Bourne Diary - June 2014

Saturday 7^th June 2014

The new head of the National Health Service, Simon Stevens, is advocating smaller community hospitals, thus articulating what many of us already know that the huge conglomerates built in recent years are not conducive to the health and well-being of patients.

Anyone who has faced a daunting visit to Peterborough Hospital to where most Bourne patients are directed can vouchsafe its inconvenience, a car park that is a nightmare to negotiate and huge sprawling mass of corridors and rooms that need to be faced before locating your appointed place. Big is not beautiful when it comes to medical treatment because morale is already at a low ebb through ill health without having to face the pressure of a vast and unfriendly building such as this.

Those who have been so intimidated will therefore be pleased to learn that Mr Stevens is on their side and although he does not exactly advocate a return to the cottage hospitals of past times he has signalled a change of policy by moving away from the big centralised centres that have been favoured in recent years, insisting that smaller district general hospitals should play an important role in providing care, especially for the growing number of older patients who could be treated closer to home.

“A number of other countries have found it possible to run viable local hospitals serving smaller communities than we sometimes think are sustainable”, he told the Daily Telegraph (May 30th). “Most of western Europe has hospitals which are able to serve their local communities without everything having to be centralised.”

Nevertheless, those of us who can remember will immediately think of the hospital service of yesteryear which, even here in Bourne, was concentrated on smaller, friendly units just a short distance from home and that always seemed to operate far more efficiently without the hassle of travelling long distances yet all have been closed in the interests of centralisation and we wonder why on earth that was allowed to happen. Yet this town had two such hospitals, both well used and much loved as part of the front line medical services for this community but now a mere memory, one demolished and the other used as a day care centre for the elderly.

The Butterfield Hospital opened in a converted house at the corner of North Road and Meadowgate in 1910 after the property had been bequeathed to the town by the owner, a retired Yorkshire businessman. The hospital was soon offering a full range of services for both in and out patients, with visiting consultants who arrived to see patients at weekly clinics and a staff of nurses who made regular home visits.

The premises were greatly enlarged with the addition of a new wing in 1920 as a memorial to those servicemen who died in the First World War and by 1965, the hospital was maintaining 12 beds in three wards, one male, one female and one private. There were five full time nursing staff and four part time with a further four employed on night time duty and there were also four kitchen staff and a porter. Minor surgery was performed in the operating theatre and the hospital also had a busy casualty department.

The Butterfield continued to provide a valuable medical service for the town and public opinion helped it survive several attempts at closure, particularly in October 1982 when nurses and members of the public turned out in force to protest with 6,000 people signing a petition demanding that it remain open. But financial restraints and a streamlining of NHS resources eventually sounded the death knell and it closed in 1983. Age Concern in Bourne, supported by local councillors, persuaded Lincolnshire County Council to buy the building from the Peterborough Area Health Authority for £26,000 for use as a day centre by old people and this has been its role since 1985 as a self-financing registered charity.

Bourne Hospital was built in South Road by the old Bourne Rural District Council and opened in 1915 as an isolation unit for patients with infectious diseases and included a lodge keeper's house at the entrance gate, a house for the matron and nurses in the centre of the grounds, a storeroom and administrative department and the fever section behind, consisting of two large wards, male and female, each with six beds including two for children. The hospital was originally intended for patients suffering from scarlet fever, diphtheria and typhoid but a tuberculosis pavilion was added in 1925, one of the finest facilities of its kind in the country.

In the ensuing years, the isolation hospital was converted entirely for the treatment of chest conditions but smallpox cases were excluded and in November 1930 an arrangement was entered into with the Peterborough Corporation to send such patients to their isolation hospital at Fengate. It was through this early co-operation that the present system of health administration for Bourne sprang and although geographically in Lincolnshire, the hospital was taken over in 1949 by the Peterborough Area Health Authority which also controlled the Stamford and Rutland Hospital. While the Bourne hospital was open, this system operated to the disadvantage of local residents who were often sent for advanced treatment to Peterborough while patients from Peterborough were sent to Bourne.

By 1965, the hospital was being run as a medical and surgical unit with 53 beds, two consultants and a medical officer, a matron, nine day and night nursing staff, four kitchen workers and a porter. There was also a chest X-ray unit which was used by the town and district and a domiciliary nursing service consisting of two sisters trained in midwifery, ante and post natal work, a health visitor and a medical officer of health, attending to around 60 cases a year and making 200 visits each month. There were also clinics specialising in the eyes, orthopaedics, remedial and relaxation therapy and child welfare.

But re-organisation of the National Health Service brought the closure of many of the country’s small hospitals including Bourne, despite a vigorous protest campaign by local people to save it. They raised a petition containing 8,000 names to keep it open but the battle was eventually lost in September 1998 and the premises were left standing empty for the next five years (pictured above) before being demolished after the four-acre site was sold for the housing development that we see today.

The archives indicate that these two hospitals were vital assets to the health and welfare of this town, both regarded with trust and affection, always busy and always dependable to deliver medical help in a friendly and comforting atmosphere whenever it was required, quickly and efficiently and, most importantly, locally. Today, patients face a twenty mile drive by car or ambulance for emergency treatment and a lengthy wait of weeks, even months, for routine appointments while many dread the prospect of even entering the precincts of Peterborough Hospital. There is little doubt that the smaller community hospitals were far more convenient and efficient and it is a travesty that they were ever phased out in favour of centralisation that has since been seen to fail time and again. The latest policy change from the new man in charge of the NHS is therefore a welcome sign that perhaps the system may eventually return to a least a semblance of the way it was.

From the archives: The Butterfield Hospital in North Road, Bourne, was officially opened on 28th June 1910 by the Countess of Ancaster who told the assembled guests: "The home is an ideal one for its purpose and is now being used. It is pleasantly situated and is in every way convenient." The first patient was five-year-old William Thornton who had been admitted with a broken leg although he had recovered sufficiently to present a bouquet to the Countess after her speech. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 1st July 1910.

It was Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) who famously claimed that there were only two certainties in life and they were death and taxes. The English trader, writer, journalist and pamphleteer, was also notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel by helping to popularise this form of fiction in Britain.

The actual quote is “Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believ’d” and comes from The Political History of the Devil which was written in 1726, seven years after the book for which he is most famous, Robinson Crusoe, was published.

His death and taxes quote has since been widely used and is often heard in modern times around the world, being a favourite reference by politicians in the United States. It was also probably well known in the early years of the 19th century and therefore familiar to anyone with a smattering of learning, certainly to the Bourne correspondent of the Stamford Mercury when the reporting of parish affairs was still in its infancy and a task often undertaken by a local schoolmaster.

The weekly requirement was reporting anything of interest that had occurred in the town, usually court hearings, inquests and disasters of every kind, their reward being a penny a line and so in those times devoid of hard news it was a challenge of their ingenuity to find something that might be published to earn their crust.

This appears to have been the case on Friday 29th December 1848, Christmas having passed uneventfully but this failed to deter our correspondent and an evening with pen and paper produced a small gem that reflected the widespread feeling in the town that life in the past twelve months had been far from pleasurable.

The cost of living was soaring, transport was difficult because Bourne was not then part of the railway system and the only public transport being the bus which had been introduced in this country in 1824 and was little more than a horse and cart with several wooden seats, forerunner of the omnibus we know today. On top of that, the annual demands for income tax which had recently been re-introduced in England under the Income Tax Act of 1842 on incomes over £150 a year were about to descend upon the inhabitants of Bourne and if anyone wished to contest the amount claimed then they had to travel to the nearest tax centre at Folkingham which dealt with these matters.

Apparently overwhelmed by this despair, our correspondent was soon in full flight because he wrote: “Poor Bourne is fast descending to the ‘tomb of all the Capulets’. Isolated from all railway communications, our coaches all taken off the road, the only conveyance remaining being a bus plying to Stamford and back, tradesmen grumbling, and farmers buttoning up their pockets, from the effect of the present low prices.

“These are evils for which little remedy can be looked for in our present position. We had hoped, however, that the Income Tax Commissioners commiserated our condition; but, alas! We have been deceived even on this point. Until the present week no charges for income had been received, and the inhabitants indulged the hope that the new Surveyor had disfranchised them; but Wednesday brought round the town an official with pockets stuffed with disagreeable papers – charges for Income Tax. Is it not strange that the Commissioners should persist in dragging the inhabitants of Bourne nine miles to appeal?”

This imaginative item by the newspaper correspondent was not penned in vain because as a result, the Commissioners of Taxes yielded to the wishes of the inhabitants by holding an appeal day at Bourne as well as at Folkingham, the first being held at the Bull Inn [now the Burghley Arms] on Friday 16th November 1849.

Thought for the week: We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -  Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), former Prime Minister, statesman, orator, historian, Nobel Prize winning writer and artist.

Saturday 14^th June 2014

The petition launched to support the building of a Victorian-style bandstand in the War Memorial Gardens at Bourne has now gone online. The appeal has been organised by Councillor Helen Powell who first suggested the project two years ago and has since secured financial backing to proceed once permission is granted by Bourne United Charities who administer the site on behalf of the town.

Over 400 signatures have already been collected on the paper petition circulating around Bourne and the Internet edition is expected to give a tremendous boost in support.

The trustees have so far refused to approve the project but it is now hoped to provide sufficient evidence of public approval to persuade them to reconsider. The latest stage of the bandstand petition is expected to win much greater support and will therefore present an even more convincing case.

There is a now a precedent for the trustees to take public opinion into consideration following their deliberations earlier this year over the future of black swans inhabiting St Peter’s Pool when they considered a petition calling for these exotic birds to be excluded because they were at risk from predators even though it had only forty signatures. Nevertheless, Trevor Hollinshead, speaking for Bourne United Charities, told The Local newspaper (April 25th) that “the trustees had taken note of public opinion” and had stopped an order for two new swans. He added: “We will wait and find out what the people really want.”

The latest stage of the bandstand petition is expected to win much greater support and will therefore present an even more convincing case for the project to proceed, despite earlier misgivings in the boardroom at the Red Hall.

Brass bands have a long tradition in Bourne dating back to the early 19th century and Councillor Powell, a former mayor and a member of the county, district and town councils, claims that interest is just as intense today. “We have so many talented musicians both young and old that they deserve a public place to display their talents and it is up to us to encourage them all we can”, she said. “Such concerts would also be a welcome addition to the town’s cultural life.”

Last year, a new initiative was announced by local osteopath Jo Sunner, a keen instrumentalist who plays both the tuba and the trombone, who is currently forming a community brass band for Bourne. Ten musicians have already been recruited, both men and women, and are practising with the Salvation Army band which has a tradition of brass band music and has produced many fine players. “There is a strong following in the areas with brass bands in places like Peterborough, Stamford, Nassington, Spalding and Holbeach”, he said. “We are still trying to find more musicians but we will have a brass band in Bourne and we are already planning a few concerts for later this year.”

A fund that has been opened to finance the bandstand project has already raised almost half of the estimated cost of £25,000 to build the structure and there have also been offers of materials, services and assistance with the legal and planning procedures to help it come to fruition.

The War Memorial Gardens is the obvious place, said Councillor Powell, because the weeping willows along the banks of the Bourne Eau provide an ideal setting for open air concerts. She added: “This land is intended for the residents of this town as an amenity to enjoy and regular band performances in this pleasant open space would be an added attraction for the community.”

Band concerts organised by South Kesteven District Council are already held in the gardens on selected Sunday afternoons in summer but there is no permanent place for visiting musicians who have to sit around the stone cenotaph. There have also been two successful bandstand marathons in Bourne, in 2008 and 2012, when hundreds of people turned out for the concerts although both would have been even more successful if the centrepiece of the events had actually been a real bandstand.

“The case has become unassailable”, said Councillor Powell. “This form of open air entertainment is enjoying a tremendous revival around the country and there is sufficient support for it here in Bourne once the trustees agree to give it their backing. It would also bring much-needed additional business to the town centre because of the number of visitors that would be attracted. I am therefore asking everyone to sign the petition to help persuade the trustees that there is a real desire for our very own bandstand to be sited in the War Memorial Gardens which will be an added amenity for this town and an asset for the future.”

My photograph of Shillaker Court, the block of flats in the Austerby named after Harry Shillaker (1865-1924) which appeared as Picture of the Week last week (June 7th), has revived memories of his wife who was also a talented artist.

Mr Shillaker was an active member of the Hereward Lodge of Freemasons which had been established in Bourne in 1868, meeting first at the Angel Hotel, then at their own building in Wherry’s Lane and more recently at their new headquarters in Roman Bank. In the spring of 1894, he had married Annie Wright, daughter of a Spalding ironmonger and a talented artist whose work was exhibited and sold in the area and as a result, her husband built her a studio in the grounds of their home where she worked.

Annie painted in both oils and watercolours although she also achieved a reputation for her miniature portraiture and four of her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1923 and 1933 while fourteen other paintings were shown by the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. She was also a guest at the many ladies’ nights held at the lodge and as a result completed a series of 12 Royal Arch banners, heraldic paintings on panel depicting the tribes of Israel which have a significance in masonic ritual and are still used today by the Hereward lodge, one of them signed on the reverse with the date 1928 when they were completed and so we may assume that they were presented to the lodge in memory of her late husband.

Her other contribution was a series of five banners of oils on silk, exquisite reproductions based on the apostles but sadly these were destroyed when the lodge, then situated in Wherry’s Lane, was broken into in 1984. Intruders got in over the rooftops and then removed a window and once inside they raided the beer store where they consumed large quantities of strong ale before desecrating the inner temple and damaging robes and carpets, all of which required costly restoration but unfortunately the silk banners were beyond repair.

Mrs Shillaker died at home on 14th January 1937 at the age of 74, leaving various bequests in her will to friends and institutions including the Abbey Church, the Butterfield Hospital and to provide a Christmas treat for 25 deserving elderly ladies residing in Eastgate in perpetuity. She was buried with her husband in the town cemetery although there is no headstone while the house and studio were demolished in 1954 to make way for Shillaker Court.

A remarkable document detailing the early hours of the D-Day landing in June 1944 has survived in the scrapbook of a former Bourne man who took part in the historic operation seventy years ago.

Derek Smith, a retired corn merchant, now aged 92, was a rating working as a coder in communications serving aboard the cruiser HMS Hawkins which sailed from Portsmouth as part of the 14th Task Force involved in Operation Neptune, the amphibious phase of D-Day and provided the off shore gunfire bombardment while the landings took place at Utah Beach.

The document is a tattered scrap of foolscap paper but contains the official detailed account written in typescript of how action stations were manned aboard the ship from 6.30 am on the morning of Tuesday 6th June and then a log of how the various gun batteries opened up for the bombardment which continued until 8.40 pm three days later.

It tells how the 2.5 inch, 6.1 inch and 6.6 inch guns gradually started firing salvoes as the landing got underway, recording hits in the various target areas with Spitfires dive-bombing enemy shore batteries and heavy mobile artillery. One American ship, the USS Glennon, which was providing protection for invasion shipping and naval gunfire support for assault troops, hit a mine and was immobilised while a destroyer going to her assistance suffered a similar fate. [The Glennon was later hit by German artillery fire which cut her power and forced her abandonment and she capsized and sank with the loss of 25 of her crew]. Targets were continually adjusted because of the close proximity of our own troops with German shore batteries returning fire. And so it went on for three days.

The events of June 1944 remain vivid in Derek’s mind even today, seventy years after the operation. “The date of the bombardment was postponed for a day because of bad weather”, he said, “but once we started morale was high although we were aware of the dangers from mines and U boats. We saw several ships go down but we seemed to get through unscathed. After that we stayed off the Normandy coast for about a month as mother ship to the landing craft and then headed back to Portsmouth. It was an exciting time but very dangerous and we were all relieved when it was over.”

Once back at port, HMS Hawkins was decommissioned and Derek joined the crew of the aircraft carrier Victoria Castle which had been adapted to take the first jet aircraft before heading for the Indian Ocean where he spent the rest of the war. He finally left the navy in 1946 and came home to Bourne to work for Wherry and Sons as a representative but then took six months out to attend Glasgow University, returning home to begin his career in the grain trade.

Derek had joined the Royal Navy in 1940 when he was 18 and remained with the service until being demobbed. He was one of three brothers who served, all having been born at No 23 North Road, Bourne, and educated at Stamford School. The middle brother, Alan, was aboard the Duke of York when the German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk off the Norwegian coast in 1943 and the eldest, Billy, was among the 722 crew who lost their lives when the cruiser HMS Gloucester was sunk during the Battle of Crete in 1941 and his name is commemorated on the War Memorial in Bourne.

Derek left Bourne when he was married in 1951 and now lives at Great Gonerby, near Grantham. His wife, Cynthia died three years ago, aged 91 after being married for sixty years. “The D-Day experience is something I shall never forget”, he said. “There were no heroics. We were just doing our duty and I think that everyone saw it that way.”

Thought for the week: This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen. - Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, speaking to the House of Commons on D-Day, 6th June 1944.

Saturday 21^st June 2014

The Heritage Centre which was established at Baldock’s Mill in South Street over thirty years ago is being extended. For some years now, the Civic Society which runs the project has been hampered through lack of space as their archives and exhibits expand with every room and cupboard filled to overflowing but members have managed to cope although with some difficulty.

The society has now been given the adjoining two-storey southern section of the mill building (pictured above) which has until now been leased to a neighbour who has been using it as a garage but the owners, Bourne United Charities, have agreed to hand it over to the Civic Society and plans are being drawn up to turn it into a new exhibition area.

Baldock's Mill was one of the three water mills mentioned in the Domesday Book that survived into the 20th century and still stands today at No. 21 South Street. It was built on the banks of the Bourne Eau in 1800 and operated until the early 20th century, taking its name from Frank Baldock who was the last miller to live there, but stopped working around 1924 when the water wheel collapsed. The owner, the Marquess of Exeter, called in experts to inspect the damage but decided not to repair it because of the high costs involved. The wheel and machinery were removed but the mill race that turned the wheel can still be seen within the building, now scheduled Grade II as being of architectural and historic interest.

In 1981, Bourne Civic Society sought permission to turn it into a Heritage Centre and Bourne United Charities agreed to lease them the building for a peppercorn rent in order that it could be preserved for community use. Months of hard work turned it into the museum and meeting place we see today that has become one of the main attractions for the town and a regular call for visitors wishing to know more about our history. The lease was renewed in 2002 for a further 21 years and the full potential of the building in this new role is now being realised.

Major displays are already housed there including a memorial room devoted to the life and times of Raymond Mays (1899-1980), the international racing car driver and designer, and a gallery displaying the talents of Charles Worth (1925-95), the solicitor’s son who found fashion fame at his salon in Paris. There are many other interesting exhibits that reflect Bourne in past centuries and the people who lived here.

The additional section of the building appears to have been used by the last miller, Frank Baldock, for his carpentry and timber business which he also ran from the premises. A gas engine which was used for alternative power was housed next door and the aperture for the drive to keep his saw bench in operation can clearly be seen in the passageway from South Street between the two parts of the building although now bricked up. Structural alterations will be necessary to bring this section back into the main building and a new internal staircase built to allow access to the ground floor but surveys are already in hand and the work is not expected to present any major problems.

Mrs Brenda Jones, chairman of the Civic Society, said that the additional space would be most beneficial for the running of the Heritage Centre. “We have been cramped for many years”, she said, “and the new section will add to the appeal of our exhibition areas. There has been no shortage of ideas but it will most likely be used to extend the displays relating to Raymond Mays and the BRM.”

Meanwhile, the Civic Society is planning yet another public exhibition, one of those events that have become a feature of the Heritage Centre in recent years that have covered such diverse subjects as our railways, the water industry, toll roads, milestones, weddings and christenings, all of which have stimulated interest in the history of the town. The latest subject is the Great War, a topic inspired by the forthcoming centenary of its outbreak on 4th August 1914 and a major display is planned for the opening by the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Bob Russell, on Saturday 26th July to include photographs and other artefacts from the conflict although these items are becoming more scarce with the passing of the years.

Brenda and her husband Jim, who have done so much work to maintain the centre, are hoping to find an original khaki uniform from the war that might even provide the centrepiece for the display but few people will have one of these in their attic and so they may have to be content with photographs. Anything else that relates to this dark period from our history that will be of interest to the present generation will find a place in the exhibition if the owners are prepared to take them along.

The public image of Lincolnshire County Council has been considerably dented of late with several examples that indicate poor support by the people the authority is supposed to serve. The leader, Councillor Martin Hill, writes a regular column in The Local newspaper singing the praises of work done but signals from the grass roots give quite a different message.

The latest setback for the council’s reputation comes from Thurlby, three miles south of Bourne, where villagers have been pressing for pedestrian crossings over the main A15 for several years and their case was reinforced in January this year when two 11-year-old schoolgirls were struck by a minibus at nearby Northorpe.

Traffic surveys revealed what everyone already knew that these were two danger spots on a trunk road carrying traffic between Lincoln and Peterborough that was often travelling too fast and so speed limits were modified and a pedestrian crossing promised for Northorpe. That is expected to be built within the current financial year but the parish council has been told that there is insufficient money to do the same for Thurlby, despite a petition of support with 7,000 signatures. It is difficult to cite a more deserving case for priority spending than preserving the safety of pedestrians crossing the county’s primary trunk road yet the county council which has an annual spending budget of £1,099 million (2014-15) claims that they cannot afford it.

Similar budgetary restraints have curtailed opening hours at the county’s waste recycling centres including that at Pinfold Road, Bourne, where the public can only dump their bulky rubbish on four days a week with the result that visitors will encounter long queues and a lengthy wait that becomes chaotic at times, all of which has been blamed on the economies being implemented at county hall.

But by far the worst manifestation of this penny pinching is in the public library service which is being decimated throughout Lincolnshire in an attempt to save £2 million. The proposals include closing 32 of the 47 libraries in the county while reducing the opening hours at others. Fortunately, some communities are fighting back and villagers at Market Deeping, near Bourne, where their library is facing the axe, have mounted a legal challenge on the grounds that the cuts are unlawful and are asking the High Court to grant a judicial review.

The performance of our local authorities has declined so much that we seem to have reached a situation in which the people need to resort to such drastic measures as petitions and legal action to force them safeguard services that until now have been regarded as a right. The official answer is invariably financial cuts and budget economies but much of the spending is not always necessary and often regarded as wasteful and so priorities need much greater scrutiny to ensure that essential services take precedence.

The other factor is the changing attitude of those who become elected councillors, men and women who campaign for office promising to make life better for the people, to put them and their needs first, but within months of being elected become seduced by the system and immersed in the committee ethos and are soon serving the council rather than the people. Petty squabbles, political intrigue and pursuit of status takes over to the detriment of their duty to the electorate with the result that they lose sight of the reason why they are there. This is one of the main problems with our councils today when our elected representatives seem to disappear after election day and prefer to stride the corridors of power rather than walk the streets where they won their support.

Councils also need to re-consider their priorities because so many insist on cutting public services in the name of financial restraint while continuing to hand out salary increases to staff and allowing expenses to rocket to an all-time high and even feather their own nests with increased allowances such as the additional £2,000 a year that members of Lincolnshire County Council voted themselves earlier this year which will cost an annual £250,000, money that had previously  been earmarked for improving services and an amount that would easily have paid for a pedestrian crossing at Thurlby.

Personal considerations and prejudice have no part to play in the decision making process by our local authorities which exist to make life better for those who pay the council tax and perhaps the time has come for those influenced in this way to re-assess their role in public life.

The online petition to build a bandstand in the War Memorial Gardens which we reported last week is now gathering support and signatures are being added daily to the 400 already collected on paper around town.

Petitions have an illustrious history dating back to pre-modern Imperial China when court secretaries read them aloud to the emperor and have been used down the ages ever since to right wrongs and pursue good causes. They could be sent by anybody, from someone of rank to a common farmer and frequently used to impeach questionable and corrupt local officials. Today, the petition is a popular instrument at local level to gain public attention over an issue and to persuade those in charge to do something about it and as there is much that needs to be done in most communities there is always a petition somewhere seeking more signatures, copies being posted in shops and supermarkets although the Internet is fast becoming the most popular place for people to signal their support.

The overall reception to the prospect of a bandstand is positive and one that the trustees of Bourne United Charities who administer the War Memorial Gardens on behalf of the town must now take on board. They have in the past been dismissive of the idea yet some attend the summer concerts by visiting brass bands whose members are at a loss where to sit and end up on the paved area around the cenotaph whereas this type of music on such occasions is meant to be played from an enclosed central point as it was in past times, so giving an added impetus to the entertainment being provided.

The trustees should not decide this issue based on their own personal preferences but on the wishes of the people. That is what should separate them from the jobsworths who hold office in so many of our organisations around the country. They currently administer money, land and property left to this town by past benefactors who wanted their assets to be used for the good of the community. A groundswell of opinion in favour of a bandstand cannot therefore be dismissed lightly or even on a personal whim of like or dislike and as the decision has to be based on what is good for Bourne, then we should expect the trustees to do their duty.

Thought for the week: In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme. - Aristotle (384-322 BC), Greek philosopher and polymath and one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

Saturday 28^th June 2014

The re-opening of Wherry’s Lane with its new look after a £2.2 million facelift is a reminder of what we have lost through the abortive town centre regeneration scheme which was scrapped four years ago after almost a decade of planning without a single brick being laid.

The surviving artist’s impressions of what might have been bear a close resemblance to the new development of an arcade of shops and flats that has brought a refreshing change to that area between the town centre and Burghley Street that had been allowed to deteriorate over the past decade. Where before we had a dark and dingy alleyway and a derelict grain warehouse we now have an imposing red brick complex of shops and flats surrounded by a spacious paved area, public seats and landscaping with trees and grass that have provided an attractive addition to the street scene as well as enhancing the appearance of this ancient market town at a time when it was beginning to look run down although we cannot help but wonder what it might have been like had the original £27 million redevelopment gone ahead as planned.

The original scheme proposed the regeneration of the core designated area, that triangle of land between West Street, North Street and Burghley Street, and was first mooted in August 2001 but this ambitious project finally foundered in May 2010 when South Kesteven District Council announced that it was being shelved, claiming that it was no longer feasible and conveniently making the economic recession the scapegoat for its abandonment. 

Instead, the council went ahead with a more modest project involving the refurbishment of Wherry’s Lane and the Burghley Street warehouse, demolition of the old Hereward Masonic lodge, a garage and residential property, all bought as part of the original plans but by then surplus to requirement and so something needed to be done with them.

The result is what we see today and it looks good but at what price?  The original scheme must have cost an exorbitant amount before being abandoned, public money being spent over a period of nine years on planning, consultancy, fees and salaries, and most probably running into millions of pounds but the exact total has never been revealed. Only those who run the council know that and it is doubtful if the people will ever be told.

The completion of the Wherry’s Lane scheme brings with it another problem and that is parking. Until now, this narrow lane has been a shortcut for shoppers leaving their vehicles in the Burghley Street car park before heading into the town centre although rather than brave this dull and depressing thoroughfare, most tried to find a space in our other main car park behind the Town Hall.

All that has now changed and Wherry’s Lane will become a magnet for many people because a stroll down it on a sunny day has a feel good factor that will make this route into town irresistible. Parking will be the problem because the Burghley Street car park, as with that in South Street, is invariably filled with vehicles that remain there all day, their owners being shop and office staff who work in town and therefore take up spaces that should be available to casual users who want to shop, keep appointments with their dentist, hairdresser or solicitor. We know this to be true because spaces are always at a premium in these two car parks whereas there are always a few available in the old Budgens car park behind the Town Hall which has a two-hour limit and a £50 fine for those who overstay. Pay parking is therefore the obvious answer.

This is a hot potato in Bourne where traders in the past have been against it on the grounds that it will discourage shoppers. There have also been several attempts in the past by South Kesteven District Council to introduce pay parking that have been thwarted by vigorous campaigns to prevent it but circumstances have now changed and metered spaces in all of our main car parks will ensure a greater availability and deter motorists from leaving their vehicles there all day.

This town has a population of around 15,000 people with 500 public car parking spaces (yes, I have counted them), all within the town centre area, either in designated parks or at the kerbside. Yet parking is becoming more difficult because motorists insist on hogging places all day long to the detriment of shoppers and other occasional visitors. The town centre is meant for trade and that means a constant turnover of visitors throughout the day which will increase now that Wherry’s Lane and its arcade of new shops has been added to the equation but they can only be regulated through pay parking, a system which induces a greater turnover of spaces. The solution is obvious and the district council must know this.

Vets treat animals and doctors care for people and that is the way it was meant to be but there have been cases where the demarcation line between the professions has been crossed and in some cases with tragic results.

Such was the situation at Manthorpe, near Bourne, almost 170 years ago when a young lady, Elizabeth Taylor, who had been living in the village for several years with her uncle and aunt, fell ill. The cause was unknown and rather than incur the expense of calling a doctor, the nearest living in Bourne several miles away, she consulted the local veterinary surgeon, John Knipe, of Northorpe, with disastrous results.

A few days later, the young lady died and because of the suddenness of her demise, an inquest was convened in the village under the jurisdiction of the coroner, Mr R A White. But the hearing turned out to be a lengthy one because the victim’s aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs Taylor, tried to conceal the events leading up to their niece’s death, no doubt because they were reluctant to reveal the extraordinary means they had adopted to obtain treatment. “Instead of applying for advice to some medical practitioner regularly educated and authorised, they confided her life to the care of an ignorant cow doctor”, reported the Stamford Mercury on Friday 5th May 1848, “and with a view to keeping this fact from the knowledge of the coroner and jury, did not hesitate to make false statements.”

But after some painstaking questioning by the coroner, the facts slowly emerged, that a week after their niece became unwell they consulted Mr Knipe at her request and he prescribed some pills and a decoction of witch mullein, a herbal remedy made from plants of the snapdragon family, often used to treat ailments in horses and so called because of an old superstition that claimed witches used it to make wicks for their candles and lamps when making incantations, thus earning it the name of hag’s taper.  Some of the many physical conditions for which it was used included varicose veins, phlebitis, kidney stones, pain, swelling, injuries, and inflammation.

 “Although very effectual in farriery”, reported the newspaper, “he ventured to prescribe it for her, although he did not know the extent or even the nature of the disease under which she was labouring. But, fortunately for him, it appeared upon dissection of the body that death was occasioned by extensive internal inflammation and extravasation [leakage] of blood, and had not been accelerated by the doses she had taken, so that he was not legally implicated in the cause of death, though there is no doubt that, if he had not interfered by undertaking her cure, and skilful medical aid had been obtained, the disease might have been arrested and her life would have been saved.”

When the hearing ended, Knipe was severely reprimanded by the coroner, and the newspaper added: “It is hoped this case may be a warning to the public not to trust their lives to the treatment of uneducated quacks.”

The problem with a controversial proposal is that it attracts strong opinions over why it should not be implemented. No matter how many people give it their support, there is always a vociferous minority who wish to inflict opposing views, often using hyperbole and fantasy to reinforce their argument.

So it is with the proposal to erect a Victorian-style bandstand in the War Memorial Gardens in South Street with volunteers footing the bill and organising the work and all that is needed is the blessing of the trustees of Bourne United Charities, the organisation which administers the area on behalf of the people.

A paper petition has already raised 400 signatures and more are now being collected online and although the overall reception has been one of support, lone voices have been raised in protest which was inevitable but many residents will be dismayed by the comments left by one lady who signed, expressing her disapproval by claiming that as a bandstand would be used only infrequently, “for the remainder of the time it would be a wonderful shelter for the scum of Bourne to drink, take drugs, urinate and fornicate”, a textbook example of the non sequitur.

We have lived in Bourne for more than thirty years and although there has been some vandalism and occasional rowdyism it is not rampant as she suggests and we cannot relate to this lurid description of debauchery which will do no good for the reputation of this town by being broadcast on a public platform for the world and his wife to read.

But who are “the scum of Bourne” to whom she refers? Where do they now lurk waiting for a chance to invade and occupy the new bandstand to perpetrate these dreadful deeds? I know this town better than most and am not aware of anyone, male or female, who fits this description and wonder therefore where they live. In her street perhaps, or the respectable neighbourhoods of Beech Avenue and Stephenson Way, in the new estate at Elsea Park or in the older parts of town such as Eastgate and the Austerby? Bourne is not a particularly wealthy town but we bear no resemblance to some of the country’s deprived inner cities where poverty and violence are rampant and as no section of our community can be readily identified with this slur it will be regarded as being not only fallacious but also extremely offensive.

In addition, possible misuse of a proposed public amenity should never be used as an argument not to proceed because it assumes that anti-social behaviour is endemic. To surrender to mischief-makers in this way would mean an end to all community projects whereas society must face up to delinquency when and where it exists without resort to such restrictive measures which are self-defeating in that the people suffer the loss.

The writer also adds to this calumny by recruiting patriotism to her cause in suggesting that a bandstand will somehow dishonour those war dead who are named on the memorial, another illogical and absurd assumption. On several Sunday afternoons every summer, music in the park events are held there by visiting brass bands who have nowhere to sit and so the musicians place themselves on the paved area around the cenotaph whereas a bandstand would give them a permanent and traditional venue to play music in the manner with which our servicemen have been proudly associated for centuries.

Those who disagree with the building of a bandstand for Bourne have every right to oppose it but would be advised to adopt a more constructive approach rather than disparage those who are trying to improve this town for the good of the community with imaginary and appalling scenarios of the consequences.

Thought for the week: The bandstand is a sacred place. - Wynton Marsalis (1961-  ) trumpeter, composer, teacher, music educator, and an artistic director at the Lincoln Centre in New York City, USA, who has continually promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music to young audiences.

Saturday 26^th July 2014

The bus station notice board - see last item

Campaigners have saved the library service in Lincolnshire from massive cuts by going to the High Court in London where the judge upheld their challenge over a decision by the county council to withdraw funding from 32 of its 47 libraries in a bid to save £2 million on its annual budget.

This has been a splendid victory for people power but it also raises the question over whether this is the way our local government should be run. Firstly, despite being granted legal aid, those who protested on behalf of the people had to find £7,500 of their own costs yet Lincolnshire County Council had the might of its own lawyers funded by public money but despite the odds, David slew Goliath and the decision was reversed. Furthermore, members of the Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign also had to pay their own costs to attend the hearing at the Courts of Justice in London and we wonder whether the same is true of those councillors who went to court on those days.

Councillor Martin Hill, the council leader, duly apologised through the media before the week was out but surely he and the eight other members of the council executive who were responsible for the decision to proceed with the cuts should be now considering their position in view of the time and enormous expense they have gone to in trying to defend an indefensible position because no matter what they considered to be right for the council was anathema for the people and a moment’s thought about the intensity of the objection over a very long period should have made them realise this.

Our local councils are supposed to be run by those we elect and who swear at the hustings to do as we wish yet all of these unpopular decisions, notably those in recent months that have been influenced by the alleged cuts in budget spending, must have been approved by them unless, as has long been suspected, the paid officials have taken over and our representatives have become ineffective cyphers in the bureaucratic machine.

How easy it is to become sucked in by the system once invited into the hallowed halls of power, to be seduced by the lure of office and authority over others by the offer of a vice-chairmanship of committee with the promise of even higher elevation provided you toe the line. There was a time when I began reporting council matters sixty years ago that the rebel was a power to be reckoned with when any unpopular decision was to be made, ready to ensure that the wishes of the people remained paramount, but they are now few and far between.

County Councillor Phil Dilks (Labour), who represents Deeping St James, near Bourne, where his own library was earmarked for closure, is one who continues to speak his mind with a hard-hitting comment once the result was announced when he told the Stamford Mercury (July 7th): “The county council stuck their heads in the sand. They should have listened to the people of Lincolnshire and particularly the people of the Deepings where half of them signed the petition and they still refused to listen. They should hang their heads in shame. They should immediately restore our libraries to what they were previously by using some of the £41 million they under-spent in the past year.”

The High Court decision has censured Lincolnshire County Council for a flawed policy but it is one that has become symptomatic during the current economic crisis that has given local authorities unprecedented excuse for cutting the very services they have been expected to deliver. Yet the evidence is that our county and district councils have been marshalling too much power around them through officious officials aided by subservient councillors with the result that for much of the time they remain at loggerheads with the very people they represent..

According to Councillor Dilks, they also have more cash at their disposal than we are led to believe. The money local authorities receive from the council tax and government grants is meant primarily to sustain public services and should not to be put aside to guarantee staff salaries and pension payments in the future while using it in an attempt to uphold unsound policies through the courts is the very negation of democracy.

In recent years, these objectives have been turned on their head as councils have become fiefdoms intent on perpetuating their own future rather than to make life better for the individual and it is for this reason that the High Court judgment should be regarded a clarion call to everyone who pays the council tax not to be intimidated by their local authorities in the future.

An ancient ham reckoned to be the oldest in the world has been given some attention by the international media in recent days after celebrating its 112th birthday.

This suspicious looking piece of pork was cured in the United States by the Gwaltney Meat Company in 1902 and lay forgotten in a back room until being handed over for display at a museum in Smithfield, Virginia. Those who have seen it say that it no longer looks appetising but resembles a piece of old leather with a special casing to protect it from bugs and mould yet still described as edible, although no one has yet come forward to give it a try.

Old pieces of meat that never spoil have a celebrated history in the annals of the unusual and Bourne has its claim to fame as being one of those places that has helped perpetuate the legend with a tale that is no less curious.

The meat in this case was a leg of mutton that was hung by Charles Featherstone in his butcher's shop at No 1 Abbey Road sometime around 1856. Mr George Gelsthorpe, a retired butcher, worked in the shop as a 13-year-old boy in 1910 and over seventy years later, when 84 years old, he recalled the incident. "This leg of mutton started off by hanging in the shop for sale”, he said. “It was bought by a customer on the Monday and he said he would call back for it but he never did and it was left where it was in case he did. But instead of it going rotten, the meat mummified and if you tapped it, it would turn to powder." The customer is believed to have been in Bourne on a shopping trip but by evening, he had drunk so much that he forgot about his purchase.

The fact that the meat survived is surprising because Mr Gelsthorpe remembered that in those days, uncooked half carcasses were frequently hung outside the shop overhanging the pavement where butchers cut them up as they were sold. "I was often asked by the boss to go outside and pick the fly-blows off them", he said.

On 13th February 1886, the Grantham Journal carried a news item about the meat under the heading "The Venerable Leg of Mutton" although its date of origin was put at 1879 rather than 1856. "Many people like their mutton well hung but there is a limit to all things", said the report. "Few people we opine would care to have their meat hung more than a year. A correspondent tells us that a venerable leg of mutton is to be seen in the shop of a noted butcher in Bourne. Nearly seven years ago the leg was 'hung' by order of a customer who however neglected to fetch it and it has remained on the hook ever since. Time has, of course, had considerable effect upon it, lending it to quite an antiquated appearance and it is now numbered among the 'rarities' of the town.. If there is anything left but the bone it must indeed be getting very high."

On 26th February 1906, the Yorkshire Post also carried an item about the mutton in their Chit-chat column that said: "Hanging to a rafter in a shop in Bourne is a leg of mutton fifty years old. It was bought from the present occupier's predecessor by a gentleman who said he would call for it later on but failed to do so. It has so withered that it resembles a shillelagh."

The story of the everlasting meat was popular in the neighbourhood and the butchery became known as the Leg of Mutton Shop. Children would frequently call in to have a look and customers were regaled with tales of its history while they waited to be served although on one occasion it was actually removed from display because a shopper complained that it looked revolting.

The meat was eventually preserved in a glass fronted case which hung on the wall and remained in the shop when it was taken over by Aughton Brothers of Stamford and then in 1922 by Mr William Elwes of W M Elwes and Sons, butchers. He moved out in 1938 and left the joint behind and as the property was unoccupied, it was requisitioned by the army during the Second World War of 1939-45. The Lincolnshire Regiment were encamped in Bourne for a time and soldiers who slept there have been blamed for destroying the everlasting meat because it has never been seen since.

No 1 Abbey Road is still in use today, being occupied by Co-operative Travel and Stephen Knipe and Co., the auctioneers and valuers, and there is not a joint of meat in sight.

From the archives – 199 years ago: The Lincolnshire giantess: On Monday night, died at Rippingale, near Bourne, aged 16, Ann Hardy, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Hardy, of that place. This young woman had attained the extraordinary height of seven feet two inches and had attracted much attention in this part of the country, having for a considerable time past been publicly exhibited at fairs & etc as a phenomenon. Her father is a man not more than five feet six inches in height and her mother only of middling stature. The coffin measured seven feet and a half in length and two feet seven inches across the shoulders. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 21st July 1815.

The public notice boards around town are being taken over by the Bourne Preservation Society whose members plan to keep them spick and span and filled with topical material about organisations, events and information useful to both visitors and local people.

The present cast iron notice boards have been erected during the past ten years by South Kesteven District Council, elegantly finished in black and gold lacquer, and have become a familiar part of our street furniture alongside a number of public seats, ornamental railings, flower tubs, recycling bins and direction posts, all in matching livery that have provided an enhancement to our urban scene.

Until now, the notice boards have been administered by the council who have had difficulty in keeping them maintained with the result the announcement leaflets behind the glass have become outdated and often yellowed with age. The society plans to change all that and two of the notice boards, in the market place and at the bus station, have already been handed over and the others, on the edge of the Burghley Street car park and at the top end of Wherry’s Lane, are expected to come under their control shortly.

“We have free reign over content”, explained the society chairman, Jack Slater, “and we welcome material suitable for public display provided it is not commercial. Our plan is to show historic guidance information for visitors, town events from any charity or non-profit making organisation or major events from anyone provided they are of benefit to the community.”

There will also be innovations such as the trial page currently on display on the market place notice board in the form of a QR code, an array of black and white squares typically used for storing web site addresses or other information, that can be scanned by a mobile phone which takes you to the BPS web site giving information on your location and the places of interest around. This is new technology in action but traditional methods of dispensing information will not be forgotten and fixed guidance data will eventually be featured prominently on all of them.

Once the improvements have been completed the new boards will be launched officially with a suitable branding on behalf of the society and in the meantime the public are being invited to offer ideas for the effective use of these small spaces that are invaluable both for those who visit this town and those who live here.

Thought for the week: Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed. - Samuel Johnson (1709-84), British lexicographer and writer whose Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1755.

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