Bourne Diary - February 2013

Saturday 2^nd February 2013

The consequences of losing the Town Hall are now becoming apparent, not least to the town council which has offices in the building and holds many meetings there. When the doors are shut in a few weeks’ time, not only will valuable space be lost but Bourne will also forfeit part of its identity and heritage because this has been the centre of public life for almost 200 years.

Within these walls since it was built in 1821, the development of our community has evolved, justice dispensed, by-laws enacted, momentous events celebrated, yet in a stroke all of this history will be wiped out as the building is sacrificed in the cause of public spending cuts. It is therefore right that we question the wisdom of this closure and even the legality because the evidence is that the Town Hall does not belong to Lincolnshire County Council which is currently calling the tune but to the town itself since it was the people who paid for it.

A year ago, it was proposed to concentrate all council services in Bourne under one roof, a new Community Access Point to be based at the Corn Exchange, thus making the Town Hall redundant. The people of Bourne were not asked their opinion about this and the decision was thrust upon them. The closure will therefore take effect when the new facility officially opens on Wednesday 6th March and the county council has indicated that the building will then be sold, an ignominious end for a stately symbol of our civic pride.

This has set alarm bells ringing at the town council where members see their authority diminished, not only through losing their historic home but also because the new space they have been allocated appears to be cramped and totally inadequate, a sign perhaps, that they are being shunted into obscurity. The two rooms may not even be sufficient for offices let alone for meetings which in the past have been held in the old courtroom at the Town Hall or at the Corn Exchange in an area that has now been swallowed up by the new development.

The council has therefore written to LCC asking what is to happen to this historic building although the future does not look promising because permission to decorate the frontage with Christmas lights and to fly the flag on public occasions can no longer be guaranteed. Andy McCarter, spokesman for the council, told The Local newspaper (January 25th) that no decision had yet been taken but added: “In the coming months, we will be looking at whether we can find any other use for the building but if it is not required then we will sell it.”

It can be argued that the county council has no right to dispose of the Town Hall unless ownership can be proven. The truth of the matter is that this Grade II listed building was erected in 1821 with money raised by public subscription and has only passed into the control of LCC through a bureaucratic sleight of hand over the years but one which is easily explained. The authority has no moral right, and perhaps no legal foundation, to claim it as their own, and as there is now sufficient concern that the building should be kept open for the people of Bourne then this is the time for their claim to ownership to be challenged.

The history of the Town Hall is well documented. Ownership, or perhaps control would be a more accurate description, has changed over the years but it has never been bought or sold. The progression from a public amenity purchased by the people to a fixed asset owned by the county council is so deeply buried in past administrative procedures that the ramifications would be difficult to unravel and provide a goldmine for grasping lawyers. The original deeds have most probably been lost but we do have sufficient archive material to prove its origins.

The Town Hall was built in 1821 at a total cost of £1,640 plus £811 15s. 1d. for extras that had been decided after the original plans had been approved. It was financed mainly by voluntary subscription and the names of those who made donations are inscribed on a panel fixed to the wall of the old magistrates’ court, a list detailing a total of 122 individual subscriptions of £1 or more, the highest being £105 from the Countess Willoughby D’Eresby, while there were a number of donations amounting to just a few pence from Haconby. The subscriptions totalled £1,363 6s 6d and this sum was complemented by a contribution from the county rate towards the final cost, money provided entirely by the people. The list is a cross section of the town at that time, from the landed gentry, lord of the manor, chief constable and magistrates, doctors and clergymen to farmers, shopkeepers and tradesmen, a fund raising effort that took place over an entire year at a time when money was not as plentiful and as easy to come by as it is today and the population a mere 2,242 (1821 census).

Even the original clock on the Town Hall was a gift to the town from Mrs Eleanor Frances Pochin, widow of George Pochin, who was Lord of the Manor of Bourne Abbots for 37 years from 1761-98. It was housed in a wooden tower which was destroyed by fire in 1933 when it was moved to its present position on the pediment below.

Administration of the building was originally the responsibility of the magistrates but later in the 19th century passed to the vestry meeting which had complete control over the town and its activities, church and civil, and embracing all spheres of public life from the levying and collecting of taxes to the welfare of the individual. This arrangement continued until the Local Government Act of 1894 when the present council system was created, separating church and state at parish level and putting the administration of our local affairs in the hands of councils with elected councillors to run them.

This meant an end to the vestry meeting and the formation of a rural council to administer the country areas and a parish council for the town but the latter lasted only five years because during that time, the authority applied for urbanisation on the grounds of its population and size, and this was granted by Kesteven County Council in May 1898 and came into force the following year. The rural and urban councils for Bourne were swallowed up by the newly constituted South Kesteven District Council during a nation-wide reorganisation of local government in 1974 which also led to the creation of a parish or town council for Bourne while Kesteven became part of Lincolnshire County Council, and so we now have a three tier system for the administration of our affairs at local level. The Town Hall has therefore run the gamut of ownership from people to parish to county and those who dug into their pockets to pay for it almost 200 years ago are long forgotten.

The mere fact that common usage has brought us to this situation does not mean that it is right or cannot be challenged. It is a formidable undertaking and the town council will need to decide whether to pursue their objective on behalf of the people and not be put off with legal niceties and smart aleck responses. The alternative, as with many other towns, will mean a sale by the county council to increase its coffers, most likely to supplement staff salaries and pensions, in which case the building is likely to end up as a Weatherspoons or carpet warehouse.

It will be remembered that the whole question of moving council services to a new Community Access Point came about because the Town Hall was in need of renovation and the installation of a lift to comply with current Health and Safety regulations but this course of action was rejected because of the cost. Yet this could have been achieved for well under the £600,000 currently being spent on the Corn Exchange and we could then have retained a perfectly serviceable building as well as the public library in South Street and the Register Office in West Street, both of which are being phased out.

There is a feeling widespread in the town that the entire scheme for a Community Access Point has not been well thought out and is being implemented to the disadvantage of Bourne people and the town council which represents them yet the district and county councils have pressed on regardless, ignoring all criticism and with little or no approval except their own.

A not entirely unconnected matter is the cost of the Corn Exchange conversion into a Community Access Point which was discussed by this column two weeks ago when it was revealed that the bill has trebled within a year, from £200,000 to a massive £600,000.

We therefore have a project loudly trumpeted as one that will save money yet is already in debt even before completion and the authority now intends to increase the council tax for the coming year to bring in an extra £200,000 despite an appeal by the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, who has said on more than one occasion that it is morally wrong for any council to ask the public to pay any more in the present economic climate. Despite this, SKDC imposed a £25 levy on emptying green waste wheelie bins last year and now plans to add an extra £5 a year on the council tax, presumably to help meet this shortfall.

The concerns about the lack of space at the new Community Access Point have already been well ventilated, not to mention the car parking chaos looming once it opens, and so the consequence is that we are being asked to pay more for getting a lot less at a time when we have not yet been told how much the authority wasted during the ten years it was vainly trying to keep the abortive £27 million town centre regeneration scheme on track before it was finally abandoned in June 2010.

The council claimed in a statement to The Local newspaper (January 25th) that this was “a small tax increase” amounting to about 10p more per week but then they all say that don’t they, including Lincolnshire Police which has also announced an increase of 2% or “just an extra 7p per week”.

How overworked those words only and just are when anyone is seeking to squeeze more money from us. The gas, electricity, telephone, water and insurance companies, the supermarkets, garages and newsagents, are all asking for that little bit extra and perhaps it is time to remind them of the old proverb about the straw that broke the camel’s back because the financial burden is now becoming heavier than most people can bear yet no one appears to be listening and the increases keep coming.

We are having one of those ridiculous public consultations in an attempt to justify this iniquity from SKDC but no one takes them seriously any more, knowing full well that the decision has been made no matter what anyone says. Fortunately, the new Localism Act which comes into force this year will check future excesses from reckless local authorities by forcing them to hold a referendum each time they try to raise the council tax above the recommended limits. Unfortunately, this will not apply to those only and just increases designed to slip under the radar but at least it is a start.

Thought for the week: “Freezing council tax is practical help every councillor can offer their constituents. Councillors have a moral duty to sign up to keep down the cost of living. Anything less is a kick in the teeth to hard working, decent taxpayers." - Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in a statement on 22nd January 2012.

Saturday 9^th February 2013

The policy of closure to save money pursued by public authorities is a sign of management failure and even incompetence and in each case it shifts the blame and the consequences on to the people they are meant to serve.

It also gives us a glimpse of a bleak future without the amenities we have come to expect for our money because there is no expectation that buildings shut or services cut during periods of austerity will ever be brought back into use. Closure against the public interest is therefore a retrograde step and an indication that things will never be the same again.

Cutting back has been the main weapon of government at all levels to tackle the current economic situation and is being enforced because those in charge are totally bereft of ideas and resort to the same negative mantra in the hope that budget deficits will then go away. If and when things improve, as we are promised some years hence, then the cost of restoring what we had will be prohibitive and therefore impossible.

At a local level, the cuts have already bitten deep although the loss of well used amenities goes back further than the current crisis and should have been a warning of things to come. The gas and electricity showrooms where we paid our bills and made our inquiries have long gone as has the job centre (1983). The public lavatories have been demolished at the recreation ground in Recreation Road (1980) and at the bus station in 2007 (pictured above) while those in South Street were saved from closure in 2002 after South Kesteven District Council caused an uproar by suggesting that shoppers should use town centre shops and public houses instead.

We also lost first the Butterfield Hospital in 1985, St Peter’s Hospital in 1992 and then a major blow with the closure of Bourne Hospital in September 1998, a much-loved amenity that served the town for ninety years, on the pretext that it was cheaper to send patients to Peterborough. SKDC also tried to close the Outdoor Swimming Pool in 1989 to save money on running costs but were opposed by townspeople and it is now successfully administered by an independent trust.

There have also been two attempts to close the Post Office in West Street, in 1988 and in 2003, but protest petitions on both occasions saved it for the time being and plans to shut the bus station in North Street were also shelved after a series of objections (2010). Waste recycling banks were phased out in 2009 and opening hours restricted to four days a week at the bulk waste disposal depot in Pinfold Road last year. The Victorian chapel in the town cemetery was also earmarked for demolition by the town council in 2007 because of high maintenance costs but was subsequently saved by a Grade II listing imposed at the instigation of local conservationists.

The continuance of Wake House also remains uncertain because of a determination by SKDC to extract as much money for the lease as possible even though the tenants are the Bourne Arts and Community Trust that provides facilities for 40 of our local organisations offering a wide range of educational and cultural activities which meet there regularly, an arrangement that should be endorsed rather than hampered by the council.

Since then, the list has lengthened and we will soon be adding other amenities such as the police station in West Street which is likely to be phased out, the ambulance station in South Road that has been earmarked for closure while the public library in South Street, the register office in West Street and even the Town Hall itself are all due to be shut within the next few weeks.

The money extracted from us on a regular basis through the various taxes increases while prices rise almost weekly yet our services continue to decline in direct contrast and running costs, staff wages and pension entitlements which account for 70% of our local authority spending, rise annually and appear to take priority over the provision of services. Any economist worth his salt will deduce that the current policies being pursued by government are therefore at fault and are leading us into an age of enforced austerity very different to that we have known in the past and from present experience no one is likely to be called to account when the policy is found to have been flawed.

There were many who had misgivings about the unseemly rush by established schools to gain academy status and the doubts and uncertainties expressed at the time now seem to be well founded. The Charles Read Academy at Corby Glen, near Bourne, is to shut by September 2014 and the 230 pupils transferred to the West Grantham Academy St Hugh’s, eleven miles away, a decision which appears to be nonsensical in the extreme and one that has attracted widespread criticism as well as casting doubt over the entire policy.

The government opened the floodgates for all schools to seek the new status in 2010 when the Academies Act sought to expand their number and a majority seemed anxious to take advantage of the official mantra of more money and more independence which would enable them implement their own admissions policy and curriculum, set their own pay and conditions for staff and vary the length of terms and school working days.

These were far reaching changes for schools that until now have been under the control of the local education authority and not everyone regarded them as a necessary undertaking, especially when those involved already enjoyed a distinguished reputation with excellent results in their present form. The Charles Read opened in 1963 and developed into a successful comprehensive school, becoming an academy in 2011 but the attainment of pupils has been low and the school listed among the bottom 200 in the country with just 38% of pupils achieving five A*-C grades at GCSE level.

Poor pupil performance, however, has not been cited as a reason for the closure that has been blamed partly on changes in government funding which is allocated per pupil and with an anticipation that fewer children will be starting in the coming years, less money will be coming in and this appears to be the nub of the present problem. Schools that have turned into academies are now in the hands of the accountants rather than the educationalists and it is inevitable that standards are likely to suffer if the main objective is always to balance the books.

The bill for bussing children between Corby Glen and Grantham will significantly increase transport costs that will have to be met by Lincolnshire County Council. But according to the Stamford Mercury (February 1st), there will be no job losses as a result of the closure which does seem to be a curious decision in view of such poor examination results and it is supposed that the staff will be absorbed into the three other schools under the umbrella of the West Grantham Academies Trust of which the Charles Read is currently part.

The county council has already spoken out against the closure and the leader, Martin Hill (Folkingham Rural), who is also the member for this area, told the newspaper that he was extremely disappointed that a decision of this note had been taken without any consultation on input from them. He added: “Grantham has growth point status and is expected to see a considerable increase in pupil numbers from September 2014 for primary intakes and so closing the school makes little sense and reduces the ability to plan for the future.”

There has also been scathing criticism from the trade union Unison which is “completely opposed” to the closure. “This is not a large school but an important one of the surrounding rural area”, said spokesman Stephen Lockwood (The Local, February 1st). “Additional travelling would involve pupils travelling in excess of 26 miles per day which will have to be met either by the county council or by parents themselves and in these times of austerity the last thing a family needs is an increased cost of taking their children to school. This also proves how academies are not accountable to the local community.”

All the mainstream schools in Bourne have now been given academy status, the first being the Abbey Primary in 2010 followed by the Robert Manning College (2011), Westfield Primary (2011) and Bourne Grammar School (2012). 

Projected images dominate our lives today whether they be on the computer, mobile phone, television or in the cinema but before such things were invented a more modest device brought colour and entertainment into our lives. The magic lantern is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century that allows pictures produced on glass slides to be projected through a lens on to a large screen. Candles or special incandescent lamps were used as light sources until the arrival of electricity which provided a more intense light and improved the screen images.

In my boyhood more than seventy years ago, it was the dream of every lad to have a magic lantern for Christmas and those who did would invite their friends round for a show, using a white linen bed sheet as a screen to show the exploits of Popeye and Mickey Mouse. These were basic, simple home models but a larger, professional machine was used at the Band of Hope which we attended one evening each week when more serious subjects were shown, featuring the work of missionaries in Africa and elsewhere and stories warning against the perils of drink although we always finished with a few slides chronicling the exploits of Felix the Cat.

It is difficult to imagine the absolute enjoyment of these magic lantern shows today but an example of the pleasure they gave can be found in the columns of our local newspapers which reported these events during Victorian times and one such show which was given to boys attending the grammar school in Bourne in the late 19th century reflects the sheer delight of the occasion.

The grammar school still stands in the churchyard, a red brick building now disused and deteriorating, but at that time it was the only place in the town for secondary education although very dependent for support on the generosity of local philanthropists. It was through their patronage that this special treat was arranged in January 1888 and we have a delightful account of the occasion from the Grantham Journal which indicates that it was not only the boys who were anxious to attend what was described as “a very interesting, amusing and enjoyable entertainment”.

“The boys were invited to bring their friends, at half past seven in the evening, to a magic lantern treat”, said the report. “The evening came and the boys with their sisters, brothers, cousins and several others, eagerly crowded into the school where with bated breath they waited for the revealing of the unknown, by the magical influence of the oxy-hydrogen light. Punctual to time appeared on the screen a beautiful picture with the motto ‘Welcome’ and ‘The Compliments of the Season’. Then followed a series of pictures illustrating tales so familiar to our childhood, and which are always fresh, though so old, because they remind us of the years that are past.”

The evening’s programme included illustrations of well- known stories such as Bluebeard, Aladdin, Robinson Crusoe and The Pied Piper of Hamelin and concluded with coloured photos of local scenery, several movable comic pictures and finally a portrait of Queen Victoria. “Nearly two hundred pictures were shown to the youngsters who testified their appreciation from time to time by cheers”, said the report. “We wish to add that the entertainment was suggested by Dr James and Mrs Burdwood of this town, to whose kindness, liberality and expense the whole treat was due. The lantern and oxy-hydrogen light were ably managed by the headmaster, the Rev H R F Canham, who, with Dr Burdwood, explained the pictures as they appeared on the screen. At the conclusion, ringing cheers were given for Dr and Mrs Burdwood, the headmaster and his family, and the ladies.

“But this was not all. The boys of the school were requested to stay behind after the others had gone. Then Dr Burdwood presented each one with buns and nuts, and to finish up, as a final surprise, six large dishes of lemonade were set before them, which the boys quickly emptied, and then dispersed well satisfied with the evening’s amusement. Thus terminated a most pleasant evening for the boys of the Grammar School.”

The occasion sounds one of simple pleasure today when the lives of our young people are dominated by intricate technological devices such as the iPad, BlackBerry and Android, yet that evening of entertainment with such a modest apparatus 125 years ago would have been remembered by the boys for the rest of their days.

Thought for the week: Illusion is the first of all pleasures. - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish poet, playwright and novelist.

Saturday 16^th February 2013

The disused garage premises on the west side of South Street almost opposite Brook Lodge are for sale with an asking price of £200,000. The site covers 0.37 acres and as predicted by this column last year, new housing is a distinct possibility. On its own, the land is not big enough for a small estate but once the public library closes later this year, the prospect begins to look quite promising for enterprising developers.

There have also been rumours around town that moves are afoot to close the fire station next door to the library and this would make an attractive parcel of land for any developer, particularly the owners of the Great Northern Gardens nearby who have already overcome objections to building so close to the Grade II listed Red Hall by providing attractive landscaping and a new pathway to enable pedestrians avoid the dangerous bends in South Street.

Although there are some commercial properties nearby, the new housing development of 60 homes on the old railway goods yard next to the Red Hall is quite close and another 46 are being built on the old freight yard on the other side of the road and so a precedent has been established while the sale prospectus for the empty garage premises previously occupied by Stamford Sports Cars says enticingly: “The site has potential for alternative uses subject to the relevant planning consent being granted. All parties should make enquiries with South Kesteven District Council.” We may therefore expect to see the start of more major changes in this area during the coming months.

If new housing does go ahead at this point, then yet another opportunity will be lost to improve the double blind bend in South Street that has been a traffic danger for well over a century. This is the main A15 trunk road and vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from small cars and vans to mighty articulated lorries, oil tankers, containers and pantechnicons, regularly pass this way, often not even slowing down to negotiate the bends and passing similarly large vehicles coming in the opposite direction and it is a daily miracle that there are not more accidents, not least head on collisions.

The carriageway at one point is less than 23 feet wide, narrower than Meadowgate and well shy of the minimum current regulations allowed by government for road building, and there are three Grade II listed buildings in the immediate vicinity, Baldock’s Mill (1800), Brook Lodge (1776) and a pair of late 18th century red brick cottages, all at risk from vibration, traffic fumes and even direct damage, as has been proven in the past.

The road was first identified as being dangerous in 1909 when an awareness of accident black spots was beginning to develop. The motor car was still a rare sight on the roads and although the double bend in South Street had begun to cause some disquiet, local authorities turned down a proposal to purchase land at this point with a view to widening the roadway.

There were several mishaps on the corner and early in 1917, danger signs were erected after a complaint by a local resident who was involved in an accident not with a car, but a horse and cart. There were more collisions in subsequent years and in 1928, Kesteven County Council, then the highways authority, was asked to improve the road as a matter of urgency but nothing was done. The problem was exacerbated by the railway that crossed the road a few yards further south and traffic delays were compounded when the level crossing gates were shut to allow a train to pass. Although this added inconvenience disappeared when the Bourne to Spalding line closed in 1959, the situation has become far worse in the intervening years because of the massive increase in through traffic.

The local authorities missed a second chance to improve the road when a house attached to the smallholding at No 35 South Street, known as Mrs Gray’s cottage, was demolished almost 40 years ago. The location of the property was unfortunate because it stood on the west side and looked as though it was leaning forward into the road at a most unsafe angle, creating a road hazard for the increasing traffic flows of the previous decades, and although scheduled as a Grade II building, it was pulled down in January 1977. This was the perfect opportunity to re-route the highway and remove a highly dangerous black spot but again nothing was done. Instead, permission was given to build two new houses on the land that had been made vacant by the demolition although they were sited well back from the road.

There have been many other accidents here since, one of the worst in 1989 when a Royal Mail lorry ploughed into one of the red brick cottages and six years ago a car suffered a similar fate. There have also been fatalities, the most recent in October 1998 when a van driver was killed on the corner as he drove into Bourne.

This spot, overlooked by the Abbey Church, was the scene of yet another bad accident on Wednesday 12th June 2002 when a 38-tonne articulated refuse lorry crashed into the roadside cottage at No 31 South Street, demolishing part of the outside wall and sending rubble crashing down into the street below where schoolchildren had been walking past just moments earlier.

Highways officials at Lincolnshire County Council know that the road at this point is one of the most dangerous sections in the district yet the double bend remains a nightmare for motorists during the rush hour periods, especially in the evenings, when queues of traffic tail back as far as the grammar school and even further, and each accident that occurs reminds us of another tragedy lurking just around the corner. There is a need for improvement or replacement as a matter of urgency and although a north south-bypass for the A15 has been considered by the county council in the past, it is no longer on their highways agenda. Yet to sanction new housing at this point which is now a distinct possibility, does not appear to be in the best interests of Bourne.

That fine BBC television series Dad’s Army continues to entertain even after 40 years perhaps because it accentuates the British trait of being able to laugh at ourselves. For those yet to discover these comic gems, they concern the exploits of a detachment of the Home Guard during the Second World War of 1939-45 at a fictional town on the south coast and although much of what they get up to is quite ridiculous, there was the serious underlying purpose of protecting the country from enemy invasion.

Playing at soldiers has been a preoccupation of our menfolk down the ages and they were just as active in the 19th century when Bourne had a part-time military unit known as The Volunteers. Although only a small town with a population of under 4,000, there was never a shortage of recruits for the weekly parades when the officers tried to make training as interesting and adventurous as possible. The divide between officers and men that is used to such comic effect in Dad’s Army was prevalent then with the commissioned ranks drawn from the professional classes while the ordinary soldiers were labourers, farm workers and shop assistants.

There was no threat of invasion in the summer of 1886 yet the men were just as keen to show their mettle in the face of the enemy and to ensure that they were on fighting form, the officers arranged a mock battle between the various battalions which was staged at Rippingale, five miles north of Bourne, although this involved a rail trip there, the station then being situated at the Red Hall in South Street, and a route march back.

An account of the proceedings survives from the columns of the Grantham Journal which reported the event on Saturday 14th August under the heading “Volunteers in sham fight” and indicating that everyone had a jolly good time although reading it with thoughts of Dad’s Army in mind, it is difficult not to imagine Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones, Privates Fraser, Pike and Walker, adding mayhem to the proceedings with Captain Mainwaring vainly trying to keep order. The report went on:

One of the most enjoyable evenings that the members of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, have spent was that on Wednesday last. The Bourne contingent met in the station yard at 6.45 pm and proceeded by train to Rippingale and thence to a field close by, where the Billingborough contingent awaited their arrival. After having gone through a series of drills, under the direction of Captain Smith and Lieuts Tomlinson and Bott, a sham fight took place between the Bourne and Billingborough members. The Volunteers were supplied with thirty rounds of blank cartridges each, and the firing was kept up some time, much to the satisfaction of the officers and spectators present, the latter being numerous. After the fight, other evolutions were gone through satisfactorily, and the members were regaled with substantial refreshment provided on the field. The Billingborough contingent left by the 8.29 train from Rippingale, and the Bourne volunteers marched home, arriving in Bourne about 10.30, and were dispersed in the Market Place. The weather turned out delightful, and the event was a success in every respect.

Despite these early attempts at war games, neither the Volunteers nor Home Guard in later years ever fired a shot in anger although they were a constant source of trained manpower for the armed forces during the conflicts of the time and so maintained the tradition of England always being ready in time of trouble.

The Town Hall is best known today for its use as a magistrates' court and as offices for the district and town councils but in years past all major social events were held there and none were so popular as the annual balls in the early years of the 19th century to raise funds for the new National School in North Street, now used as the headquarters of the local Conservative Party.

Before the Education Act of 1870, the building of elementary schools was left entirely to voluntary bodies such as the churches. In Bourne, the task was undertaken by the National Society for Education which was an Anglican organisation and so one of the principal organisers was the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, then curate at the Abbey Church, and although the stone laying ceremony went ahead in 1829, subscriptions and money raising events continued for several years to help maintain the flow of funds for its upkeep, one of the last being recorded in 1849 under the patronage of Lady Burghley.

The ball soon became one of the town's major social events of the year and tickets on sale for several weeks beforehand were much sought after, especially by mothers seeking husbands for their daughters because every eligible bachelor in town was sure to be there. A guest list from one of these dances survives and it not only provides a glimpse of the pecking order in Victorian society but also illustrates how young girls were paraded at such events in the hope that they might catch the eye of a prospective marriage partner, scenes that were recorded in some detail in the novels of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. The local newspapers carried many descriptions of these occasions in Bourne with guests arriving ready for the ball to begin at nine or ten o'clock and sweeping up the grand front staircase, all dressed in their finery and dancing continuing throughout the night until carriages arrived at dawn to take them home.

The popularity of the Town Hall as a social venue continued for half a century until the Corn Exchange was built in 1870 as a trading centre for grain dealers to do business but also contained a spacious hall for public events and because of its larger size and more convenient location this has been the accepted venue ever since.

The Town Hall, however, built in 1821 and now Grade II listed, has remained the centre of civic life in Bourne although this will end next month when the council services housed there are moved to the new Community Access Point now nearing completion at the Corn Exchange and so after serving the town for almost two centuries, the building will become redundant.

Thought for the week: In the coming months, we will be looking at whether we can find any other use for the building but if it is not required, then we will sell it. – spokesman for Lincolnshire County Council commenting on the future of the Town Hall (The Local newspaper, 25th January 2013).

Saturday 23^rd February 2013

The whine of the chainsaw has been evident at the town cemetery in South Road this week where major arboreal work has been underway as shrubs and trees have been trimmed and cut back and unwanted self-setters removed.

Periodic attention such as this is necessary to keep the cemetery in good order and the latest programme of work was agreed by the town council after a detailed survey by a tree surgeon who inspected all specimens that were not included in the regular maintenance regime.

Many trees came from saplings that had not been spotted and pulled out, trimmed or cared for, and over the years had become either a nuisance, unsightly, detracted from the general ambiance of the cemetery or were encroaching on graves. Some had also become a safety hazard with too many dead branches or were too close to walls or other permanent features. "The council decided that it was better to have fewer but more attractive specimens that could be properly maintained", explained Mrs Nelly Jacobs, clerk to the town council.

The work will be particularly beneficial to keep the cemetery in good order and to maintain its reputation as one of the best in England, having won awards in 2002 and 2006 and both winning plaques can be seen on display near the entrance. The first adjudication reflected this high standard when it said: “This is everyone's ideal of a cemetery with a picture postcard entrance consisting of a lodge, a lavender and rose bed, chapel and entrance drive, and surrounded by old headstones and yew trees. There is also a great deal of excellent topiary on yews and other trees which give added interest to the area.”

This excellent reputation has not prevented intruders from trying to ruin the work that has been done over the years because the police have reported two recent cases of criminal damage. One of the most shameful of our current social crimes is vandalism because it has no motive and there is no gain for the perpetrators.

Those who are responsible are often unable to give an explanation as to why they target a particular building or edifice other than it happens to be there when they are in a destructive mood and often fired by strong drink. The morose and sullen reply by the guilty when asked to clarify their conduct is usually an inane retort that reflects their mindless stupidity because even they have little idea why they should roam the locality wrecking everything in sight although remorse for their actions is invariably sadly lacking.

Indiscriminate destruction of property for no apparent reason is inexcusable and this is at the heart of the matter. It is particularly pernicious when public property is involved and especially so in such a respected place as the town cemetery. This haven of tranquillity in South Road where more than 10,000 of our ancestors are buried has been relatively free of such problems but the police reported this week that memorial seats along the main paths had been wrenched from their fittings during two night time forays in recent weeks.

There are many of these seats at various locations in the cemetery, all donated by relatives in memory of loved ones who have died with memorial plaques fixed to the back and although the cemetery is locked at night, ten of them have been damaged by intruders who have forced them off their moorings on the concrete bases after gaining entrance across the short distance of grass from Elsea Park. “This is a deliberate act of anti-social behaviour and vandalism and is not to be tolerated in such a place”, said a police spokesman.

Seats and signs seem to have a particular appeal for ruffians intent on causing damage and there have been many such instances in the past. Rustic benches that were a feature alongside the main paths through Bourne Wood were a target for vandals until the Forestry Commission replaced them with sturdier constructions while those in the Wellhead Gardens have also been vandalised and graffiti scrawled across the slats which were often prized away from the frame.

But nothing is safe when mindless hooligans are on the rampage. In 1977, for instance, widespread damage was caused to the Abbey Lawn which was costly to repair while in March 2001, vandals systematically attacked road signs around the town, mainly in the North Road area where half a dozen were torn down over one weekend.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend in August 2002, the telephone kiosk in North Road was wrecked by vandals using an estate agent's sign that had been uprooted from a nearby front garden as a battering ram. The town centre was littered with rubbish and broken glass with West Street being particularly affected on Sunday and Monday mornings, the pavements and gutters filled with the debris from a weekend's holiday and not a street cleaner in sight. It looked as though a loaded dustcart had driven through in a gale force wind, scattering litter as it went. 

There have been several other high profile cases notably in the uprooting of trees along North Road in 2003 and again in 2006 that had been planted to improve the environment by the Rotary Club of Bourne, a particularly reprehensible case because of the work and cost involved which was being borne by volunteers.

Few people think very much about vandalism unless it happens to them. If their own garden fence were torn down, hanging baskets proudly displayed at the front of the house thrown into the road, the paintwork of cars standing in the driveway defaced with sharp metal objects, windows smashed and graffiti spray-painted over the brickwork, then they would demand urgent action.  Anti-social behaviour such as this causes pain, discomfort and damage to other people and their property and becomes intolerable if allowed to reign unchecked and anyone with knowledge of the incidents in the cemetery or the offenders is urged to contact the police.

The death this week of the game show host Derek Batey had a particular poignancy for a Bourne woman who first met him in 1983, an encounter that sparked her brief excursion into show business. His popular television game show Mr and Mrs screened on ITV during the 1970s and 1980s was watched by millions with presenter Derek Batey, his wife Edith and daughter Diane, and after a while they took it on the stage and cabaret circuit.

Dorothy Hodgkin and her husband Reg first went to see it at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool when they were on their summer holidays and they loved it. They went again the following year when it was staged at the North Pier and on that occasion, Derek asked for a lady from the audience to come up on stage and act as hostess by introducing the contestants and up she went.

“What a lovely experience it was”, said Dorothy. “But it did not end there because Derek asked me to be the hostess at another show at the Embassy Theatre in Skegness and so I found myself on stage yet again. After that, we went to a lot of their shows at various places around the country and Derek and his wife and daughter became special friends. We visited them often when Reg always took a load of fresh country vegetables from our garden at Toft village as a gift. Reg died suddenly in 1990, aged 69, and they sent a lovely wreath which I thought was particularly touching.”

Derek Batey died in a hospice near his home at Lytham St Annes in Lancashire on Sunday night after a short illness. He had begun his broadcasting career with the BBC, later joining Border Television where he hosted the famous game show that featured married couples in a quiz that tested how well they really knew each other, presenting it 500 times on television and 5,000 times on stage after developing the successful theatrical version in which Dorothy and Reg appeared thirty years ago.

After an eventful life, Dorothy, now aged 92, has an apartment in Meadow Close but is still active and can often be seen around town and shopping at the Thursday market. “Derek became a particularly good friend”, she remembered this week. “He was a really lovely man and I felt it has been a privilege to know him. We always kept in touch and exchanged cards and family photographs at Christmas and I feel that I have lost a real pal.”

From the archives (1): A STRANGE VISITOR: On Wednesday last, while some cows were being driven past Mr Shilcock's house in North Street, one of them entered his back yard and from thence proceeded into the dining room and along a passage to his office. After looking round for a few minutes, the animal quietly passed through the doorway and into the street without doing the least possible damage. - news item from the Grantham Journal, Saturday 24th January 1880.

From the archives (2): PERILS OF THE STREET MARKET: Messrs Lawson and Son, glass and china dealers, sued Henry Schmetzer, a butcher, of West Street, Bourne, in the county court for £1 17s. 3d., being damage to crockery by defendant’s sheep. The facts, which were not disputed, were that plaintiff was driving some sheep to his premises and when near the market pitch in West Street, Bourne, occupied by the plaintiffs, the animals jumped in amongst the crockery and did damage to the amount claimed. Defendant contended that the goods were displayed on the highway and that there was no protection provided by the plaintiff. His Honour, giving judgment for the plaintiff, for the amount claimed, said that the goods were lawfully on the highway. – news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 26th March 1926.

Reliability in public statements is usually questionable especially when they are used to hide bad news such as dubious policies, unwanted developments and tax increases. Although we would hesitate in calling these pronouncements lies, perhaps Winston Churchill put it quite neatly with his famous euphemism of terminological inexactitudes.

A perfect example of the genre appears in a news item on the front page of the Stamford Mercury (February 15th) which reports that: “Lincolnshire’s police and crime panel has voted to increase its share of council tax by 6p per week for a band D home. It says the rise will keep officers on the streets.” But the explanation for the increase is disingenuous, one of those catchpenny phrases so beloved of politicians, because there are currently few policemen on the streets and have not been for some time and if you offered a fiver to everyone out there who has spotted one in Bourne during the past twelve months you would not be out of pocket.

No, the statement is merely the sugar on the pill, a sweetener to make unwelcome news palatable, because both those who impose the additional tax and those who will pay it are quite aware of the warning from the Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, who has said on more than one occasion that it is morally wrong for any authority to ask the public pay more in the current economic climate.

The report goes on to say that the increase in council tax has been pushed through by the new Police and Crime Commissioner, Alan Hardwick, who was appointed only recently and so perhaps he is not yet aware that few uniformed policemen are to be seen on the streets in places such as Bourne, their absence being one of the most frequent complaints in this town over the past decade. However, his crime plan includes a pledge to keep the current 1,000 officers and add a further 23 and he has promised that visible patrols will make the best use of those available to make Lincolnshire safe.

That is something to look forward to because it will be an acknowledgment that the police are there to protect the people rather than spend their time back at headquarters filling out forms or tapping away at computers. We therefore await the fulfilment of his promise but as it is one that has been made many times in the past, don’t hold your breath.

Thought for the week: Permanent police strength in Bourne based at the county police station in North Street is one superintendent, one inspector, two sergeants and 17 constables. - entry from Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire, 1913, when the population count was 4,343.

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