Bourne Diary - October 2014

Saturday 4^th October 2014

One of our very worthy voluntary organisations called Bourne2Play is lobbying for the repair and restoration of the play area established at the Wellhead Field twelve years ago but now in a very dilapidated state and certainly not a suitable place for high spirited children to be let loose.

The group was formed earlier this year after our local newspapers highlighted the poor state of the amenity and the safety concerns it posed for children who used it. The existing equipment was old and broken, the floor boggy in winter and the iron railings around the perimeter holed in a number of places. An online petition was launched in March 2014 in an attempt to persuade those in charge to update and add to the equipment and install safety flooring in order that it could be used in all weathers. “The play area needs investment so that families can enjoy the park again”, said the petition. “Bourne is a thriving town with lots of young families and we should have a better play area for them to enjoy."

The group has arranged a presentation on their aims and objectives with the town council’s amenities committee on October 21st but they may be seeking help from the wrong authority.

The Wellhead Field which borders Manor Lane, formerly Hereward's Field, has been the traditional venue for community activities in Bourne since the 19th century but was part of the land bequeathed to this town in the years following the Second World War of 1939-45, either through legacies or bought with the income thereof, left to Bourne United Charities to administer on behalf of the town. As a result, the War Memorial and Wellhead Gardens were established in 1956 and the resulting field left for public use.

Community events continued to be held there, notably the celebrations for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II during the summer of 2002. Also during that year, a dream finally became a reality for a group of Bourne residents who had been working hard to open a play park for children under the age of six. The Playwell Committee spent three years on the task of raising the £32,000 needed for the project which was officially opened in May 2002, the money coming from fund raising events such as craft fairs and car boot sales and was supplemented by grants from the local authorities, but it would not have materialised without the persistence of committee chairman, Mrs Theresa Dimbleby, who began the campaign and was appropriately asked to cut the ribbon at the opening.

The park offered youngsters a space to play within a fenced area equipped with a variety of attractions including a slide, a climb, cradle swings, playhouse, picnic benches and seating for the mums and dads who come along. But by the autumn of 2006, the play area had deteriorated and many parents felt it unsafe to allow their children use the facilities that this dedicated band spent so much time in achieving. There were complaints that the area was regularly sprinkled with broken glass, litter and discarded cans which posed a real hazard to young lives with the result that many parents refused to use the facility.

Regular checks of the area had been carried out in the past but by now there was no supervision and the play area was in danger of being left to deteriorate. The Playwell Committee therefore handed over responsibility to South Kesteven District Council which leased the play area from Bourne United Charities which in turn had jurisdiction over the Wellhead Field and the situation has been unchanged since then. The council even took the unpopular step of taping off the play area and the damaged equipment rather than repair it and this sparked the current campaign for it to be restored to regular use.

By April this year, the council claimed to have spent £2,000 on repairs and had instructed contractors to make the area safer but the campaign for a complete overhaul continued and by June, 1,000 people had signed the petition pledging their support for the provision of new equipment.

The current responsibility for maintaining this play area quite clearly lies with South Kesteven District Council as it is they who accepted responsibility for it from the Playwell Committee yet the evidence indicates that the authority has not fulfilled its duties of continuing supervision and maintenance. Furthermore, it should not be left to the people to organise protest groups and petitions in an attempt to persuade the authority do its duty.

It is also a matter of concern as to why our local councillors have not been involved in this issue, one that has become so important to our community that it has spurred a group of parents to take up the challenge themselves. This column has pointed out before that Bourne has six councillors serving on the district authority, including the present mayor of Bourne, yet we rarely hear their voices raised in support of local issues and perhaps this particular problem which is vital for the welfare of our children is one for which they might make a start.

Many people think that it is time councillors should demonstrate who actually run the councils to which they have been elected, whether county, district or town, and to show that where there is a grievance or a problem in the ward they represent then it will be addressed in the council chamber and not merely filed away by some paid official. These authorities exist through the payment of our council tax which has already reached an exorbitant level and those who pay it have the right to a say how it is being spent rather than be forced into public protest to obtain justice.

There is a distinct reluctance by those in public office to accept responsibility when their conduct in pursuance of our affairs is seen to be wanting. There have been many examples at national level in recent months but the case that is currently exciting much interest is that of the proposed closure of the public libraries in Lincolnshire for which the county council’s executive committee was rightly castigated by a judge at the High Court in London.

It will be remembered that the proposal was to withdraw funding from 32 of the 47 libraries in Lincolnshire in a bid to save £2 million on its annual budget but this was challenged by campaigners who took their protest to the High Court where it was upheld. Councillor Martin Hill, the council leader, duly apologised through the media before the week was out but it was immediately suggested that he and the eight other members of the council executive who were responsible for the flawed proposal should consider their position in view of the time and enormous expense they have gone to in trying to defend an indefensible position.

Now a petition has been launched by the Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign group demanding that the entire committee should step down and it has already attracted more than 100 signatures although it is unlikely that any of them will actually resign because that is the way of the world we live in, with everyone clinging to office no matter what transgressions are revealed. Resignation was once considered to be the honourable way when mistakes of such magnitude had been made but today those responsible simply ignore the clamour for them to go until the intensity makes it impossible for them to continue or the furore dies down but a willingness to fall on their sword is sadly lacking in public life today.

We have all experienced it, the road hog who either tailgates or passes too close for comfort and then drives on without a thought for the inconvenience caused but imagine what it was like before the car was invented, when the only traffic on the road was horse drawn because contemporary reports suggest that it could be just as dangerous when encountering the inconsiderate.

One such case that occurred near Bourne in the early 19th century was graphically recounted by in the local newspaper after a carriage was forced off the road and badly damaged and although the occupants escaped serious injury they were badly shaken and frightened.

The incident which occurred on the road from Market Deeping to Bourne was subsequently reported to the Stamford Mercury on Friday 18th January 1833 by a correspondent who was acquainted with the occupants, “three unprotected females, one only 12 years of age”, which was overtaken between Langtoft and Baston by a gig, a smaller and faster carriage, carrying two gentlemen and a lady. “Though the ladies’ vehicle was drawn further on the right side of the road that was necessary for the gig to pass them, these so called gentlemen drove their gig wantonly and forcibly against them and broke every spoke in the wheel”, he wrote. “Fortunately, the horse was a quiet one or something more serious would have happened.”

The lady who accompanied them obviously disapproved of the action of her travelling companions and upbraided them for their conduct. “How would you like to be served so?”, she exclaimed. But the culprits dismissed the reproof claiming that their horse was blind and in any case, no one had been hurt and they gave the ladies the names of several gentlemen living at Langtoft who they could contact to provide another conveyance to complete their journey before driving off.

The encounter, however, caused great annoyance in the district once word spread, thus resulting in this letter of complaint to the newspaper. “As these blackguards are fond of a lark”, wrote the correspondent, “if they will make arrangements for a fistic encounter, or if they prefer the genteeler amusement of pistols, they may meet with a customer by leaving their names either at the Chestnut Horse public house at Deeping St James or the Horse and Groom at Bourne. Should they refuse and no further apology be made, their names are well known because they did not pass the Kate’s Bridge toll gate, and they certainly will have to defend an action at law by way of a finishing spree.”

Unfortunately, the outcome is not known, whether or not the gentleman got his satisfaction on behalf of the ladies, but at least his colourful account of the incident must have got it out of his system.

Summer has gone and soon the days will be fading gently into winter yet when the golden month of October arrives the memories come flooding back of the pleasures of boyhood, now so many years ago yet never forgotten, when we would head for the outlying villages where the oldest horse chestnut trees grew because they produced the best conkers for our annual autumn sport. We would kick up the crisp, russet-brown leaves strewn over the floor beneath their canopies in our search for conkers and soon, the biggest of them were threaded on to leather boot laces or lengths of twine and we were merrily swiping away to determine who would be the "conquering hero" for that year.

Even today, I cannot pass a horse chestnut tree at this time of the year without stooping down to pick up one or two of these shiny red-brown nuts that nature has polished to perfection and that carry with them the recollections of that time more than seventy years ago and any day now, this year's finds will be before me on my desk as a reminder of times past because nostalgia is a potent emotion although happiness in such simple pleasures has a transience that can never be recaptured.

Thought for the week: Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits. - Samuel Butler (1835-1902), English author who published a variety of works including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh.

Saturday 11^th October 2014

One of the town’s oldest buildings, the Old Grammar School in South Road, is to be saved after years of neglect as a result of agreement being reached for it to be taken over by Bourne Preservation Trust and ambitious plans have now been drawn up to turn it into a centre for heritage excellence for the benefit of townspeople and of visitors.

The school dates back to the 17th century when William Trollope, a local landowner, left a bequest which provided for an endowment of £30 a year to maintain "an honest, learned, and godly schoolmaster" in a free grammar school incorporated by royal charter and built by himself. It was sited next to the Abbey Church where it still stands although the premises have been considerably rebuilt since his day. His will, dated 16th November 1636, stipulated that it should be called "The Free Grammar School of King Charles in the town of Bourne and County of Lincoln, of the foundation of William Trollope, gentleman".

The present building, erected in 1678, has a brick superstructure over a solid stone foundation but it is not certain whether this stonework is from Trollope's original school or whether it dates even further back to the days when the monastery existed. The school closed in 1904 because of a decline in the number of pupils and has since had a chequered history as an ambulance station and meeting place for boy scouts and girl guides. Today, it is Grade II listed within the Bourne conservation area and is currently administered by the Bourne Educational Foundation but has been badly neglected in recent years and in April 2003, it was condemned as unsafe and all entry forbidden.

The Bourne Preservation Trust has now reached agreement with the foundation to take over the building once the legal formalities have been completed and it is hoped to carry out repairs and restoration to use it as an educational centre complete with a working Victorian classroom with desks for up to 30 pupils. A survey has already been carried out which has revealed that although the base structure is still sound, extensive repairs are required. There are holes in the roof, which must also be  strengthened, sections of brickwork will have to be replaced, the main stone door frame needs restoration and repair and an outside utilities block with a kitchen and lavatory will be added together with ground source heating to keep the interior at a constant temperature all year round. The total cost has been estimated at £300,000 but the trust is confident that the money can be found through various grants, and applications are now underway.

Once restoration is complete, the interior will be divided to provide an authentic Victorian schoolroom overlooking the nearby Abbey Church with adjoining information and display centre to attract visitors, either in organised groups or individually, and special events will also be held regularly. “We are calling this project Bourne Heritage Experience”, said trust chairman Jack Slater, “because once established we will create a new awareness of what Bourne has to offer with the involvement of other historic buildings in the vicinity such as the Abbey Church, the Red Hall and Baldock’s Mill. This is a wonderful opportunity to bring this old school back into use and at the same time fulfil the function for which it was originally intended.”

The trust is confident that the scheme will be going ahead within a few months and is currently developing a detailed project plan which could be implemented as early as the New Year once initial funding has been secured. “The Old Grammar School will centralise our historical heritage, create a focal point for the town’s history and together with our partner organisations, give people the opportunity to experience what has gone before”, said Mr Slater. “We are committed to obtaining the necessary funding and confident that the project will come to fruition.”

Bourne Preservation Trust was formed by a group of conservationists in 2008 with the intention of saving the Victorian chapel in the town cemetery and preserving it for future use after attempts by the town council to pull it down were thwarted by a Grade II listing issued by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, but despite six years of negotiation, members have still not been given the key to the door and as a result, they have now halted negotiations with the council to concentrate on other projects such as the Old Grammar School.

A statement issued to members says: "The town council has placed further demands on the trust and continues to raise old issues despite these having been discussed over the past six years. After more than six years of delays, stalling and road blocks, future contact with the town council over the project would be fruitless and we have therefore decided on this course of action. We have left the door open to them should they decide to take a more enthusiastic and professional approach towards the situation. The cost of this restoration will now have to be paid by the council tax payers of Bourne, a situation that the council could easily have avoided."

Eleven local councils have been warned that they are wasting public money by publishing their own free newsletters and may even be taken to court, a development that has a resonance here in Lincolnshire where two local authorities have been criticised for spending on similar publications that have little function other than to sing their own praises.

The Times reports that the Department for Communities and Local Government has issued the councils with a formal notice that they face legal action although they do have two weeks to object (September 27th), their defence being that the freesheets enable them to communicate cost-effectively with residents. The local government minister, Kris Hopkins, said that councillors and political parties were free to campaign and put out political literature but they should not do so using taxpayers’ money, a ruling that should apply to councils across the country.

The objection relates to local authorities in London, six Labour-controlled councils who publish weekly or fortnightly newspapers and two Conservative-controlled who publish six times a year, arguing that they are a waste of public money and often amount to propaganda. The Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles had earlier told BBC News London (July 3rd) that it was “a process of self-aggrandisement and self-publicity on their own particular message”. He added: “It is not a public service. We will put it on a statutory footing and we will stop these town hall Pravdas.”

The proposal is to ban local councils from publishing newspapers more than four times a year. Two of our own local authorities, Lincolnshire County Council and South Kesteven District Council, persist in publishing their own magazines despite the high cost involved, particularly at this time of spending restraint, and the evidence is that a large number end up in the silver bin unread. County News is published by the county council four times a year and circulated to some 337,500 homes while sk Today is published by the district council and sent to 58,000 homes six times a year. Both are delivered by the post office and so they drop through the letter box with the junk mail and although neither authority has revealed the exact cost of publication, both insist that it is but “a small outlay” although it has been estimated that they must be spending £1 million a year between them on publications filled with propaganda and puffs of hot air to eulogise councillors and officers and articles defending unpopular policies which few people read.

These magazines have become even more redundant in recent months as most of the local newspapers and trade magazines in Lincolnshire are only too ready to accept contributions and that includes from our own local councillors who can be assured that anything they say will appear in print and so there is no need to spend public money on pursuing such a lost cause when there are other more important demands on the public purse.

Both councils have ignored the complaints over the years but if they insist on continuing to spend public money in this way, then perhaps now they may also attract the attention of the Department for Communities and Local Government with a ruling that all councils should stick to their intended role of providing public services which does not include publishing newspapers and magazines.

Voluntary work is the mainstay of any community and without it, society itself would be the poorer. The government provides only the basic structures for living and the rest is up to us and so those of altruistic motives who offer their services for purely humanitarian and charitable causes enhance not only their own self-esteem but also the organisation with which they become associated. The work of the volunteer therefore is the difference between a basic and a sophisticated society, making life more pleasant and amenable for those around them.

Bourne already has a commendable record in this sphere and many of the community projects we take for granted are run by volunteers, men and women who selflessly give their time and often money running clubs and organisations, helping the sick, the elderly and disabled, or merely popping in next door in time of need, all tasks motivated by a love of our fellow man and carried out without thought of reward.

Their work is particularly valuable in those activities involving our young people, the scouts and the guides, the youth clubs and junior soccer teams, the parent-teacher committees and a host of others that have become interwoven into the fabric of our lives yet we accept them without a second thought. There are many fine examples of this altruistic work in Bourne with our churches, the Outdoor Swimming Pool, the Heritage Centre, the Butterfield Day Care Centre and Wake House, all of which exist purely through the work of volunteers, but there are many other organisations that would collapse without selfless service.

A head count of all volunteers in the town at the moment would reveal that they are predominantly older rather than younger, many of them retired, but few youngsters, especially teenagers, are among their ranks. Young people are on record as saying that they are bored and that there is nothing to do in Bourne but an evening or two, and perhaps the odd weekend, of voluntary work with one of our many projects would provide them with the challenge they were looking for if only they were prepared to give it a try.

Unfortunately, there are signs that volunteers are not quite so numerous as they were, their time and attention diverted perhaps by television and the Internet and now, more importantly, social media which is taking a firm hold on our lives. One of the casualties of this shortage will be the appearance of Father Christmas in Bourne Wood this year, an annual event organised by the Friends of Bourne Wood which brings so much delight to the children who go along with their parents to meet the old gentleman during an afternoon of festive fun.

But there will be no Santa in the wood this year because of a shortage of volunteers. “It has been a difficult decision but we do need people come along and help make the event run smoothly”, said the Friends in a statement. “The decision has been taken with deep regret and we apologise for any disappointment but we will reconsider reinstating the event in future years if the situation changes.”

There has been a similar appeal from Bourne Preservation Trust which has been running for the past six years and is now embarking on a major project as I have outlined above. But more members are needed who are prepared to give their time and expertise to ensure that it succeeds.

Both the trust and the Friends of Bourne Wood have become well established in the town with a reputation for engaging in projects that make it a better place to live and there are dozens more organisations that would also like more voluntary help. It may be a difficult decision for anyone to actually go along and join but the rewards can be great through the satisfaction of making new friends and participating in social activities while at the same time doing something worthwhile for the community in which they live.

Thought for the week: Those who can, do. Those who can do more, volunteer. - author unknown.

Saturday 18^th October 2014

The closure of the Town Hall in Bourne is now becoming increasingly apparent as a mistaken initiative because not only have the council services which were housed there been transferred to a much smaller and inconvenient space at the Corn Exchange but the county council has now been left with an empty building on its hands that it cannot sell.

Two local authorities have been involved in this project to save money, Lincolnshire County Council and South Kesteven District Council, who between them planned, without any real public consultation, to close the Town Hall and move all council services at town, district and county level to a new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange together with the public library from South Street and the register office from West Street. The original cost was estimated at £200,000 but by the time it opened in March last year, the figure had rocketed threefold to £600,000.

It soon became obvious that there was insufficient space for the public library, an inquiry desk and the staff required to deal with visitors with the result that complaints about the cramped conditions became commonplace and although the entire main floor area was redesigned in April 2014 to create additional space, the general opinion is that you cannot get a quart into a pint pot and so it remains too small and inconvenient for continued public use.

The Town Hall, which has been the centre of civic life in Bourne for almost two centuries, has now become another headache for Lincolnshire County Council which has been claiming ownership despite repeated cautions by this column that it actually belongs to the people of Bourne because it was built in 1821 with money raised mainly by public subscription and therefore remains the property of the town. Yet despite these warnings, the county council pressed ahead with the project and announced that once complete, the Grade II listed building would be sold on the commercial market, thus raising fears that it could become a carpet warehouse, a Weatherspoon pub or given some other function wholly unsuitable to its standing in the town.

The council was urged to think again and provide proof of ownership and although this has not been officially announced, we now know that the necessary evidence has been found indicating that the building does indeed belong to Bourne and cannot be sold for commercial use. We understand that a search of the archives at county hall has now produced a trust deed dated around 1821 restricting the use of the building to its intended purpose as a town hall, courthouse with ancillary market stalls or shambles nearby.

This information comes from Anthony Jennings, conservationist and leading member of the Bourne Preservation Society who is also a solicitor and is therefore aware of the legal niceties surrounding the situation, who has since pointed out that as a result of this revelation, the local authorities, particularly Bourne Town Council, had no right to even consider turning the Town Hall into a cinema, a recent suggestion given much publicity by the three local councils, but we are pleased to report that the proposal has now been shelved, not because the terms of the deed prohibit such use but because the businessman behind the idea discovered that the interior was too small to contain a cinema. But, as Mr Jennings has since pointed out: “Why on earth were these discussions started in the first place?”

However, that is now in the past but we are left with the dilemma of what will now happen to the Town Hall. Some members of the town council have indicated that they would like to return because their current venue is too small, particularly when members of the public attend and as all meetings are open then that could occur at any time and so a larger room at the Corn Exchange has been rented at an additional cost of £400 a year.

There is another feature of this move that is quietly being ignored and that is the installation of an unsightly metal container in one corner of the car park immediately outside the rear of the Town Hall. This has now been standing there for over two years and is used as storage space for the market stalls which were previously kept in a storeroom at the Corn Exchange which was swallowed up together with the caretaker’s flat when the conversion work was carried out. The container has become an eyesore yet there appears to be no attempt on the part of the district council to remove it and it is therefore likely to become a permanent feature, rusting away and deteriorating with each passing month, a blot on an otherwise attractive parking area.

All of which adds up to a bit of a dog’s breakfast but one that could have been avoided. The Corn Exchange conversion was the last of several schemes suggested for the new CAP and this has proved to be unsatisfactory yet the solution was obvious from the start. The Town Hall was discarded as a venue because it was unsuitable and out of date yet the £600,000 spent on the Corn Exchange would have been quite sufficient to pay for modernisation of this building and the installation of a much needed lift for the disabled, a decision that would have been welcomed all round.

It is not too late to turn back the clock and although this would be an expensive option, it would bring a much loved building back into useful life and restore its rightful role in the life of the town. But before that happens, the two councils would first have to accept that they have made a mistake and that may well be more difficult to achieve.

The forthcoming restoration of the Old Grammar School by Bourne Preservation Trust which we announced last week has a special significance for the Civic Society which is fully supporting the project.

The society was formed in 1977 and now runs the Heritage Centre at Baldock’s Mill in South Street which contains many displays, documents, photographs and artefacts relating to our history including a gallery devoted to the life and times of Charles Worth (1825-95), son of a local solicitor who left to seek his fortune in London and then Paris where he founded his international salon which dressed some of the world’s most famous women and earned himself the title as father of haute couture.

The school stands in the graveyard adjoining the Abbey Church and as a boy, Charles was a pupil together with several other notable people from our history and he never forgot those days, returning often to Bourne to meet his old friends and chat about their youthful escapades. Among his fellow pupils were Robert Mason Mills, founder of the town’s aerated water business, Henry Bott, landlord of the Angel Hotel, and John Bellairs Roberts, a chemist and druggist with a shop in North Street, and Worth found great pleasure in meeting with them over a glass or two of wine, burning the midnight oil while reminiscing about their early experiences and their days attending the school.

We do have a record of the pranks the boys got up to in Worth’s day because the school had no playground at that time and scholars played in the churchyard among the tombstones in their free time with the result that several were damaged. There were also complaints from shopkeepers about them roaming the streets between lessons and causing mischief but then, as now, boys will be boys. It was not until 1861, long after Worth had left, that the problem was solved when a strip of land on the east side of the school in the ownership of the church was provided for use as a permanent recreational area.

Over the next forty years, the number of pupils at the school began to decline and in 1904, it was finally forced to close and although the building has had a variety of roles it has never been used for its original purpose since. However, the ambitious plans now being drawn up by the BPT will include the re-creation of a Victorian classroom complete with desks, slates and chalks and the chance for visitors to sit an examination exactly as Charles Worth and his friends did in the 19th century, a unique learning opportunity for visitors to step back in time whether they be children or their parents.

There is one occasion in Bourne guaranteed to bring out the oldies in large numbers and that is when the flu jabs are handed out at our two health clinics each October. This is one of those benefits we get from the National Health Service because old people are reckoned to be at risk from influenza during the winter months, a vaccination carried out swiftly and efficiently by our local clinics at weekends to avoid clogging the usual daily round of appointments and treatment.

We never fail to marvel at this each year, arriving at an appointed time at the Hereward Practice in Exeter Street and finding ourselves in and out within minutes and wonder why this cannot happen in other spheres of health care and treatment without the inordinate delays that have become part of the system. The nursing staff were at their best, cheerful and swift in despatching several hundred of us during their five-hour stint on Saturday morning, having already completed a similar session the previous Saturday, while the Galletly Practice in North Road has a similar arrangement to deal with its own pensioners.

It was inevitable that we would meet the Jeremiahs afterwards, those who are of a certain age yet refuse the jab, usually on the grounds that it is likely to have serious after effects, a tale from folklore that does the rounds each year at this time and can often be heard on market day when groups of pensioners gather to discuss their ailments and treatment. But the professional opinion is that this is a calumny against a most beneficial precaution and one that should not be refused lightly because influenza among the elderly and those who have certain medical conditions can be a killer as the pandemics of the past have proved.

The advice is therefore to go along and have the jab although they may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists are already working on a one-off vaccine whose effects will be permanent and once again we anticipate that eventually this will be another of the benefits of our much maligned National Health Service, providing of course that it is still free and not completely privatised as has been widely predicted.

In the summer of 2007 we had a water meter fitted to our house. Two workmen in a van from Anglian Water arrived one morning to do the work which involved digging a hole to the main’s inlet on the outside pavement, fitting the meter and then making good the cavity with tarmac. They finished the job and had departed within two hours which included having a break for a cup of tea.

A neighbour has also just had a water meter fitted. A few weeks ago, a surveyor arrived and marked the correct spot on the pavement in blue paint. Then on Sunday afternoon, private contractors arrived with a lorry and trailer carrying a mechanical digger and two men spent the afternoon preparing a hole which they left just before teatime surrounded by red and white barriers and warning signs on the pavement on both sides. These obstructions on the pavement remained there until Wednesday when another team arrived by lorry and fitted the meter and then departed leaving the barriers and warning signs in place and which continued to block the pavement until Thursday when yet another van arrived and removed the barriers and warning signs, revealing that the job had finally been done.

Last year, Anglian Water was one of four water companies in the Eastern counties to increase its charges by 4% and a similar increase is anticipated next year.

Thought for the week: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. - Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1909-93), British naval historian and author of some 60 books including the best-selling Parkinson's Law which dealt with public administration and management.

Saturday 25^th October 2014

Wayside rubbish around Bourne - see last item

A neighbourhood survey of Bourne completed by the town council appears to have ended in some confusion, according to the results just published. Only a small fraction of those canvassed are said to have participated, an indeterminate number which is hardly the basis for either gauging the needs of an expanding community or recommending changes for the future.

The Local newspaper reported (October 17th) that “just 1.3% of the town’s approximately 19,000 population responded to the survey” which would give a figure of 274. However, the town’s population at the last count was only 15,000 and that would produce a figure of 195. Using the population figure as a yardstick would have been misleading anyway because around half are children and most of those remaining are couples who would only complete one form. In any case, there would have been insufficient questionnaires to go round because they were not sent to everyone as the newspaper statement suggests but issued as a four-page insert in the August issue of the trade magazine Discovering Bourne. This publication is delivered to every house in the town, a total of 6,000 at the last count, and so we assumed that a participation of 1.3% meant that the feedback came from only 78 people.

Which figure, then is correct? We asked Ian Sismey, deputy clerk to the council, who appears to have been organising the survey, to provide the exact number of people who participated and his reply has indicated that because the results were less than impressive they were given a touch of the gloss brush and he agreed that my calculation of 78 forms actually returned is correct and the participation rate was therefore 1.3% of 6,000 and not of 19,000 as stated in the newspaper report. But he is also at great pains to point out that 33 of those who did reply were prepared to form a group to move the initiative forward.

The intention of the survey was to seek the views of parishioners for a new Neighbourhood Plan under the terms of the Localism Act of 2011, thus allowing local people have their say in future planning decisions. A public meeting was held on the subject earlier this year but was poorly attended and so the survey was an attempt to resurrect some interest in the subject. Readers were therefore asked to fill in the questionnaire to assess which provisions they thought necessary in the areas of housing, employment, leisure and shopping and which facilities they used including town centre shops, sports and social amenities, recreation areas, restaurants,  education and public houses. In the words of Councillor Trevor Holmes, one of the prime movers of the project: “The aim was to encourage people to tell us how they wanted their neighbourhoods developed. It was up to residents to say what aspects of the town they wanted improved or changed. The council would effectively facilitate and collate the information and take it forward by liaising with the necessary organisations.”

Residents were asked to name three things that might improve the town to which 22.4% listed more shops and a wider variety, 16.4% wanted a by-pass to ease traffic flows in the town centre, 9% suggested that the town lacked facilities for teenagers while 44% were concerned about the poor job opportunities. Private and social housing were both classed as excellent while green spaces and the environment were rated as “good” and the community spirit “quite strong”.

The glaring omission from the questions asked was car parking which is causing daily problems for visitors and therefore having an adverse effect on trade while a large slice of land left over from the Wherry’s Lane development stands idle and unused. Despite the confusion over how many actually participated and an apparent reluctance by the town council to reveal the exact number of forms returned, the three town councillors responsible for it are patting themselves on the back for a job well done despite telling The Local that the results have not produced any startling revelations, nothing that was not known already because the report says: “The views were not a complete surprise as they concurred with what the town council was aware of and had wanted improved.”

These shortcomings have already attracted public attention with a letter of protest from Pete Wright of Willoughby Road, Bourne, who wrote to The Local complaining that because of the small number of participants “then the results are hardly worth the paper they are printed on”. He added: “This is not an accurate survey and no work or decisions should be made based on this farce. It is almost as though the survey was kept hidden so they only got the results they wished for.”

However, having now established how many people actually did take part, we can see that continued public apathy may cause problems ahead which is a pity because this has been the perfect opportunity for the people to have their say over how this town will develop rather than sitting back and grumbling at every new initiative. Nevertheless, the town council remains optimistic. “Out of the 78 responses, 33 said that they wished to be involved”, said Mr Sismey. “Whilst not a very exciting response rate, we are now in a position to invite those that responded positively to another meeting to see if we can take the compilation of the plan any further.”

Many activities have taken place around St Peter’s Pool over the centuries but none has caused quite so much excitement as that which occurred early one morning almost 200 years ago.

Duelling was widespread at that time, a confrontation between two men to settle a dispute, fought not always to kill the opponent as to gain satisfaction, that is to restore one's honour by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life, often with a sword as the chosen weapon and later pistols. But the risk to life and limb was ever present and so the practice was illegal with the result that planned encounters were held clandestinely at secret locations to avoid attracting the attention of the law.

The protagonists on this occasion were two chimney sweeps who had fallen out over something which we know not but on Saturday12th June 1830 they kept an arranged rendezvous on the banks of St Peter’s Pool, then better known as the Wellhead, “to settle an affair of honour in a polite way”, as they termed it, accompanied by two gentlemen from their own profession to act as seconds.

On arrival, the ground was marked out and agreed and the necessary ceremonies observed, the men having chosen pistols to settle their quarrel without bloodshed, the act of participating and firing a single shot in the direction of their opponent being sufficient for their satisfaction, and this is the way it would have ended but for the occurrence of an unforeseen accident.

One of the duellists had borrowed his pistol from a friend, a dealer in old iron, but had neglected to ascertain whether it was full-proof [safe to use] and having loaded it with sufficient charge to confound his antagonist with the loudness of the report, fired his shot but unfortunately the explosion burst the pistol which such force that his arm was badly shattered and he was knocked unconscious. “The duellists, having neglected to provide themselves with a surgeon”, reported the Stamford Mercury, “conveyed the wounded man to the poor house to have his fractured limb dressed while the opponent and seconds were so much alarmed that they instantly decamped.”

A reader has emailed describing his experiences of finding various artefacts from past times during his long walks around the countryside and as much of this appears to be quite old rather than recent rubbish discarded by litter louts, he wonders why this is.

The arable fields adjoining the Car Dyke which runs through the Bourne area has produced a great deal of material, mainly broken earthenware and even fragments of willow pattern pottery, while on the outskirts of Dyke village he found several glass bottles, one of which was impressed Yorkshire Relish 1885. "Why should stuff like this turn up in the fields so far from the town?" asks Geoff Bell, of Princes Court, Bourne. "Perhaps they are the remains of an old rubbish dump from years ago although it is a long way from any road which would allow access."

We should remember that the fields today are farmed by machines but in past times it was people, dozens of them at harvest time when entire families would turn out to help with gathering in the corn, and as their place of work was often several miles away from their homes they took with them food and drink and the rubbish this produced would be thrown away, wrappings, broken china and empty bottles. The same debris would be left by picnic parties, a favourite diversion in Victorian times when couples and families would chose an attractive spot at the cornfield’s edge or beside a waterway for their outdoor repast.

The other contributory factor is that the establishment of organised rubbish dumps and domestic refuse collections is comparatively recent because they were unknown in Bourne prior to 1900. Before that, household waste was discarded at any convenient location, watercourses being a favourite spot, and there were also many unofficial tips that became established through common usage rather than official designation, although the amount of refuse in those days was a mere fraction of what we throw away today.

Once of the worst places for dumping was in the moat section of the Bourne Eau where it runs behind West Street and we have records that it became a magnet for rubbish, much of it thrown out by the inhabitants of nearby dwellings who merely had to walk to the bottom of their yard or garden to get rid of their dirty water and kitchen waste.

Regular weekly household rubbish collections were established by law under Disraeli's Public Health Act in 1875 which imposed new standards of sanitation on local authorities in an attempt to stamp out cholera and other diseases spread by contaminated waste which claimed large numbers of lives. Since then, the right of British householders to have their refuse collected at least once a week has been recognised as essential to the nation's health and quality of life.

It took some years for the scheme to be implemented throughout the country but by the turn of the century, weekly collections were being made in Bourne although only on a sporadic basis. The disposal of household waste became the responsibility of Bourne Urban District Council when it was formed in April 1899 but a regularised  collection of domestic rubbish did not begin until 1911. This consisted of a horse and cart with a bell attached to alert home owners that it was in the vicinity and the dustman, as he was known, was paid one shilling an hour for his services. The various parts of the town were covered in four days of each week and the rubbish collected was taken to the brick pits off West Road for disposal.

By 1930, weekly door-to-door collections as we know them today were fully operational with each household using a galvanised bin that was left within easy reach of the dustmen when they made their call. The rubbish was then carted to a central dump, now known as landfill sites, and buried a procedure that has continued ever since, although with slight variations, from the use of plastic bags and boxes to the system we have today with wheelie bins collected on a regular basis and much of the rubbish separated for recycling.

The fields and hedgerows were therefore the most convenient place to get rid of rubbish in past times and although much of it has since been cleared up with the passing of the years, odd items still surface, especially along the route of rivers, dykes, farm tracks and roads, as a pertinent reminder that no matter what criticism we may have of the refuse collection system we have today, without it the countryside might once again become a vast rubbish dump.

Thought for the week: The mountain of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. - John Ernst Steinbeck (1902-68), American Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

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