undertaken by South Kesteven District Council to ensure that our architectural
and historical appeal is maintained for the future.
The present area was defined in the summer of 1977, embracing much
of the old town area and surrounding streets, but further designation is now
needed to reflect the changes that have taken place in the past thirty years.
The council has therefore published draft proposals which are being circulated
to the local authorities, specifically Bourne Town Council, outlining
suggestions on boundary changes and opportunities for future management and
seeking comments and approval.
Unfortunately, the document contains several glaring errors and should not form
the basis of discussions until amended and although I have pointed out these
mistakes to SKDC, I have not had the courtesy of a reply. Despite this, the
consultation will no doubt go ahead, and may indeed have ended, with many of
those taking part unaware that parts of the appraisal are misleading.
The Conservation Area was designated on 21st July 1977 and there were originally
75 listed buildings in the parish of Bourne, fifty-one of them within the
Conservation Area but two have been demolished. An additional building, the
cemetery chapel in South Road, was given Grade II listing on 4th April 2007 to
protect it from demolition by the town council and on 27th July 2007, the Ostler
memorial in the town cemetery was similarly listed but both are outside the
designated area.
The report suggests that the Conservation Area should now be extended further
along West Road, North Road, around the Red Hall and on the eastern boundary of
the Abbey Lawn with Coggles Causeway to protect the setting of the recreation
ground and calls for a review of all streets within it. Several features in need
of retention are also highlighted but there is an air of déjà vu about this
section of the document because most of the points raised have been dealt with
by this column over the past decade although there are some welcome
opportunities from which the town might benefit but with public money in short
supply and conservation initiatives entirely dependent on voluntary donations
and charitable largesse, this is more a wish list of the armchair conservator, a
litany of the unattainable and unlikely to materialise in the foreseeable
future. This may therefore be an entirely futile exercise.
For instance, we are told that the Old Grammar School is in a poor state of
repair and a community use would be suitable and secure future use but we have
said that a dozen times while a similar repetition comes with the suggestion
that the old warehouse in Burghley Street is worthy of retention and requires a
new use for its future which is exactly what is happening within the town centre
redevelopment now being handled by SKDC.
The Wellhead fields (sic) should be preserved as an open public space due to
their archaeological and historic significance (which they are) and we are also
mystified by a paragraph about “the earthwork remains of the Norman castle”
which should be protected from the penetration of scrub that may encourage
burrowing animals and threaten the stability of the monument, a recommendation
which will not endear the council to the trustees of Bourne United Charities who
administers this area and we wonder if there has actually been an on-the-spot
visit to assess viability of the evidence for such a fortification.
Other suggestions unlikely to see the light of day are “sympathetic paving” to
complement the original at the entrance to Angel Walk, historic granite kerbs
and stone flag or setts for the market place (or should this be the town
centre?), high quality paving to enhance the setting of the Abbey Church to
replace the current tarmac in Church Walk, the retention of traditional shop
fronts and the removal of unnecessary and redundant street signs.
Some of the buildings illustrated have been wrongly identified, the mid 20th
century West Street almshouses and the early 18th century Cavalry House in South
Street both being represented by photographs of entirely different properties.
The report also suggests that the prominent site in the town centre is currently
occupied by a “utilitarian extension to No 2 North Street, thus presenting a
mediocre entrance to West Street and, if the opportunity arises, would benefit
from sensitive redevelopment to a scale, design and use of materials to create a
landmark entrance which complements the street’s historic character”. Which all
sounds very textbook but overlooks the fact that this building, although of
incongruous even makeshift design to fill in a corner site, is one of the oldest
in Bourne and is pictured above circa 1856 when it was used as Presgrave’s Tea
Emporium although it was in use even earlier and can be seen in a watercolour
drawing from 1790.
But perhaps the most significant parts of the report appear to overlook that
much of what is wrong with Bourne may be the fault of the very authority that is
responsible for it, namely South Kesteven District Council. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the section dealing with St Peter’s Pool, one of the most
ancient artesian wells in England around which this town sprang up and now forms
the central attraction in the Wellhead fields (sic). But, says the report, “the
large scale premises of Warners (Midlands) plc located on the western edge
detract from its setting. The impact of the building has been partially
mitigated by the use of matt silver materials for the upper elevations which
blend with the skyline and a screen of mature trees and hedges on the southern
and eastern boundaries”.
In fact, the £10 million press hall development was opened in April 2006 when
its visual impact on the Wellhead Gardens, a listed green open space, became
apparent. It covers 40,000 square feet and now entirely dominates that corner of
the parkland and yet when planning permission was granted by South Kesteven
District Council in 2001 not a single objection was raised by our district
councillors or mentioned during the planning process, nor was its close
proximity to this much loved amenity, despite widespread concern in the town
about the impact the new structure would have on the outward prospect of the
gardens within the meaning of the original conservation guidelines. Now it
appears under the heading of “negative elements” for Bourne in an official
report from the same authority.
The phrase “global warming” has gone into hibernation in recent days,
banished from the media by the current cold spell which is one of the worst for
some years and instead of posturing politicians telling us how to save the
planet they, like the rest of us, have spent their time trying to keep warm.
The snow and the ice conditions are no worse than on many occasions in past years and is
merely an indication that we are still subject to a fluctuating weather pattern,
one that can bring us equally warm winters and cold summers, and instead of
chasing absurd theories about climatic calamities ahead the government should be
trying to improve the way we cope with several weeks of sub-zero temperatures
that have paralysed the country.
Schools have been closed and roads blocked while many more have been
made hazardous by ice and some even left untreated with councils warning that they
have run short of salt and grit. In our own street, we have been marooned inside
our homes for many days by extreme conditions outside and it was only with
care and much trepidation that we were able to get out to Sainsburys
mid-week and replenish supplies before cabin fever set in. Apart from our own
experiences, the situation has become obvious that Britain is not prepared for
bad weather and it takes only a flurry to halt the trains and planes and bring
the nation to a virtual standstill. Yet the recent conditions are nothing when
compared to other parts of the world and friends of this web site have emailed
in from foreign parts, Canada and Alaska particularly, with winter tales that
chill the blood but life for them goes on more or less uninterrupted except that
the landscape is clothed in a permanent blanket of white.
The sad fact is that cold winters cannot be forecast and may not happen and so
preparing for them is not seen as a necessity by government while any
precautions that are taken do not carry the prospect of additional taxes. On the
other hand, climate change and global warming present a permutation of
possibilities for increased revenue and the calculations can be vastly increased
with the added factor of carbon emissions. Winters therefore come and go with
little progress being made towards our preparedness to get through them if
conditions turn really harsh, the official attitude being that it will only last
for a few days and then we can get back to the real business in hand, that of
scaring the pants off people with another bout of propaganda about the future of the
world.
One of the big surprises of the Christmas season was to find that the
Hollywood icon Mickey Rooney is in England. The name will be familiar to those
over a certain age as a star of the old school, appearing on stage from the age
of 17 months and working his way through some 200 films and being given top
billing with many of the greats from the profession including Lionel Barrymore
(A Family Affair, 1937), Spencer Tracey (Boys’ Town, 1938) and Judy Garland
(Babes in Arms, 1939).
He became the world’s biggest box office draw, won many honours including an
Academy Award and was divorced seven times after being married to some of the
cinema’s most beautiful women including Ava Gardner, Martha Vickers and Carolyn
Mitchell, experiences which drained him financially and after battling drug
addiction, bankruptcy through gambling and bad investments, became a born again
Christian when an angel appeared to him in a coffee shop. Rooney is now 89 and
is wintering in this country playing pantomime, appearing as Baron Hardup in
Cinderella at Milton Keynes.
How the mighty fall, you might think but a little research suggests that our
traditional Christmas entertainments are a lucrative way for actors to spend the
off-season because it has become commonplace for them to pick up £50,000 for a
fortnight’s work. Indeed, Rooney’s fellow stars include several other once
famous names
such as Henry Winkler, who became a success as the Fonz in the American television
show Happy Days, comedy legend Bobby Davro and one time TV favourite Anthea
Turner, who are all happily treading the boards at the Milton Keynes Theatre
while a glance through the entertainment listings at theatres throughout Britain
will reveal many other once famous names in similar roles.
Yet it still comes as a surprise to find Rooney on stage at one of our
provincial theatres with wife number eight, a large blonde, in tow, and I even
contemplated going to see him to remind myself of those many happy hours from my
boyhood spent watching the black and white images on flickering screens in so
many fleapit cinemas because his life story is the history of the film industry
itself. But perhaps it would be better to keep happy memories intact because the
fresh-faced kid who played the all-American boy Andy Hardy and went on to
distinguish himself in a gallery of good movies is now, according to Tanya Gold
in the Guardian (December 30th), “tiny, bald, desiccated and withered
except for his teeth, which are strangely perfect, and looking like King Lear
dressed as a Miami dentist” and I cannot help thinking that he might have done
better to have faded away with a little more dignity.
Thought for the week: Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.
-
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) reclusive and eccentric American writer who
published only a dozen of her 1,800 poems during her lifetime but is now
acknowledged as a major poet.
Saturday 16th January 2010
The end of the £27 redevelopment of the town centre at Bourne appears to
be at hand with a statement from South Kesteven District Council announcing a
reassessment of the project that may be interpreted as a harbinger of its
demise. There is no official announcement on the council’s web site to this
effect but The Local devotes its front page to the doubts that have now
crept into the equation by suggesting that the future of the scheme is “hanging
in the balance” (January 8th).
The newspaper reports that the council is to carry out a retail survey in the
town to determine whether to press ahead with the development or to pursue a
smaller scheme. This will involve establishing current shopping outlets and
future needs and once the results have been collated, as early as the end of
this month, it will be decided whether the scheme is still viable. We are not
sure what this is intended to achieve but the leader of SKDC, Councillor Linda
Neal (Bourne West), explained: “The council will need to look at the results of
the study alongside the current economic climate and re-evaluate the viability
of delivering the scheme as currently proposed. This might mean something
smaller or for a different purpose.”
All of which will sound distinctly like a fudge to many people to end a project
that has had a most disturbed gestation and the council now desperately seeking
ways of terminating it without prolonging the agony any further.
For those who have just joined us, here is a resume of the situation so far. The
scheme to redesign the town centre was originally mooted in August 2001 with the
creation of flagship stores and 19 new shops and has been pursued through the
boom years without a single brick being laid. The start date was given as 2004
with completion within 18 months but by last January, various delays and a
downturn in the economy had added eight years to the time scale with officers
suggesting that it would begin in 2012.
The appointment of a developer has been one of the main stumbling blocks to this
project. Henry Davidson Developments were originally selected to do the work
from among three contractors who submitted schemes for public exhibition in
December 2004 but after prolonged negotiations and many delays, the company was
dropped by the council in August 2006 and Wilson-Bowden and Dencora asked to
take over. But they too pulled out of talks last year when the council began
looking for yet another developer by declaring that the tender process would now
be open to companies from across Europe.
In March, enthusiasm was still high with £3 million being set aside for the
acquisition of properties within the scheduled area and the council claiming a
37% per cent holding. By August, everything still seemed on course with an
optimistic statement from Councillor Frances Cartwright, the council’s portfolio
holder for economic development, who told The Local (August 14th): “This project
is one of our priorities and today we have shown our commitment to making it a
success by approving the acquisition strategy. It will support our desire for
Bourne to continue to be a vibrant and economically prosperous and growing
market town. Our ambition is to have a development which will provide an
improved retail offer, adequate parking and a pleasant experience for residents
and visitors. The strategy identifies key sites for acquisition subject to
certain conditions and secondary sites which may be suitable for the future and
also identifies about a quarter of the site which is considered to be not a
priority to buy but will continue to be regularly reviewed.”
But there was much public discontent with many letters to the local newspapers
suggesting that the entire scheme was flawed. Tim Bladon of Wendover Close,
Rippingale, wrote to The Local (September 11th) taking the authority to task for
presiding over a project destined to become “a white elephant” and the lack of
information forthcoming, either from council officials or elected
representatives who he said had been “muzzled” and asked why this has been
allowed to happen. This view had popular currency and Mr Bladon went further by
suggesting that the futility of the scheme was even acknowledged in private at
council headquarters in Grantham because he wrote: “The determination to proceed
with this costly project now seems to be a case of saving face despite recent
criticism from the Audit Commission that the prospects are uncertain and that
the council has failed to undertake proper public consultation.”
There were other letters in a similar vein and not one supported the
redevelopment scheme or even thought it would happen, not least the landowners
and shopkeepers within the designated area, that triangle of land between North
Street, West Street and Burghley Street. Almost 40 properties are included and
tenants were already becoming extremely restive and some even reluctant to
vacate their properties while others such as the owners of the Masonic lodge in
Wherry’s Lane would need some time to relocate and perhaps even build
alternative premises.
As a result, abandonment of the scheme will leave SKDC with several unwanted
properties on its hands that have been bought up with the prospect of either
being pulled down or incorporated into the new town centre and although all
further negotiations have been suspended for the time being, it already has an
impressive portfolio of recent acquisitions. Foremost among them is the early
19th century grain warehouse in Burghley Street, purchased in 2008 for £350,000
and although not a listed building, an unlikely candidate for demolition. The
fate of this is now undecided together with other valuable items of real estate
in the vicinity including a key parcel of land and the motor salvage workshops
on the other side of Wherry’s Lane, purchased in April 2009 for £285,000,
together with two semi-detached houses, 15A and 15B Burghley Street. It is too
early to decide what will happen to these but the council is not in the business
of property dealing yet that is what it may well come to.
In the meantime, we can only speculate how much money has been spent by SKDC on
the project over the past eight years. Imagine the cost of staff, meetings,
planning, paperwork, consultants, secretaries and all of the paraphernalia of
local government operating with a full head of steam. This is a matter of
millions rather than thousands and if this were a private company, an abortive
project of this magnitude could have ended up in receivership and the widespread
loss of jobs. But councils know they have a milch cow at their disposal which
will be forced to continue providing annually despite the many personal
hardships of those forced to contribute and no matter what public consultations
are held over the budget for the coming financial year, we can expect yet
another massive increase on our council tax when the bills arrive in April.
Our knowledge of this town continues to increase and detailed research is
revealing surprising information of what occurred in years past. Old documents
are throwing up little known facts which when collated and assessed, provide a
different picture of those things we have taken for granted. For instance, few
would know that the Abbey Church which is now dedicated to St Peter and St Paul
was once known as St Simon and St Jude although the name remained for only two
decades in the early years of the 19th century.
The first known reference to this comes from John Moore who wrote one of the
earliest surviving descriptions of Bourne almost two centuries ago. His account
can be found in his book Collections for a Topographical, Historical and
Descriptive Account of the Hundred of Aveland and was published in February 1809
with the help of his benefactor, Mrs Eleanor Frances Pochin, wife of George
Pochin, Lord of the Manor of Bourne Abbots for 37 years from 1761 until his
death in 1798 and is inscribed: “To Mrs Pochin of Bourne Abbey, this volume of
historical collections is respectfully inscribed as a memorial of gratitude for
many acts of kindness conferred on her obliged humble servant, John Moore”.
One can almost imagine the writer touching his forelock as a mark of
subservience as he wrote it but Mrs Pochin lived at Bourne Abbey, the name then
used for the Abbey House which had been built by her late husband, and from 1804
inherited the estates of the Manor of Bourne Abbots, and so she was an important
person in the parish, wealthy and influential, and one who undoubtedly expected
deference from those of lower station.
Moore’s account of the town makes intriguing reading and he was most certainly
influenced by his patron but his assertion is unequivocal because he writes:
“Bourne contains a parish church dedicated to St Simon and St Jude.” He did not
write in the past tense but was referring to the situation as it was at that
time and although some of his descriptions of the church’s history are
inaccurate and copied from earlier versions, we have no reason to believe that
he was at fault.
It has been suggested elsewhere that St Peter and St Paul referred to the
monastic abbey as opposed to the parish church but this is not correct because
according to the evidence of the earliest charters and of its conventual seal
researched by the Lincoln Record Society in 1920 it was dedicated solely to St
Peter which was still in use by 1807 according to The Beauties of Lincolnshire
published that year. Perhaps a name change was then being considered because it
had become St Simon and St Jude when Moore’s book was published two years later
in 1809, a change that may have been influenced by Mrs Pochin who preferred her personal
saints more in keeping with high church ideals, this dedication being
particularly favoured by Roman Catholics whilst an earnest devotion to these
apostles had become popular in the early 1800s and would have been reported in
the newspapers available in Bourne.
St Simon and St Jude was still in use in 1826, according to White’s History and
Directory of Lincolnshire, although Mrs Pochin’s death in 1823, aged 76, had
given church officials who may have been dissatisfied with this departure from
tradition the opportunity to reverse the change and by 1830 it had become St
Paul again and then in 1835, St Peter and St Paul for the first time, both
instances recorded in Pigot's Directory of Lincolnshire for those years.
The dedication of St Simon and St Jude was therefore only in use for around 20
years and has remained largely unknown to most people in the parish. I have
checked all of the parish registers for this period and can find no reference to
it, not that there should be because these records refer only to dates and
events such as baptisms, marriages and burials “in this church”. This is borne
out by David Tabor whose family have been associated with the church for more
than a century and has himself given distinguished service in various
capacities, not least as verger and parish clerk for almost 40 years. "This is
one I have never come across in my time in office, copying old wedding records
and such like, even from the 19th century", he said.
Thought for the week: The saints are the sinners who keep on going.
-
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) Scottish essayist, poet and author whose books
included Treasure Island (1883) and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
(1886).
Saturday 23rd January 2010
The end of the redevelopment scheme for Bourne town
centre has raised concerns about the future of the Burghley Street warehouse,
now in public ownership after being bought by South Kesteven District Council in
2008 for £350,000 and now being advertised to let.
This early 19th century grain warehouse is in a prime location overlooking the
Burghley Street car park and despite its age and architectural interest is not a
listed building but an unlikely candidate for demolition and will most likely be
considered worthy of preservation during the reassessment of the town’s
Conservation Area which is currently underway.
The imposing building, constructed of a distinctive red brick and blue slate
common to many other properties in the town from the period, has had a chequered
history, once part of a thriving corn trade and later the brewing industry when
it became known as Shilcock’s Mill after the then owner, Robert James Shilcock,
(1823-1908) before being used for flax processing during the years following the
Great War of 1914-18. Ownership passed to Wherry & Sons who used it for various
purposes when it was sometimes referred to as Wherry’s Mill and then to Nursery
Supplies (Bourne) Ltd which closed down in 2001 when it was sold to Warners
(Midlands) plc, the local printing firm, but has been standing empty in recent
years until the council bought it as part of its property portfolio for the town
centre redevelopment scheme.
There have been suggestions published by the local newspapers in the past that
it would make an excellent venue for the performing arts, a similar idea
discussed for The Croft in North Road but that was a commercial property and
well outside the means of voluntary effort and is now being redeveloped as an £8
million complex of 68 retirement bungalows. The Burghley Street warehouse,
however, is a very different prospect because it is now in public ownership and
should be brought into use very soon before it starts to deteriorate.
The possibility has again been raised this week by several well-informed
contributors to the Bourne Forum, so demonstrating that there is enthusiasm for
such a project. It has been pointed out that SKDC funds arts centres at Stamford
and Grantham but not here and although there is some performance space at
various locations around the town, such as the Corn Exchange and the Church
Hall, an arts centre at the Burghley Street warehouse would provide a base for a
wide range of groups ranging from Morris dancing to Gilbert and Sullivan.
“Talent is not in short supply”, wrote Bob Harvey (January 17th). “I would like
to see a non-local authority solution for Bourne as with the parks and the open
air swimming pool and a volunteer committee would soon be attracting touring
companies, setting up exhibitions and providing encouragement for a great deal
more than we already have.”
The discussion has again revealed that an arts centre would be an asset to the
town and the Burghley Street warehouse could be turned into a first class venue
with permanent banked seating, dressing rooms and good quality stage apparatus,
all the things that are lacking in those currently available. It would also
become the centre point for the arts in Bourne and the surrounding district
which at the moment depend on much less adequate accommodation for their
productions.
Now would be a good time for the Burghley Street warehouse to be made available,
signs having gone up this week advertising the building to let “for storage
purposes or for community use”. Unfortunately, the drawbacks are obvious.
Voluntary skills are available and ready to get started but the release of
buildings owned by our local councils does not have a good record. The Bourne
Arts and Community Trust which runs Wake House is no nearer being granted the
tenancy by South Kesteven District Council than it was when it took over in 1997
while Bourne Preservation Society which was formed in 2008 with the intention of
restoring the Victorian chapel in the cemetery has still not been given the keys
by the town council.
This is at the very heart of many local problems. As with all communities,
Bourne has sufficient willing hands with the necessary expertise and enthusiasm
to carry out the task in hand but are thwarted by their local councils which now
regard their function as one of business rather than public service. But here is
one way that SKDC could make amends for the failed initiative over the £27
million town centre development by handing over a building it already owns as an
arts centre provided a suitable business plan can be drawn up and there are
those with experience who think it can be done for the benefit of the town.
Nothing would be lost by letting them try yet everything would be gained.
 |
 |
|
Extracts from John
Moore's history of Bourne and district written in 1809 (left)
and from
White's Directory for 1826 (right). |
My revelation last week about the Abbey Church once being
dedicated to St Simon and St Jude has caused a fluttering in the bell tower
accompanied by a general air of disbelief which is hard to understand
considering that the very essence of Christianity depends entirely on blind
faith rather than knowledge. However, the dedication of our parish church for
two decades in the early years of the 19th century is well documented and two
important sources for this information are reproduced above.
One of the main causes of this scepticism seemed to be the absence of a plaque
or notice in the church recording this event even though it was quite clearly
stated that the new dedication was most likely an unwelcome change with the
whiff of Rome about it and therefore best forgotten. In addition, events are not
always remembered in this way and although the present building reputedly stands
on the site of a monastery, you will look in vain for a notice detailing its
distinguished pedigree.
The drawback is that people are generally opposed to change, not only in their
circumstances but also in their beliefs. They find a security in the way things
are, in what they have always known, and anything which comes along that might
be disruptive is given short shrift and the messenger disparaged. Old documents
have had a bad press and should be regarded with suspicion because so many are
little more than fiction but this cannot be said about county directories which
contain the very stuff of social research, not least for those tracing their
family histories and if we are to discount these then a whole tranche of
publications on which we have come to depend is condemned to oblivion.
A visitor from the United States has asked about George Pochin, husband of
Eleanor Pochin who is believed to have influenced the dedication of the church
to St Simon and St Jude, and we do know a little about him because he was Lord
of the Manor of Bourne Abbots for 37 years until his death in 1798 at the age of
66. He was a colonel of the Leicestershire Regiment of Militia, deputy
lieutenant and magistrate in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire and contemporary
reports indicate that he was well liked in the community and his main claim to
fame was for building the Abbey House in 1764 which at that time was one of the
finest mansions in the district. He also built stables for his horses, now
demolished, but a date stone for 1783 bearing his initials survives and can be
seen at the Heritage Centre in South Street.
One thing we do know about George Pochin is that he liked the occasional tipple,
usually a glass or two of good wine. In the grounds of his new house was an
Early English blank arcade, probably the south termination of the abbey
cloisters, and in the absence of suitable storage facilities he hit upon the
perfect solution to keep his bottles at the right temperature. He made a recess
in one of these compartments and fitted it with a lock and key to keep it safe
were it to be discovered by others.
His secret cellar remained secure for several years but one day, on going for a
bottle of this wine to receive a particular friend, to his surprise he found the
recess empty, every bottle having been taken away. On the robbery becoming
known, the pilferers came forward and acknowledged the offence. They were
workmen and while employed in effecting some repairs or alterations to the
church, a brick fell from the wall. One of them put his arm into the aperture
and brought forth a bottle of wine. It was partaken of by him and his companions
and much enjoyed and they at once came to the conclusion that it had been placed
there by the monks of the abbey a thousand years before and having made a
successful search for more, they took possession of the whole of the hidden
treasure and consumed it with some pleasure.
Their fate, unfortunately is unknown, but given the nature of their confession
and belief in providence as to the source of their largesse, it is doubtful if
any action was taken against them. George Pochin must have sought out another
safe place for his wine and perhaps there are many more bottles still intact in
a hidden place within the church precincts, having remained undiscovered for
more than two centuries after his death.
Letters published by the local newspapers in the past two weeks have
suggested that the massive Tesco development proposed for South Road should not
be allowed to go ahead because it will be detrimental to our town centre shops
but this attitude will find little support from those who really matter, namely
the customers.
The situation that has arisen is symptomatic of the progress we are witnessing
in society today and although it has become fashionable to support small
specialist traders, in theory the preference of the majority is for one-stop
shopping which means bigger and better supermarkets. This may not be the best
way forward but we do not live in an ideal world and the prospect of doing the
weekly shopping by trekking from counter to counter does not appeal to many
which is why the supermarket was born in the United States eighty years ago and
now dominates world retailing.
In the 1930s, my mother’s weekly shopping meant an early lunch on Saturday
before catching the bus into town with her basket and then three or four hours
walking and queuing for groceries, meat and other commodities because every
other housewife appeared to be trudging from shop to shop on the same mission,
returning home well after six o’clock tired out by the experience. Fortunately,
she lived to know that there was a better way, taking a taxi to Tesco’s in her
eighties, buying everything she wanted under one roof and having a cup of tea
before returning home in the same style and a far better state of mind than
those far off days of drudgery and exhaustion.
To suggest that all towns should confine trade to a few small shops is to cling
to an image of the past that has long since faded and as changing tastes and
habits spur
innovation and point the way forward so the supermarket has arrived to fill our
needs. It does not please everyone and those that prefer those outlets which
provide less variety at a higher price must continue to patronise them but even
the most stubborn among us must eventually succumb to the convenience of
Sainsburys, Morrisons, Lidl and Asda.
Thought for the week: Necessity, who is the mother of invention.
-
Plato (428-348 BC), Greek mathematician, writer and one of the world's great
thinkers who helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy.
Saturday 30th January 2010
An Australian connection has emerged for one of our most
eminent philanthropists, William Trollope, whose generosity marked a new and
important phase in local education for Bourne as well as founding a hospital, or
almshouses, for poor people.
The Trollope family settled in this area from County Durham in the mid-16th
century by which time they were in prosperous circumstances, the most prominent
of them being Thomas Trollope who is first mentioned as a landowner at Cawthorpe
near Bourne in 1543 where he was steadily improving his position by trade as
well as farming and so moving up in social status to the gentry class. His
grandson was William Trollope, born in 1562, the son of Mathew Trollope, and
once he reached adulthood began to run the family estates which had by then
extended to Thurlby and Dyke.
He became one of the Adventurers, the name given to those wealthy men who were
prepared to invest capital in helping to drain the large tracts of swampy land
in the area and thus grew even richer on the proceeds from the arable farmland
this produced. By the time of his death in 1637, the family fortune had
considerably increased and this was reflected in the terms of his will. William
had married three times and fathered eight children, a daughter and seven sons,
and those who survived continued to run the family’s affairs. Meanwhile, he made
very specific provisions both for himself and for the town of Bourne. Two of his
wives had died before him and he left instructions that he was to be buried near
to them in the churchyard although no sign of their graves remains.
Other bequests were designed solely to help others, the most important being an
endowment of £30 a year to maintain "an honest, learned and godly schoolmaster"
in a school built by himself. He stipulated that it should be a free grammar
school incorporated by royal charter and to be called "the Free Grammar School
of King Charles in the town of Bourne and the county of Lincoln, the foundation
of William Trollope, gentleman". It was erected in the grounds of the Abbey
Church where it can still be seen, although largely rebuilt since his day.
The second important bequest was to help the underprivileged because he also
left sufficient money to found almshouses by giving the sum of £33 for the
maintenance of "six poor aged men" of the parish on a site near the church in
South Street and now known as the Tudor Cottages, although also later rebuilt
and still providing useful service for the community.
Now a most interesting connection with the Trollope family has surfaced with an
email from Jenny Elliston in Melbourne who writes that she is researching her
family tree and that this was the maiden name of her maternal grandmother, being descended directly
from William Trollope. Her branch of the family moved to London during the 17th
century where Thomas Trollope, William’s great great grandson, worked as a
merchant in the London port wine trade. His son, the Rev Arthur Trollope,
clergyman and schoolmaster, married Sarah Wales, daughter of William and Mary
Wales which brings us to the leap from England to Australia through the explorer
and navigator Captain James Cook.
During his second voyage to Australia aboard HMS Resolution from 1772-75, he
took with him a team of experts including a mathematician and astronomer,
William Wales, a Fellow of the Royal Society which had commissioned the
exploration. As the new continent was opened up, emigrants flocked there to
start new lives, among them William Trollope, son of Arthur and Sarah and also a
clergyman and schoolmaster, who left for Australia in 1849 aboard the 638-ton
sailing ship John Munn with his wife and five of his children and subsequently
settled in Tasmania where he died in 1868, aged 65, but so began the Trollope
family in Australia.
Now, the recent discovery of ancestors on the other side of the world has
prompted Jenny’s search to add more names to her family tree, a quest that led
her to Lincolnshire through the Bourne web site and I am now busy helping
provide more information about our benefactor William Trollope and his family.
The name Trollope is just one of almost 400 local names in our Family
History section that are being researched by descendants living around the
world. This has been a major success story for the web site over the past twelve
years because it has put people in touch with relatives they never knew existed
and enabled them expand their family trees considerably. Requests for
information arrive almost daily and although I cannot always help directly,
every inquiry is answered and I try to point them in the direction of someone
who may be able to assist.
Genealogy is now one of the most popular pursuits of Internet users, a facility
that allows you check official records that were once inaccessible and enables
you contact people researching the same name with the likelihood that you may
come from that family. If you wish to join our list, go to the Family
History section and take a look at the current entries then email me with your
own inquiry and it will be added within 24 hours. It is a thrilling adventure
and one that may also produce some unexpected, even unwanted, information
because you are just as likely to discover a criminal as a count among your
antecedents, but then that is all part of the excitement.
The skateboard park project for Bourne is on its last legs, and rightly
so. It was never a necessity and certainly not a possibility and many are
surprised that so much time and energy has been spent on trying to provide a
facility for a minority interest that has already proved to be troublesome in
other towns and now a fad fading with the times.
A skateboard park is one of those lost cause projects that has been rumbling on
since it was first mooted in February 2001 when a petition was raised in the
hope of finding the necessary £190,000 with several town mayors pledging cash
during their terms in office but little has happened and the few hundred pounds
they raised are still lying idle in the bank.
Youngsters had been practising their sport wherever they found an area of
concrete or hard standing, including local car parks and even the paved area
around the War Memorial in South Street, and after 1,000 people signed a
petition supporting the project, the old water cress beds between Baldock’s Mill
and Manor Lane were suggested as a possible site for skateboarding together with
associated pastimes such as in-line roller blading and BMX but this was later
found to be unsuitable.
But the campaign continued, winning official recognition and becoming known as
the Dimension Project, and in 2007, the police gave wholehearted support saying
that a skateboard park was necessary in an attempt to stem anti-social behaviour
in the town. The recreation ground in Recreation Road was then suggested as a
suitable site despite being in the middle of a densely populated area with
houses on all sides, in Harrington Street, Recreation Road, Alexandra Terraces
and Ancaster Road. Councillor Alistair Prentice (Bourne West), a member of the
skatepark committee who lives some distance away in Willoughby Road, was equally
enthusiastic. “It will make a real difference by helping deal with anti-social
behaviour and should go some way towards eliminating problems in the town
centre”, he told the Stamford Mercury (September 28th).
This proved to be an optimistic forecast because experience elsewhere showed
quite the opposite. The skateboard park at Stamford was also built in the
recreation ground but attracted an unruly element and was closed down that year
because of serious damage by vandals which rendered it no longer fit for use and
repair work proved to be quite costly while a similar situation arose at Sutton
Bridge where facilities installed three years before at the park in Prince's
Street were shut for repairs because of vandalism. In the event, South Kesteven
District Council which administers the recreation ground refused to grant a
lease on health and safety grounds but despite these setbacks, the search went
on.
The fact is that skateboarding is a minority pursuit that attracts the unruly
element in our society, wayward and trouble making, and if sited near domestic
premises can be a grave annoyance to residents, especially late at night when
young people tend to congregate. Those responsible for the proposed Dimension
Park may have thought they were fulfilling a community need but large amounts of
public money should not be allocated to pursue a marginal pastime that may
currently be in vogue but is most likely to become passé among the younger
generation in a very short space of time and so much money and effort will have
been expended for nought. In fact, those youngsters who originally dreamed up
the idea nine years ago have almost certainly passed on to other interests and
have probably even left the town.
Fortunately, everyone is now coming to accept this and although the committee is
ostensibly still seeking a suitable site, the writing appears to be on the wall.
Police community support officer, Graeme Parrott, is anxious to prove that they
have tried because he told The Local newspaper (January 22nd) that if
this failed they would have no choice but to shelve the scheme. “We do not want
to pull out without the evidence that we have done absolutely everything we
can”, he said, “but if we cannot get a piece of land then the project will have
to cease.”
Eating out has become a distinctly pot luck activity and one most
certainly not worth the expenditure involved. Were it not for the fact that it
has become an occasion for most, then they would be better off at home eating
food with a much more convincing provenance and almost certainly better cooked.
The novelty of going out, of course, is that someone else has done the work.
But in recent months we have abandoned our favourite village hostelry after
being served garbage masquerading as a pensioner’s midday meal and had it not
been for my wife’s reserve on these occasions, I would have complained, sent it
back and refused to pay the bill. Instead, we quietly pushed our plates on one
side, finished our drinks and left without comment or leaving a tip, not wishing
to make a scene, a course of action adopted by many and for this reason, the
inferior continues to thrive at table.
There are now few places which actually serve good food and I expect to be
inundated with recommendations for various eateries around Bourne from people
who have been quite satisfied with what they have had but I am speaking for the
experienced trencherman who knows what value is when faced with a menu and can
recognise what has been cooked in the kitchen by an experienced chef and those
preparations thrown together by Bulgarian immigrants at a big shed in Birmingham
and then passed off wholesale in plastic bags to fancy food outlets in the
shires.
Enough is enough. Every pub now serves food but eating out with satisfaction
should be a luxury and not a lottery and although we will continue to make the
occasional foray into the world of restaurant cuisine to find out if things have
changed, the weekly habit has been discontinued for the sake of our digestion,
our pockets and peace of mind.
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.
Return to Monthly entries
|
