Bourne Diary - August 2012

Saturday 4^th August 2012

Although there appears to be little activity on site, we are reliably informed that work is on schedule for the redevelopment of Wherry’s Lane which is due for completion in the spring at a cost of £2.14 million (The Local newspaper, July 27th).

This will involve the refurbishment of the Burghley Street warehouse, the demolition of the Masonic lodge and two nearby bungalows to make way for seven ground floor shop units and 14 first and second floor apartments with associated landscaping. Not at all what we were promised when the original town centre redevelopment scheme was launched in 2001 and abandoned almost a decade later at enormous cost but in these straightened times we must be thankful for whatever we do get.

But although the replacement scheme is nowhere near as ambitious as the original, many people will be surprised at the extent of the project as illustrated in a charming artist’s impression of the finished scheme from South Kesteven District Council which clearly shows that Wherry’s Lane is to become two-way for traffic at the entrance to Burghley Street with cars parked on the street outside the shops, landscaped surroundings and a clear view through to the far end with what looks like more new buildings.

The entire picture, including the refurbished warehouse, looks a most attractive development and one of which Bourne should be justly proud. It is not at all what we had expected and it can only be hoped that this will become reality and that it is not merely a case of artistic licence.

There has been criticism that new shops are not needed at this time when others in the traditional town centre are standing empty and high streets throughout the land are having a hard time keeping going. That is all true but the alternative is to stand still and do nothing in which case our urban environments will stagnate even further and make recovery when the time comes even more difficult.

South Kesteven District Council has appointed a Lincoln firm as commercial property manager and consultant for the project and they report a positive interest in both shops and apartments. Such confidence is welcome in this period of economic gloom and perhaps the refurbishment of Wherry’s Lane may turn out to be the very catalyst that Bourne needs.

The new public house and restaurant complex being built in South Road will create up to 40 new jobs when it opens in December. This is heartening news for Bourne at a time when unemployment throughout the country is causing serious problems for families and the economy.

There has been some jubilation over the announcement from South Kesteven District Council which sold the 4.2 acres of land to the Lindum Group that is responsible for the current development and granted the subsequent planning permission. The leader, Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), told The Local newspaper (July 27th): “This is brilliant news for the town. The pub will be an important asset to Bourne and unlike any other facilities we currently have.”

An all-night garage planned for the same site would also create more jobs yet the council refused to allow round-the-clock trading and in doing so may be jeopardising its opening. “The 24-hour issue is key to the feasibility of the petrol station”, said a spokesman for the Lindum Group. “We will be submitting a planning application soon seeking to vary the conditions imposed on opening hours.”

Those conditions stipulated by the council’s development control committee earlier this year restricted opening hours to 6 am until 11.30 pm because of concerns about the impact on local residents although the garage will be built well away from the town on a greenfield site which is not in Bourne but lies within the neighbouring parish of Thurlby. The committee did not even give that extra half-hour at night even though the nearby Tesco supermarket and the Tesco/Esso filling station are allowed to stay open until midnight, thus giving a distinct trading advantage to the North Street garage which, incidentally, is in the middle of a built up area and surrounded by houses. One councillor, David Higgs (Bourne East), even told the Stamford Mercury (May 4th): “Bourne doesn’t have a 24-hour petrol station and it was believed it didn’t have the need for one.”

The question of opening hours should be left to those who will run the garage which will be sited on a major trunk road, the A15, and carrying through traffic from the south to Lincoln, Humberside and beyond and to suggest that it will only cater for resident motorists is nonsense while the thought that no one wants to buy petrol at night creates the impression that we are living in a backwater.

Twenty-four hour trading is fast becoming the norm throughout the country, for supermarkets and stores as well as garages, apart from which Bourne badly needs another petrol station after being left with just one outlet for the past seven years. Members of the development control committee ought to be aware of this and it is hoped that they will have more foresight when the application comes before them for a second time because extra jobs and that extra petrol outlet for Bourne may depend on it.

The Bourne web site marks its 14th anniversary in the coming 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 over 200 pages and more than 500 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 picked up several awards and 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 500 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 500 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 diversions that are ruining so many good web sites.

The past fourteen 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 so it is business as usual for the time being.

Lovers of music in the park on a Sunday afternoon are in for a treat this autumn when a Bandstand Marathon is staged in the War Memorial Gardens in South Street. The event will be among hundreds of outdoor community concerts taking place simultaneously across the country on the afternoon of Sunday 9th September as part of the largest closing cultural event of the 2012 London Olympics and consisting of bands, groups, choirs and individual instrumentalists playing many styles of music to make this a truly memorable occasion.

The Bandstand Marathon began in 2008 in the south west of England and is now nationwide with more than 100 venues and 50,000 musicians of all ages and abilities who are given the opportunity to play in public. The venues across Britain will be bandstands and other outdoor performance spaces and although we do not yet know what there will be in store for us at Bourne, it is sure to be a great occasion. A statement from the organisers says: “Bandstands are very much a part of our cultural heritage and this event has a history of bringing these venues back to life.”

In fact, bandstands are enjoying such a wave of popularity that a data base is being compiled containing every one in the United Kingdom with pictures and information about their construction and how they came to be built. Many of those already listed may be found in the London parks, graceful structures dating back to Victorian times when life proceeded at a far more leisurely pace and we had time to enjoy the wonderful sound of music outdoors.

Not that we have a bandstand in Bourne. It will be remembered that volunteers have offered to provide one in the War Memorial Gardens as a gift to the community to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee and although it would not have cost them a penny, the offer has been rejected by the trustees of Bourne United Charities who administer this open space on behalf of the town after unilaterally deciding that the people did not want one, despite the widespread financial and practical support to complete the project.

This is a pity because the proposed design by the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Helen Powell, is a tasteful structure of wrought iron in the Victorian Gothic style and compares favourably with many of those now assembled in the national data base from places such as Barnsley and Sheffield, Darlington and Newcastle, Liverpool and Macclesfield, Bedford and Norwich, Cirencester, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Bristol and Bath. Our bandstands are ubiquitous, it seems, but not in Bourne.

As a result, the September event scheduled for the War Memorial gardens means that musicians will no doubt play from the steps of the monument while spectators spread themselves around it. This is a last chance to play out the London 2012 Olympic Games and is sure to be well attended because there is something magical about music in the park on a Sunday afternoon, with or without a bandstand.

Thought for the week: Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak. - William Congreve (1670-1729), Yorkshire-born playwright and poet who wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period.

Saturday 11^th August 2012

A decision by Bourne United Charities not to allow a bandstand to be built at the War Memorial Gardens in South Street is being challenged by the mayor, Councillor Helen Powell. The trustees claim to have received “a number of letters” objecting to the project although no details of this correspondence have been divulged.

Councillor Powell’s case for a bandstand, however, is entirely in the public domain and consists of a flood of letters to the local newspapers in recent months endorsing the project together with pledges from donors for more than half the cost, £12,000, and a great deal of practical help with equipment, construction work, materials and legal assistance. In fact, few similar projects in Bourne have ever been given such an enthusiastic reception yet the chairman of the trustees, Dr Carl Pears, told The Local newspaper (July 6th): "We responded to what we felt the public wanted."

The idea is obviously a good one, a Victorian style bandstand made of wrought iron to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, a gift to the town that will not cost one penny of public money and make no demands on the finances of Bourne United Charities. Only their goodwill is required but so far this has not been forthcoming. Councillor Powell is now planning to launch a petition to provide added proof of the public support her project has already stimulated. In addition, she is asking anyone who plays a brass instrument to come forward to help form a Bourne Jubilee Brass Band that would provide regular entertainment for the town if and when the bandstand becomes a reality. “Once the petition is complete we can present it to Bourne United Charities to prove there is a demand because at the moment they seem to think that no one wants it”, she said.

This initiative ought to be sufficient to persuade the trustees to think again, especially as their objections so far have not been particularly valid. For instance, they claim that a memorial park to honour the dead is not an appropriate place to house a permanent structure even though band concerts are held there every summer when the musicians actually sit on the memorial steps and paving stones while the listening crowds gather round it, on the protecting walls, on the grass and among the herbaceous borders. The other point is that if the War Memorial Gardens are such an inappropriate place then why not offer a site in the Wellhead Gardens next door which would be equally acceptable but the trustees seem to be so opposed to the idea that no alternative has even been considered.

If Councillor Powell’s project is endorsed, then it could lead to the formation of a new town band for Bourne, a tradition that was thoroughly enjoyed in the past when it played for all important occasions, parades, concerts and garden parties, and enjoyed immense popularity.

There has been a brass or silver band in the town on at least three occasions but for some reason they never lasted and this may have been because of the outbreak of the various wars during the 19th and 20th centuries when musicians were called up for military service. This would seem to be the explanation because the bands we have had foundered during the Boer War 1899-1902, the Great War of 1914-18 and the Second World War of 1939-45 and there has been no band in the town since then. A revival would be a welcome addition to the cultural life of Bourne but the work of volunteers is not always enough and needs the wholehearted support of those who run our affairs to make any project succeed.

Although the trustees of Bourne United Charities have rejected the bandstand project they have offered a site for a skateboard park on a strip of land at the Abbey Lawn despite that apparent lack of public support, now highlighted by the town council’s refusal to accept any administrative or financial responsibility.

A skateboard park was first proposed for Bourne as long ago as 1978 but apart from the more recent formation of the Dimension Park committee in 2007 and a great deal of rhetoric, support from the community has been so scant that it is no nearer coming to fruition and the £170,000 needed to pay for it remains a pipe dream.

The charity trustees have already made it clear that they want no part of the upkeep, maintenance and liability and now the town council has made a similar ruling because of the possible financial burden involved, not least through escalating insurance costs. A report in The Local now suggests that the Dimension Park committee may also need to become a trust if it is to proceed and that could cost a further £5,000, thus creating yet another stumbling block (August 3rd).

Mrs Nelly Jacobs, who is clerk to the town council and a committee member, told the newspaper: “It is one thing to be part of a committee but another thing to be a member of a trust. We have a good energetic committee but members do not want to be tied to the skatepark for their rest of their lives and that is the problem with the trust.”

The decision to offer a site for a skatepark at the Abbey Lawn has also angered the other sporting tenants such as the football and cricket clubs who fear that it may become a magnet for anti-social behaviour and vandalism that has plagued their premises in the past, often with disastrous results. Home owners living on the edge of the park are equally incensed and have started a protest petition and so opposition will be powerful and active if and when an application for planning permission is eventually submitted.

There is another obstacle that has yet to be explored, namely that the site that has been offered, a plot that lies within the Abbey Lawn Park area to the east, is land that was given to Bourne United Charities by the Notley family soon after the closure of the 18th century Notley’s corn mill in Victoria Place which was finally demolished in 1970. A member of the family has been in contact to say that this was gifted as open land and it was clearly stipulated at the time that it should remain so. “If a concrete skateboard park were to be built there then it would not remain open and that would apply to any other structure”, he said. This appears to be known by many other people in the town yet does not seem to have been considered by the trustees of Bourne United Charities but I am advised that this could be the basis of a challenge in the future.

The bandstand and the skateboard park are separate issues yet have almost become one, firstly because Bourne United Charities holds the key to the outcome of both and secondly because they illustrate a self-evident truth that nothing can succeed without the advantage of a substantial public support. It also suggests that the trustees would do well to take another look at the bandstand project because it has been clearly demonstrated that it is receiving tremendous encouragement from all quarters and therefore falls well within their remit to provide facilities for the people of the town and to maintain our heritage.

We have had several inquiries seeking more information about the name Wherry’s Lane and its significance to the town of Bourne. It has come to prominence in recent months because of the current work on transforming the old grain warehouse and Masonic lodge into a complex of shops and apartments as part of the refurbishment of this narrow thoroughfare which runs between North Street and Burghley Street but has become rather run down over the past decade.

A clue to the origins of the name may be found on a date stone that can been seen on the red brick gable end of the large shop property which stands on the north side of the lane at the town end entrance because it says “W.W. 1846”. This relates to William Wherry, a leading member of the Wherry family who have been connected with the town for the past two centuries.

The family came from Edenham where they ran the village stores but Edward Wherry moved to Bourne in 1806 and began trading as grocers and drapers from premises in North Street and soon became one of the most successful enterprises in the history of Bourne. His son, William Wherry, expanded the business considerably and built the property which bears his initials as a family home in 1840 with shop premises below. Apart from his business activities, he was chairman of the Bourne Gas and Coke Company from its formation in 1840 until he resigned for health reasons in 1879. He was also a deeply religious man, a tireless worker for the Baptist Chapel in West Street, and serving as secretary to the Bourne auxiliary of the Bible Society for 50 years, being presented with a handsome family bible for his work and he died on Wednesday 24th May 1882.

His son, also William, joined the company as a fifteen-year-old apprentice in 1856 and continued the expansion but is perhaps better known through his prolific work for the community. He became a magistrate, councillor and county alderman, a civic office now defunct, and was such a busy man and so dedicated to serving the people that when he retired from public life his numerous public offices and positions of responsibility numbered almost 100. He died on 24th May 1915 at the age of 74.

The Wherry family became so prominent and their business and public activities so widespread that they are remembered in many places and on several memorial stones, notably at the Baptist Church in West Street, while the family grave is the largest to be found in the South Road cemetery. Today, Wherry and Sons Ltd continue in business and still retain a high profile in the town. The former Wherry family home remains at No 17 North Street, an imposing Regency style building in red brick with ashlar quoins, now Grade II listed and converted into commercial premises in 1924. It is currently split into two retail units, one formerly occupied by the Paper Chain newsagents but now standing empty, with the Nationwide Building Society next door.

It has finally been confirmed that the register office in West Street is moving to the new community access point in the Corn Exchange although this is not exactly the revelation reported by The Local newspaper (August 3rd) nor is it the victory that has been hailed by local councillors but a defeat, a surrender to the demands of austerity.

It was an inevitable development caused by the public spending cuts and predicted by this column several months ago. In fact, Lincolnshire County Council is closing the West Street office because it can no longer afford to pay the lease on the building and there has been such a public outcry at losing a vital amenity for the registration of births, marriages and deaths, a service that the authority has a duty to provide, that it is being relocated to the Corn Exchange where space will be at a premium and car parking a problem, not to mention the question of where couples can be married.

What we are seeing, therefore, is our public services either being downgraded or phased out altogether. The Community Access Point may be a good idea in principal but may well become overcrowded once our district and county councils have finished. Other services likely to end up there are the police, with a desk in the corner rather than the station in West Road, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and any others in need of a new home when their present premises are closed.

All of these economies, for that is what they are rather than innovations, are designed to cut costs and save money yet our local authorities continue to spend on high salaries and pension entitlements for staffing levels that ought to be trimmed when the services they are there to provide are reduced or axed. But it is doubtful if that will happen and once government restraint on increasing the council tax is lifted, we will most certainly have to pay a lot more for a great deal less.

Thought for the week: Everyone seems to think that we have had cuts for years and years but in view of what needs to done they have barely started. - Frances Cairncross (1944 -  ), economist, journalist, academic and Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, speaking about the current economic situation on the BBC Today programme on Thursday 9th August.

Saturday 18^th August 2012

Traffic nightmare in North Street

The town has lost another retail outlet with the closure of Anglia Home Furnishings in Manning Road at the weekend. Paper Chain in North Street still stands empty and Walker’s Books nearby is also going while others have an uncertain future, all a sign of a decline in high street shopping caused by the current economic crisis and increasing competition from the Internet.

Many are wondering what the future holds but the prognosis is not good. Traders face increased bills for rent, business rate, heating and lighting and the cost of employing staff, all of which make the opening of a new shop prohibitive. Customer loyalty is also a thing of the past because financial pressures have hit buyers equally hard and they will go where they get value for their money. This means groceries from the supermarket offering the best bargains and most other goods from online stores where the service is fast and cheap. Opportunities for new retail outlets are therefore at an all time low.

This is happening when the whole concept of high street shopping is changing and not all of our local authorities have risen to the challenge. Some have embraced new ideas to make shopping a more enjoyable experience as it is in many neighbouring towns and cities but this cannot be done in Bourne while we have a main street continually clogged with traffic because it is also one of the county’s major trunk roads, the A15. Shoppers do not wish to be endangered by vehicles passing so close or choked by traffic fumes and the atmosphere in North Street lacks the quiet and unhurried air that can be found in the pedestrian precincts of Stamford and Spalding, an inducement to stay awhile, to go for lunch or tea, havens of peace with a few seats and trees to ease the apprehension brought on by a spell of extravagant spending. It is doubtful if such a facility will materialise in Bourne because there are no plans to change the current road system and so the retail trade is likely to remain in the doldrums while the current depression will continue to make a bad situation even worse.

Pubs and petrol stations are still thriving because both sell commodities that are in continual demand while supermarkets have become an essential part of life, providing the consumer’s necessary link to the food chain. All other outlets now face a bleak future yet despite this depressing outlook, South Kesteven District Council is confident that the seven new shops currently being built as part of the refurbishment of Wherry’s Lane will be beneficial to the town and their commercial agent claims that the development is actually stimulating a new interest in Bourne. The watchword for the future, therefore, is optimism.

Despite the economic gloom, house building continues apace and here in Bourne several new estates are under construction, the biggest being the Abbeyfields development, ironically on the 5.2 acre site of the former Rainbow supermarket and Raymond Mays garage, where 105 new homes are planned. This development is the largest within the town area in recent years and now that the AHF store has closed, it may well get bigger because here is an obvious choice for a developer if this site were also used for housing and we do have an indication that this may well happen.

Next to it is a four acre field currently used for agricultural purposes but designated for development by business and industry. A planning application for 65 affordable homes was submitted three years ago but turned down by SKDC, a decision that was upheld when the application went to appeal, and the developers subsequently told The Local that it would not be pursuing the project “for the time being” (5th February 2008) which did not rule out the possibility that another planning application might eventually be submitted. The meadow and the AHF shop site make an attractive slice of land for housing and one that would supplement the Abbeyfields development across the road and should therefore remain a distinct possibility.

Shops therefore continue to close while more houses are being built and this is increasing the population at a time when it is growing at a faster rate than at any other period in our history. The fact that people choose to move here in spite of the dwindling number of retail outlets is a sign that Bourne remains a great place to live provided you do not depend too much on the high street for your shopping. It would be more desirable for our local economy if we did but in today’s climate, we have to face the unavoidable truth that the “shop locally” slogan has a hollow ring when choice is limited and it is no longer a great inconvenience to buy elsewhere.

The new public house and restaurant being built in South Road is to be called The Sugar Mill, a popular name for a hostelry in many parts of the country but quite unknown in the Bourne area. Many will consider this a strange choice and would have preferred something with a local connection but the owners, Marston's, must know their business because they already own some 2,000 inns and taverns in the United Kingdom, making them one of the country’s leading retail pub companies which will be opening another 135 brand new food pubs over the next five years.

There are several pubs and night spots called The Sugar Mill in the north of England in such places as Hull, Stoke-on-Trent and Batley, and it is also a familiar hotel name in some of the world’s more exotic holiday spots but it is certainly new to Bourne and perhaps even to Lincolnshire. In fact, the name seems to be a recent invention because it is absent from the colourful lexicon of pub names from past centuries although the Sugar Loaf does get a mention.

Most of the prominent names associated with our past are well used around the town although there would still have been room for a Hereward public house, or even the Raymond Mays or BRM, all of which would have been acceptable and there are sure to be others that would be equally worthy. Many consider that a local connection would have been more appropriate but the Sugar Mill it is and the new hostelry will be opened on December 3rd when there is sure to be a full house which will put added pressure on the existing licensed premises in town and village.

An indication as to the possible future of our Town Hall comes from Louth in the north of the county where there have been similar problems over what to do with the building that has served the community as the centre of civic life for over a century. The owners, East Lindsay District Council, said that it could no longer afford the upkeep of £58,000 a year and threatened to put it up for sale unless a local group was prepared to take it on. This has now happened and the Louth Community Education Trust has offered to turn the Grade II listed building into a community hub for learning and entertainment and is expected to take over ownership in October.

A variety of events are already planned including sales and exhibitions to generate the necessary revenue to pay for its upkeep. “We could not afford to lose this building for the community”, said trust spokesman Andrew Howlett. “This is what the people want and we are ready to give it a go.”

Our own Town Hall is currently the centre of a similar dilemma because all council services currently based there are being transferred early next year to a new Bourne Community Access Point now being established at the Corn Exchange. The building is owned by Lincolnshire County Council but leased to South Kesteven District Council and its future is still in doubt. But who is there to take it on if a similar offer to that in Louth were extended to the community here? We already have groups that have accepted the responsibility for other threatened buildings only to find that the close co-operation from the local authorities required for such a project to succeed has been sadly lacking and two such cases that have been going on in Bourne for several years have still not been finalised, much to the frustration of those involved.

The future of Wake House, currently owned by South Kesteven District Council, remains in limbo despite the persistent endeavours of Bourne Arts and Community Trust, who have been sitting tenants since 1997, to obtain a full repairing and insuring lease to enable them carry out much needed maintenance on the building which is showing serious signs of disrepair. This tussle has been going on since their last agreement ran out in 2005 and there is still no sign of a satisfactory arrangement, the council having added fuel to the fire by putting the property on the market in the meantime.

At the other end of the town, the cemetery chapel in South Road still stands idle while the Bourne Preservation Trust awaits agreement on a lease from the town council to enable members begin restoration work with the intention of bringing the building back into useful life. Their dossier on how it could be saved was drawn up and presented in April 2008, outlining proposals for the work and future management. Since then members have been active in seeking funds to finance their plans and in clearing undergrowth and debris from around the outside of the building preparatory to the major task but there is currently yet another impasse in the proceedings over the legal niceties required before they get the key of the door, one that readers of the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and his vivid descriptions of the law's delays will be familiar with.

Both of these cases highlight not only the willingness of many people to take on daunting projects for the benefit of the community but also the frustration they are likely to encounter from bureaucratic indecision and, as some people think, plain obstinacy, because a successful outcome by the new tenants of unwanted buildings would most certainly emphasise an official failure to care for them. Finding volunteers to take on the Town Hall will therefore be difficult, making a commercial solution all the more likely and so speculation that it could be sold off for commercial use.

The people will not be asked their opinion of what should be done with the Town Hall even though it morally, if not legally, belongs to Bourne. It was built in 1821 and financed mainly through public subscription with contributions large and small coming from all sections of the population, the names of the original subscribers still displayed on a large painted board in the upstairs courtroom.

Construction was completed within five months and after a grand opening in 1821, the building was soon in frequent use, not only for official functions but also for many other varied events including social occasions when the guests danced until dawn and the carriages arrived to take them home.

The Town Hall, also Grade II listed, has remained our most important secular building, the focal point of public life for almost 200 years, for the dispensation of justice and a meeting place for the various official bodies responsible for the administration of our affairs while the imposing façade with an exterior cast iron staircase, recessed twin flight of steps and twin Doric columns, has given Bourne its identity, an air of civic authority  declaring to visitors that this may be a small town but it is also a well ordered society.

Bourne will never be quite the same again if the building does become a restaurant or carpet warehouse and so in the event of it being offered to any group willing to preserve it, we hope that volunteers will not be deterred by the prospect of tackling bureaucratic hurdles and take up the challenge to give it a new lease of life for community use.

Thought for the week: He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed. - William James (1842-1910), American philosopher and psychologist and leader of the philosophical movement of pragmatism.

Saturday 25^th August 2012

Work is well ahead on The Croft development of retirement homes in North Road where several of the units have been completed and occupied and refurbishment of the house itself has begun. The estate will eventually consist of 68 one and two-bedroom bungalows and two and three-bedroom chalets built around attractively landscaped courtyards in the grounds of the main building which the builders insist on calling “the historic old manor house” although it is no such thing.

The dictionary definition of manor house is the former home of a lord of the manor which in this case is quite incorrect. This is a relatively modern property dating from 1922, a town house built as a family home for modern living by local farmer and corn merchant Richard Gibson (1879-1958) with no connection whatsoever with either of our two ancient manors, those of Bourne and Bourne Abbots, both of which date back to mediaeval times and to call The Croft a manor house may be an attractive marketing ploy but it is a misnomer.

The Croft was chosen by Richard Gibson as a suitable name because it fitted the design, albeit on a grander scale, being an enclosed plot of land adjoining a house occupied by the owner. Admittedly it was a large property comprising an entrance hall, cloakroom, lounge, dining room, two kitchens, five bedrooms, a dressing room and a large bathroom. Outside was a detached garage for two cars and a well-cared for tennis court and grassland through which there were two rights of way from North Road, covering more than seven acres and there was also a sheltered orchard with a variety of mature fruit trees. But it has no claims to antiquity and the term manor house is totally unjustified.

Nevertheless, it has become a high profile property as a result of the lengthy planning wrangle which began in 1993 over building houses on the surrounding meadowland which was only settled when the present £8 million development for retirement homes was agreed in November 2009. Although not yet complete, the project has just won a National Housing Design award for old people’s housing when the judges decided that it met the government’s objectives in helping the older population live a longer and happier life and also helping the current housing crisis by making larger houses available for growing families.

Karl Hick, managing director of Larkfleet Homes which is carrying out the construction work, said on the company’s web site (30th July 2012) that The Croft is being marketed as not only a place to live but as a community of like-minded people who could enjoy a lifestyle full of possibilities. “Home owners will be able to live the life they want to lead, in a secure and caring environment”, he said. “As part of the development, the existing manor house is being restored and will act as the hub of this new community to provide residents of the 68 retirement properties with access to a variety of services and facilities. As The Croft is right in the centre of Bourne, many local amenities including a local supermarket, a doctor's surgery and a bus stop are only a short walk away, as are many shops and restaurants. With so many excellent facilities in the area, such as a nearby leisure centre, residents can easily pursue activities such as golf, gardening, craft groups and health and well-being classes.”

We can only hope that the picture painted is a realistic forecast of the shape of things to come because it all sounds idyllic for old people. The scheme looks good and we hope it will succeed, although we know of no old people about to retire who will need a three bedroom chalet and it has been suggested that this is just another housing estate in waiting if the “age-related” restriction is removed, as has happened with other retirement developments in the town.

Some may also consider the room sizes, especially in the one and two bedroom bungalows, far too small for those who have just given up a more spacious home with little storage space for elderly couples who like the valuable possessions of a lifetime around them when they retire while outside there may be difficulties in parking the black and silver wheelie bins for the fortnightly waste collections. Despite the current euphoria therefore, it is a case of wait and see and the hope that the award that has just been made does not turn out to be premature.

The name of the new public house and restaurant now under construction in South Road has created some discussion in the Bourne Forum with contributors trying to establish why it is to be called The Sugar Mill and one even emailed Marston’s, the brewers, seeking an explanation. A member of their staff kindly replied saying that it was chosen by their marketing department as a nod to the history of growing sugar beet in the Bourne area. “Although there were never any sugar mills, beet was first grown there and it seemed like a nice name with some link to the history of the town", he said.

Sugar beet was not cultivated on a commercial scale in this country until the mid-1920s although it soon became a most successful industry. It had been tried in the fenland east of Bourne but the results at that time were not good because it grew too coarse and its cultivation was abandoned until the early 20th century when renewed efforts brought a brighter prospect. It was then successfully raised and although Britain's ravenous demand for sugar was mostly fulfilled by European beet imports until shortly after 1900, successful sugar beet production in areas such as that around Twenty provided the nation's sugar requirements during the First and Second World Wars.

In 1925, the possibility of opening a processing factory at Bourne was considered by the Anglo-Scottish Beet Corporation, forerunners of the British Sugar Corporation, later British Sugar. The project was fully supported by Bourne Urban District Council and a sub-committee was appointed to consider the project and to meet Bourne Waterworks Company to ensure that there would be an adequate supply of water for the processing procedures. But no agreement was reached and the factory was eventually built at Spalding whose council guaranteed an adequate supply of water which ironically, emanated from Bourne.

The other point is that a sugar mill refines sugar cane and sugar beet is handled by a processing factory and to use it as an historical link is therefore a tenuous connection. Also, mangolds, swedes and turnips were far more popular root crops for most farmers during those early years and the best examples were displayed at annual root shows but none have quite the same ring for a pub name as The Sugar Mill.

The annual root show began at Bourne in 1908, sponsored by Messrs T W Mays and Sons Ltd, chemical manure manufacturers and bone crushers, as they were then described, no doubt as a means of demonstrating how much better crops would be if their fertilisers were used in the growing process.

There were cash prizes and golden tankards for the winners in all categories and the scope of the show was extended in 1918 when, in addition to the usual awards for mangolds and turnips, special prizes were also given for the best specimens of potatoes and the best sample of barley grown with the company's manure. When the show was held the following year, in October 1919, Thomas Mays, senior partner in the firm, presented the prizes and during his speech, he gave an insight into his company's policy in holding the annual event. "Our one desire is to provide a good fertilising manure at a reasonable price", he said, "and I think that the samples in this show prove that our product is the best procurable for root crops."

In 1920, the root show was held in conjunction with Bourne Fair, later moving to the Corn Exchange and by then, sugar beet had become a regular annual entry, both hand and machine lifted, an indication of another productive crop. But by 1965, popularity was beginning to wane and entries had dropped to below 200 although the quality of the exhibits remained extremely high, particularly the potatoes which the judges described as being "really extraordinary".

The days of the show however were numbered and as the Mays company began to consider its future, it was inevitable that the business would close and the event was among the first casualties after providing a shop window for root crops grown in the Bourne area for well over sixty years.

New technology comes at a price, an aphorism illustrated by a police message that arrived this week about ATM cash machines being targeted by fraudsters across Lincolnshire with yet another scam and although no cases have yet been reported in Bourne, it can only be a matter of time.

The initials stand for Automated Teller Machine but they do have other more familiar names such as cash dispenser or hole in the wall and the facility is similar across the world, a computerized telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to transactions in a public space by using their plastic card and without the need for a cashier, clerk or bank teller. They were first used at a shopping centre in Ohio, USA, in 1959, arriving in England in 1967 when the first cash machine was opened at Barclays Bank at Enfield in North London and have since become a part of our everyday life.

The most popular of the transactions carried out by these machines is the withdrawal of cash from personal accounts and as with any communal system that involves money it has now become a target for criminals who have devised a number of ways to defraud customers, either through direct theft or by stealing their identification codes. Police are now warning that criminals are using cash traps to catch the unwary, a device installed at the cash dispenser shutter which prevents the banknotes from appearing but can be recovered by the thieves after the customer has given up and left.

A list of precautions has been issued to prevent this, the most notable being that we are now advised not to use cash machines unless absolutely necessary. Instead, the police suggest that we use debit cards to obtain money through the cashback facility when shopping in the supermarket and other retail outlets or only visit the machines when they are located inside shops and banks because they may be safer. Many will consider this an acknowledgment that the crime cannot be prevented and the culprits can get away with it while the machines that were intended to take the place of personal counter service at the bank are no longer fit for purpose.

My own opinion is that cash machines are no substitute for personal service and I so never use them. That few seconds of waiting between keying in your PIN number and the amount required before the cash actually appears adds an unacceptable tension to the stresses and strains of modern life and so I prefer to withdraw my money from the bank personally every few weeks. This method cannot last because the new technology is changing fast, thus phasing out the bank counter, and soon there will be no other way to withdraw cash than from an electronic dispenser. The new generation accepts this and it is only the oldies among us who are reluctant to embrace the new technology, some still refusing to initiate direct debits, have a credit card, a mobile phone or indeed, a computer.

But soon we old fossils will all be gone and no one will be opting out of the system. Already, the younger generation is being brought up to know nothing else and so the entire world will soon become enveloped by a burgeoning technology that will change and progress as they too grow old. Pounds and pence are already a threatened species and are fast being overtaken by plastic while the hole in the wall machine could eventually become a relic of the past, a museum piece that will only be remembered when granddad reminisces about olden times.

Thought for the week: It is only the poor who pay cash and that not from virtue but because they are refused credit. - Anatole France (1844-1924), French writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921.

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