Bourne Diary - May 2014

Saturday 3^rd May 2014

The international racing car driver and designer, Raymond Mays, is known to have written two books about his life and times but now knowledge of a third has surfaced although copies are extremely rare.

Mays (1899-1980), son of a Bourne businessman and motoring enthusiast, achieved fame in the world of international motor racing on and off the track. After a successful career as a driver he opened workshops in Bourne where he developed the BRM, the revolutionary Grand Prix car with a V16 engine that eventually became the first all-British model to win the world championship in 1962. He lived at Eastgate House in Bourne all his life and was honoured with a CBE in 1978 for his services to motor racing.

The records show that he had two published works, both written with the help of ghost writers. They were Split Seconds - My Racing Years (G T Foulis & Co Ltd, London, 1950) and BRM with co-author Peter Roberts (Cassell and Co Ltd, 1962). He also contributed a chapter on hill climbing technique for Lord Howe's volume on Motor Racing (1939) and a piece for Speed: the Book of Racing and Records (1950).

The two complete books carrying his name are well known publications and many copies exist here in Bourne, notably at the Heritage Centre in South Street, home of the Raymond Mays Memorial Room which is devoted to his life and career.

But there was another, At Speed by Raymond Mays, published in 1952 by Hodder and Stoughton and printed by C Tinling and Co Ltd., of Liverpool, London and Prescot, a partnership that produced many popular books of the time although it has taken some research to track down this third work.

Few people associated with Mays, either in Bourne or in the racing world, have heard of it. The publishers were unable to help because their records from that period no longer exist while the print firm folded in 1975 and there is no mention of it in the British Library, the country’s legal depository holding some 14 million titles and which receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom. Furthermore there is no copy of it in the Raymond Mays Memorial Room here in Bourne but after a lengthy trawl through the Internet, a clue finally surfaced that has put an end to the mystery.

As a result, we have discovered that the book was printed and put on sale in 1952, a bad year for the BRM which had been dogged by a long period of misfortune involving components and race tracks and was now facing financial difficulties and in danger of being wound up, although it was eventually sold to the engineering firm Rubery Owen. But soon after publication it was discovered that Raymond Mays had upset a few people by what he had written and so rather than incur further acrimony and perhaps even attract the attention of the lawyers, the book was hastily withdrawn and all unsold copies removed from the shops and destroyed rather than risk a legal action that could have costly repercussions.

The book was a hardback with a red linen cover, 190 pages and ten photographs plus the frontispiece, a copy of the portrait in oils of Mays painted in 1950 by Sofy Asscher and which now hangs in the entrance foyer at the Red Hall.

The only reference we could find is in a book entitled BRM V16 (Veloce Publishing 2006) by Karl Ludvigsen, the prolific American journalist and historian specialising in motor racing history and author of almost fifty books on the subject who now lives in Suffolk. In a section entitled Reflections, he writes about his researches into the problems involved with the development of the V16 and the way they were eventually solved, describing how he was loaned a copy of the “rare” 1952 book At Speed and adds: “In it, Mays was so revelatory about the struggles of the BRM Trust and the team that all but a few copies were retrieved and pulped.”

One copy that has survived is now owned by Lindsay Johnson, aged 59, a retired civil servant, who lives at Bromley, Kent, and is related to Raymond Mays as a second cousin. It was given to him by a friend who bought it for £10 while browsing for publications connected with motor racing from a second hand bookshop at Hay-on-Wye, a small market town at Powys, Wales, close to the border with England where there are so many bookshops that it is often described as "the town of books". One or two other copies may exist but as the bulk of the print run was destroyed, they will have by now become collector’s items.

Nevertheless, this puts the record straight about what Raymond Mays did leave for posterity in the way of autobiography and in view of the rarity of this book and the number of organisations now devoted to the history of the BRM and motor racing in general, there must be many supporters of the man and the motor car who would welcome an opportunity to have it reprinted at some time in the future.

There is now a growing awareness in Bourne that the Town Hall should never have been phased out. The Grade II listed building that has been the centre of civic affairs for almost two centuries has been standing empty since March 2013 when all services at town, district and county level were transferred to a new Community Access Point established at the Corn Exchange at a cost of £600,000 but the evidence is that Bourne now wants it back.

The relocation was flawed from the start, like trying to put a quart into a pint pot, because moving all local government services there together with the register office from West Street and the public library in South Street has made it a tight fit that has prompted many complaints from both customers and staff. It took South Kesteven District Council a year to acknowledge this by reorganising the available space a few weeks ago but you cannot improve much on what you have not got and so the main problem that the place is too small remains.

Bourne Town Council is now bidding to take over the building for community use under the Localism Act of 2011 which enables parish councils nominate buildings as an asset if they meet the definition of community value by improving its social interests and councillors believe that such a case can be proved.

The announcement of this initiative has been welcomed throughout the town where there has been a real fear that Lincolnshire County Council which claims ownership may sell the Town Hall on the open market which could result in it being turned into a coffee bar, night club or even a carpet warehouse, an ignominious fate for a building with such an historic past and this is now causing concern among those who run this town, among them the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor David Higgs. “The likelihood is that some big brewing company would come along and turn it into a pub”, he told The Local newspaper (April 26th). “I cannot say that I am particularly keen on that as there is already one next door.”

Councillor Higgs also revealed that he was not happy with the relocation of the town council to the Corn Exchange. “The Town Hall is such an iconic building in the centre of town”, he said. “Everyone still recognises it as the Town Hall and if it were left to me I would move the town council back into it.”

His sentiments are echoed around the town although nothing further can be done until we have a response from Lincolnshire County Council but so far they have been silent on the issue. This will be a difficult and sensitive task because they cannot ignore the fact that the Town Hall was built in 1821 mainly with subscriptions from the people and so ownership remains vested in the town, morally if not legally, and has only passed to the county council through the various changes in our local authority system over the centuries. Any statement they make on its future must therefore take this into consideration.

Selling it on the open market to a commercial buyer with the proceeds going towards bolstering county council finances is most certainly not a satisfactory solution and the obvious way forward would be to hand it back to Bourne, either free of charge or for a nominal sum, once the town council provides a business plan to ensure that it can continue in useful service for the benefit of the community.

May Day passed on Thursday with little apparent ceremony despite this occasion being a cause for celebration since the earliest times. Today, a more secular version is observed by some schools and churches as well as being synonymous with trade unionism as Labour Day, celebrating the social and economic achievements of the socialist movement. Its origins, however, remain pagan and are reflected in the many customs that survive, the best known being dancing around the maypole and the crowning of a May queen, a ceremony which was observed in Bourne during the last century by schoolchildren at the Abbey Lawn.

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1st was the first day of the spring season, May 1st was the first day of summer, hence, the summer solstice on June 25th (now June 21st) was midsummer. In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose head is often adorned with flowers in works of art and school plays. The giving of May baskets or small containers of sweets and flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps, were also a tradition but now fading in popularity.

We have a colourful variation of this at Morton, near Bourne, in 1877 when schoolchildren from the village observed what was already an age-old custom by carrying garlands from door to door when parishioners handed over small sums of money which was expended in a treat a week to so later as 120 children sat down to tea in the schoolroom and afterwards adjourned to a field for various games until dusk. The highlight of the celebrations were two fire balloons, fourteen and twenty feet in diameter respectively, which took to the skies accompanied by a display of fireworks. Then, after the children had gone home to bed, the ladies and gentlemen of the village, together with a few invited friends, assembled in the schoolroom for a social dance to provide what was described as “a pleasant termination to the holiday”.

A version of these May Day celebrations was also observed here in Bourne a century ago and always the reason why children should be allowed a day off school, either officially or simply through staying away. The log book which has survived at the former council school in Abbey Road, now the Abbey Primary Academy, records many such occasions and an entry from 5th May 1905 gives us a glimpse of the custom because it says: “Very poor attendance on May morning, so many of the girls were going round with garlands”.

This was one of the May Day traditions faithfully upheld in the town before the Great War of 1914-18, when a clothes basket would be decorated, filled with bouquets of wild flowers and then covered with a sheet and girls would take it from house to house offering a look inside for a halfpenny a time, a most agreeable excuse to skip the classroom on a fine sunny day but one unlikely to serve as an acceptable explanation for absence today.

Thought for the week: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date. - William Shakespeare (1564-1616), poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, from his Sonnets.

Saturday 10^th May 2014

The current debate over the future of our black swans has brought several inquiries about the origins of St Peter’s Pool where these magnificent birds have made their home for the past fifteen years.

This pool, also known as the Wellhead, has been the centre of this historic community since the earliest times when it was the only source of fresh water. The circular, clay-lined and embanked pool that we see today just a few steps from the town centre is reputedly fed by seven springs and would have provided an abundant supply for the early settlers. This is a direct contrast to today when water is a valuable commercial commodity and supplies from Bourne are piped to other districts by Anglian Water and in times of drought, St Peter's Pool dries up for weeks at a time and this picturesque part of the town becomes a morass of mud and weeds.

The pool now forms part of the Wellhead Gardens administered by Bourne United Charities since 1945 and it is the spring, or the stream that flows from it, that gives Bourne its name, from the Old English word burna which was common in the early Anglo-Saxon period and is found in its modern form, particularly in Scotland, as burn meaning stream or spring. Many other English place names have a similar derivation with burn, borne or bourne as an ending to denote a river or stream in the vicinity. It is possibly one of the most ancient sites of artesian water supplies in the country, figuring prominently in the development of the town and it is inevitable that remarkable traditions have gathered around it.

One of these was still current in the mid-19th century and asserted that the Bourne Eau flowed underground from Stoke Rochford, sixteen miles away, and that a white duck which was immersed at Stoke, was later seen to rise at the Wellhead. Another slice of local folklore suggests that the pool is bottomless and that swimming there or even trying to clean it out might end in tragedy because those who venture into the water are likely to be swallowed up and never seen again but both tales owe more to the imagination than actuality.

The footpath that follows the stream past the site of the former workhouse, later St Peter's Hospital which was demolished in 2001, formerly skirted another large pond known as the horse pool, so called because it sloped gently at one end to allow horse and cart to enter together to be washed in the clear spring water and this indentation in the land can still be seen today.

The pool has been the central feature of this community since time immemorial yet has not always been given the care for which its ancient origins are due. Rubbish was often tipped there and it was also a popular place for pet owners to wash their dogs, a practice that many people found unacceptable and there were protests to the authorities that the water would become contaminated which was a danger to the nearby workhouse because this was their direct source of supply. The Wellhead at that time came under the jurisdiction of the Rural Sanitary Authority which in 1891 banned the practice and posted notices on the banks that in future offenders would be prosecuted.

In the same year, when the town was planning to build an outdoor swimming pool, St Peter's Pool was considered as a possible site but the idea was rejected because it would involve too much boarding up that would deface this picturesque spot which, it was pointed out, was home to kingfishers and other rare birds and would therefore be regarded with considerable disfavour.

During Edwardian times, and well into the 20th century, St Peter’s Pool was maintained as a local beauty spot, lovingly cared for as a favourite place for weekend walks by people dressed in their Sunday best, the place to be and be seen. Photographs from the period show a beautifully kept pleasant and attractive amenity with a wooden walkway that has long since disappeared and mute swans gliding gracefully across the clear blue water while as late as the 1960s, enthusiasts had many happy hours sailing radio-controlled boats, a pastime impossible to pursue today.

In past years, the pool often showed signs of neglect, the surface frequently covered with algae and the crumbling banks choked with weeds. The black swans, moorhens and other waterfowl that live here were frequently confined to a small area of clear water because the rest of the pool has been made impenetrable by the mess of green slime, bringing disapproving looks from both townspeople and visitors who find it difficult to believe that a place with such ancient origins should be allowed to deteriorate in this way. Recent work by Bourne United Charities, however, has considerably improved the appearance of St Peter’s Pool and its surroundings making it an attraction for visitors and an asset to this town.

The dreadful conditions in the workhouses of England during the 19th century have been described in detail by Victorian writers such as Charles Dickens and John Mayhew yet still more revelations surface as research into this period of our social history continues. The workhouse in Bourne was typical of those that existed elsewhere in the country with appalling accommodation, poor food and an uncaring staff so we may assume that what happened there in the winter of 1849 was not an isolated incident despite the shocking nature of what occurred, one that illustrated the fact that officialdom regarded life as cheap among the impoverished working class.

The workhouse or union was situated in what is now St Peter’s Road, a dim and dark building with only the minimum of the conveniences that we know today and many of the inmates should have been in hospital rather than confined to this dismal place. One of them was William Gilbert, aged 62, who was described as being “very infirm and almost imbecile” and who died there in disturbing circumstances.

The story of his death in the Stamford Mercury on Friday 9th February 1849 caused some alarm in Bourne and especially in his home village of Baston, because of the events leading up to his passing. “Gilbert was seized with a violent purging”, reported the newspaper, “and it seems that he was so circumstanced that washing and a change of clothing were necessary. One of the officers of the establishment and one of the inmates took him into the yard where they stripped him quite naked and mopped him by the side of a tub of cold water and they kept him in that horrible state for nearly ten minutes although it was the coldest day of the present winter. The man was then led back to his room and shortly after he ate some dinner. But next day he was unable to leave his bed and just a week after the treatment referred to, he died. We hear that the medical officer was not made acquainted with the facts of the case and that he gave a certificate of death to that effect.”

There the matter would have ended but by now gossip had become widespread, particularly at Baston where Gilbert had lived, and the incident was eventually brought to the attention of the Board of Guardians who ran the workhouse and they held an inquiry at one of their meetings. “But they decided it was not thought advisable to pursue the case to any extent after hearing the opinion of the medical referee as to the cause of death”, reported the newspaper, “although we are told that the officer and the pauper who mopped the deceased in the open yard were severely reprimanded.”

The newspaper pointed out that the public would hardly be content with an internal investigation by the Board of Guardians and suggested that further inquiries should be made by the Poor Law Commission Board at Somerset House in London, the authority which was then responsible for local workhouses and the administration of relief through regular inspections, but their concern came to nothing and the case of William Gilbert was quietly forgotten.

Despite this horrific incident, cases of ill treatment involving elderly people in care continue to surface even today but fortunately there is a new vigilance among administration and staff to prevent it and bring the culprits to justice and we should be thankful for that, even though it has taken two centuries to bring about this awareness of human dignity.

From the archives - 164 years ago: A poor travelling woman arrived at her unexpected place of confinement on the high road at the end of Morton village near Bourne, on Thursday 4th May, where she was delivered of a female child: she was afterwards removed, and kindly received into a private house which was near. Within a few hours of the birth of the infant, it finished its short course of life. Feelings of sympathy were excited for the surviving mother and the greatest attention was paid to her: medical aid was soon produced and she is now doing well. This is the second occurrence of the same kind which has taken place at or near the same spot within the last eight years. The poor woman is now removed to the Union-house [workhouse] at Bourne until she is able to resume her journey. – news report in the Stamford Mercury, Friday 17th May 1850.

This is the season of the dawn chorus, an annual treat that is denied those who live in densely populated areas of England where the sound of bird song is drowned out by high noise levels from overhead aircraft, passing traffic and even people, which can make life unbearable for lovers of peace and tranquillity.  It is one of the delights of living in a backwater like Bourne where absolute quiet, even during the day, is often the norm, a silence that is now being delightfully broken by the sound of birds, especially in the early morning.

The dawn chorus usually begins shortly before sunrise, an accumulation of birdsong which heralds the day at this early hour, flooding in through a window left open during the night because of the warm weather. It is worth being awake at this time just to listen and as this town lies between fen and upland, we are blessed with a greater variety of species than most. Yet it remains a mystery why more birds sing for between 20-40 minutes around dawn than at any other time of day and no one has yet come up with an answer although the popular explanation is that this is a manifestation of each bird proclaiming its territorial rights by singing its heart out from a chosen song post, be it a telegraph pole, television aerial, rooftop, tree branch or bush, and learning the positions of other birds by their individual songs.

Unless you have studied birdsong, either in the wild or by close listening to recordings, most people are unable to identify which bird they are hearing but the general rule is that the lark will be the first to burst into song in spring and summer as it soars in the sky, soon to be joined by the blackbird, song thrush, robin, wood pigeon, turtle dove, wren and other smaller birds, roughly in that order. At this time of the year and into mid-summer, the dawn chorus starts before 4 am and the best is heard an hour later when most birds have joined in because this is a contagious occurrence and most birds sing from the same song post morning after morning. But they sing less in the cold, dark months of the year and when there is a heavy overcast sky at daybreak, the dawn chorus will start later.

There will be many in Bourne who have never heard the dawn chorus, perhaps because they are heavy sleepers, have little interest in nature or maybe they have moved here from one of the inner cities or a densely populated urban area where early morning birdsong is less evident than here in the countryside. A spell of fine late spring weather is therefore the perfect opportunity to catch up with such a magical experience by leaving the window open and, if you have difficulty waking, set the alarm for 3.45 a m. Some people I know even make it to Bourne Wood at that hour where the sound is overwhelming. Whichever method you choose, it is an experience you will never forget.

Thought for the week: Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art. - Izaak Walton (1593-1683), English writer and biographer best known as the author of The Compleat Angler.

Saturday 17^th May 2014

Town councillors and others who run our affairs will be gathering at the Abbey Church in Bourne this weekend to celebrate Civic Sunday, an annual event that has become part of the mayoral year that began over eighty years ago. These occasions which are held throughout the country to coincide with the appointment of a new mayor or first citizen are intended to bring together the elected officials who are involved in our administration and those who put them in office in what has become a religious and social occasion.

Civic Sundays became popular in England during the early years of the last century and were introduced in Bourne by Councillor Thomas Rickard when he became chairman of Bourne Urban District Council for 1929-30. He was a Cornishman who moved to Bourne in 1891 to work as an ironmonger’s assistant at a town centre hardware shop but eventually established his own agricultural machinery company and became one of the most successful businessmen in the district. He also devoted a great deal of his time to religious, public and social work and was an active member of the Wesleyan [Methodist] Church in Abbey Road where he held many lay appointments including that of choirmaster. He was elected to Bourne Urban District Council in 1924 when his work in improving the refuse collection service was particularly valuable and he was also chairman of the Fire Brigade Committee which authorised the purchase of the latest available equipment.

Social work saw the beginning of regular rag days which succeeded in raising funds for the Butterfield Hospital while his involvement with the business and commercial life of the town also brought about the revival of the Tradesmen’s Association that had foundered some years before. He also cultivated the concept of pride in the council and the town with a civic service to be held each May at a church of the chairman's choosing, in his case the Methodist Church, preceded by a parade of the various organisations headed by the Bourne Town Band which assembled in the market place and then marched through the streets to the church.

The diversity of choice for the service was evident in 1931 when the new council chairman was Councillor Frank Wherry who held the event at the Congregational [now the United Reformed] Church in Eastgate although the arrangements remained much the same with representatives from the magistrates, police, fire brigade and many other organisations in attendance and a collection was taken in aid of the Butterfield Hospital.

Few people in the history of Bourne have received such eulogistic acclaim as that showered on Tom Rickard when he died suddenly at his home in North Road in January 1931, aged 65. “His death”, reported the Stamford Mercury, “has bereft the town of the most able of all its public men and one who still had the faculty for much good in the days ahead. What few faults he had were of the lovable type and they were eclipsed by his invariable kindliness and his capacity for good deeds.”

Civic Sunday continued during the Second World War of 1939-45 although with less regularity as uniformed personnel taking part in the parade were often required for emergency duties. In 1940, for instance, the event was postponed for a week because ARP wardens were engaged in a regional exercise.

The occasion was given a new impetus in the years that followed, particularly through the enthusiasm of Councillor Jack Burchnell (1909-73) who was chairman of Bourne Urban District Council in 1967. He had a tremendous feeling for tradition and was anxious to ensure that there were sufficient opportunities during the year when those involved in the decision-making process could be brought together with the people for both religious and social occasions as in the past, although his choice of venue was the Abbey Church where he was a worshipper and choirmaster.

The Abbey Church was chosen again the following year when the Vicar of Bourne, Canon Hugh Laurence, outlined the aims of Civic Sunday during his address to a packed congregation when he said: "Only when government and religion become two sides of the same coin can society become healthy and happy. Since people get the kinds of governments they deserve, it matters supremely what kind of people we are."

The day began with a procession led by parade marshal Reg Chapman (pictured above) and headed by the band of the Boys' Brigade with the chairman of BUDC, Councillor Ted Kelby, and Councillor Harold Scarborough, chairman of South Kesteven Rural Council, at the front together with other councillors, magistrates and officials followed by representatives of various organisations in the town who assembled in the market place and then marched down South Street and Church Walk to the church and after the service, the parade re-formed and moved off to the Corn Exchange for an informal gathering over coffee and biscuits.

BUDC ceased to exist in 1974 when its duties and responsibilities were taken over by the parish council which, because of Bourne's historic status, was given special dispensation to become a town council and appoint a town mayor who is now responsible for Civic Sunday.

The event no longer includes a parade through the streets but the enthusiasm of councillors has been no less evident, usually gathering outside the church and then walking in procession down the aisle to their places in the front pews after the congregation has already assembled, and this will be the arrangement when it is held on Sunday with the new Mayor of Bourne for 2014-15, Councillor Bob Russell, in attendance followed by refreshments at the Darby and Joan Hall across the road when he and other councillors will be on hand to meet the people.

Preparations for extending the War Memorial in Bourne to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War this year are well advanced and are now expected to be completed in time for Remembrance Day in November.

The present stone cenotaph in South Street was erected in 1956 and contains bronze plaques on two sides inscribed with the 97 names of those who died in the conflict and 35 in subsequent wars although there is no mention of their units and regiments or whether they served in the army, navy or air force. The trustees of Bourne United Charities which administers the War Memorial gardens have now decided to remedy this omission as a contribution to the observances across the nation this summer, one hundred years after the outbreak of the war in August 1914.

Ten small memorial stones are to be added in the immediate area of the cenotaph, each inscribed with the crests of the regiment and arm of service to which those who gave their lives belonged. The design of the stones has been modelled on those which now form Veteran’s Way at the war memorial at Boston, Lincolnshire, and will represent all of those whose names are inscribed on our own War Memorial including the Second World War and subsequent conflicts.

The stones have now arrived in Bourne ready to have the appropriate regimental and service crests etched on the surface by the Set in Stone company in Pinfold Road and they include the Lincolnshire Regiment, Sherwood Foresters, Machine Gun Corps, Northumberland Fusiliers, the King's Lancashire Regiment, the Prince of Wales West Yorkshire Regiment, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, the Northamptonshire Regiment, the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

The selection has been made by majority in that most soldiers who died belonged to these regiments while three were serving with the Royal Navy and although no members of the Royal Air Force were casualties at this time it was decided to be vitally important that the service should be acknowledged. Two further stones are expected to be added later this year, one remembering the Parachute Regiment which has a special connection with Bourne because 550 officers and men of the 1st Battalion were stationed in and around the town prior to the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 and the other a general memorial remembering those civilian men and women who made sacrifices during both world wars.

The project is being organised for Bourne United Charities by one of the trustees, John Kirkman. “We believe that the additional memorial stones will be a most suitable additional commemoration of the sacrifices made”, he said. “Although the initiative has been taken by Bourne United Charities, we would in the future welcome donations of further stones, either from the various regimental associations or indeed individuals.”

The crisis over waiting times to see the doctor has now become a political issue and while the parties argue the delays continue to the detriment of patients. Barely a week goes by without another horror story on the subject in the media although most communities seem to complain when it is just one or two weeks whereas here in Bourne it may be up to a month.

Since the problem was first raised by this column in January the debate has reached national level and the most alarming statistics are being fielded by worthy organisations in an attempt to explain what is happening. The Royal College of General Practitioners, for instance, claims that patients waited more than a week for an appointment on almost 50 million occasions last year and if the trend continues the figure will have reached 57 million by 2015 (The Telegraph, May 10th). As a result, the system is buckling under the demands of an ageing population and only those who “shouted the loudest” were able to secure help quickly.

Now the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has promised that everyone will have the right to see their doctor within 48 hours if he wins the next general election (Daily Mail, May 13th), but then he would say that, wouldn’t he. The reason for his concern is that the number of patients who can now see a doctor within 48 hours has dropped dramatically under the Coalition and that one in four people have to wait a week to be seen although we all know that Bourne has a far worse case scenario with up to a month in some cases.

This alarming situation was not apparent ten years ago when there were no problems with the system as can be seen from a guide for patients issued by the Hereward Medical Centre in July 2005. The clinic then had seven doctors promising non-urgent appointments within two working days and a nurse within one working day while minor surgery could also be undertaken in the treatment room and triage was also an efficient procedure for problems that needed to be dealt with that day.

Our present difficulties therefore appear to have emerged in the past decade and although there has been an influx of newcomers into Bourne during that time the numbers do not constitute what could be described as a population explosion that might create a major impact on our health services. In fact, the cause of this crisis appears to stem from a Labour government’s decision in 2004 to introduce a contract allowing general practitioners opt out of evening and weekend cover. Old people must take some of the blame because it is they who fill the waiting rooms, rushing to see the doctor at the slightest twinge of pain or discomfort whereas an aspirin or a dose of common sense would suffice.

However, they cannot be blamed entirely for slowing down the system when general practitioners do not work evenings and weekends. The answer therefore lies mainly within the medical profession and a willingness to acknowledge that which has been accepted for centuries that the treatment of the sick is not something that should be limited to office hours or within the confines of a salary structure but a gift given to the few who hold the lives of the majority in their hands and it is morally wrong to withhold or restrict it for any reason.

Thought for the week: In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods, than in giving health to men. - Marcus Tullus Cicero, Roman orator and statesman (106-43 BC).

Saturday 24^th May 2014

The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Victorian chapel in the South Road cemetery looks set to continue with more bureaucratic delays in the pipeline for the foreseeable future. It was hoped that there would be clear blue skies ahead for the Bourne Preservation Trust to take over and restore the building after the Diocese of Lincoln agreed to lift a restrictive covenant on the use of the premises but even though this final hurdle has now been cleared, the town council is raising new issues that will create further delays that are likely to last for several months.

This long running saga that has been dogged by bureaucratic setbacks began in 2007 when a survey revealed that wind and weather had taken their toll over the years and that extensive repair work was needed to keep it in good order. The town council in whose care it has been entrusted since 1974 decided that this was too expensive and members voted to pull it down and sell its ancient stones for scrap. Their proposal reached the ears of English Heritage who sent an inspector to Bourne to take a look and as a result, the chapel was listed Grade II by the Department of Media, Culture and Sport on April 4th as being of architectural interest to protect it from demolition and so this proposed act of official vandalism was foiled at the last moment.

This lead to the formation of the trust, a dedicated group of conservationists who plan to restore and preserve the building but their efforts have been thwarted for the past six years by delay and obfuscation that has prevented them starting work. Hopes were raised at the annual meeting of the council on May 13th when the agenda stated that it was proposed to proceed with negotiations for completing a lease with the trust but this did not materialise. Instead, more issues and more requirements were raised and the matter was referred to the finance and general purposes committee on June 10th, so frustrating any move forward for the trust which had already lost patience with the council last October by threatening to break off negotiations altogether unless petty problems such as this could be resolved.

The chapel was built in 1855 as an integral part of the cemetery and became the central feature for funerals of all denominations but these services ended in 2001 when the building was closed after being declared structurally unsound although cemetery staff continued to use it as a workshop and store. Maintenance was carried out periodically but the major restoration envisaged by the society is now long overdue if this building is to survive for the future. Further delay could mean lasting damage to the fabric and it is therefore incumbent on those in office with the power of authority to ensure that this unsatisfactory situation does not continue any longer than necessary. The time is now right for the trust’s plan to be implemented by returning the building to its original role as a chapel of rest and as a columbarium, a particularly important role when space at the cemetery is fast running out and cremation urns and memorial plaques would take up less room than traditional burials.

There has been a whispered suggestion that perhaps the town council might want to retain the building and supervise the restoration itself which might explain the latest procrastination but this should not be an option. Although membership of the authority has changed since that ill-fated decision seven years ago there are still several sitting councillors who voted to pull it down but now is the time for all to show goodwill and acknowledge the hard work put in by the trust by finally giving them the key to the door and any other decision would be a grave injustice.

If you have been suffering from bouts of sniffling, headache and eye irritation in recent weeks then before dashing off to the doctor for a diagnosis, take a look out of the bedroom window to see if there is a field of yellow blossom in the vicinity and if so it is a fair bet that this is the cause.

Crops of oilseed rape have blossomed in the Bourne area in recent weeks and with them the risk of causing discomfort for those of us who suffer from what has become known as oilseed rape allergy syndrome. The fields can be some distance away but once the wind is in your direction, the clouds of pollen or dust soon end up in your back garden and can be easily identified by the pungent odour and the subsequent side effects. This has now become an annual hazard but as with crop spraying, farmers consider their profit before our health and carry on regardless and so we all have to put up with it.

Unfortunately, there are no restrictions in the European Community to control the planting of oilseed rape in close proximity to houses and roadways. Farmers are not obliged to move the crops away from residential areas even though there is a great deal of public disquiet and scientific evidence to suggest that it is indeed harmful to health and can mean numerous visits to the doctor and pharmacy for prescriptions. It has also been reported that some children are so badly affected that they are prevented from attending school while adults are off work ill and many people are forced to stay indoors and keep their windows closed, even in warm weather. There have been moves in some parts of the country to prevent farmers from growing oilseed rape close to houses but this has received little official support although the debate continues.

The splashes of bright yellow that adorn our countryside at this time of the year may seem an intrusion upon the traditional English landscape but although this may be an unfamiliar colour and appears to be a comparatively recent phenomenon, the crop has been with us for centuries. The Dutch engineers who came here to drain the fens in the 17th century were the first to plant oilseed rape (Brassica napus) because they needed the oil it produced to lubricate their drainage pumps and the product remained industrial until the 1970s when it began to be promoted as an edible oil, a home-grown alternative to groundnuts, sunflowers and soya.

Since then, acreage has increased dramatically, particularly in the past ten years, and with it the annual discomfort for those who live nearby. The yellow flowers have become such a common sight in the countryside during April and May when they can be seen in abundance while the strong smelling scent wafts across the road and into the car window as you drive past. It is becoming the most frequently planted crop and the revenue from a good harvest of rape seed can equal or exceed that of wheat because it can be sold for a good price to the crushing mills for conversion into vegetable oil and it is this high profit potential that has lured many farmers away from continuous cereals.

But then, it has always been an attractive proposition for farmers. William Wheeler, in his book A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (1868), writes that the newly enclosed land obtained from fen drainage was particularly suitable for its cultivation and it therefore became a major crop, second only to cereals such as oats, and used mainly for making soap, thus providing England with a continual supply. Now it is food and fuel with worldwide production of vegetable and biodiesel oil soaring since 2005 and as it has not yet peaked we may expect more of the same in the years ahead.

We have a new mayor for the 43rd time since the office was inaugurated in 1974, a traditional appointment and although the title is mainly ornamental today it does confer a status on those elected as being considered worthy of the office by their fellow councillors and of being a suitable person to represent the town on formal occasions.

One of my first assignments as a young reporter sixty years ago was to interview the retiring Mayor of Peterborough who had earned his honour with more than four decades of unstinting service to the city council and when I asked how his year in office had gone, he replied: "It was like being king for a day". His assessment sums up the unreality of a situation in which you are suddenly thrust into the limelight by being given a job where you are feted like royalty but one that has no official parameters other than to be seen and heard.

The office of mayor is largely governed by the Local Government Act of 1933 that required the council of every borough to make it their first duty at each annual meeting to elect a mayor who normally holds office for one year but may be re-elected. There have been changes since, consistent with the various re-organisations of local government, and so the title of mayor is now usually reserved for the head of an urban administration, one that has been granted district or borough status by royal charter, or a town mayor that has been granted special dispensation by government such as here in Bourne.

The system is different in the United States where the mayor is the elected head of a city or town and in 1999, the Labour government floated proposals for directly-elected mayors in Britain, a method that has since been adopted by some of the larger metropolitan authorities, notably London. It is unlikely that small towns such as Bourne will ever get a directly elected mayor and so the present arrangement will remain with us for the foreseeable future.

The mayoralty in Bourne dates back only 40 years. From 1899, the town was administered by Bourne Urban District Council which had a chairman but under the local government re-organisation of 1974, all urban authorities in England were replaced by district councils and from then on, Bourne's affairs came under the control of South Kesteven District Council based in Grantham. The town however, retained a parish council which, because of its historic status, was given permission to become a town council with a chairman who is also the mayor, and this authority took over the Coat of Arms and civic regalia previously enshrined in Bourne UDC. Our first citizen, therefore, is actually the chairman of the parish council but by recent tradition, is elected as town mayor by his peers.

Apart from taking the chair at council meetings, the mayoral duties are decorative rather than practical and extend to attending public functions as a representative of the town council, garden fetes, concerts, dinners, coffee mornings, and the like, and therefore involve a constant round of glad-handing, culminating with the Civic Ball at the end of their term when those who have been of help during the year are thanked personally for their support.

The office is exemplified by the silver chain of office he or she wears during their tenure and is achieved through seniority rather than merit. The protocol is outlined in the council’s standing orders, that the post is offered to serving councillors by rotation on a basis of the total number of years of continuous service with the authority and as council seats are liable to change and some members do not wish to stand, it is possible to become mayor in a very short space of time after joining the council, even during their first four-year term. Thereafter, a second spell in office is equally possible as has happened to eight councillors in Bourne since 1974 while one has been mayor three times.

What then can we expect from our mayors in the future? The answer is very little apart from a high public profile and there is little wrong with that. All organisations need a figurehead and although it achieves little, the chain of office does symbolise a dignity and a civic pride in our town and for that reason alone, it is worth keeping.

There is one other thought for consideration by the younger generation and that is one of aspiration. The office of Mayor of Bourne is a sign of achievement of effort in local affairs and one that is within the reach of everyone if they feel sufficiently dedicated to help their community by becoming a member of the town council. Remember the story of Dick Whittington, the poor orphan boy who hiked to London to seek his fortune and became four times Lord Mayor, a folk tale based on the life of the 14th century politician Richard Whittington. Even in Bourne, the opportunity for high office is open to all.

Thought for the week: The true privilege of being mayor is that I have the opportunity to be everyone's neighbour. - Thomas Menino (1942-  ), American politician who served as the 53rd Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, from 1993 to 2014, becoming the city's longest serving mayor.

Saturday 31^st May 2014

Three historic buildings in Bourne are currently under threat because all are enmeshed in a bureaucratic web that will ensure lengthy delays over any decision to protect them for the future. Yet all could be saved if the principles of the Big Society championed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, were observed, but in each case there are too many people involved and there is insufficient harmony between them.

There has been much talk of the Big Society and the need to encourage towns and villages join in community effort, the most concise definition coming from Dame Helen Ghosh, former Home Office permanent secretary, who told M Ps in 2011: “We in central government need to focus on doing the things that only government can do and what we need to facilitate is that, at the most local, most individual level, people both identify and solve problems in the way that they wish to solve them."

Everyone seems to endorse the idea but once decisions need to be made the song sheet changes and we get a very different tune from our council chambers. To quote just one example we need look no further than the local authority that claims to own our Grade II listed Town Hall. Three years ago, Lincolnshire County Council made a point of explaining that the Big Society meant more power for the people at local level where they could run their own affairs. "The county has always had a thriving Big Society, a huge network of dedicated individuals and local groups working together to improve life for others", said a front page article in its propaganda publication, County News (Summer 2011).

The council leader, Martin Hill (Folkingham Rural), went even further by pointing out that unpaid helpers who gave their time freely were at the heart of our communities with more than 500 people currently lending a hand at libraries and heritage centres while administrative and other assistance was also given across the county to many other voluntary schemes. "They deserve not just our thanks but also the practical support we can provide", he said. "Everything from planning to health to anti-social behaviour, transferring power to local people whenever we can. Most of us know unselfish people who work tirelessly for others for no personal reward but we must never take that goodwill for granted. That is why we are looking for new ways to support our Big Society and make it even bigger in the years ahead."

But despite all this rhetoric, it is a fair bet that the Town Hall will still not be returned to the people of Bourne next year or even the year after that. It is destined to linger in limbo, vacant, unused and uncared for, while those who have the power to change things argue and obfuscate, muddy the waters of reason with unnecessary clauses and conditions and in the process the enthusiasm of those volunteers who dedicate their time to the community is eroded and the impetus they once provided is strangled by a tangle of red tape.

The Town Hall has been standing empty for over a year but if right prevailed then the people would now be in occupation and running it for the sake of the community. After all, it was bought by public subscription back in 1821 but it looks like being a long hard fight to get it back with the county council blocking and delaying every demand for possession and in doing so, quietly forgetting the promises made and turning the image of the Big Society into the Big Charade.

The case of the cemetery chapel, also Grade II listed, is similarly fraught, with volunteers from the Bourne Preservation Trust waiting in the wings to restore the Victorian building for use by the community yet after six years negotiating for a lease, town councillors still insist on referring it back to committee for further discussion, a sure sign of even more delays ahead while the building continues to deteriorate.

Then we have Wake House, another Grade II listed building (pictured above) but now looking in a most parlous state through lack of maintenance while the owner, South Kesteven District Council, drags its heels over granting a lease to the Bourne Arts and Community Trust, occupants since 1997 with some forty organisations dependent on them for space to hold their meetings and activities. Negotiations have been going on for more than ten years without success and there are now real fears that the council will sell the property and leave the trust homeless.

So there we have it, three historic buildings that have been part of Bourne since the 19th century and help is now needed to save them as part of our heritage and for community use in the future. But the major obstacle is officialdom. The ideals of the Big Society which was launched with high hopes of providing a catalyst for cases such as this still sound good but are totally ineffective unless those who have the power to make things happen want them to happen. That is the crux of the matter. Too many people are currently involved in the decision making process with the result that conflict takes preference over concord and the will to determine an issue quickly and favourably for the benefit of the community is lost.

In all three examples of our threatened buildings, a new motivation that puts the needs of the community first is needed in the corridors of power if they are to be saved for a useful future in Bourne and the first to take the lead must be our local councillors who are there to work for the good of the people who elected them. It is they who can change the present impasse in which our town’s voluntary zeal is being diminished and with it the ideals of the Big Society. That is the least we can and should expect from them and if they lack the tenacity to tackle the task for which they took office then perhaps this is the moment they should consider their role in public life.

One of the most prestigious events in England during the 19th century was the Great Exhibition of 1851 held at the Crystal Palace that had been erected at Hyde Park in London. It was organised by Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, with the object of displaying the industrial works of all nations and between May and October a total of six million people arrived to see it, equivalent to one third of the entire population of Britain at that time.

The exhibits came from Britain and its colonies as well as 44 foreign states in Europe and the Americas and numbered 13,000 in total illustrating development and innovation of the time in all areas of life including a Jacquard loom, an envelope machine, kitchen appliances, steel-making displays and a reaping machine that was sent from the United States. But not everything came from important sources in international business and industry because one section displayed items made by industrious housewives in England who had been busy for months with needle and thread. “The ladies”, proclaimed an introduction to the catalogue of exhibits, “made a very creditable appearance therein and we have proofs of assiduity on their part quite painful to contemplate.”

The many exhibits they contributed included a patchwork rug of 30,000 scraps, an item of decorative wool work with 500,000 stitches and an elaborate specimen of knitting containing precisely 1,464,859 stitches and 6,300 yards of cotton. Also among these delightful items was a fancy bed quilt made by Mrs Catherine Fancourt of Grimsthorpe, near Bourne, that received high public acclaim, an item which the catalogue described as “exhibiting an immense amount of labour and great ingenuity” and had been sent to the Great Exhibition on the suggestion of Lady Willoughby d’Eresby of Grimsthorpe Castle where Mrs Fancourt’s husband worked on the estate.

It excited great interest among visitors who admired the skill and dedication required in its execution and no doubt the quilt became a family heirloom. Yet the dexterity used in its creation is still evident today in the many sewing circles that thrive in the land such as the Knit and Sew Friendship Group at the Abbey Church where ladies of the congregation have also in recent years completed a colourful array of more than 70 kneelers that can be seen among the pews where they are used regularly during services.

Members of local organisations also display their handiwork at the many exhibitions held in our towns and villages throughout the year, thus demonstrating that no matter what modern innovations arrive to replace the old ways of doing things, patience, imagination and application still have an important role to play in our everyday lives.

A new wheeze has been dreamed up by the bankers and others engaged in our financial affairs in an attempt to make the system more palatable by suggesting that they are running a club and we are all the happy members who belong to it. Lloyds, for instance, have just written to all of their customers announcing the formation of Club Lloyds, a current account earning up to 4% with a membership fee of £5 a month that will be waived so long as you abide by the rules such as paying in £1,500 and have at least two direct debits each calendar month and always remain in credit.

It all sounds very attractive but like all clubs, people are likely to be blackballed and in this case it is the existing Lloyds customers with Vantage current accounts who are only paying in £1,000 a month and have been told that they are being downgraded with their interest rates reduced by 1.5% but even to qualify for that their existing conditions have been tightened up and they must now pay two direct debits each month which many people dislike, indicating that they are no longer welcome customers. In fact, the letter quite clearly states that if they do not wish to accept the changes they are “free to close their account without charge”.

There is sure to be more of this verbal jiggery-pokery in the years to come as our financial institutions devise further methods taking our money and making the capital they hold work for them while offering a pittance in deposit interest rates of 1% or even less, all of which has been designed to make them more money and ostensibly solve a banking crisis which was not of our making.

The club idea, however, is not only confined to the banks because there are signs of it being used elsewhere as a euphemism for the unpopular task of collecting money. South Kesteven District Council, for instance, is now describing those who are continuing to pay the £25 tax for using the green bins for garden waste as “renewing their subscription” for another year to ensure their collection continues uninterrupted until next April.

It will be remembered that this £25 levy was devised by South Kesteven District Council in 2012 to evade the government’s freeze on council tax by ushering an increase in through the back door and making it a separate charge, despite widespread protests condemning it as a stealth tax that would hit pensioners the hardest because they are the keenest gardeners. Now the scheme is paying off and according to a progress report in the latest issue of its propaganda magazine sktoday (Spring 2014), the authority is raking in £675,000 a year for a service that we once got for free. “More than 27,000 households have benefited from having their garden waste collected from their homes rather than having to make trips to their local household waste recycling centre”, said the report. “The fact that so many of our residents joined the service just goes to show how much people value what we provide and what good value for money it really is.”

So there we have it, the latest trends in newspeak. Instead of paying taxes, we join the club or subscribe to the service but hard-pressed customers who are being assailed for money from all directions will not be hoodwinked by semantics because whatever the terminology it amounts to the same thing, that we are being continually squeezed from all quarters for every penny they can get although the demands now appear to be getting more devious.

Thought for the week: I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members. - Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (1890-1977), American comedian, film star and famed as a master of wit.

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