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Saturday 7th August 2010
The brass serpent tombstone - see "One of the more
. . . "
It is now more than
two years since the Bourne
Preservation Society applied to take over the Victorian chapel in the town
cemetery with the intention of bringing it back into useful life yet members
have still not been given a key to the door.
Their dossier on how the chapel could be saved was drawn up and presented to
Bourne Town Council on 22nd April 2008 outlining their proposals for restoration
and future management. Since then members have been active in seeking funds to
finance their plans and in clearing debris from around the outside of the
building preparatory to the major task but there does seem to be an impasse in
proceeding with the legal niceties required for the granting of a lease to
complete the handover.
This frustration surfaced in a report by The Local newspaper on Friday
July 23rd recounting the latest talks between the trust and the council which
seemed to be bogged down with rules and policy rather than finding a speedy
method of surmounting the bureaucracy which is enough to dampen the enthusiasm
of even the most eager volunteers. The discussion by the finance and general
purposes committee the previous Tuesday was confined almost entirely to meetings
and minutes and who should take the chair, whereas after such a long spell of
negotiations the date for a handover would have been a more
appropriate topic yet a proposal to give sole authority in these procedural
matters to the council was carried by six votes to three. “The trust”, said the
newspaper, “believes that this is an attempt by some councillors to derail the
project but hope that this will not unduly affect progress.”
This remark has not gone down well with some members and Councillor Brian Fines
(Bourne West) expressed his dismay in a letter to The Local which was
printed in their correspondence columns last Friday (July 30th). He was anxious
to dispel any impression that he and his colleagues “are specifically against
the transfer of the chapel” and his letter to the newspaper went on: “I, for
example, congratulated the trust for their practical work undertaken around the
building and wished them success in obtaining finance in order to take over the
chapel. I am not aware of any of our councillors who do not support such a
transfer. I believe therefore that it is wrong for the trust, via your
editorial, to say that any of the Bourne town councillors seek to scupper the
deal.”
A recap on recent history might be useful. The chapel was built in 1855 and has
been in the care of Bourne Town Council since 1974 yet has been allowed to
decline into its present parlous state. When the proposal to demolish the
building came before the council’s finance and general purposes committee on 9th
January 2007, nine of the eleven members present voted in favour and seven of
them are still serving on the council. Demolition was regarded as a fait
accompli and discussions had already taken place on salvaging and recycling the
stone. The chapel was subsequently listed Grade II on 4th April that year to
prevent the town council from pulling it down.
A public survey on its future held in February 2008 was seen by many people as
being flawed with poorly phrased, even misleading questions which also quoted the overall restoration cost to the council tax payer
as £553,086, a figure considered to be grossly inflated. In the event, the form
had an inadequate circulation with only 443 of the 7,000 printed being returned
and although the council acknowledged this failure and promised an
investigation, it has not been mentioned since. Then, despite having £40,000 in
reserve solely for cemetery preservation, the town council agreed a grant of
only £5,000 to help the restoration project on its way when it met on Tuesday
5th August 2008 but the decision was not unanimous with two councillors voting
against giving any financial aid at all. In the event, even this money has not
yet been paid out.
Councillors are right to be concerned about public opinion but they must
understand that it has been influenced by past events and coupled with the
current delay of two and a half years in handing over the building, which is an
inordinately long time even by local government standards, has combined to
create a widespread perception that the town council is not exactly enthusiastic
about the idea. Meetings do not solve anything, merely adding to the already
protracted proceedings and if they wish to demonstrate their confidence in the
project and allay fears that they are not dragging their heels, as Councillor
Fines has attempted to do, then a speedy decision is now called for.
This would not only justify the work the volunteers are doing but would also
ensure that the handover of the chapel is completed as quickly as possible,
certainly before the onset of another winter when the building is likely to
deteriorate even further and with it the patience of those who are working so
hard to save it. If the trust does become discouraged with the slow progress of
negotiations, or the handover does not materialise as promised, then the chapel
would most likely remain under the control of the town council and on past
experience, its future would by no means be secure. It should also be remembered
that if the Bourne Preservation Trust founders in its endeavours, then the onus
of care will fall back on the town council and as the chapel is a Grade II
listed building, neglect will no longer be an option and money will have to
be found to repair and maintain the building.
The Queen has never visited Bourne, nor has any previous reigning monarch
but several members of the Royal Family have been here in recent years, notably
Princess Margaret who came in May 1997 to open the Margaret Hurst Day Care
Centre at Digby Court, the residential care home for the elderly administered by
the Orders of St John Trust, one of the 70 charities of which she was patron.
In earlier years, the Duke of Kent came to see the Lincolnshire Agricultural
Show which was held at Bourne in June 1939 and to celebrate the occasion, the
streets were gaily decorated with floral baskets hanging from the lamp posts,
tubs of flowers, flags, banners and bunting festooned from buildings and across
the roadways and special floodlighting effects along the riverside. He arrived
by plane at RAF Wittering and then motored to the showground in a 60-acre field
off the main A15 where the band of the Metropolitan Police played the National
Anthem amid cheers from the crowd, many of them children who had been given the
day off school.
In November 1989, the Duke of Gloucester visited the printing firm Warners
(Midlands) plc to open the new £4 million extensions to their premises at the
Old Maltings in West Street and in April 1999 the Duchess of Gloucester was
guest of honour at the opening of new premises for Nursery Supplies (Bourne) Ltd
on a 5½-acre site at the corner of the A151 Spalding Road and Meadow Drove.
It is therefore heartening to hear that another royal name is to be added to the
list in that Prince Edward is coming in September to open extensions to the
Abbey CE Primary School where a new block of three classrooms and a kitchen has
been built, thus enabling the removal of previously used mobile accommodation.
He will spend an hour at the school meeting pupils, staff and governors and
cutting the ceremonial ribbon before leaving for another engagement at Grantham.
The chairman, John Kirkman, said that the visit was a great honour for the
school and for Bourne because, as he pointed out: “We do not get many royal
visits.”
One of the more interesting tombstones in the churchyard dates from the
17th century and is elaborately carved with a biblical scene from the Old
Testament which has been described as the plague of snakes, no doubt a reference
to Exodus which recounts the events resulting in Moses leading the Israelites
out of slavery through the Red Sea which parted to allow them cross and so on to
Palestine and freedom. To secure their release, he sought the help of God to
impose a series of abominable occurrences on the Egyptians “to let my people go”
until the resistant and stubborn Pharaoh relented, a tale much favoured in
Sunday school and which was so horrific as to be the stuff of childhood
nightmares and is therefore indelibly etched into my memory, namely the story of
the ten plagues.
The tombstone can be found in the churchyard quite near to the railings
alongside the footpath in Church Walk and a reference to it can also be found in
a booklet called The Story of the Abbey Church which was written by Charles Pask
Matthews (1886-1956) soon after he retired after 25 years as headmaster of
Bourne Grammar School. He was a worshipper at the Abbey Church where he took a
particular interest in the building and this short history which appeared in
1951, became so popular that it ran to five editions and remains the starting
point today for historians researching the 12th century church.
It included several pen sketches by Mrs A E Macleod, among them one of this
carved tombstone which he quite clearly identifies as “representing The Plague
of Snakes” although this is not exactly correct. The bible describes ten plagues
which came in two waves, the first five being the Nile turning to blood, frogs,
lice, flies and the death of all livestock, but when Pharaoh refused to budge,
there followed five more, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the death of the
first born and when this came to pass, as the bible reports, “the Pharaoh
finally sent the Israelites away”.
There is a widespread belief that snakes were among the ten plagues but closer
examination of the text in Exodus Chapters 7 12 will reveal that this was not so
and that this manifestation occurred before the visitation of the plagues when
Moses first approached Pharaoh seeking permission for the Israelites to leave
Egypt. When he refused, Moses showed him a miraculous sign of warning by turning
his staff into a serpent at which the Pharaoh’s sorcerers also turned their
staffs into serpents which were immediately swallowed by Moses’ serpent before
it turned back into a staff and it is this event which is clearly depicted in
the carving on the tombstone.
In fact, the picture is almost certainly a representation of another biblical
story, that of the archaic brass serpent associated with Moses which is
described in the Book of Numbers 21.6-9:
6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among
the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7.
Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the
serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8. And the Lord said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to
pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9. And
Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that
if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
This narrative is the subject of many illustrations,
particularly engravings, oil paintings and stained glass windows which compare
favourably with the carving on the tombstone and depicting the brass serpent on
the pole with Moses looking on and several people who had come to be saved
recovering from their snake bites. Unfortunately, wind and weather have taken
their toll on the stonework over the centuries and so we are unable to find out
who is buried below or the exact date of death which would provide a clue to
further research and perhaps establish why a picture from this particular story
was used as a memorial. There must have been a very good reason to do so,
perhaps because the person who occupies the grave was bitten by an adder and
died as a result. Who knows?
Thought for the week: After I am dead I would rather have people ask why
I have no monument than why I have one. - Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC),
Roman statesman also known as Cato the Elder to distinguish him from his great
grandson.
Saturday 14th August 2010
The last time the future of the public library in South
Street was discussed in this column was in February 2009 when we reported grave
misgivings about a possible relocation to the town hall because of the reduced
space available and inadequate access. At that time, such a move was merely a
proposal being considered by our three local authorities, Lincolnshire County
Council, South Kesteven District Council and Bourne Town Council, as part of a
scheme to bring all of their services under one roof and it was stressed that
nothing had been decided.
Now it appears to be a fait accompli because The Local newspaper claims
that the library will make such a move at some time in the future (August 6th)
and if this is correct, then it will be going ahead with little or no public
consultation.
Their report says that Bourne will be among the first of the smaller libraries
in the county to benefit from a new £29,000 system of self-service computer
units providing convenient and easy-to-use technology for borrowers and so free
up valuable staff time. There will also be improvements in Internet access for
the bank of computers and the introduction of new book stocks and the library is
closing for the next two weeks while the improvements are implemented (from
August 16th to 31st). The newspaper adds with some authority: “These
improvements can simply move with the library when the new shared services
facility is eventually built at the town hall.”
The scheme to close the present library premises which have been in use since
1969 is therefore part of the overall plan now being implemented despite
misgivings in many quarters that it will result in a reduced service once it is
installed in the old courtroom area of the town hall. Certainly the problem of
access must be addressed because the front steps are out of the question for
regular daily use, especially by the elderly and disabled, being narrow and
tortuous and perhaps even dangerous. The town council is already aware of these
difficulties which is why some of their open meetings are rescheduled for the
Corn Exchange rather than risk the front entrance to the town hall which has
been the subject of continual complaint. A lift has been suggested but it is
doubtful if this can handle the large number of visitors to and from the
library, especially at busy periods, while parking may also be a problem,
especially on market days and Saturdays when Budgens car park is full and the
area behind the Corn Exchange jammed with stalls, a situation which will be
exacerbated once the new Co-operative Food supermarket starts trading in
October.
But a major problem will be that of space, of fitting everything in to ensure
that the library can function as smoothly and conveniently as it does at its
present premises, and that is a doubtful prospect even though it has been
proposed to install higher shelves for the books with ladders to reach them but it
is doubtful if this bizarre solution would be well received by some of the older
book borrowers with stiff joints and aching limbs who spend their lives avoiding
steps at all costs.
One man with firm opinions on the subject is Ted Kelby, now aged 83, stalwart of
local government in past times having served as a member of Bourne Urban
District Council for fifteen years and as chairman for 1968-69, and he has
already made his views known to the Bourne area Open Forum (Stamford Mercury,
23rd January 2009). “It bothers me that with all of the organisations that are
interested whether we can really fit the library in”, he said. “In any case, we
have a perfectly good building in South Street.”
This appears to be the opinion of the majority, except those in authority who
will be making, or appear to have made, the decision but then they do not use
the library. There appears to have been no attempt made to ask book borrowers
their opinion of moving the library and, more importantly, what will happen to
the old building once it has been vacated and in the present climate housing
would most certainly be top of the list. This could also mean the closure of the
fire station next door to create one large site which, given its close proximity
to the Red Hall, would be a most attractive prospect for a development company
such as Stamford Homes which is already busy filling the old railway station
site next door with new properties.
The lengthy delay in the handover of the cemetery chapel to the Bourne
Preservation Trust which was highlighted by this column last week is still
causing dismay in many quarters and the discussion that has ensued in the Bourne
Forum and in the town indicates a widespread belief that some councillors are
less than enthusiastic and may be using procedural practice to hinder
completion.
The mandate was clearly given at the town council meeting held at the Corn
Exchange on Tuesday 24th June 2008 under the chairmanship of the mayor,
Councillor Shirley Cliffe, and attended by eleven other councillors, 14 members
of the public and the press. One of the major weaknesses appears to be the
working party formed on 6th October 2009 to consider all issues relating to the
chapel when it was decided that meetings should be open to every interested
councillor without setting a membership level and this has resulted in a
sporadic attendance whereas the Bourne Preservation Trust has a 100 per cent
record.
There also seems to be a reluctance to acknowledge the status now enjoyed by the
trust which has become an organisation of some standing with a healthy
membership meeting regularly to hear speakers on various topics and its own web
site as well as forging links with many heritage and conservation organisations
at national level. More importantly, its work has been an inspiration to many
other communities, including Boston and Holbeach, where volunteers are also
engaged in preserving their cemetery chapels whose future was under threat. This
work should be recognised by the town council with prompt and positive action.
Perhaps the issue is no longer a matter for the working party as it is currently
constituted and the holding ad hoc meetings which have made such inadequate
progress, thus creating the present impasse and a speedier agreement might be
realised by positive action at full council level. Certainly, questions need to be
asked why the working party has not completed the assigned task after such a
long period and whether these meetings are competently convened to achieve it.
Until these matters are addressed, there will be continuing public concern.
The local government elections are due to be held next May and if the current
problem is not settled by then it could become an issue at the hustings when
those who are believed to have discouraged the handover process might not find
favour with the electorate at a time when they are trying to retain their seats. The
discussion has however also revealed a great deal of apathy and even
misunderstanding of the situation and such is the disenchantment and perhaps
lack of knowledge with some people that they have even expressed the wish that a
town centre redevelopment would be preferred to a restored cemetery chapel, two
completely different issues being handled by separate local authorities
although it would be a pity if both ventures ended in failure.
Attempts to demolish the cemetery chapel do bear a distinct similarity to
events half a century ago which will not be lost on those who are acquainted
with our history because it was a number of councillors who then tried
repeatedly to ensure that the Red Hall suffered a similar fate.
During the railway age, the building was used as the booking office and as
accommodation for the stationmaster but became redundant when the line closed in
1959 and the London and North Eastern Railway company offered it to the local
authorities for a token payment of £1 which was refused by all of them. Our
affairs in those days were in the hands of Bourne Urban District Council and
when consulted, many members insisted that it was a useless building which had
no future and should be left to fall down.
But help was at hand through the efforts of the late Councillor Jack Burchnell
(1909-73) and after a long and determined fight, he ensured that Bourne United
Charities acquired the freehold in 1962 and through grants and donations it was
carefully and sympathetically restored and is now Grade II listed to protect it
for the future. This fine example of Elizabethan architecture is now our most
important secular building and Jack Burchnell has a permanent place in our
history while those councillors who wanted it demolished are only remembered for their total lack of vision and imagination.
The Bourne web site has marked its 12th anniversary this week, a small
milestone but we are pleased to record that we have been published continuously
since Saturday 8th August 1998, making us the longest running community
project on the Internet for a market town of this size.
We began with a handful of pages and pictures and were lucky to attract a few
dozen visitors but have since expanded to a formidable size of 500 pages and
more than 600 photographs, with around 2,000 people a week dropping in from
around the world and consulted by a wide variety of academic, commercial,
business and government organisations. We have consistently topped the Google
ratings now for many years and anyone in the world who wishes to know about
Bourne will automatically be directed to this web site. Take a look at our
Visitor Countries feature and you will see the global coverage we have achieved
in the past decade.
One of our most important features is our Family History section which has
brought together families from all parts of the world seeking information about
ancestors who originated in Bourne. Almost 400 names are currently listed for
research and rarely a day goes by without an inquiry from overseas, usually
Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand, the former colonies which
attracted the more adventurous of our past residents who left to seek their
fortunes and whose descendants are compiling family trees and are anxious to
find out about the place where they originated.
Other features on many aspects of life in the town from past times are published
regularly together with photographs reflecting the street scene in Bourne today.
Our Forum is particularly popular, providing the opportunity for anyone to
initiate and debate a subject of topical interest whether local, national or
international, and has become the most lively discussion platform in
Lincolnshire, often highlighting injustice and the anomalies of life so
frequently overlooked by our local newspapers.
We also have links to more than 400 other web sites connected with the town,
government and local authorities, schools, churches, business, social, sporting
and charitable organisations, the media, surrounding villages and guides to
places of interest. In fact, the list is so comprehensive that fledgling web
sites which are springing up are simply adding a link
to ours instead of compiling their own and we welcome their association. But
perhaps the most important decision has been to continue financing the project
myself and not to accept advertising thus avoiding those irritating pop-ups that are
ruining so many good web sites.
The past twelve years have been a rewarding experience and although there are
times when I have flagged and thought seriously of packing it in, my wife Elke,
all round helper and trusty proof reader who is responsible for our envied error
free presentation, a rare occurrence on the Internet, has urged me to carry on
and her confidence is reinforced by the many kind messages we regularly receive
from around the world. It therefore seems that we will continue and although I
will be 80 in a week or so, it is business as usual for the time being.
Message from home: My wife and I have visited Bourne on several occasions
to research my family history. Your web site has been very inspirational. You
are doing a great job promoting the area. Keep up the good work. I don't know if
it is acknowledged or whether the local authorities appreciate the web site's
benefit to the community. - email from Geoff Osborne, Barnsley, Yorkshire,
Sunday 1st August 2010.
Thought for the week: The Internet is becoming the town square for the
global village of tomorrow. - William Henry (Bill) Gates (1955- ), American
business magnate, philanthropist and founder of the Microsoft Corporation which
provides the operating systems for most of the world's computers.
Saturday 21st August 2010
Former garage site to be used for housing development
The 300-acre Elsea Park estate with a projected 2,000
homes which will bring an estimated 6,000 newcomers to the town over the next
decade is the biggest single development of its type in our history and was
granted planning permission in November 1999 amid much protest and controversy.
Then, five years ago, South Kesteven District Council sought to appease this
disapproval with an assurance that it would be the last new housing development
to be imposed on Bourne.
The pledge came in an unequivocal statement to The Local newspaper which
said that no more houses would be built after currently identified projects were
completed (9th December 2005). In a letter to the editor, Rachel Armstrong,
Senior Planning Officer, said that three sites around the town had been
identified in their consultation document Issues and Options for the development
of the South Kesteven district as being suitable for employment development but
not residential. “No consideration has been given to their suitability for
housing”, she wrote. “Indeed the document makes it clear that the council thinks
that Elsea Park is sufficient to meet the town’s needs.”
This was also confirmed by town councillor Don Fisher (Bourne West), then also a
member of SKDC, who said: “I was so impressed that I sought confirmation from
the council’s chief planning officer and he assured me that there would be no
more housing in Bourne after Elsea Park.”
It was inevitable that these words would come back to haunt us and indeed they
have because since then, the building of new houses around Bourne has continued
apace. Major developments approved since that promise in 2005 include the Red
Hall Gardens (60 homes), Willoughby Road (42 new homes) the The Old Laundry in
Manning Road (47 homes) and The Croft in North Road (68 homes) while several
other projects are in the pipeline notably a farmland site in Manning Road (65
new homes) which has already been turned down once but is likely to resurface
now that the adjoining land is to be developed. The latest proposal to envelop
the old Raymond Mays garage on Spalding Road and the adjoining Rainbow
supermarket in Manning Road will create a 5.2 acre site for 108 new homes where
Persimmon Homes expect to start work later this year subject to planning
approval which is sure to be granted because outline permission has already been
given for the land.
The guarantee of no further housing announced by the council in 2005 was
welcomed because the steady influx of new families was putting a strain on our
health, education and transport facilities but fortunately the situation has
begun to change. The Galletly Medical Practice has since expanded to cater for
another 6,000 patients, another new primary school is planned for Elsea Park, we
now have a south-west relief road and Tesco is to open an all night supermarket
next year. But we still have only one petrol filling station and through traffic
in the town centre remains a serious hazard for shoppers.
Broken promises by our local authorities appear to be de rigueur and
although this is deplorable, no one is really surprised because housing
continues to be the catalyst for change and improvements to our amenities do
seem to follow, albeit slowly, and so perhaps the long awaited A15 bypass which
will make such a difference for the better in Bourne may not be the pipe dream
that some predict. The message to our councils is therefore clear, that housing
may be acceptable at a reasonable rate of progress but it must be accompanied by
a commitment to provide the necessary services if this market town is to be an
attractive and convenient place to live in the future.
Hardly was the ink dry on my Diary entry last month suggesting that South
Kesteven District Council should tell us more about their waste recycling
initiative (July 24th) than two pages of their latest magazine SKToday
were devoted to the subject and a most interesting article it is (Issue 29
August/September 2010). This was obviously coincidence rather than the council
taking notice of this web site but the result was equally effective because it
has given impetus to those households where the usefulness of using the silver
wheelie bin is being questioned.
A check in the streets on the morning of silver bin collection day indicates
that the system is inadequate with many receptacles filled to overflowing and
the excess piled nearby, boxes full of newspapers and bottles and cardboard
packaging in various sizes. In fact the outcome of the wheelie bin system
introduced in the autumn of 2006 has now revealed that almost 80% of household
refuse is recyclable while the rest goes in the black bin for landfill disposal.
Despite the original scepticism about wheelie bins, the council should be
satisfied that the system has been accepted by the public but this does not mean
that it cannot be improved and now that it has been running for almost four
years, there ought to be an appraisal of its efficiency and perhaps an
adjustment of the collections to a more suitable frequency to avoid the
unsightly spread of rubbish along the pavements every fortnight.
I suggested that persistent myths about their recycling initiative might be
improved with a statement about the amounts and type of waste collected, the
method of disposal and the use to which this material is eventually put because
once the public is told that they are making a real difference to something as
important as this, the effort will increase. No sooner said than done and the
magazine article took us on a tour of the Mid UK recycling depot at Caythorpe in
Lincolnshire which handles the waste from Bourne after the fortnightly lorry
collection and a series of photographs takes us though the process of unloading,
sorting and baling the various salvaged commodities. The figures are impressive
although national rather than local statistics are quoted for cardboard and
paper, steel and aluminium cans, glass and plastic bottles, all recycled for use
elsewhere. We are also assured that SKDC carries out regular audits to ensure
that what is collected is managed as efficiently as possible.
There has been a great deal of criticism about this magazine and few think that
the cost of its publication can be justified but this is one of the first
features to appear that it is of real interest to householders and is clearly
preferable to the turgid round of propaganda about services, councillors and
officials that have filled column inches in the past. More of the same could
change public opinion about it at a time when our local newspapers print fewer
reports about local issues and practically none about council matters and
although the magazine will never fill the gap completely it might eventually
justify its own existence and the expenditure involved.
The two mortar bombs unearthed in Bourne last week are thought to be a
legacy of World War Two when troops were stationed in and around the town,
notably 550 officers and men from the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment
who were billeted here for several months prior to the Battle of Arnhem in 1944.
There was also an active Home Guard battalion and so a military presence was
evident from 1939 to 1945 when many familiar locations were used for weapons
training and manoeuvres including the Abbey Lawn, the fields around St Peter’s
Pool, now the Wellhead Gardens, Bourne Wood and Grimsthorpe Park.
It is therefore inevitable that relics from those days will still turn up in
unexpected places although the army system of accounting for ordnance is usually
so efficient that there must be a story behind the lapses in discipline that
lead to them being unearthed more than half a century later.
The latest discovery last Friday was made by a woman digging her garden in Darnes
Close when she found the explosives entangled in the roots of a tree and when a
bomb disposal squad arrived from the Royal Air Force base at Wittering they were
identified as being dangerous and police evacuated all six houses in the close
as a safety precaution while nearby Willougby Road and a section of Cherryholt
Road were closed to traffic. The bombs were taken to the gravel pits at Baston
where they were exploded and life has now returned to normal in the
neighbourhood although further finds at other locations around the town cannot
be ruled out in the future.
These explosive devices are normally harmless and are dealt with quickly and
efficiently without too must disruption for the community but they can also be a
frightening experience such as that which occurred at Baston, near Bourne, in
1965. A gang of boys were out searching for firewood on Saturday afternoon,
January 23rd when they entered a disused pigsty and found four wooden boxes of
Molotov cocktail grenades which had sufficient power to blow up the entire
village. The boys ran home and told their parents who alerted the police and
soon a bomb disposal squad from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps depot at the
Northern Command Ammunition Inspectorate in York was on its way to the village.
A Molotov cocktail bomb is an improvised device consisting of a bottle filled
usually with petrol or some other explosive material which is ignited and thrown
as a grenade. They were widely used by resistance groups during World War II who
named them after the Soviet foreign minister, Mr Molotov, and the Home Guard was
encouraged to make them for use in the event of an invasion. A close inspection
of this hoard by the experts revealed that there were 92 grenades in all, two of
them consisting of phosphorous, benzine and rubber, packed into bottles with
crown tops but the contents of some had begun to deteriorate and the chemical
evaporate and had they not been discovered, the result could have been
devastating for the village as residents were soon to discover.
There was some alarm at the size and state of the hoard, particularly those
bombs that had started to dry out to the point where they could explode and so
these were placed in buckets of water and, together with the remaining 90, moved
to a safe spot although during the operation, several soldiers sustained
phosphorous burns. The following Wednesday, the deadly cache was split up into
small consignments for transportation and each taken separately to the disused
airfield at Folkingham to be detonated. The soldiers, all of them well
experienced in bomb disposal, said afterwards that it was one of the most
frightening explosions they had witnessed for many years. “It created a huge
fireball in the sky”, said one, “and despite a strong wind, a pall of smoke hung
over the spot for at least fifteen minutes afterwards.”
The pigsty where the bombs were found, 24 in each box together with a number of
explosive charges, was at the rear of No 3 Church Street, a disused stone
cottage owned by Mr John Thurlby of Hall Farm, Baston. During the war it had
been used as a Home Guard post and as a store for explosives but the contents
had been overlooked in the excitement of VE-Day and its aftermath and as the
building was never again in use, they lay there forgotten but growing more
unstable and dangerous with the passing of the years.
A policeman who witnessed the disposal operation, told the Stamford Mercury
afterwards (Friday 29th January 1965): “Had the resulting explosion occurred
in Baston, the whole village would easily have been destroyed, either by the
blast or by the fire and intense heat caused by the phosphorous. The grenades
had been made out of ginger beer bottles and had children tried to open one,
thinking it contained pop, I dread to think what would have happened.”
Thought for the week: No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by
something unexpected. - Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), Roman military and
political leader who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman
Republic into the Roman Empire.
Saturday 28th August 2010
Dick Sellars in his English cottage garden
Obituaries no longer command much space in our local
newspapers, their inclusion being irregular and the coverage usually incomplete
despite them once being one of the most widely read features.
When I worked on a weekly newspaper some sixty years ago, every district was
covered by reporters on their bicycles, making regular calls on the vicar and
other ministers, club secretaries, pub landlords, shopkeepers, organisers of
dances and whist drives, anyone connected with this organisation or that, in
order that their activities might be recorded that week because the newspaper
was a mass of minutiae about events and the lives of other people which is the
very essence of local journalism.
The coverage of births, marriages and deaths was considered to be of paramount
interest to readers and although the hatches may not have merited much space,
matches did while the despatches from this life were considered to be most
worthy of publication because a well written obituary encapsulates someone’s
entire existence on this earth and we hope that when we too depart, there will
be space for us to be remembered, no matter how small our contribution to the
community may have been.
Those weekly calls in my early days also included a visit to the undertaker to
find out who was having a funeral and to the cemetery to see when and where they
were being buried and this was followed by a visit to the relatives before
writing an obituary of the departed. Although the editor was usually informed if
anyone of note had passed on, this was often the only way we could find out if
it was someone of lesser importance but all were given editorial space for a
record of their lives, however insignificant that may have been.
The obituary pages were therefore regarded as essential to the newspaper’s
circulation because editors realised that the death of everyone from their area
should be remembered in some detail, not only as a mark of respect for the dead
but also as a memorial for the future because as time passes, they join an
archive to be consulted by social historians and even descendants tracing their
family trees in years to come.
Unfortunately, not all editors acknowledge the value of the wealth of material
that is within their grasp every week and as a result, obituaries are slowly
disappearing from their pages and those which are printed are almost entirely at
the behest of friends, relatives and undertakers who send in the details. The
result is that this rich seam of social history is largely ignored, even for
those who have made their mark in the community, and so the only mention we get
is a brief paid insertion from a grieving family.
Such a notice appeared in The Local earlier this month recording the
death of John Henry Wright, a few lines in the classified advertisements section
saying that he had passed away on August 2nd, aged 91, and that the funeral
would be held at the Abbey Church on Wednesday 18th August followed by cremation
at Peterborough. There has been no obituary yet he was a leading citizen for
forty years, serving the town in many capacities not least as Mayor of Bourne in
1987-88 when his wife Christine was mayoress.
John Wright was a war veteran who survived Dunkirk and began his council career
as a member of Bourne Urban District Council, being elected chairman for 1969-70
and later as a member and chairman of South Kesteven District Council and Bourne
Town Council. He was also a dedicated Tory and chairman of the local
Conservative Association, a member of Bourne United Charities, also serving as
chairman for a year with a similar spell as chairman of the Rotary Club of
Bourne which was another of his interests.
But his main areas of concern during his time as a councillor was housing for
the elderly, serving as chairman of the SKDC housing committee for a long spell
and overseeing the building of the Stanton Close old people's complex of 26
retirement flats in Manning Road, Bourne, where he subsequently laid the
foundation stone in August 1984. This alone should have merited a mention in the
local newspapers.
Another familiar personality who has passed on without an obituary in the
newspaper is Dick Sellars who spent his retirement years creating a classic
English cottage garden adjoining his home in Main Street, Dyke, where he died on
14th August, aged 90, and is to be buried in the town cemetery on Tuesday after
a funeral service at the Abbey Church. He also brought pleasure to many through
his enthusiasm and advice on how to grow things to anyone who cared to ask.
The land next to Read’s Cottage was derelict when he moved in after retiring as
a market gardener in 1984 but after fifteen years of hard work he turned it into
a much admired showpiece. The building was originally a pair of cottages dating
from 1850 and soon they were transformed into a comfortable home surrounded by
this astonishing garden. It was no more than 100 ft by 50 ft but was full of
shaded walks, shrubs, trees and flowers, and a surprise around every turn. Such
was the acclaim the garden received that Dick began opening it to the public to
share his pleasure and his expertise, an idea that proved to be so popular that
it became an annual event, sometimes two and three times a year.
He was also a founder member of the South Lincolnshire Garden Society and
vice-president of the Bourne Garden Club whose entries became an annual event at
the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show from 1988 onwards. But most of his life was
spent in his own garden and with the help of his wife Margery continued with his
open days when visitors paid £1 each for the privilege of looking round and
perhaps picking up a few tips and buying the odd plant while the proceeds went
to one of their favourite charities.
Anyone who has ever turned a sod or clipped a hedge will know that gardening is
hard work, even though it may be a labour of love. But with Dick Sellars, this
garden became his hobby, his obsession, perhaps his master, but his creation was
a beautiful one and a testament to the unique character of cottage gardens that
lives on in England today. He became less active in his final years and the open
days came to an end but the garden remains a feature of Read's Cottage although
it is doubtful if anyone in the future will be able to recapture the glory that
he gave it.
There have been many other examples of people who have led distinguished lives
being totally ignored when they died and if the trend continues, then those who
are making their mark in Bourne today and have given their time and often money
for the betterment of the community cannot expect any recognition by the
newspapers either and posterity will be the poorer for it.
The future of land around the Red Hall has been the subject of discussion
in the Bourne Forum with fears that the library and fire station may soon be
swallowed up for residential development which would end the tranquillity of
this peaceful spot that has already been threatened by an estate of new houses
in the vicinity. One contributor also recalled that there was once a golf course
nearby and indeed there was although its existence was short-lived.
Golf was particularly popular during the late 19th century and Bourne Golf Club
was instituted 1899, a modest venture with a nine-hole course that was laid out
on what was then known as the Castle Meadows and adjoining fields, close to the
station which was situated at the Red Hall. It was little more than a grassy
surface with a few undulations but sufficient for golfing enthusiasts to pursue
the ancient game.
There is no mention either of a clubhouse and members most likely used one of
the nearby hostelries as their 10th hole. This information comes from the
archives of The Golfing Annual for 1899-1900 and the last mention was in
1909 when the publication closed.
The Bourne Almanac, a periodic publication sold in the town from
1864-1916 for 3d. a copy, gave details of the club in its issue for 1913:
President, W L Fenwick Esq., JP; committee, Messrs A R Agnew, T M Baxter, M V
Camamile, C E Hodson, C C Macleod, G H Mays, T W Mays JP, C H Small. G A Story,
Dr J Galletly, Dr W J Gilpin; greenkeeper J Pool (at the Bourne Institute);
secretary Mr H Smith. The links (nine holes) are close to the station.
Subscription 10s 6d., family ticket 21s. The club however did not survive after
the Great War of 1914-18 when many in England closed down through lack of money
and support.
A great chance to establish a golf course in the town was missed during the
middle years of the last century. In 1968, when Councillor W E (Ted) Kelby was
chairman of Bourne United Charities, he and a colleague, Councillor Jack
Burchnell, put forward a scheme to establish links on land adjoining the
Wellhead Field which then came under their jurisdiction. Unfortunately, when the
project was examined in greater detail, it was estimated that each of the nine
holes envisaged would cost £200-300 for the layout of fairways and greens and
the idea was subsequently vetoed by the other trustees who did not want to spend
so much money.
Recalling the proposal in 2007, Mr Kelby, now retired, said that the decision by
the trustees was unwise because since those days, golf had become a major sport
and therefore a big tourist attraction that would have had a tremendous impact
on the local community. "I was not a golfer myself but I could see the
possibilities in the town having its own course", he said. "The benefits,
sporting, social and economic, would have been immeasurable and the owners,
Bourne United Charities, would also have benefited, but not everyone saw it our
way and so the idea died a death."
A metal plaque is currently in circulation throughout the world
purporting to have originated from Bourne Golf Club during the 19th century.
There are many copies around and in November 2004 one was featured in The Local
newspaper with a request seeking information.
The plaques carry details of a bylaw purporting to come from Bourne Golf Club
but this is most unlikely. Firstly, they are dated 1874, twenty-five years
before the club was formed, and secondly, so many of them are in circulation that it
is unlikely that they were ever used as a formal notice on an established golf
course.
They were also most certainly mass produced because they are by no means rare
and several are currently on sale for a few pounds each on eBay, the Internet
market place, some from overseas including Germany, and I know that many exist
in America. In addition, the bylaw quoted is unlikely to have been given
prominence in any public place in Victorian England because it is obviously
meant to be a humorous item with saucy connotations:
Bourne Golf Club. Byelaw No 16, April 1,
1874. Gentlemen with large handicaps are requested to play long holes from the
ladies tee. N.B.: All members must observe this rule.
It would therefore seem most probable that the plaques were
intended for sale to golf enthusiasts as a joke, probably at the seaside or some
other entertainment venue, or even for an all male smoking concert which were
fashionable in years past, and have no positive connection either with golf or
this town.
Thought for the week: Golf is a good walk spoiled.
- Samuel Langhorne
Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, American author
and humorist and friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European
royalty.
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