Bourne Diary - May 2013

Saturday 4^th May 2013

An attempt is being made for the Town Hall to be returned to the people of Bourne who bought the building by public subscription almost 200 years ago. It is claimed that ownership is still vested in the people of the town although through some bureaucratic sleight of hand, the property is now claimed by Lincolnshire County Council.

The origins of the building are well documented and therefore not in doubt. It was built in 1821 at a cost of £2,450 and financed mainly by voluntary subscription, the names of those who made donations being inscribed on a panel fixed to the wall of the old magistrates’ court. 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).

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, an arrangement that 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 at town, district and county level with elected councillors to run them.

This meant an end to the vestry meeting and the eventual formation of Bourne Urban District Council in 1899 which assumed control of the Town Hall which then passed to Lincolnshire County Council during a reorganisation of local government in 1974 and in turn, the county council leased it to South Kesteven District Council. The building 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.

This year, all council services that have been using the Town Hall were moved to a new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange and the county council has indicated that the old Grade II listed building will now be sold but whether the authority has the legal and moral right to do so is another matter.

Councillor Helen Powell, now retiring after a year in office as Mayor of Bourne, has written to the county council  seeking a clarification of the position. “The building was paid for by Bourne residents and if it is no longer required then it should be returned to the rightful owners”, she said. “There has been no consultation over its future and every opportunity should be made to hand it back.”

The validity of this claim cannot be questioned but we live in difficult  times when possession by the county council will be seen as nine points of the law and with local authorities scratching around to save every penny they can, the Town Hall will not be given up easily because its sale for an incongruous future as a Weatherspoons, a carpet warehouse or even a nightclub, will raise much needed income to maintain staff salaries and pension entitlements. If it is pursued, there will be a long and hard road ahead with a small army of jobsworths and legal eagles at county hall prevaricating, obfuscating and determined to wear down all who attempt the journey.

A committee of councillors, delegates from our various conservation and charitable organisations, as well as a strong representation of steadfast citizens, is therefore required to demonstrate that this building will not be yielded easily. Combined effort is essential but as with all such causes, the problem will be in finding sufficient people with the dedication to support an issue such as this in a climate of public apathy that so often enables injustice to prevail.

The current public dissatisfaction with our established political parties was evident during the local government elections this week in which candidates from the UK Independence Party (UKIP) took a fair slice of the votes. Here in Bourne, they did not stand in the Bourne Castle ward and therefore failed to influence the election of one of our independent candidates, Helen Powell, who won a seat on Lincolnshire County Council by polling 948 votes to defeat the Conservative councillor Charlotte Farquharson who has held it since 2005.

Councillor Powell is already a member of the town council and of South Kesteven District Council and is just ending her term as Mayor of Bourne, during which time she has reinforced her popularity in the town and district which has stood her in good stead for this election campaign. Jane Kingman, however, was less fortunate. She is also a member of the town council and Mayor of Bourne in 2007-08, and contested Bourne Abbey Ward, also standing as an independent, but the intervention of UKIP appears to have diluted her vote because their candidate polled 621, leaving the field open for Conservative Sue Woolley to retain the seat she won in 2008.

Nevertheless, the performance of UKIP candidates county-wide has resulted in the Conservatives losing overall control of the county council although it will need a dedicated coalition of all other parties to oppose them with any real effect. The local results were:

Bourne Abbey: Ron Davison (UKIP) 621, Jane Kingman (Ind) 418, Peter Morris (Lib Dem) 72, Ian Selby (Lab & Co-operative) 268, Sue Woolley (Con) 969. Turnout 25%.

Bourne Castle: Charlotte Farquharson (Con) 871, Paul Jacklin (Lab) 214, Janire Morris (Lib Dem) 76, Helen Powell (Ind) 948. Turnout 31%.

May Day fell on Wednesday this week although the celebrations of yesteryear were noticeably absent from the land where once a variety of activities marked this important day in our country calendar.

The ancient spring festival dating back to pagan times was regarded as a traditional holiday in many cultures down the centuries. It is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility, of the soil, livestock, and people, and revelry at village fetes and community gatherings, the most popular being the familiar dancing round the maypole and the crowning of a Queen of the May. There are variations of these observances, among them the carrying of floral decorations through the streets by children rather than the young men and girls who were once the customary bearers.

This garland treat, as it was known, was a particular feature of village life and a newspaper report of the custom survives from Morton almost 140 years ago when the Grantham Journal reported: “On May 1st, the schoolchildren of this village, according to custom, carried garlands from door to door, and the parishioners supplied them with money which was expended in a treat the following week. On the afternoon of that day, about 120 children had tea in the schoolroom and afterwards adjourned to a field for various games which were freely indulged in till dusk. Two fire balloons ascended during the evening (fourteen and twenty feet in diameter respectively), and a good display of fireworks brought the proceedings to a close, so far as the children were concerned. A number of ladies and gentlemen of the village, together with a few invited friends, then assembled in the schoolroom for a social dance which was a pleasant termination to the holiday.”

The one aspect of this report from 1877 is the simplicity of the celebration and the enjoyment it gave, reflecting a bygone age that has long been overtaken by the technological innovations that now dominate our leisure pursuits and activities.

The town council is hoping to re-use graves in the South Road cemetery for further burials because of a shortage of space. Available land is fast running out although a change in the law would be needed before existing plots could be utilised for further interments on a regular basis. This is not a new situation because the disposal of our dead has always been a problem in Bourne where the number of those buried over the centuries is so high that it is difficult to give an accurate estimate.

The cemetery has been in use since it was opened 150 years ago because there was no further space in the graveyard adjoining the Abbey Church and it now contains some 10,000 burials. Several grave spaces have already been used twice although strict rules govern this practice which is not usually carried out unless the original burial took place a century before and there are no remaining relatives of the deceased around to object.

The government is now being asked to relax the rules even further to enable more old graves be used for new burials, starting with the oldest first and particularly those which do not have headstones.

The cemetery was opened in 1855 because the churchyard was so full that bodies were being interred two, three and even four on top of each other. Today, this plot of secluded land to the south of the church, shaded by ancient chestnuts and lined with slate and granite tombstones, contains evidence of barely 300 graves yet the number of burials that have taken place here since the 12th century could be as many as 100,000.

An estimate can be assessed from the total figure for the first half of the 17th century when 2,670 burials were recorded for the years from 1601-1650. Replicating this summary would mean that the churchyard had to cope with at least 5,000 burials for each of the subsequent centuries although the death rate was increasing with the rising population and so between 1562 and 1855 when the churchyard closed, at least 30,000 burials would have taken place although with unrecorded deaths prior to that, and in those years when no register was kept, this number will be much higher.

These figures are borne out by the National Burials Index (NBI) which records a total of 37,624 burials in Bourne between 1754 and 1995 although 8,287 of these were in the cemetery which opened in 1855 and so the total for the churchyard for that period will be 29,337. My own records go back a further two centuries to include those burials between 1562 and 1753 and so we are able to give a continuous total over five centuries of 50,000.

There will be comparative figures for most of our ancient churches and historians suggest that even in a small village of say, 250 inhabitants, several thousand people died and were buried each century and in the average country churchyard there are about 20,000 bodies under the soil. In some counties such as Norfolk, the surface has even risen by as much as three feet often giving the appearance that the church has sunk into the ground. This explanation is apparent with the churchyard in Bourne which has also risen above the level of the church for a height of more than 2 ft. although not quite so dramatically as others elsewhere in the country but then this is fen soil and the land is also liable to sink, thus reducing the impact.

The inadequacy of old records makes it impossible to trace the last resting place of everyone who died in Bourne but this changed with the opening of the cemetery and now all burials that have taken place there have been recorded for posterity. But as death is an inevitable eventuality and with the annual numbers rising as the population increases, even the cemetery in South Road is now approaching capacity.

The town council has been trying to acquire additional land for some years because the existing space is likely to run out within the next five years and so the utilisation of existing graves is a distinct possibility. Mrs Nelly Jacobs, clerk to the town council, told The Local newspaper (April 26th) that permission to re-use old graves would release about one third of the spaces. “One of these days the cemetery will be full”, she said. “If we cannot find new land to bury people then something else will have to be done.”

Thought for the week: Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. - from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray (1716-71), English poet, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.

Saturday 11^th May 2013

Work is well advanced at The Croft in North Road, an £8 million residential development for elderly retired people which began two years ago and is now slowly being populated. This has been one of the most controversial housing schemes in the history of Bourne following a prolonged battle over planning permission which began in 1993 during which time the house and seven acres of grounds became derelict and overgrown.

Those who remember the parlous state of this property before work on the present development began must agree that what we see now is a tremendous transformation and has certainly enhanced this part of the town.

The Croft is a relatively modern property, having been built as a family home by a local corn merchant as recently as 1922 although the developers still insist on calling it the old manor house, which indeed it is not because it has no connection whatsoever with either of our two ancient manors, those of Bourne and Bourne Abbots, both of which date back to mediaeval times.

The house was sold freehold in 1960, soon after the original owner died, for £8,000. Today, the 68 houses and bungalows now being built in the grounds are on offer leasehold for prices ranging from £140,000 to £255,000, a stark reminder of how much our money has devalued and the inflation that has overtaken us in the past fifty years to produce such soaring property prices.

For those who have not seen the new estate, it is worth taking a look although there is one disappointment. It will be remembered that when occupied by the last owner, Mr Andrew Cooke, a local businessman and landowner, he enhanced the property considerably during his forty-year tenure and one of the more interesting features he introduced was the erection of the 19th century cast iron gas lamps along the main drive, rescued from the railway station at Bourne when it was demolished in 1964 and converted to electricity to light the way for visitors on dark evenings.

They were a popular feature enjoyed by everyone who passed by and it was thought that they were to be retained. In fact, when the development was in the planning stage, Alan Whyte, partnerships director for Longhurst Group which is behind the project, issued a detailed statement of their aims and objectives (July 2009) which said: “Major features of the scheme will be the restoration of the house itself and the magnificent driveway that will be landscaped and returned to its former glory. The Victorian lamp standards that were once on the railway station at Bourne will also be restored.”

The house and driveway have been restored as promised but there is no sign of the cast iron lamp standards from our railway history. Instead, they have been replaced with half a dozen inferior replicas straight from the plastics factory.

But where are the originals? If they are not to be returned to their position along the front driveway at The Croft, then perhaps they can be handed over to the town and used instead to light the main path through the Wellhead Gardens, a suggestion already put forward in the past by the Civic Society.

Lighting this path is an amenity that has long been needed. The walk is among the most popular in Bourne, frequented by townspeople and visitors alike, but they can only enjoy it in the daytime because it is impossible to find your way through on dark nights. When the idea was put forward in February 2007, secretary Robert Kitchener said: “Our favoured idea is to move the lamp posts and place them along Cherry Avenue which runs through the Wellhead Gardens. This has been proposed, with police support, as a safety measure in this poorly lit common public thoroughfare.”

It certainly does appear that the lamps have been forgotten at The Croft and perhaps the developers might think it a worthwhile community gesture to donate them to the town and pay for their installation. Our conservation organisations would certainly agree with such a conclusion although a final decision would rest with the trustees of Bourne United Charities who administer the park and if they turn down the idea then at least the lamps could be handed over to the Heritage Centre for preservation as relics of the railway age in Bourne. They certainly should not be consigned to the rubbish tip.

It is always a delightful experience to read the promises made by developers when applying for planning permission, albeit one tempered by caution, and what a disappointment when that which is anticipated is not delivered.

Residential developments are a particular area of creativity designed to persuade the planning committee to rubber stamp the proposals before them and even the public often gives that nod of approval because of what is on offer but then reality kicks in as we wait in vain to taste the sugar on the pill.

New houses may be necessary but to allow them proliferate without the necessary services and infrastructure is a negation of responsibility by local authorities because it will eventually lead to unwanted pressure on our health clinics, schools, roads and leisure facilities created by the tenants moving in.

The latest phase of the Elsea Park estate is the subject of a detailed planning application to South Kesteven District Council seeking permission to build 289 new homes on 16 acres of land alongside the Raymond Mays Way together with two shops. Naturally, these retail outlets reported by the Stamford Mercury (April 19th) get less prominence than “the much-needed new homes that Bourne clearly needs” but they are mentioned, nevertheless, as part of the development that will take five years to complete.

Shops are a frequent inclusion in plans for new housing estates although they do not always materialise and this is not a new phenomenon. In 1975, for instance, developers submitted plans to build 254 new homes on a 30-acre greenfield site as an extension to the Beech Avenue estate which also included provision for a shopping centre and recreational facilities but although the houses are now well established, you will look in vain for either of these amenities as you will for a shop in the Stephenson Way/Northfields development that was promised about the same time.

There have been other instances since, notably a new medical centre offering a wide range of services from general practitioner appointments and dentistry to home care for the elderly and mentally ill which formed part of a planning application submitted in 2006 together with a block of flats. These have since been completed and are occupied but there is still no sign of the medical centre which, we were told, would help meet the shortfall in hospital services for the town following the closure of Bourne Hospital in 1998.

The amenities offered by the Elsea Park development itself have not been without problems. Those who followed the negotiations at the time will remember that a doctor’s surgery was part of the planning gain package agreed with the developers in November 1999 in return for permission to build the 2,000 house estate. A new south west relief road that was also agreed finally opened in 2005 after much aggravation and the promised community centre in 2012 but work is yet to start on the new primary school which after much delay and with around 800 homes completed and occupied, is not due to open until next year.

Marriage among our senior citizens is now commonplace. No one bats an eyelid when a couple of octogenarians decide to tie the knot but it was not always so and it caused quite a stir when James Leverland and Harriet West decided to wed in 1876.

James, aged 80, of Northorpe, and Harriet, aged 74, of Bourne, chose the Free Methodist Chapel at Thurlby, for the ceremony on Friday 24th March. Both had been married twice before and as a result of their advancing ages the wedding excited considerable interest in the village because the united age of the bride and bridegroom was 154 years.

“The eager curiosity among the villagers caused great excitement and led very many persons to assemble in and around the chapel to witness the interesting ceremony", reported a local newspaper. "Possibly this curiosity was increased by the well-known fact that the venerable bridegroom was so deaf as to render it very probable some little difficulty would be experienced in getting through the ceremony.

"All difficulties being surmounted, and the knot duly tied, the happy pair had to face the numerous crowd of spectators. Flowers were strewed before them and although the gay Lothario is an octogenarian, we may venture to hope that a few more flowers may yet bedeck his pathway. Although both bride and bridegroom had twice before passed through the same ordeal at the hymeneal altar, we venture to assume that never before did they meet with such an ovation, although they scarcely seemed to appreciate it or understand the customs of this degenerate age, for no sooner did they reach the chapel doors, and rice began to pour upon them in showers from all directions, than the faithful and trusty stick upon which our venerable friend had so long and so often leaned, instantly sprang to the rescue, and was uplifted in a menacing attitude, while expressions indicating his opinion that they were being insulted escaped from his lips.

"However, the party were immediately saluted by a boisterous cheer from the assembled rustics, and a clear passage having been affected for them, they passed through the crowd and took refuge in the house of a friend hard by. Whilst the burden of eighty long winters has borne down the once ‘gigantic form of man’, and the bended form assumes the bow-like shape, ever and anon looking down towards mother earth, the buxom bride, cheered by the light and heat and sunshine of more than seventy summers, is still erect and sprightly."

Wind turbines are generally accepted as a sign of progress in the provision of renewable energy, although there is a vociferous lobby against them in many localities. They certainly look graceful when seen turning slowly on the horizon against a backdrop of blue skies and scudding white clouds but these massive constructions may not be quite so welcome if they appear within sight of the back door.

Such is the case at Dyke, near Bourne, where a 150 ft tall wind turbine with three massive blades is proposed on agricultural land close to the main A15 trunk road. The nearest houses are reckoned to be 390 metres away which is well outside the suggested distance to reduce the impact of noise and shadow created by the machine.

Residents are totally opposed to the scheme and they have been supported by the town council which plans to lodge an official objection with South Kesteven District Council, the planning authority that will give a final decision. Their disapproval reported by The Local newspaper (April 26th) is that the wind turbine will not only be intrusive and out of character for the surrounding rural area but the proposed location will also have a major impact on traffic safety by distracting motorists on an already dangerous stretch of road.

Until now, I have regarded wind turbines as a necessary and even progressive development along with the windmills and electricity pylons of yesteryear, all of which have blended well into our countryside with the passing of time. But I am now having second thoughts because the view from my first floor study window at the moment provides an uninterrupted prospect of the fen either side of Dyke village for a distance of many miles but if the development does go ahead, then this massive machine will soon be appearing bang in the middle of that idyllic outlook and so for the first time in my life, I am pondering on the real implications of nimbyism.

Thought for the week: Our English countryside is one of the most heavily man-made habitats in Europe. To make it into a green museum would be to belie its whole history. - Nicholas Ridley (1929-93), Conservative Party politician and government minister who popularised the word nimby or Not In My Back Yard to describe those who instinctively opposed any local building development. 

Saturday 18^th May 2013

There are few reminders left around Bourne that the name of this town was once spelled without a final “e” but among them is an ancient milestone on the A151 West Road on the way out of town to the Great North Road and can be seen on the right hand side just before reaching the Stamford turn.

For years it has been in a dilapidated condition, chipped, weather worn and leaning to one side, yet still a part of our heritage. It has recently been restored, set straight and painted in white with black lettering, but apart from the cosmetic work which has been reasonably well done, someone has clumsily added a final “e” to the two embossed inscriptions of the name BOURN, thus destroying its historic value completely. This appears to be the work of Lincolnshire County Council, the highways authority, and is most certainly a case of official vandalism that is now attracting the attention of our conservation organisations.

The name Bourn was changed in the late 19th century when the final "e" was added to distinguish it from Bourn in Cambridgeshire because there had been some confusion between the two places as a result of the growing popularity of the postal services and the railway age that brought the widespread movement of goods and passengers around the country. It was approved by a public meeting at the Town Hall in June 1893 when the GPO, the railway authorities and the local newspapers were notified immediately and it has been in use ever since.

The West Road milestone is one of the last reminders of the old name and to deface it in this way is to cock a snook at our history and is tantamount to scrawling graffiti over the Town Hall or the Red Hall. Lincolnshire County Council now has a duty to remove the incongruous addition and restore the original spelling on this small but significant relic of our heritage. After all, we do not have many of these wayside markers left and those we do have should be preserved in their original condition wherever possible.

People in public life today make many unpopular statements but if they are offensive they can apologise to the person concerned. In past times, however, they were likely to be challenged to a duel, a confrontation with chosen weapons based on a code of honour.

Duels were fought not so much to kill the opponent as to gain satisfaction, that is to restore one's honour by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it. The tradition of duelling was therefore reserved for the male members of the nobility although in later times it also extended to those of the upper classes, often with a sword as the chosen weapon and later pistols.

Although duelling in most countries was illegal from the early 17th century, the authorities frequently turned a blind eye although it was not until 1852 that the last fatal duel took place in England. Many famous people from history fought duels including two prime ministers, William Pitt the Younger (1798) and the Duke of Wellington (1829), and in 1831, Charles Tennyson, the M P who represented Bourne, found himself in such a situation.

Tennyson was a landowner and uncle of the poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson. In 1831, he had been elected as M P for Stamford, a constituency that included Bourne, and it was a speech he made in June that year that was widely reported in the newspapers, in which he mentioned the Cecil family in what was construed to be disparaging terms.

Lord Thomas Cecil, son of the second Marquess of Exeter, of Burghley House, Stamford, took offence claiming that Mr Tennyson had accused his family of “invading the rights of the people” and he refuted these allegations during a speech at a public dinner in Stamford on June 14th that year but Tennyson refused to withdraw them, resulting first in an exchange of letters and ultimately a duel with pistols.

The confrontation was subsequently held at Wormwood Scrubs at six o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday 17th June where the two men gathered with their seconds, Lord Thomas Cecil being attended by Lord James Fitzroy and Tennyson by Sir William Ingilby, the M P for Lincolnshire. Reporting the events that followed, the Grantham Journal said: “After exchanging shots, Sir William expressed himself satisfied on the part of Mr Tennyson and Lord James Fitzroy said that Lord Thomas Cecil was satisfied; and the affair being thus terminated to the honour of all parties, a conversation ensued in which Mr Tennyson having expressed his regret that any expressions of his should have been painful to Lord Thomas Cecil’s feelings, and expressed his hope that they would have no further cause of difference, he and Lord Thomas Cecil shook hands and the parties left the ground with the full understanding that all points of dispute were finally disposed of.”

Because of the illegality of the confrontation, the two duellists and their seconds were arrested by the police immediately after leaving the shooting ground and taken into custody, first to Paddington police station and then before a magistrate at Marylebone. Here, the court was told that the duel had already taken place and that the two parties were now reconciled and instead of being bound over to keep the peace, which would have been the usual procedure, the case was dismissed.

Tennyson continued as M P for Stamford for another year and in 1832 he was elected as member for Lambeth where he remained until 1852. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society (1829), a Privy Counsellor (1832) and a published poet (1850). He died in 1861, aged 77.

The recent work on converting the Corn Exchange into a new Community Access Point for the town has highlighted the neglected state of the remaining frontage in Abbey Road, a fine example of Victorian architecture designed by the London architect Charles Bell that should be preserved. This was the building the public saw when it was completed in 1870 and the imposing façade of red brick with ashlar dressings remained the entrance until successive local authorities began making extensions to cope with an expanding population.

The rebuilding scheme in 1990 gave us the modernised Corn Exchange we know today when the entrance moved to the back overlooking a new paved market area and car park and now the latest project has altered the interior beyond all recognition for its new role. But through all this, the original frontage with its pyramid-style blue slate roof has been forgotten and is now wedged into the street scene between two other properties yet refusing to be hidden and so remaining a distinctive landmark by virtue of its period appeal.

The Corn Exchange, now administered by South Kesteven District Council, deserves a place with our other 71 listed buildings to ensure that it will be protected in the future. To secure this, English Heritage would need to recommend a Grade II listing for the building, thus ensuring that it would be preserved for the future. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen at the moment because successful applications are being restricted to those buildings which are under immediate threat through drastic alteration or demolition and as this is not so in this case, a listing will have to wait for the time being.

Nevertheless, the new role of the Corn Exchange has highlighted its importance to the town and although the Abbey Road frontage has been largely ignored during the recent conversion work on the main building, perhaps there will be an opportunity in the future to give it some tender loving care when the opportunity arises and the money is available.

From the archives - 124 years ago: On Sunday evening, a thunderstorm of unusual severity passed directly over the town while divine service was being held at the church. About 7 o'clock, it grew very dark and the storm broke with terrible violence. The flashes of lightning were extremely vivid and the peals of thunder following each other in rapid succession, were deafening. The vane on the Corn Exchange, to which the point of the lightning conductor is attached, was bent, falling about five inches, and the wire was twisted throughout its length. A passerby noticed a flash of light run from the point to the earth. No further damage occurred to the property as far as we have been able to ascertain and no person was injured. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 26th July 1889.

Better late than never appears to be an appropriate proverb when dealing with planning promises made to our local authorities and we now see signs that the new primary school originally guaranteed as part of the massive Elsea Park estate fourteen years ago is finally being delivered.

This is part of the S104 agreement with the developers, the planning gain from the profit made from 2,000 new houses they are building, although along with other items on the list it has been slow in coming. Everyone, in fact, has been dragging their heels over this despite the obvious conclusion that an estate of this size will attract a tremendous influx of people who will put a heavy strain on existing services, whether they be schools, roads, health clinics, or any of the other amenities that are an essential part of our local communities.

For those who can remember the public exhibition mounted by the developers at the Red Hall in October 1999 to persuade the people of Bourne that this residential expansion was necessary, it is a timely reminder that many who attended came away totally dispirited by the experience because there was insufficient information over when the school and other promised facilities would actually be delivered to cope with this massive influx of people and so it has proved.

Now, with pupils being turned away from the primary school of their choice and diverted to the surrounding villages, it has finally been decided to proceed with that which was promised well over a decade ago. The proposed new school will provide 210 places, that is thirty in each year group, which Lincolnshire County Council, the education authority, claims will be needed in Bourne by 2015.

The construction costs of £2.5 million will be met by the county council and the developers and the single storey school will have six classrooms with a main hall, library, ICT suite and facilities for design technology, food technology and science, together with the usual offices and storage space, all based on either side of a central space lit through clerestory windows and can be used for both curricula and non-curricula activities. All of the classrooms will face and have direct access to a playground area and a feature of the design has been to allow the maximum of natural light. There will also be a car park for 18 staff vehicles.

The school is due to open for the autumn term in September 2014 but who is going to run it? Well, no one yet knows because the days when the old county education authority was in charge have gone for good and we are now into a world of academies and a complicated process of partnerships and trusts who are seeking control that will dilute the individuality of this particular primary. Why, for instance, should the new school be controlled by one of the bidders, Bourne Westfield Primary Academy, when its own track record is questionable with a warning from Ofsted, the government’s Office for Standards in Education, following a visit by their inspectors last November that the level of pupil achievement needs to be raised and the quality of teaching, leadership and management improved (The Local, 11th January 2013)?

The simplest way would be to appoint a headteacher, staff and governors as in the past and allow the school to become established in the traditional fashion with the involvement of parents and under the aegis of the county education authority before floating it into the academy pond which has so far an unproven track record. Time for that change of status will be at least ten years hence.

Thought for the week: The school is the last expenditure upon which a country should be willing to economise. - Franklin D Roosevelt (1882-1945), the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war.

Saturday 25^th May 2013

The story of coachman Joseph Brightmore two centuries ago is one of resilience and fortitude in the face of extreme adversity and therefore deserves a worthy place in our history. He arrived in Bourne on Wednesday 10th October 1821 on his regular run driving the London to Lincoln stage coach that had stopped at the Bull Inn [now the Burghley Arms] to change horses and allow passengers time for rest and refreshment. After a short break and with a new team, he was about to resume his journey when the animals took fright and bolted, pulling the coach over a heap of stones and building materials that had been left lying in the road outside the new Town Hall where it overturned.

Brightmore was thrown off and badly injured, breaking both arms and one of his thighs, and was carried into the inn where medical assistance was summoned. “The unfortunate man lies in a very dangerous state”, reported the Stamford Mercury the following Friday. “He had deservedly the character of a steady coachman and was highly respected at Lincoln where he has a wife and large family.”

His condition remained extremely serious for many weeks and the newspaper reported on Friday 28th December: “We are sorry to learn that the poor man still lies confined to his bed at Bourne, though every possible attention to his wants have been administered, and that it was only a few days ago that he was capable of being removed in order to change the linen and adjust the bed. As his case is a compound fracture, little hopes are entertained of his speedy recovery.”

But Brightmore, who was 43, did recover although it took many months, and despite being disabled for life by his injuries, three years later he was back on the road, this time as owner driver of his own stage coach, no doubt using the money he had received in compensation to finance his new business.

“His coach, of no small importance, has commended running through the numerous villages from Lincoln to Grantham”, reported the Stamford Mercury on Friday 3rd December 1824. “The line of country through which it passes will hail this real accommodation and give the proprietor every support for its continuance. Joseph Brightmore, the late driver of the Express coach, who was so unfortunate as to receive severe injuries by the overturning of that coach at Bourne from the incautious placing of some stones upon the road. He anticipates that supporting of a wife and family by his own exertions in the undertaking and, cripple as he ever will be from the accident referred to, it is hoped his urbanity, attention and carefulness will ensure him success in his laudable efforts. By his coach, a connection is opened with Melton Mowbray, Leicester etc, from Grantham.”

Brightmore remained in coaching for several years before retiring to become landlord of the Lord Nelson Inn near the High Bridge in Lincoln, where he frequently regaled customers with tales of his time on the road. The accident at Bourne, however, had been only one of many to befall him because in 1844, when he was 66, he was admitted to the county hospital with a fractured leg having in the course of his life suffered from broken bones or dislocations on thirty occasions and had recovered each time.

Then when he was 74 and now living in retirement , he was caught up in the floods that inundated Lincoln in the winter of 1852 after the River Witham burst its banks, trapping families in the nest of small houses where he lived, and the Stamford Mercury reported on 3rd December: “Persons well acquainted with this locality say that the people are in a wretched state of want and that in the worst winters there necessities have never been so extreme as they are now, the men being out of employ and the families being pent up in their home starving. Poor Joseph Brightmore, the old coachman, who has gone through so many perils, was in his chamber for a week until starvation rendered him desperate, when he forced his way from his prison almost up to the neck in water.”

Despite these continual privations, he lived for another six years and died at Lincoln on Friday 28th August 1858 at the age of 80, his body bearing the scars of the many accidents that had befallen him during an eventful career although never once did he falter in his resolve to make the most out of life and continue to earn his own living. He and his wife, Ann, had five children and the Brightmore name now shines brightly in the world of genealogy on both sides of the Atlantic where descendants are exploring their ancestry and so perhaps this brief account of his career will add some colour to their researches.

There are signs that our traffic problems are becoming more acute with an increasing number of vehicles jamming roads around the town centre. Although the opening of the relief road in 2005 has reduced the volume of traffic passing through from the south and west, the number of cars, lorries and vans using the A15 trunk road through the town centre has increased dramatically, thus creating a knock-on effect on all other thoroughfares while other factors are also adding to the problem.

West Street was gridlocked at mid-morning on Thursday with some cars parked on double yellow lines and not a traffic warden in sight. The car parks were full and tempers frayed, particularly the private area at the Hereward Clinic in Exeter Street where several spaces appeared to have been taken by shoppers rather than patients and staff because there was nowhere else in town to leave their cars. Several were blocked in and there was at least one collision while anyone arriving for an appointment had to go elsewhere.

The situation is likely to get worse when the Burghley Street car park closes (Tuesday 28th May until Tuesday 11th June) because of the ongoing work on the Wherry’s Lane improvement scheme. There are 92 spaces here but these will be drastically reduced as the car park shuts in two stages for a fortnight which will add dramatically to our current problems and so motorists may well be advised to stay out of town until it is all over.

The proliferation of King Car is entirely to blame for the ruination of many of England’s small market towns because central government and local authorities have not kept pace with the changes required to keep their numbers in check, either through the construction of new by-passes or the provision of additional car parks. The comparative solitude of our own town centres which was evident in past times when the only traffic was the horse and cart has long gone and while the current financial restraints continue, the resulting chaos that we now see most weekdays here in Bourne is likely to be with us for many years to come.

From the archives – 121 years ago: Considerable excitement, and no little alarm, was caused on Sunday shortly before morning service by the sight of a runaway horse with brougham attached, careering at full gallop through the streets of Bourne. There being no occupants in the carriage, it was feared that this was the precursor to the tidings of a fatal accident. It appears that as Captain Pritchard, of Cawthorpe Hall, and his family, were preparing to start for church, the horse, in backing, turned restive and bolted. Captain Pritchard had happily, just prior to this, requested his wife and children to leave the carriage where they had been seated. The horse took a roundabout race by way of North Street, South Street, Thurlby Road, the Austerby, Queen's Bridge and Eastgate, and was finally checked at the second bridge, as police Superintendent Willerton Brown drove up in pursuit. Considering the number of people around at the time, it is marvellous that no casualty occurred. Both horse and carriage were uninjured. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 27th May 1892.

Evidence of an American connection with Bourne’s aerated water industry from past times has been researched by Jonathan Smith, a member of the Civic Society and an intrepid bottle collector who is also an acknowledged expert on the various companies which thrived on the pure underground aquifers on which this town was built. In recent months, he has discovered several stone ginger beer bottles bearing the label of Lee & Green and factory addresses at Syracuse and Buffalo, New York.

During the 19th century, pure water was much sought after, mainly for reasons of hygiene because that supplied through the taps, usually outside in the yard, was often unpleasant and sometimes contaminated. Bottled water was considered safe, especially from such a pure source as Bourne on which its future prosperity was founded, and subsequent firms exploited this resource and used it to produce a wide range of drinks, among them, R M Mills & Co founded by Robert Mason Mills, collecting a Royal Warrant for supplying Queen Victoria’s son, HRH the Duke of Connaught.

One of the biggest of these firms was Lee & Green, founded at Sleaford by George Raynard Lee and Arthur Green in 1881 and soon their mineral water bottling enterprise expanded to Spalding in 1886, Bourne in 1891 and Skegness in 1899. In addition to the bottling of superior aerated waters, the firm also specialised in the production of ginger beer, which gained champion status.

Ginger beer of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries was said to have tasted similar to the best champagne, with a sparkling effervescence and so it is no wonder that this favourite drink of England had crossed the Atlantic by 1790. It was fizzy due to the carbon dioxide it contained (a natural by-product of fermentation) and the alcohol content when produced in the traditional process could be as high at 11 per cent, although it is possible to ferment ginger beer so it produces little alcohol. We have no details of the alcoholic content of Lee and Green's ginger beer.

It was the demand for English brewed ginger beer in America, particularly around New York, which saw the firm develop factories in both Syracuse and Buffalo early in the 20th century. On 7th March 1900, Arthur Green sailed on the liner Oceanic for New York to open a new factory just outside the city, at Syracuse. The firm secured the services of Nelson Anderson as manager of the branch which was at 113 Raynor Avenue. The opening of a further branch at Buffalo, New York State followed soon after.

The American stoneware ginger beer bottles carry a very similar transfer label to the English made bottles used by Lee & Green's Lincolnshire factories but described it as English brewed rather than champion brewed ginger beer and in addition to the factories at Sleaford, Spalding, Bourne and Skegness, carried either the names Syracuse or Buffalo, and in some cases both American factories.

The prospectus published in January 1902, when shares were issued in Lee & Green Ltd, makes no note of the American branches, just the four centres in Lincolnshire. However, with around a dozen variants of ginger beer bottles (identified by leading American ginger beer bottle researcher Donald Yates) used by Lee & Green at Syracuse and Buffalo, it would seem likely that George Lee and Arthur Green continued the American branch as a separate business.

Later American bottles carry the name Lee and Green Co but all examples name the four original Lincolnshire factories, which probably means the American business had ceased by 1914 when the Skegness outlet closed and a new one opened at Boston. Lee and Green Ltd ceased trading in the 1930s and the Bourne operation closed in 1934. Sadly, both in Lincolnshire and America, Lee and Green missed the peak of ginger beer's popularity. This occurred in America in 1920, when it was abruptly terminated by prohibition, and in England fifteen years later, in 1935.

The bottles which have come from the United States have been added to Jonathan’s collection which now numbers in excess of 300 and the very best of them relating to Bourne’s water industries are on permanent display at the Heritage Centre in South Street where they can be viewed during opening hours.

Thought for the week: Our water, from an artesian spring of great depth, as supplied to royalty, the nobility and gentry for over forty years, is, according to a government analyst, the purest in England. – advertisement for Bourne water from 1909.

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