Bourne Diary - November 2013

Saturday 2^nd November 2013

Another town centre property is standing empty with the closure of the Burghley Arms, one of our oldest and busiest hostelries. The lease has run out for the last tenant and the owners, Enterprise Inns plc which runs 6,000 public houses in the country, is seeking a new landlord.

As with all vacant properties, the public house at No 6 North Street has already taken on a forlorn appearance with its bolted doors and closed windows, the once colourful hanging baskets that were added to the frontage to enhance its appearance during the Bourne in Bloom competition during the summer months now faded and withered while despite this being a Grade II listed building, plastic signs adorn the outside walls, notably a banner advertising for a new owner under the slogan “This pub – could you run it?” together with a contact telephone number for anyone interested, an indication of the parlous state of the licensed trade today.

This is a most unfortunate occurrence for Bourne because the building next door is the Town Hall, also standing empty since March when services were transferred to the new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange, and neglect is already beginning to show with the inevitable graffiti that marks out empty properties appearing in the south passageway and rubbish piling up in the alcoves.

These two buildings, together with the stone frontage of the Lloyds Bank complex on one side and the red brick of the Nat-West building on the other, have provided an attractive façade in the street scene for visitors to the town arriving from the south, and it is a pity that the two oldest have now been abandoned.

The Burghley Arms was originally a private residence, notable as the birthplace in 1520 of the illustrious Elizabethan statesman William Cecil, trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth I and the first Lord Burghley. It was converted into a hostelry in the early 18th century, first known as the Bull and Talbot, then the Bull and Swan although by the 19th century is was known simply as the Bull Inn, a name that continued in use until October 1955 when it was changed to the Burghley Arms in honour of Lord Burghley and a plaque to commemorate his birth was erected on the front by Bourne Urban District Council.

Over the years it has been a popular meeting place for many of the town’s leading organisations whose members gathered there to arrange their affairs and to dine afterwards in convivial style and a regular haunt of farmers, landowners and businessmen who congregated, often at lunchtime and on market days, to gossip, do business, strike bargains and discuss the affairs of the day although in recent times this prestigious and profitable trade declined and the Burghley Arms became just another pub.

The story is the same elsewhere in the country as changing times mean changing habits with the result that many public houses now face an uncertain future. The sad aspect of this particular closure is that the Burghley Arms has been part of Bourne for the past 300 years, a building and a business steeped in our history, and to see it closed, especially on a market day, is a setback for the appearance of this town.

The re-launch of The Local as “the people’s paper”, the first in the country, is now in full swing with a wrap round colour supplement in the latest issue outlining the aims and objectives of the new editorial enterprise and seeking the support of readers.

The new look was announced the previous week with a front page appeal (October 18th) asking readers to report their own news, whether it be personal occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries or charity fund-raising activities and meetings of their clubs and organisations. “We want our army of readers to have their say directly on the pages of their favourite local newspaper”, says the newspaper. Staff reporters will continue to cover the big local stories but from now on, the rest will be in the hands of the readers.

This may be a timely enterprise by the newspaper as the days of large editorial staffs of reporters, feature writers, photographers, sub-editors and proof readers have gone because they are no longer affordable. Asking readers to write the newspaper is an ingenious method of keeping it going in difficult economic times and may well herald a new era in local journalism.

It is a particularly significant development for our own local newspapers. Although The Local was only founded in 1989, its sister paper, the Stamford Mercury, is the oldest in Britain claiming to have been published since 1695. Archive copies exist from 1714 which indicate that the newspaper pioneered provincial reporting, setting the standard by which all others aspired. These early editions consisted of one or two pages filled mainly with public notices and advertisements and the size increased as the years progressed with the inclusion of what was then known as intelligence, that is reports from Parliament, the daily doings of royalty, shipping and of foreign adventures, particularly wars in faraway places.

By the end of the 18th century the first reports of local issues and events had begun to appear regularly and as the circulation increased so did the area covered and in each place a local correspondent was appointed to provide items of interest that would attract readers, contributors who became known as penny-a-liners after the rate they were paid for the job.

The hey-day of the Stamford Mercury came during the 20th century when it was published as a broadsheet of many pages, each packed with photographs and local news reported in the smallest detail, with slip editions for outlying towns such as Bourne which each had its own correspondent. Courts and councils were the bread and butter of the weekly round with news of every human happening, from births, weddings and funerals, better known in the trade as hatches, matches and despatches, to the activities of the various organisations, a call on every church minister and club secretary, the police, officials of the Women’s Institute, the Young Wives’ Fellowship, business, industry and farming, sport from soccer to shove ha’penny, and a multitude of other sources from where the words flowed to fill the newspaper each week in all of its parochial minutiae. There was a saying among these prolific scribes that not even a mouse moved in their parish without it being recorded by the local newspaper.

It was from this school of experience that many journalists found their feet and then moved on to more prestigious newspapers including Fleet Street and I was privileged to be among them but the experience that came from those years of hard work pounding the streets in a small town in search of news stood us all in good stead and proved to be a remarkable grounding for a successful career.

Our transport in those days was the bus, a push bike or shanks’ pony and we either wrote our copy with pen and ink or tapped it out on a primitive typewriter when one of the few in the newsroom became available. Today, the digital age has given everyone a mobile phone, iPad, tablet or laptop that have made these tasks simpler, more efficient and, most importantly, faster and as speed has become an essential ingredient of modern reporting and these devices are available to everyone perhaps the two can combine to begin a new era in local journalism.

The progress of this experiment will most certainly be watched with considerable interest by newspapers throughout the country and we can only hope that in the interests of provincial journalism that it succeeds although one thing is certain, that the new look will be very different from the old.

From the archives – 129 years ago: A FRIEND IN NEED:  A somewhat out of the ordinary case of begging was heard before magistrates at Bourne on September 23rd against Gustave Henderson, aged 17, a native of Brunswick, USA. The court was told that after failing to get a ship at the London docks, he was making his way to Hull but on his journey north, was found begging in the streets of Bourne. The chairman, Lieut-Colonel William Parker, told the accused that he ought to have known that begging was not allowed and he should have sought refuge at the union [workhouse]. He had been in jail for a week but would be allowed to go free and warned not to beg any more otherwise he would most certainly be apprehended again. At this point, a gentleman stepped forward and addressed the court: "I am a minister and if I might be allowed to speak on behalf of the foreigner, I would be glad to subscribe half-a-crown towards paying the lad's fare to Hull." He then handed round his hat to the people in the courtroom and very quickly collected a further 5s. and the accused left the court with his new friend. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 31st October 1884.

The annual task of turning back the clocks must have irritated many people last weekend as we dutifully fiddled with our numerous timepieces to conform with the end of British Summer Time. Every year we curse this confounded ritual as being totally unnecessary were those in power to grasp the nettle and put an end to this nonsense which would not only bring the country into line with the rest of Europe but still have another additional hour in the summer months.

As it is, the system of putting the clocks forward in the spring and back again in the autumn creates a timekeeping confusion the causes muddle and even mayhem in many households and elsewhere.

Daylight saving, as it was known, was officially introduced during the Great War of 1914-18 but then, as now, it did not please everyone. Clocks throughout Britain were put forward by one hour at 2 am on Sunday 21st May 1916 after the government told M Ps that hundreds of thousands of tons of coal would be saved by the change in an attempt to help the war effort. The prospect of lighter evenings was widely welcomed, with the clocks being put back again in October, although there were objections to the new arrangement as one local newspaper reported the following Friday: “Farmers in the Bourne district are not putting the new Summer Time Bill into operation but are retaining the former times for commencing and leaving off work. In all other business concerns, the new times have been worked with general advantage. Various comments had been made as to the proposed change, there being some who declined to alter their clocks and looked upon the proposal with suspicion that it meant another hour’s work a day with no corresponding recompense.”

In recent years, there have been eight successive attempts in Parliament to change clock times since 1994 and all have failed but the benefits now appear to be unassailable, not least a reduction in the daily demand for electricity all year round. There would also be many community benefits because more time would be available at the end of the day than in the morning.

The last attempt was the Daylight Saving Bill of 2010–12, a private member's motion by Conservative backbench M P Rebecca Harris, which would have required the government to conduct an analysis of the potential costs and benefits of advancing time by one hour for all, or part of, the year. Prime Minister David Cameron said he would seriously consider proposals in the bill but despite several debates in the Commons, it was eventually filibustered out of Parliament by opponents with constituencies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and even Somerset who said they would be disadvantaged as a result.

There will no doubt be further attempts in the years ahead. In the meantime, we have those clocks to contend with twice a year, a task that always causes a headache for collectors and museums and as not everyone remembers to adjust their clocks when required, there are always many disrupted schedules the following morning as a result.

Thought for the week: To realise the unimportance of time is the gate to wisdom. - Bertrand (Earl) Russell (1872-1970), English philosopher, pacifist and ardent campaigner for nuclear disarmament.

Saturday 9^th November 2013

One of the memorial paving stones to be laid in towns around the country to commemorate local heroes who won the Victoria Cross during the First World War of 1914-18 is coming to Bourne.

It will remember Charles Sharpe who won his medal in 1915 while serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment during the Battle of Aubers Ridge in France at the age of 26. There were fears that the stone would go to Sleaford which was named in the list published by the government in August but it has now been accepted that Bourne was his home town.

The confusion arose because Sharpe was born at Pickworth, midway between Sleaford which is in North Kesteven District Council’s area, and Bourne which comes within the jurisdiction of South Kesteven District Council. But he always regarded Bourne as his home town and spent much of his life here. I therefore alerted South Kesteven District Council asking them to seek an amendment before the arrangements became too advanced.

Officials took up the case by contacting Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, and the leader, Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), has now received a personal assurance from the minister that the data base is being changed to reflect Charles Sharpe’s home town as Bourne.

Memorial slabs are being presented in a similar fashion to remember all winners of the Victoria Cross during the war as part of a government scheme to mark the centenary of the outbreak in 2014. The medal is Britain's highest military decoration for gallantry in the field and Sharpe was among the 633 members of the armed services who were so honoured.

An account of his life which can be found in my history of Bourne, reveals that he returned to England on leave to receive his medal from King George V at Windsor Castle and then came to Bourne on a recruiting drive to urge young, single men to volunteer for military service. He was discharged from the army in 1928 with a total of 23 years' service but returned for a further two years during the Second World War when he was in his fifties and although too old for active service, he was gainfully employed at home as a Master Sergeant Cook.

As a civilian, he worked on various jobs in Bourne including a spell as a labourer and cleaner at the BRM workshops and he also taught gardening and physical training at the Hereward Approved School in what is now Beech Avenue where the boys regarded him as a role model. He lived at No 68 Woodview and after a spell as a council refuse collector, his last job was as a gardener for the Bourne United Charities and, ironically, one of his duties was to tend the cenotaph and surrounds in the town's War Memorial gardens where the dead from two world wars are remembered. He died in 1963 and was buried with full military honours at Newport Cemetery in Lincoln while his name is remembered in a short cul-de-sac off Beech Avenue which was named Sharpe’s Close soon after his death.

His decorations passed to his children who decided to sell them and in 1989 they were sent to Christie's auction rooms in London. In addition to the V C there were eight campaign and commemorative medals and the set was bought by South Kesteven District Council for £17,000 on behalf of the community to commemorate the centenary year of Sharpe's birth and are now on show at the council’s offices in Grantham.

The decision to ensure that the memorial paving stone comes to Bourne has been welcomed by members of the Pickworth Local History Group. “Sleaford did not make sense”, said their spokesman Joe Seddon. “Bourne was as natural a connection with Charles locally as Pickworth has been historically and we are delighted that this has been changed.”

The stone is expected to be laid at a prominent location in Bourne yet to be decided on the 100th anniversary of the action for which the medal was issued, namely 9th May 1915. It will incorporate an electronic reader which passers-by can scan using their smartphones to learn more about the serviceman being honoured.

Drunk driving may seem to be a comparatively new criminal offence confined to those at the wheel of motor cars, lorries or vans but it has been with us ever since vehicles with wheels were invented and especially those pulled by horses. Although anyone who risked their lives in past times through such a foolhardy practice may not have been liable to prosecution by the law the consequences were often punishment enough as we can see from a particularly flagrant case from 200 years ago.

John Andrew, aged 33, was a carrier of goods, that is he owned a waggon and horses and plied his trade between his home in Bourne and the surrounding towns and villages, doing regular business at Stamford.

On the evening of Friday 3rd September 1824, he was on his way from Bourne to Stamford driving his waggon heavily laden with goods and pulled by two horses with his wife and another passenger but unfortunately he had been drinking and, as was later ascertained, was somewhat intoxicated. The road on which he was travelling is now known as the A6121 and motorists need to be careful even today because it is narrow, winding and undulating with many steep sections, but at that time before the introduction of tarmacadam would have been extremely narrow and hazardous with an uneven surface.

The road is particularly dangerous around Toft and after leaving the village there is a steep hill leading down to the Manthorpe turn and it was here that Andrews came to grief in an accident graphically described by the Stamford Mercury.

“From the maddening effects of liquor”, reported the newspaper, “the wretched man urged the horses at a most furious rate down the hills until, in descending the hill near Manthorpe Cross, he himself became alarmed and jumped off the shafts to endeavour to stop them. In the attempt, he unfortunately fell and both the wheels of the waggon passing over his body, he was so dreadfully crushed that he expired in consequence in a few minutes. His wife, although she jumped from the waggon, received no injury and the other passenger was equally fortunate.”

An inquest was held the following Monday when the coroner, Mr Samuel Edwards, recorded a verdict that Andrew had been "killed by the wheels of a waggon passing over his body, he being at the time in a state of intoxication".

He also ruled that the waggon and horses were found to be “deodand”, a legal term in use at the time to identify the instrument, whether it be an animal or inanimate thing, that caused a person’s death and to impose a penalty, in this case a fine of ten shillings, on the owners which went to the King and was intended to be spent for charitable purposes, a practice that was abolished in 1846.

It is comforting to know that Bourne is to keep its ambulance station, a public service that has been with us for almost a hundred years. Closure was forecast as part of the ill-advised economies to cut costs but common sense has won the day for the time being.

The intricate and inadequate replacement scheme proposed by the East Midlands Ambulance service (Emas) last year would have closed this and many other depots for these vital emergency vehicles and left ambulances waiting in lay-bys around the region until required, a most unsatisfactory arrangement which was roundly condemned during various public consultations, by the staff themselves and their trade unions. It would not have worked. Ambulances need a permanent base where vehicles can be kept and maintained and crews can find rest and recreation between calls. To consign them to the roadside until needed is to reduce efficiency and to deny their crews the respect they deserve.

Fortunately Emas has had second thoughts and the Bourne station in South Road is to be twinned with that at Stamford and to remain operational for the time being although the closure of many others will go ahead as planned and so we must count ourselves lucky. The Local newspaper has suggested (October 18th) that this arrangement may well continue for the next seven years and perhaps by then the economic situation will have improved and there will be no need for such draconian measures that might well save money but also put lives at risk and so we are entitled to ask which is the more important.

The ambulance service is not only in the front line of our emergency services in times of death and disaster which may occur at any time round the clock, but it is also a lifeline for many people, particularly the elderly, and a call to the paramedics, especially at night and at weekends when our family doctors are nowhere to be seen, could well mean the difference between life and death but these considerations seem to take a back seat when public spending is being cut. It is therefore a small mercy that Bourne has been reprieved and in these straightened times we must be thankful for it.

Anyone who has needed an ambulance will know how efficient the service can be. Horror stories abound of late arrivals and bumpy rides to hospital but considering its size and complexity country-wide, it has a good record and most staff are comforting and sympathetic at a time when patients are at their most vulnerable and even fearful.

This proficiency has only been achieved after years of dedicated training and experience and we only have to step back in time to see what a haphazard arrangement it once was. In Bourne, for instance, the ambulance service was not operating until 1931 and even then there was only one vehicle based at the Butterfield Hospital in North Road and run by members of the St John Ambulance Brigade who had only been passed fit for the task because they had a certificate in first aid.

The first patient to be conveyed by the Bourne ambulance was Mr Fred North of Mill Drove who was placed on a stretcher which was then loaded into the back and the ambulance set off for the Butterfield Hospital, a short journey to the end of North Street, but as it was crossing the gutter, the vehicle bounced and the back doors swung open. The stretcher started to slide out of the back but one of the attendants managed to stop it before it deposited its patient in the street. Mr North recovered from the indisposition which needed the ambulance journey to hospital and never held a grudge for the mishap. In 1936, when the brigade marked its fifth anniversary, he gladly accepted an invitation to the celebration dinner and even responded to the toast to "The Visitors".

There were other embarrassing incidents and on one occasion, when the ambulance was called out to collect a man having a fit, the attendants found that a crowd of bystanders were already rendering assistance and everyone present insisted on lending a hand when he was lifted into the vehicle, some even climbing inside to put him on the stretcher. The attendant closed the doors and the ambulance sped off to the Butterfield Hospital, taking with it half a dozen of the enthusiastic helpers.

These early days that resemble scenes from a Chaplin film comedy have long gone and our ambulance crews today display a dedication and professionalism that inspires confidence in the patients they carry. It is therefore up to the organisation which employs them to ensure that their working conditions remain the best available and that economies are not made at the expense of their efficiency and well-being.

Thought for the week: We say here that if you fall down in the United States, the ambulance man must feel for your wallet before he feels for your pulse. - George Galloway (born 1954), controversial politician, writer, and broadcaster, and Member of Parliament (Respect Party) for Bradford West.

Saturday 16^th November 2013

Despite the advance of technology to find new sources of energy, gas remains a popular and even necessary choice and the phenomenal rise in cost is a reminder of the dependency we have on it because no matter what other calls there may be on our income, heating is a high priority, especially for the elderly and can even be the difference between life and death.

The popular theory is that the energy companies are using the public as a milch cow to fill their coffers and the rush to sign everyone up for the regular payment syndrome through a monthly standing order is unstoppable. Their actions are being challenged in many quarters but government intervention is feeble in the extreme, the official regulator Ofgem proving to be totally ineffective and ministers unwilling to impose controls, through legislation if necessary, to curb this financial assault on the less well off. As a result, gas has never been so expensive with bills doubling in the past five years although when it was first introduced in the early 19th century, everyone flocked to be connected because it was reasonably priced and a welcome relief from oil lamps and candles which were inadequate and often dangerous.

The first commercial gasworks was built in London in 1812 and other towns and cities soon followed, the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company being formed in 1840 with premises on a site at the top end of Eastgate. The enterprise prospered and the first building in Bourne to be lit with coal gas was the Abbey Church in October 1841.

As demand increased the gasworks were enlarged and by 1880 gas was being used for heating and lighting in homes, shops and business premises, as well as for street lighting with 56 public incandescent gas lamps at various points around the town. The invention of the gas meter and the pre-payment system in the late 1880s played an important role in selling town gas to domestic and commercial customers and by the turn of the century the supply had become an accepted part of everyday life. There was also a campaign by the company to persuade housewives use gas for cooking and demonstrations were held at the Corn Exchange to show them how.

The gasworks continued to serve the town but in 1914, the company ceased trading and was taken over by Bourne Urban District Council with the intention of keeping going for the benefit of the town. Under the new ownership business expanded to meet the growing demand and by 1927 consumption had increased to such an extent that more modern equipment was needed and additional land was purchased to house the extensions.

This prosperity continued for another thirty years but re-organisation within the gas supply industry brought about their closure in 1957. The buildings in Eastgate were demolished in 1960 (pictured above) to make way for the new BRM workshops although the huge gasholder, or gasometer as it was known, remained in use on the opposite side of the road. By 1965, Bourne's supply had switched from coal gas to North Sea gas and was being piped in from Humberside and there were 1,400 consumers in the town at that time with the demand rising steadily. Responsibility for gas distribution subsequently passed from the council to the East Midlands Gas Board and then to British Gas in 1973.

Today, the gasometer has also gone, the last relic of a local industry for local people, but the popularity of gas as a domestic fuel remains undiminished, mainly because it is efficient and easy to use. But the business of distribution and sale was privatised under the Gas Act of 1986 with the result that there are now many suppliers headed by the six largest who are increasing prices annually. This, coupled with the rising rate of inflation, has made the gas supply to a domestic home almost a luxury and many people, particularly old age pensioners and those on low wages or benefits, are living in fuel poverty, in other words they cannot keep warm at a reasonable cost because the bill for heating and power is too high, a figure usually assessed at one tenth of their income.

The original dream of a cheap fuel to light and heat our homes has become a nightmare as speculators get rich at our expense. The supply of gas, once a cosy arrangement with a local producer and supplier, is now in the hands of mighty financial organisations which appear to charge as much as they like and to set their own rules for customers. Many people regard this as a setback for society and that essential public services such as the supply of gas, electricity and water, and perhaps even the telephone and railway systems, should not be in the hands of private business with the sole objective of making investors rich but controlled by central government yet their intended aim appears to be selling off everything they have for short term gain and as a result, the public bear the brunt of this misguided policy.

Solar farms appear to be here to stay and the Bourne area is getting its share with one already completed on farmland off the Spalding Road and now another planned for South Fen Road. Not everyone likes them, regarding them with a distaste that is also aimed at solar panels on houses and bungalows around the town. They certainly do little to enhance the appearance of properties and look even unsightly among our tiled roofs but if they do really save money for home owners, a yet untested theory over the period of investment, then they are sure to proliferate.

The same goes for solar farms and the 30 acre site at Limes Farm on the Spalding Road is already up and running despite some original opposition but as with all new ideas, criticism dissipates with time and the multitude of panels at a remote farmland location have become part of the landscape, a sign of the modern age in which we live.

The latest scheme now going through the early planning stages is for a much bigger scheme on a 74-acre site of open agricultural land alongside the Bourne Eau off the South Fen Road opposite the scrapyard where it is proposed to install 50,000 panels in 57 rows with the capacity to generate up to 12.5 MV of energy a year and for those who are not technically minded, that is a lot of electricity. It is also twice the size of the Limes Farm solar farm which was plugged into the National Grid by the developers, Lark Energy, in April, and although there are many obstacles to overcome before the new project comes to fruition, the company behind it, Mosscliff Environmental, is now in negotiation with South Kesteven District Council over the feasibility of the scheme and the environmental impact it will have but with government targets of generating 30 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020, it is hard to envisage that the project will not go ahead.

The state of the roads around Bourne continues to concern motorists who are likely to encounter deep holes and uneven surfaces, not only in the rural area but also within the town itself. The highways authority, Lincolnshire County Council, which is responsible for their upkeep, has in the past employed much publicised pothole gangs which were supposed to roam the county dealing with these hazards as and when they were found and although there are signs that they have been active occasionally, they are overall a rare sight and dangerous cavities are still in evidence, even on our housing estates.

The A6121 to Stamford is probably the most frequently used main road by Bourne residents and although some stretches have been resurfaced this year, long sections remain perilous where the tarmac has started to crumble, creating not only a menace to motorists but also a risk to their vehicles which are likely to be damaged, especially when these hazards appear suddenly and without warning.

The situation tends to be much the same throughout Lincolnshire and as a result the county council has received hundreds of demands for compensation. Figures released under a Freedom of Information request by the Grantham Journal have revealed that 617 drivers made claims between January 2012 and August 2013 alleging damage to their vehicles as a result of potholes or other road defects and almost £90,000 has been paid out as a result (September 25th).

These figures alone bear testimony to the poor state of our roads and therefore the inadequate maintenance despite an assurance during the summer that the authority has set aside a further £2 million for repairs. A series of harsh winters has been blamed for the current situation in which roads are deteriorating although that cannot be the whole story because the continuance of potholes has been a subject of discussion in this column for several years without any apparent improvement. However, the latest initiative must be welcomed because this, coupled with the growing number of claims for compensation from angry motorists, indicates that the county council must be aware of a problem that will persist until our roads are brought up to an acceptable standard.

Before the establishment of an organised police force, the pursuit and capture of criminals was largely in the hands of the public, usually encouraged by the offer of a cash reward which was paid on conviction. But the victim had to pay all costs of bringing a felon to justice and so leading citizens banded together to protect themselves from law-breakers and from the 18th century onwards, most towns and villages had an Association or Society for the Prosecution of Felons which was dedicated to maintain the law and bring offenders before the magistrates for punishment.

Every member paid subscriptions into a joint fund and the society could then afford to act on behalf of any member who became a victim of crime. In this way, felons were prosecuted, or as we would now say, criminals were brought to trial. The society paid out all expenses, from offering a reward to taking the suspect to court and members also received compensation for their lost belongings.

The societies were known as Felons Associations for short and had between twenty and a hundred members and such an organisation to cover Bourne was formed in 1822 with a membership of titled and landed gentry from the district as well as a good sprinkling of wealthy tradesmen and clergymen whose aim was to pursue and punish wrongdoers.

A public notice which appeared in the Stamford Mercury on February 8th announcing its formation said: “Several gentlemen, farmers, graziers, and others, in the town and neighbourhood of Bourne have resolved to form themselves into a Society for the Prosecution of Felons. The meetings will be regularly held at Bourne and the business properly conducted under improved rules to be agreed upon at a meeting which will shortly be called for the purpose. Any persons desirous of becoming members will be pleased to signify their intention to Mr Worth, solicitor, Bourne, at whose office a list of the present subscribers may be seen.”

The first meeting was held at the Bull Inn [now the Burghley Arms] on April 10th at 11 am when members paid their subscriptions and appointed a committee, the proceedings being followed by dinner at 2 pm. Will Hopkinson was appointed clerk and treasurer and the title of the Bourne Association for the Prosecution of Felons was officially adopted.

The association flourished until 1857 when the county police force was established and soon afterwards Bourne had its own police station in North Street with a permanent strength of constables and other ranks. Their arrival brought about a considerable decrease in crime and general lawlessness although the association continued well into the 20th century as a social organisation, still holding regular dinners which became notably convivial occasions.

Most of the associations in England have also died out although thirty are known to survive, all of them like the Association for the Prosecution of Felons which was founded at Tanworth, Warwickshire, in 1784, although no longer functioning for its original purposes, still use the excuse for an annual dinner each May.

Thought for the week: Researchers at the University of Southampton have found that looking back in time can help maintain feelings of self-worth and contribute to a brighter outlook on the future. - news report from the Daily Mail, Thursday 14th November 2013.

Saturday 23^rd November 2013

There have been renewed calls to bring back matron into our hospitals to restore discipline and cleanliness in the wards and this is happening in many parts of the country. The evidence is that these fearsome ladies in times past ruled their domain with a rod of iron and doctors as well as nurses stepped out of line at their peril and there is a widespread belief that a return to such authority would be of considerable benefit to our beleaguered National Health Service.

My photograph of a redoubtable lady from our history wears a matron’s uniform of the Victorian and Edwardian era and as it was found locally she was most certainly in a position of some importance, either at the former Fever Hospital in Manor Lane which operated during the late 19th century, the old Butterfield Hospital in North Road or perhaps the Bourne Hospital which began life in South Road as an isolation unit for infectious diseases.

The picture is printed on a ceramic plate and is among the archives kept by the Heritage Centre at Baldock’s Mill in South Street. But her identity is a mystery. I would imagine that Dr John Galletly (1899-1993), family physician in Bourne for forty years, might have provided the answer and I asked his former partner, Dr Geoffrey Smith, now living in retirement in Norfolk, whether he had been shown this picture during his career but he was unable to help and added that he would have dreaded to have served under such a formidable looking lady.

When the Butterfield was opened in 1910, the first matron was Miss Crawley but there is little about her in the archives except that she was allowed 25s. per week to stock her store cupboard, 25s. for the maintenance of staff and 1s. per head per day for patients. Is this her I wonder?

Or is she perhaps the unnamed Scots matron who occasionally took a drop too much? She was the first to be appointed soon after the opening of Bourne Hospital in 1915, but only on a temporary basis and Dr Galletly’s father, who ran the practice before him, was anxious to show off the town’s new medical facility. He remembered in his memoirs: “My father, full of justifiable pride, invited a friend of his, Dr Henry Turner of Castle Bytham, to come and see the hospital and they arrived one afternoon to find the matron drunk. She was sacked and we heard later that she had joined the army nursing service but when in Salonika during the Gallipoli campaign, took to the bottle again and was dismissed from the service.” Could it be her?

Dr Galletly‘s cousin, Miss Annie Wemyss Galletly, who trained as a nurse in Edinburgh, became the first full time matron on 8th December 1916 and began work four days later at a salary of £50 a year, payable in monthly instalments but she was also provided with furnished accommodation together with the free use of gas, water, coal and all of her meals. Her contract with Bourne Rural District Council which built the hospital gives a glimpse of employment conditions at that time because it stipulated that she could not engage in any outside work, that she could take four weeks’ holiday each year by arrangement with the council and that one month’s notice on either side would be required if her employment was terminated.

Miss Galletly was also required to keep the hospital’s account and record books which would be available at all times for inspection by council officials or the Local District Auditor. Yet despite these arduous administrative duties, her work during the terrible influenza epidemic of 1918 was of particular merit, frequently going with doctors to help lay out the bodies in Morton where many had died within a week, throwing the entire village into a state of panic. Miss Galletly continued as matron until she resigned in July 1920 to take up another post elsewhere.

Is it her perhaps? Or, more likely, I think it is Maud Beesley who was working at the Nurses’ Institute in Hull in February 1893 when smallpox broke out among navvies working on the new rail link into Bourne and she volunteered to come here and look after the patients. The only communal medical facility at that time was the Bourne Fever Hospital that had been established in a pair of converted cottages in Manor Lane but conditions were far from satisfactory. Many died although the figure is not known because the medical records mysteriously disappeared and there is evidence of gross incompetence among public health officials who tried to cover up their mistakes, a scenario well known in the National Health Service today.

But by mid-summer, the outbreak had been brought under control and Nurse Beesley returned to Hull after a grateful town acknowledged her cheerful and invaluable service in nursing some of the smallpox sufferers practically single-handed. She was also presented with a travelling bag together with a purse of money and an illuminated address. My guess is that this is her picture but if anyone else has other ideas I would be pleased to hear from them.

A pinfold was the name given to an animal pound where stray livestock such as pigs, sheep and cattle were impounded in a dedicated enclosure until claimed by their owners, or sold to cover the costs of impounding.

The village pinfold or pound was a feature of most English mediaeval villages, the word pinfold being Saxon in origin from pundfald and pund, both mean an enclosure, and there appears to be no difference between a pinfold and a village pound although the term pinfold seems to be more popular in the north and east of England whilst in the south and west the term pound is more often used. Their size and shape varied, from a few square feet to more than an acre, rectangular, circular and irregular, provided they fulfilled their designated purpose of enclosing stray animals.

There was at least one in Bourne and it is believed to have been situated to the east of the town in that area around what is now Manning Road. There was a Pinfold Lane which no doubt marked its location or the road to it but this was changed to Hereward Street in 1899, perhaps because a newly constituted cattle market was established in the vicinity and the name was altered to avoid confusion. This location is also borne out by the name of an artesian bore which was situated near the former Marquis of Granby public house in Abbey Road, that is within close proximity to Hereward Street, and was known as the pinfold spring.

Today, we have a Pinfold Road in the same area, running off the Spalding road at the corner of Manning Road, a name that dates from circa 1970 when agricultural land was being developed for industrial use, the road today being occupied by commercial properties and a large waste recycling centre.

Research by J D Birkbeck (1970) suggests that the name may have been chosen by the old Bourne Urban District Council because of this connection. When discussing the Enclosures Act of 1772 he said: "The road now called Manning Road was in existence and it seems to have been all part of Meadow Gate Road. Near its junction with Star Lane (now Spalding Road) was the pound, still surviving from mediaeval times."

References to the Bourne pound or pinfold are few but the Stamford Mercury did report a case in the Bourne County Court on Tuesday 14th July 1857 before Judge Edward Cooke which gives an insight into its activities:

Edward Beckett v John Foster: The amount of claim was 6s. Plaintiff deposed that both himself and defendant resided at Dyke, a hamlet of Bourne; that the latter was dike-reeve; that he had twice tendered him £2 2s. in payment for his two cows going upon the road sides, but that the money had not been accepted; that he had put the cows upon the roads, and that they had been ordered by the defendant to be taken to the Bourne pinfold. Plaintiff came to Bourne and paid the pinder 1s. to relieve the cows. This sum, together with 5s. for his loss of time in coming to Bourne, he sought to recover from the defendant. At this point of the proceedings, his honour stopped the case, stating that the actions would not lie, consequently there must be a non-suit, each to pay his own costs.

The exact location of the Bourne pinfold therefore appears to be elusive, having been swallowed up by modern development, housing perhaps or more likely commercial buildings which proliferate in this part of town. Nevertheless, the street name serves as a continual reminder not only of this ancient custom but also of a more peaceful and leisurely way of life that has long gone.

The claim by Rippingale to be the birthplace of the long-running BBC radio serial The Archers now seems to be unassailable. An apparent skirmish with the rival village of Inkberrow in Worcestershire was aired in the newspapers earlier this year but research by local man Jim Latham appears to have seen them off and events organised over the weekend have sealed their entitlement to the honour.

The celebrations known as Archers Day will centre on the village pub, the Bull, today (November 23rd) with a special lunch comprising all the dishes on the menu with a strong link to the fictional story lines from the radio series, an exhibition and an illustrated presentation by Jim Latham including video clips of an interview with Norman Painting, the actor who played Phil Archer for nearly 60 years, telling fascinating stories of anecdotes from behind the scenes.

It was Jim Latham who has been behind the campaign to ensure that Rippingale remains the favoured location as the inspiration for the programme which was suggested to producer Godfrey Baseley by local farmer and seed specialist Henry Burtt when they met in 1946 while making a farming programme in the area. No recording of the programme survives but he has a copy of the transcript and the last two pages carry interviews between Baseley, local farmer Henry Burtt and his son Stephen. "They show without any doubt that a farming drama was in Burtt's mind", he said, "and that the eventual main character of Dan Archer and his son Phil were based on Burtt and his son and what they talked about became plot lines for early editions of the programme."

Two years later, the BBC organised a conference at the Town Hall in Birmingham to find out why more farmers were not listening to the radio. It went on all day until a man at the back of the hall stood up and said: "What we want is a farming Dick Barton" and sat down amid loud laughter. That man was Henry Burtt and he had referred to Dick Barton, Special Agent, a cliff-hanging adventure serial then being broadcast at a peak hour evening slot on BBC radio, becoming the most popular programme of its day with more than 27 million listeners.

Intrigued, Baseley returned to Rippingale to discuss the idea further and, as he describes in his autobiography, toured the village as Burtt talked about the hundreds of people who depended on his crops and how weather or disease could be the difference between success or failure. "That was the moment the idea for The Archers finally clicked in Baseley's mind", said Mr Latham. "I have gathered historical documentary proof, not just that Rippingale is Ambridge, but that the central characters in the radio drama were based on real life locals. The BBC choose Inkberrow years after The Archers started and became so popular that national newspapers were desperate for photos of the cast in farm settings and as Inkberrow was not so far from the recording studios in Birmingham and also the home of Godfrey Baseley, it became Ambridge. But Rippingale was its birthplace where the idea, original scripts and characters were conceived and born.”

So there we have it. There are sure to be other challenges in the future but Rippingale has been so active in its claim that few will now contest it. In fact, the village has become so deeply immersed in its association with the radio programme, now topped with this weekend of celebration, that the link is undoubtedly here to stay.

Thought for the week: If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role. - Judy Garland (1922-69), American actress, singer and vaudevillian who attained international stardom with a career spanning more than 40 years.

Saturday 30^th November 2013

Bourne Choral Society pictured in the Abbey Church

The warning by a former Archbishop of Canterbury that the Church of England is “one generation away from extinction” will come as no surprise to many people who feel that organised religion has already become a relic of the past. A century ago, the picture was very different when church going was part of everyday life but the belief in Christianity has waned and congregations have dwindled with the result that most parishes now cling precariously to what they have while struggling to maintain their historic buildings.

Even in my boyhood seventy years ago, the church was part of the weekly routine and centred around the activities to be found there. Singing in the choir twice on Sundays, at weddings and sometimes funerals, together with the youth club on two evenings a week and bible classes on another, there were sufficient activities to keep young minds occupied and our conduct on the straight and narrow. But Lord Carey, who stepped down as head of the church in 2002, now claims that church leaders are failing to bring young people into their services. “We ought to be ashamed of ourselves”, he said. “We are one generation away from extinction. If we do not invest in young people there is going to be no one in the future.”

The Daily Mail reported (November 19th) that his message was echoed by the present Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend John Sentamu, who told the General Synod of a growing wariness and antipathy towards faith and added: “Put simply, fewer clergy are now ministering to a larger population and having to oversee a roughly similar number of buildings with fewer worshippers to pay for them.”

This trend appears to be reflected here in Bourne where the population has now passed 15,000 yet according to a recent issue of the parish magazine (September 2013), the Abbey Church has only 300 members which is a mere two per cent. The archives suggest that this is only a fraction of the number that worshipped here during the 19th and early 20th centuries when attendance was high and support from the congregation in times of need assured.

The intervening years have brought with them a new awareness of life unfettered by religious dogma preached from the pulpit from where the minister kept his congregation instructed in the spiritual life and people now have the opportunity and facility to think for themselves and find out the answers they seek, no longer totally dependent on merely what they have been told. Blind faith, the very keystone of religion, is no longer enough and we do well to question everything we are told. Modern means of communication have provided a greater dissemination of knowledge that has brought about a new enlightenment, thus allowing us to balance the arguments at our disposal and make our own judgment when finding the answers we seek.

Few people now have the inclination to chant the confession from their place in the pews every Sunday asking for forgiveness because “we have erred and strayed from thy way like lost sheep” and that “there is no health in us . . . miserable offenders” when their life in the past week may well have been blameless and one even practicing all the virtues of charity and forgiveness yet there has been no move to change the liturgy that has been with us for centuries.

Supporters are therefore slowly declining and leaving the church in the hands of the faithful few, mainly old people who have become an exclusive club that ostensibly welcomes outsiders yet strangers struggle to feel at home and youngsters are totally estranged. The church has not risen to this challenge of our times. It remains embedded in the past with archaic rituals and often smells and bells that leave it aloof from the majority who now pursue other non-religious beliefs and perhaps none at all, yet despite this transformation they are no more wicked in deed and thought than they were before, only in perception.

The decline of Christianity is borne out by the official statistics which show that the 1.5 million people who went to a Church of England church on a Sunday had fallen to 800,000 in the decade up to 2011. Numbers of those who choose to call themselves Christian also fell by more than four million in the decade after 2001, according to the 2011 census.

Christianity may be on the decline yet it is still part of our culture and in many cases the basis for our personal values while remaining a rallying point in times of crisis and national grief, a safety net for public feeling when the people need to gather and share their emotions by calling upon God, even though we may not believe that he exists. But part time participation is not enough if the church is to survive in the form we have known in past times and so the alarm bell sounded by our senior clerics is a timely one with the hope that it will be heard in the appropriate quarters.

The church, however, remains a fine building, the only one of the 71 listed properties in Bourne that is Grade I and which has survived wind and weather for over almost 900 years, so becoming part of our heritage but it is only in our care for a comparatively short time and so the community should do everything possible to protect it for future generations.

It may be argued that the space provided is under-used and many churches in the country have remedied this by removing pews and opening up the nave to create more room for public events. This does not suit the traditionalists who cling to past practice, forgetting that the church once had many uses including as a market and as a meeting place and the installation of permanent seating for all is a comparatively new idea. Townspeople gathered there for many events and even brought their dogs which became such a nuisance in some parishes that a dog catcher was employed to take them out when services were held.

The present appearance and role of the church that we know today was established in Victorian times when attendance at services was de rigeur for most families and this set a precedent for future generations although as we have seen, this has not been maintained in recent years.

The Abbey Church is the venue for a number of popular public events, mainly musical, and the members of Bourne Choral Society are in full voice practising for a prestigious concert next weekend (Saturday 7th December) to mark the start of advent, the season of preparation for Christmas which we celebrate on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. 

This highly talented group of singers performs regular concerts in the church and elsewhere with a varied repertoire ranging from traditional folk song arrangements, modern popular songs, spirituals, anthems and carols. The previous name was the Abbey Consort which existed from 1980 but changed to the traditional Bourne Choral Society in 2001 and by 2012 there were 30 members, men and women of all ages who enjoy rehearsing and performing together, a mix of enthusiastic beginners and experienced performers and a range of voices that include soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

The society does not hold formal auditions but welcomes anyone who wants to sing, irrespective of their age or experience, the only commitment being to attend as many rehearsals on Monday evening as possible and to put in some practice at home. There are currently three concerts a year, in the spring, summer and at Christmas, although invitations to sing at weddings or at other churches in the area are readily accepted. The society also joins with the choir of the Abbey Church on many occasions to sing evensong under their director John Saunders.

Bourne Choral Society has been associated with this town since the 19th century when like-minded citizens were also giving regular performances to entertain although a varied programme of Victorian drawing room ballads and instrumental solos which were popular at the time. On Tuesday 23rd May 1882, for instance, the society gave its annual grand evening concert at the Corn Exchange with music and song that delighted a packed audience. Among the items were a pianoforte duet, Hungarian Dances, played by Miss Bell and Mr Lewis; a part song, The Vikings, and Come into the Garden Maud, sung by Mr Dunkereton; a duet, Una Sera d’Amore, sung by the Misses Farebrother; a song, Ehren on the Rhine, sung by Miss Maud Farebrother; violin solo, Gerard’s Sonata in F, by Mr Bertollé; the song When the heart is young by Miss Bell; the song Tom Bowling by Mr Dunkerton and an encore How to ask and have; Anderton’s Cantata The wreck of the Hesperus performed by the Choral Society, the solos being taken by Miss Hobson, Mr Dunkerton, Mr Belton and Mr Stubley; the song Some day sung by Miss Maud Farebrother together with an encore Mistress Prue; a part song, You stole my love, by the Choral Society; the song Goodnight beloved by Mr Dunkerton and an encore, Pretty Jane; a trio, Memory, by the Misses Farebrother and Miss Bell; and finally a ballad by Mr Lewis followed by God save the Queen.

The concert was a tremendous success and the following Friday, the Stamford Mercury reported:

 “The singing of Mr Dunkerton, who is principal tenor at Lincoln Cathedral, was especially worthy of praise and was received with tremendous applause. Mr Dunkerton has a splendid compass of voice together with a remarkable sweetness of tone which is rarely excelled and which was shown to special advantage in his rendering of Tom Bowling. The concert throughout was of a highly interesting character, the choruses by the society fully maintaining the reputation obtained by Mr Lewis as a conductor, and considering the small number of members, Mr Lewis is to be congratulated upon his success.”

Saturday's concert therefore continues a long-standing tradition and it is certain that the programme will be as enthusiastically received as it was in years past, an indication that music making is still alive and well in our town. The programme will include the cantata The Nativity by Eric Thiman, also the lovely How Beautiful upon the Mountains by John Stainer and music by Herbert Howells, James Macmillan, Elizabeth Poston, William Byrd and other favourite carols for choir and audience participation to provide an enjoyable start to the Christmas season. The choir is directed by Jenny Bean and the organist is Stephen Webb. Soloists are Jenny Thompson (soprano) and Ian Stafford (tenor) and more information can be found on our Notice Board.

The Burghley Arms is back in business after being closed due to a change in management. A new landlord has now been found by the owners, Enterprise Inns plc which runs 6,000 public houses around the country, although the front of this ancient hostelry is now covered in scaffolding and blue safety netting while maintenance work on the windows and roof is carried out but it is good to see it open again at a time when so many business properties in the town are standing empty.

Until 1955, the Burghley Arms was known as the Bull Inn and over the years it has been a popular meeting place for many of our leading organisations whose members gathered there to arrange their affairs and to dine afterwards in convivial style and a regular haunt of farmers, landowners and businessmen who congregated, often at lunchtime and on market days, to gossip, do business, strike bargains and discuss the affairs of the day although in recent times this prestigious and profitable trade declined and the tavern of yesteryear became just another pub.

The story is the same elsewhere in the country as changing times mean changing habits with the result that many public houses now face an uncertain future and closures are a regular occurrence. The Burghley Arms has been part of Bourne for the past 300 years and so it is fortunate that it will continue for a few more years yet.

Thought for the week: No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November! - Thomas Hood (1799-1845), London-born magazine editor, humorist and poet.

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