Bourne Diary - November 2014

Saturday 1^st November 2014

The Red Hall in past times - see "The annual Bonfire Night . . . "

The annual arrival of swings and roundabouts known as the October Fair now appears to be a thing of the past in Bourne. Here we are into November with not a single stall or sideshow yet nothing has been said about its non-appearance.

The funfair run by the Tuby family has been coming here every autumn for forty years but the tradition has been quietly forgotten because space allocated to showmen in the Burghley Street car park has been taken over for private parking as part of the redevelopment of Wherry’s Lane, a feature that was not taken into consideration when the scheme was being planned. The fair was cancelled last year because work had fallen behind schedule and although we were told that talks were proceeding with South Kesteven District Council for an alternative site, there has been no mention of it at all this year and so we may assume that it has gone for good.

The fairs in Bourne sprang from the weekly markets held under a royal charter granted to the Lord of the Manor of Bourne, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279 when itinerant showmen and performers flocked here to delight the crowds and so this appears to be an ignominious end to a tradition that began over 700 years ago as a direct result of the Wherry’s Lane shops and flats development.

In the meantime, the spare land on the north side left over from the project has also been lost to the town for the time being. Hopes that it may have been used for much needed parking have been dashed because the area has been seeded with grass which is now sprouting through. South Kesteven District Council has indicated that the site has been reserved for further development at some indeterminate time in the future and as the entire area has been enclosed by a low wooden fence, once the grass grows we may walk past and admire this green open space but public involvement ends there because it will be used for nothing other than ornamentation.

Motorists fighting daily for a place to park will regard this decision with some dismay because there is room here for around 100 cars which would solve Bourne’s car parking problems at a stroke. Instead, the council has made the situation worse by removing 14 spaces in the nearby Burghley Street car park from public use and allocating them instead for private use by the buyers of the new flats in Wherry’s Lane. This private facility within a public car park is already seen to be failing because two of the metal locking posts intended to secure the spaces for their owners appear to have been forcibly removed while vehicles are frequently left parked in the available space around them, thus blocking access.

The decision to leave this land standing idle is yet another case of public interest being overruled by officialdom with no regard for the needs of Bourne where memory is still fresh over the recent fiasco over the council’s proposed £27 million redevelopment scheme for the town centre which was shelved after nine years of negotiation and planning without a single brick being laid.

In addition, most of the seven available shop units are still empty a year after they were first advertised to let and so the much vaunted retail trading benefit which was originally promised may also be doomed and as few people appear to be using the new look Wherry’s Lane which is continually deserted, the current talking point around town is whether Bourne has really achieved any real benefit at all from this £2.2 million investment.

The annual Bonfire Night celebrations during the coming week are a reminder of the high jinks that took place in Bourne during past times when the proceedings often got out of hand, riotous occasions that usually ended with cases of criminal damage, shots being fired, personal injury and the inevitable police intervention.  This mischief making was the result of a mistaken belief that the Gunpowder Plot had a connection with the town, an apocryphal tale that refuses to go away and surfaces continually, even appearing in official publications.

The erroneous assertion suggests that the infamous Guy Fawkes conspiracy to blow up King James I and the Houses of Parliament during the early 17th century was hatched at the Red Hall, our most famous secular building and now listed Grade II. One of the earliest references appears in John Moore’s account of the town published in 1809 but as he was stating beliefs that were prevalent at that time it is safe to assume that there was a widespread oral tradition that subsequently filtered down through the printed word, notably by later written historical accounts, particularly those that appeared regularly in trade directories such as Kelly’s and White’s between 1842 and 1937 that are still available and often quoted today in newspaper and magazine articles and even in some guide books.

Historian Joseph Davies, the distinguished headmaster of the former Council or Board School in Abbey Road, now the Bourne Abbey Church of England Academy, was quite specific in his 1909 edition of Historic Bourne that one of the leading conspirators, Sir Everard Digby, was born at the Red Hall and was executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot which he had joined with the sole purpose of restoring the Roman Catholic religion in England.

But by 1925, John T Swift dismissed all connections between the conspiracy and the Red Hall in his history Bourne and People Associated with Bourne yet it was to be another forty years before the myth was finally laid to rest. In between times, Bourne was stuck with the legend which was often referred to in the local newspapers and there is evidence that many still believed it in later years and still do so today.

It was not until fifty years ago that the story was totally discredited by Mrs Joan Varley, archivist to Lincolnshire Archives Committee, after studying parish registers and deeds of the hall that had recently been deposited with them by a descendant of the Bourne Digby family, Sir Everard Philip Digby Pauncefort Duncombe, of Great Brickhill Manor in Buckinghamshire, and so the popular theory was well and truly laid to rest.

The story had evolved around the suggestion that Sir Everard Digby was born and lived at the Red Hall and it has been frequently stated that as he was one of the main perpetrators, he and his fellow conspirators met at his home where the plot was hatched. It is not known exactly when the hall was built but 1605 is the most favoured date and as this was the year that the plot was actually discovered and as the building was some time in the planning, it would have been impossible for it to have been the meeting place of the conspirators.

In fact, Sir Everard Digby, who was involved in the intrigue, lived at Stoke Dry, Uppingham, Rutland, and was one of the great landowners in the Midlands although he had no connection with Bourne. But over a century later, the building did pass into the hands of a Digby family and James Digby, gentleman, appears as a deputy steward to the Manor of Bourne Abbotts at a session of the manorial court in October 1730, and from then onwards there are numerous references to him and his descendants in the manorial records. It is at this date also that the name Digby begins to appear in the parish registers. The family owned and inhabited the Red Hall from then until about a century later and this fact appears to have been the cause of some wishful deduction that Sir Everard was a direct ancestor of the Digbys of Bourne which was certainly not the case.

After an exhaustive search through the documents, Mrs Varley published her findings in April 1964, with some reluctance it would seem, because she said at the time: “I am sorry in a way that I have robbed Bourne of its best known legend but I was merely trying to get at the truth. It is very easy for incorrect statements to get into local town guides. Stories grow up about places, following generations believe they are true and eventually they are accepted as fact. They are written into books and other authors do not take the time to check and revise them.”

This is still the case. Once a statement is made in print, it is filed away in various archives and then when a subject or place is to be written about again, the writer consults the cuttings and repeats the error. So it is that the Gunpowder Plot will surface occasionally as having happened at the Red Hall because, as Mrs Varley pointed out, some writers are careless about checking their facts.

Although today’s celebrations are mainly organised occasions and therefore less dangerous, many dread the time of year when November the fifth looms. They are not averse to people enjoying themselves celebrating an historic occasion but as with so many other activities, the yobs often take over and so we can expect to hear bangers and rockets going off in the streets and other public places at all hours for days before and after the event.

These round the clock explosions disturb our peace, frighten pets and worry old people and although the government has been asked repeatedly to address this issue, as with so many social problems that cause great inconvenience to the majority, nothing has been done. Fireworks are already on sale and they are bigger and better, or should I say worse, than anything concocted in years past.

When we celebrated Guy Fawkes Day in the 1930s, my father would return home from work that evening with a modest box of fireworks in the saddle bag of his bicycle, bought from the corner shop on his way home for half a crown [12½p in today's money] and containing a few squibs, a Catherine wheel, a Roman candle and a couple of rockets that were let off in the back garden, all innocent fun that was over before we all went off to bed.

The contrast today was illustrated by a leaflet that dropped through my letter box this week with one of the local trade magazines advertising some of the pyrotechnics available and it was surprising at what was on offer and the prices being charged. The very names of these products are redolent of mischief and mayhem, such as Oblivion (£119.99), Satanic Desecration £89.99), Atom Smasher at £84.99, Destructor (£79.99), Viper and Ambush (£54.99 each), Apex Predator, Towering Inferno, Sidewinder and Collision Course (£44.99 each), Depth Charge, Seismic Strike and Barrage Blitz (£29.99 each) and Hellfire (£13.99). The rockets have similarly destructive names that hint at war rather than an evening's entertainment such as Demon Detonator, Master Blaster, Typhoon Terror and Airborne Ambush, but then those making and selling these products must know their markets.

Oh, where are the simple crackers, whiz-bangs and sparklers of my boyhood? Such a restrained celebration and at least we knew then that Bonfire Night lasted for no more than an hour or two on the evening of November 5th and then it was all over for another year.

Thought for the week: Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. - John Milton (1608-74), English poet, polemicist, and civil servant who is still regarded as a thinker of world importance.

Saturday 8^th November 2014

Common sense has prevailed for the time being over the re-organisation of our ambulance service after an absurd scheme to close stations and park these vital emergency vehicles at the roadside was shelved. Those in power at the headquarters of the East Midlands Ambulance Service (Emas) have finally admitted that such an idea was flawed and have gone back to the drawing board but we wonder why it took them so long when everyone else was aware of the shortcomings.

The proposed closures were part of the ill-conceived economies to cut costs and involved an intricate and inadequate replacement scheme that would have closed Bourne and many other depots for these vital emergency vehicles and left them waiting in lay-bys around the region until required, a most unsatisfactory arrangement which was roundly condemned during various consultations by the public, the staff themselves and their trade unions. It would not have worked anyway. Ambulances need a permanent base where vehicles can be kept and maintained and crews can find rest and recreation between calls. To consign them to the roadside until needed is to reduce efficiency and to deny their crews the respect they deserve.

Fortunately Emas has had second thoughts and it is hoped that wiser counsel will prevail as their new plan is drawn up, one which will have a stronger focus on community ambulance stations, some of which would be shared with other emergency services. This may seem a brighter prospect but the service has warned that although plans to close ambulance stations, including the one at Bourne (pictured above), have been shelved for the time being, their future is still uncertain until a new scheme is finalised.

Emas chief executive, Sue Noyes, told The Local newspaper (October 31st) that the rethink would allow them “to deliver our vision for delivering the right care with the right resource in the right place at the right time”. She went on: “Since pausing our plans in October, we have talked with and listened to our staff colleagues, the public, our patients and stakeholders. We will continue to do this as we develop all of our strategies over the next few months to make sure that they make sense for the future. Being part of the communities we serve is very important to us.”

This statement would have been much easier to understand without the official jargon, a simple promise that the public should get an ambulance when and where it is required and that the men and women who staff them will be treated in a responsible manner and not consigned to the roadside, a system that would be detrimental to efficiency, morale and even vehicle maintenance.

The ambulance service is not only in the front line of our emergency services in times of death and disaster which may occur at any time round the clock, but it is also a lifeline for many people, particularly the elderly, and a call to the paramedics, especially at night and at weekends when our family doctors are nowhere to be seen, could well mean the difference between life and death but these considerations seem to take a back seat when public spending is being cut. It is therefore a small mercy that this ridiculous idea has been abandoned and let us hope that a more responsible scheme is offered next time round even though the new proposals will not be ready before 2015.

Anyone who has needed an ambulance will know how efficient the service can be. Emas has not exactly been a market leader and we do hear horror stories of late arrivals and bumpy rides to hospital but improvements have been promised while most of the staff are comforting and sympathetic at a time when patients are at their most vulnerable and even fearful.

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

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

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

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

Family doctors have been quick to cash in on the latest government initiative that brings them in yet another bonus by questioning elderly patients in an attempt to establish whether they have early signs of dementia. Two elderly people of my acquaintance have already been given these tests when attending their clinic in Bourne for entirely unrelated matters and their experience does not inspire confidence in the validity of such a project.

The National Health Service announced in October that a £55 bonus will be paid for every patient doctors diagnose with dementia over the next six months. Practices will be assessed in March next year and general practitioners will be given the choice of spending the money on salaries or on the cost of running their surgeries. Health chiefs claim to have identified a gap of 90,000 people who could benefit from a quicker diagnosis in plans costing an additional £5 million.

The scheme has already been condemned by Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, who said the plans are "a distortion of good medical practice" and many people will be of the opinion that diagnosis of any condition is part of their accepted role as physicians without the need for the incentive of a cash bonus that in some cases may be a temptation to overstate a case in order to qualify.

The dementia tests in the two cases which have been described to me both involved simple questions from the doctor posed in the style of a parlour game, notably telling the time by the positions of the hands on a clock and being asked to remember a few words that had been spoken seconds before, presumably to establish levels of understanding and concentration. Neither of the patients involved were impressed by this charade for which the doctor would presumably collect £55 each time the answers were wrong, thus indicating signs of dementia, which is more money than most of our low paid workers get in a day.

One thing is certain, that when the six months are up, the number of cases of dementia in Britain are likely to have risen sharply, a familiar scenario reflected by other similar surveys from past years, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes being particular examples, and it has even been suggested that the alarm threshold has been lowered accordingly, thus adding a further burden on the National Health Service through increased appointments and a dramatic upsurge in the use of prescription drugs.

From the archives – 189 years ago:  A few nights ago, a labourer named Batty, of Morton, near Bourne, was alarmed by the screams of an infant who was in a cradle in an upper apartment, and on proceeding to discover the cause, he ascertained that the child had been bitten in one of its hands by a rat. The following evening he was again alarmed by the cries of the elder children in another apartment, when he discovered that a rat was in bed with them and had seized a boy on the face and one of the eyelids. The children have not yet recovered from the attacks of the vermin. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 4th November 1825.

We celebrate a small landmark today because this is the 800th edition of this diary which first appeared on Saturday 28th November 1998, so replacing the news section which began when the web site was launched the previous August. So many people from at home and abroad were visiting the web site and asking questions about what was going on in the town that I decided to contribute a weekly commentary giving a personal reflection on issues and events, and resisting my wife's suggestion to call it An Old Codger Writes, I decided that it should be known simply as The Bourne Diary.

Apart from odd weeks when we were away, it has been published continuously ever since, always averaging 2,000 words, a total of more than 1½ million which is more than the combined totals of War and Peace and the Bible, a substantial body of work that has created a detailed chronicle embracing much of importance that has been happening in Bourne over the past sixteen years.

The Diary has become one of our best read features, discussing subjects of topical and historic interest relating to Bourne and although I always strive to be fair and not to give undue offence, my opinions on occasions have not endeared me to some people in the town even though I would like to be read with humour and understanding rather than outrage. But my 60 or more years as a journalist have taught me that whatever you say will not please everyone and there will always be those who regard differing views as a criticism of themselves whereas an open and inquiring mind is intellectually more stimulating. The Diary may only be a small voice in Bourne but the evidence is that we are being read and even influencing opinion and events.

Our watchword has always been common sense, a reflection of what the man in the street is thinking rather than what is being decided by those who run our affairs because the gulf between the two appears to widen with the years rather than establishing the common ground of a Utopian world. Perhaps a Diary without controversy might be welcomed in some quarters but sycophancy is not my style and it would also demonstrate that dissent was dead whereas anyone with a finger on the public pulse will know that there is still immense discontent about how our money is being spent and what is being done in our name. We do not live in an ideal world but the Internet has given the people a new voice that is both loud and immediate and is therefore being heard clearer than ever before and those who choose to ignore it do so at their peril.

Thought for the week: I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish poet, playwright and novelist.

Saturday 15^th November 2014

The Abbeyfields development off the Spalding Road

The history of recent developments in this town is one of decisions taken elsewhere while the voice of the people is frequently ignored. The public consultations flaunted by our local authorities often appear to be little more than a veneer of democracy because the opinion of our ubiquitous man in the street is quietly forgotten in favour of the bureaucratic process.

It is therefore some comfort to learn that a planning proposal for 23 new homes on land off Falcon Way to the south of the town has again been refused by the development control committee of South Kesteven District Council following objections by the town council.

The site is part of the Southfields Industrial Park, originally earmarked for commercial and industrial development that would bring much-needed employment to the town where jobs are so scarce that a large majority of the working population, both men and women, are forced to travel long distances to earn their wages. Our public voice, as expressed through the town council, the local authority nearest to the people, usually falls on deaf ears but it appears that in this case, it may have had some effect.

An initial application for the proposed Falcon Way development by Larkfleet Homes was refused last year by the council because it was outside the 1995 Local Plan in which the area was allocated for employment development, a decision clearly made in an attempt to boost the town’s job prospects. Since then, council policy has changed because the planning report reveals that the land is no longer allocated for any specific purpose in the development plan and planning officers therefore recommended that the scheme be approved. Larkfleet were therefore on course to build more new houses, once planning permission was approved, although they promised that eight of them would be affordable and £13,383 contributed towards an equipped play area for children.

Then, as now, the new homes were opposed by the town council and their attitude has not changed, as indicated by Councillor Pet Moisey, former mayor and member for Bourne East, who is quite emphatic that the land should be used in the long term to bring employment opportunities to the town. “We have had a huge increase in the number of houses being built and there does not seem to be an equal number of developments that will create more jobs”, she told The Local newspaper (November 7th).

There were also several objections from local people concerning the increase in traffic that would be generated, lack of parking and play areas for children and fears that the 23 new homes would be crammed into an already crowded estate when sufficient new houses for Bourne are already being built on the Elsea Park estate across the road. However, the planning control committee decided this week against approving the scheme and there the matter rests for the time being.

No one can blame the developers for wanting to build as many homes as they can because that is their business and Larkfleet have certainly built their share in recent years as the town’s leading housing developer, hence the joke recently doing the rounds that Bourne was twinned with Larkfleet. But the voice of protest should be heard especially when the main concern is employment rather than new homes.

We should also remember the promise of South Kesteven District Council that no more houses would be built in Bourne after Elsea Park which was made in an unequivocal statement to The Local newspaper (9th December 2005). This was confirmed by the late Don Fisher, then a member of both the town council and SKDC, who said: “I was so impressed that I sought confirmation from the council’s chief planning officer and he assured me that there would be no more housing in Bourne after Elsea Park.”

Yet the building of new houses around Bourne has continued apace. Major developments underway since that promise include the Great Northern Gardens (106 homes), Willoughby Road (42) the The Old Laundry in Manning Road (47) and The Croft in North Road (68), the Raymond Mays garage site on Spalding Road and the adjoining Rainbow supermarket in Manning Road (108) while smaller estates are being approved almost monthly and Elsea Park continues to expand at the rate of 100 houses a year.

Private house building is therefore currently at its highest level than at any other time in our history and even SKDC is participating with the construction of 14 flats for sale to private and investment buyers in the Wherry’s Lane development while the provision of social housing continues to have a low priority with over 400 people in Bourne on the waiting list for a council house.

This unenviable situation is earning Bourne the reputation of a dormitory town and the steady influx of new families is putting a strain on our health, education and transport facilities while young people now studying at our schools have little hope of fulfilling their employment prospects locally but must also join the drift from the town if they are to succeed in life. All of these factors are detrimental to our future because they impact on business in the shops as well as community life with a population that lives here for only half of the time while they obviously take advantage of their shopping and social opportunities nearer their workplace to the detriment of the town where they live.

Memories may be short but the Elsea Park development is one project went ahead without public approval with many people regarding it as an artificial expansion that would bring a massive influx of people into Bourne and so create a liability to a small market town which should have been allowed to grow organically.

The scheme was first announced in March 1999, to build 2,000 new homes on 300 acres of prime agricultural land off the main A15 trunk road to the south of the town, but it was greeted with a great deal of criticism, even derision, mainly because of the speed with which it was pushed through and the lack of public consultation. Even the town's M P, Mr Quentin [now Lord] Davies, then the member for Grantham and Stamford, joined in the debate by warning that the development was in the wrong place and that South Kesteven District Council should have been more careful "about handing out planning consents like so much confetti" without due regard to existing roads, traffic flows and the infrastructure.

An exhibition of the proposals was held at the Red Hall in an attempt to allay public fears but many of the 200 people who attended came away totally dispirited by the experience because there was insufficient information over the provision of the additional facilities that would be needed to cope with this massive influx of people.

The main objections were that a housing scheme of this magnitude would not only encroach on the existing green belt but would also increase traffic flows through the town centre at peak periods and on roads in the vicinity that were already overcrowded while the resulting population explosion would bring an estimated 6,000 newcomers to the town, putting more pressure on schools, libraries, public transport, leisure amenities, medical and other facilities.

All of these fears have since been realised and although there has been a planning gain through the provision of a new south-west relief road (2005), a community centre (2012) and a primary school (2014), other promised facilities such as a doctor’s surgery have not materialised. But despite the opposition, members of South Kesteven District Council's planning and development control committee voted 15-1 in favour of granting outline planning permission when they met on 2nd November 1999 and this was subsequently ratified by the full council. As a result, work on the new estate and the realignment of the A15 at this point started during the summer of 2001 and by the summer of 2002, the first of the new homes had been completed.

Elsea Park is now here to stay but there remains a distinct feeling of apartness, as though those who live there do not really belong to the old Bourne but residents of a new neighbourhood that has been tacked on to the southern edge of the town although this feeling of alienation is slowly disappearing as the two communities weld through social and sporting contact.

The great game is over for another season. The sound of leather on willow has faded from the Abbey Lawn where Bourne Cricket Club tests the resources of their opponents to the enjoyment of players and visitors alike although anticipation is already high for the coming year when the weekly fixtures can begin again.

This annual enjoyment for all began when cricket became a national sport towards the end of the 18th century and our own club probably originated soon afterwards, the earliest mention being in 1803 from a poster advertising a return cricket match between Bourne and Sleaford in the summer of that year followed by lunch at the Bull Hotel [now the Burghley Arms] at five shillings a head, thus establishing the social element in the game that has been a vital part of the enjoyment ever since.

Over the next few years regular matches were held with local clubs and we have a flavour of the game from 1833 with a delightful account of an end of season encounter with Irnham village, six miles north west of Bourne, which was played in the grounds of Irnham Hall at the invitation of Hugh Charles Clifford, the 7th Baron Clifford, who had recently gone to live there and on Wednesday 2nd October, he played host to the two teams. “The inhabitants of this happy little village were in their element”, reported the Stamford Mercury the following Friday. “Irnham has long been celebrated for its eminent cricket club and this was his treat as a finale for the season.”

The report continued: “Several of their friends were invited from Bourne and the neighbourhood of Irnham in order to raise a sufficient number to form a full game and early in the morning, eleven were speedily arranged on each side for competition. Some very good batting was exhibited: one party obtained 115 runs in one innings and against the fine bowling of Mr Phipp.”

The scene at Irnham that day must have been quite delightful because the newspaper report likened it to the writings of Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) which was praise indeed because at that time her work was extremely popular, notably her sketches of village life with vividly drawn scenes and characters based on Three Mile Cross, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire, where she lived, and included an evocation of village cricket on such an afternoon.

There was even an absence of betting which was extremely popular at cricket matches in those days, a practice that often overshadowed the sport itself. “But”, said the newspaper, “there was none of that petty artifice and low cunning that betting and blackguardism which too frequently, alas, are the accompaniments of this manly and truly English pastime, was visible. No. Here was exhibited all honour and honesty, good play coupled with unanimity of feeling.

“During the game, the players, and the whole of the spectators were regaled with an excellent cold collation served up from the hall, the worthy occupant of which, and his lady, were present during nearly the whole of the game and manifested the greatest anxiety for the comfort and enjoyment of all present. The day will not soon be forgotten in this peaceful and domesticated little village.”

Unfortunately, the cricket club at Irnham no longer exists, having folded as so many other village teams have done over the past forty years. Bourne Cricket Club, however, continues to thrive with four adult teams and a strong junior following, the first team playing in the Lincolnshire Premier League, but all players give delight to the town with their regular games at the Abbey Lawn which is widely regarded as one of the finest cricket grounds in Lincolnshire.

Thought for the week: Cricket to us was more than play, it was a worship in the summer sun. - Edmund Blunden (1896-1974), English poet, author and critic and Professor of Poetry at University of Oxford.

Saturday 22^nd November 2014

The market in busier times

Our weekly market is a sad reflection of what it once was with few traders and even fewer customers than in years past. The critics will claim that this is the result of the stalls being moved off the streets almost twenty-five years ago but changing times would be a far more accurate explanation because shopping habits have been totally transformed since those days.

The market is a tradition in most towns and cities but it cannot survive without patronage and the attraction of the supermarket which is open practically all hours is too great to be ignored. It has also shrunk considerably in size and we now only see half a dozen traders on a Thursday whereas there were once ten times as many while the Saturday market was down last week to just four stalls. We are therefore clinging on to a custom that is in serious decline despite many recent efforts to boost trade and so its future must be in doubt.

When considering its history, the prospect of closure is unthinkable but the market is a commercial enterprise and if stallholders are not making a profit then they will stop coming altogether. It has been with us for more than 700 years under a royal charter granted to the Lord of the Manor of Bourne, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279. The original charter document, dated two years later and which is now in the British Museum, gave permission for a market to be held on a Saturday and this tradition continues today although a Thursday market was later added and this has become the more popular of the two.

Many similar market towns were being established in England at this time and although the number was seriously reduced by the Black Death, they flourished again and during the period 1500-1650, Bourne was one of thirty-seven in Lincolnshire, specialising in one particular commodity, namely corn. The main markets handling grain were generally situated near navigable rivers and we can assume that the Bourne Eau was already being used for transport and that this continued well into the 19th century. 

Weekly markets were the main places for trading in England and almost all had a market cross around which goods and produce were sold such as butter, cheese and poultry, and some had several, hence the surviving name in many towns of the butter cross and its variations. This became the focal point in times past, where the people gathered to gossip and exchange news and proclamations of important local and national events were made from this spot.

There was also a well in the market place to provide a communal supply of water although its origins are vague but early photographs show a pump standing near to or over the site outside the Angel Hotel and its existence became apparent in recent years when excavations were carried out on the roadway in North Street. Shops in mediaeval Bourne were clustered mainly around for this was the attraction that brought them their custom. Stalls in those days were known as shambles and it was not always easy to distinguish them from the shops but by the 16th century, they were generally small premises erected for the sale of fish and meat and rented out to townsmen and traders from other places.

The market place was also the venue for weekly sales dealing in livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep. The annual statute fairs for the hiring of servants was also held here, although this was not strictly a fair but was derived from the mediaeval Statutes of Labourers of which the first was enacted in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) when there was a shortage of agricultural workers throughout the country.

Bourne market was always held in what we now call the town centre, the stalls erected along the kerbside in North Street and West Street, until the closing years of the 20th century when increasing traffic flows made road conditions too hazardous for shoppers and on Thursday 13th December 1990, it was moved to a purpose built paved area behind the town hall, planned as part of the Burghley Arcade and Corn Exchange developments on the site of the old cattle market that had closed in 1981. Since then, there have been several calls to put it back on the streets but it is now accepted that such a move would be unwise.

It is from the early beginnings of our markets that the travelling fairs originated, bands of itinerant entertainers who would arrive to amuse the crowds, soon becoming an attraction in their own right and so it was here is Bourne where the October Fair eventually became an annual tradition.

This may have ended, the last appearance being in 2012 when the showmen failed to arrive because some of the space occupied by the dodgems and sideshows in the Burghley Street car park had been allocated to the private buyers of flats in the nearby Wherry’s Lane development, an unforeseen consequence for South Kesteven District Council but one predicted by this column and may now have cost Bourne its annual fair. If this ancient tradition has been terminated after such a remarkable history, then it is doubtful whether the weekly market may have any chance of surviving either.

The building once had an enviable stock of books for borrowing but now the rooms are filled with second-hand furniture for sale. This is the fate of the old public library in South Street which was closed in March 2013 when the service was transferred to the new Community Access Point which has been established at the Corn Exchange.

The library has been there since 1969 when the building was vacated by the Civil Defence who had used it as their headquarters and over the years it became a popular call for readers, convenient, spacious and with adequate parking. The move, therefore, has not met with universal approval because the new library is cramped and many of the amenities we enjoyed in South Street, notably a reading room and reference section, have been axed in the interests of space and financial economy.

Nevertheless, it is heartening to know that the building will have a useful life for a while. There were fears that it might be demolished to make way for new housing, there being so many other residential developments in the vicinity, but instead it has been taken over by the Salvation Army who plan to use it as a second-hand furniture shop which is being established with the help of a £500 donation from local freemasons belonging to the Lodge of Aveland. Such shops, along with food banks, are becoming an essential part of English life as a result of the enforced government austerity which is having its most serious effect on the poorer sections of our society who must therefore look for charity where they can find it.

The Salvation Army is well equipped for such a task having been founded in 1865 as a London mission church and now a world-wide organisation with a presence in 126 countries and a formidable reputation for running charity shops, operating shelters for the homeless and providing disaster relief and humanitarian aid to developing countries.

The Sally Ann, as it is affectionately known, has had a presence here in Bourne for over 130 years and their headquarters or citadel in Manning Road is well known as a meeting place for services, social occasions and charitable events while their shop in West Street is a regular call when visiting town for anyone with a magpie instinct who likes picking up a useful item as well as the odd knick-knack while at the same time contributing to a good cause. The new furniture shop will be open on Thursdays and Saturdays selling affordable pieces of furniture and small electrical appliances and is likely to become a welcome outlet for those families struggling on a limited budget.

It therefore joins the growing list of charity shops in the town, all doing brisk business. In fact, most are busier than our traditional shops because you can always find a bargain even if you have just taken something in which you are donating yourself. Unfortunately, they do not please everyone, notably our established traders and when the Sally Ann opened its outlet in West Street in June 2008 there was an unenthusiastic response from the Bourne Chamber of Trade and Commerce. "We have enough charity shops in the town", said chairman Jane Good. "There are already three, all in prime shopping positions, and that is ample for a small place like this. The Salvation Army is a commendable organisation but we do not need another charity shop. What we do need is more outlets with choice and variety."

Well, these ventures must have public appeal because the number has since grown to six and there is little doubt that with more austerity on the way once the chancellor gives his autumn statement to Parliament on December 3rd, it is quite likely that the newcomer will soon be as successful as the other five.

The old proverb reminds us that charity begins at home, meaning that we should take care of family and those close to us before helping others, but this may be construed as selfish and that altruism is a more compassionate approach to life.

Charity is the virtue of giving and sharing, particularly financial and practical help to those in need and in recent years has come to mean benevolence through the giving or raising of money and goods to ease the plight of the less well-off or to assist some deserving cause.

This is manifest in many ways evident here in Bourne, as with so many communities, where individuals set themselves tasks with an ultimate goal while raising money from sponsors on the way. Others take a more direct approach by holding events such as sales and lunches and handing over the proceeds to a deserving good cause.

Retired family doctor, Michael McGregor, and his wife Margaret fall into the latter category with Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research as their chosen beneficiary from money raised through a coffee morning and sale held annually at the Corn Exchange in Bourne since the illness claimed their son, John, in 1985, then a 21-year-old student at Southampton University, and it has since become the biggest charity event in the town that has raised almost £95,000.

The formula is always the same, stalls and refreshments with a mince pie, coffee or tea included in the admission price, and for a few hours a mass of items donated over the previous few months is sold by a team of volunteers at bargain prices and the event is always a success with 400 people attending last year and a queue at the door in anticipation an hour before it began.

This year’s event to be held on Thursday (November 27th) is expected to be rather special because there are hopes that the money raised will reach the magical £100,000 although Dr McGregor is quite happy to wait for another year before that does happen. “It would”, he said with dramatic understatement, “be a fantastic milestone to reach. The money goes to help advances that are being made in treatment for this illness and knowing that makes raising funds worthwhile.”

This particular event is also a tribute to the many people in Bourne and elsewhere who spend their time helping others, either through fund raising or practical assistance for those in need, and in a world where want is ubiquitous, our own community would be the poorer without them.

Thought for the week: The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82), American poet and educator whose works include The Song of Hiawatha and was one of the five Fireside Poets.

Saturday 29^th November 2014

Libraries are now likely to be privatised by Lincolnshire County Council despite being castigated by a High Court judge earlier this year when councillors tried to withdraw funding from 32 of the 47 under their control in a bid to save £2 million on the annual budget. The proposal was challenged by campaigners who took their protest to the High Court where it was upheld.

The latest plan is to put the library service out to tender after a private company has offered to run it, a move recommended by council officers but fortunately it is not they who should be running the authority but our own elected councillors although another public consultation must be held first, the last one being badly handled, so leading to the criticism by my learned friend.

The entire prospect for our libraries therefore seems to be in something of a muddle as councillors thrash around for a solution whereas the best way forward would be to find the money to keep them under council control and in that way they would be safe. There must be a great deal of unidentified slack in the current spending budget of £1,099 million (2014-15) to ensure that such a valuable amenity is saved for future generations despite the propaganda we keep hearing about fewer borrowers making the service less economically viable and the authority should be continually reminded that it is not a private company that needs to make a profit to satisfy shareholders but a local authority whose task is to deliver services for the benefit of the public.

It is only a few months ago that these councillors thought fit to give themselves a 25% pay increase which will cost the authority an annual £250,000 previously earmarked for improving services yet they voted by a massive majority to take the money, presumably because they decided that their own interests should come before  securing a free book lending facility that has such a long and honourable tradition.

There are many great men and women whose humble start in life was greatly assisted by the availability of such a service and although the current argument suggests that the Kindle and iPad have replaced the printed word, electronic gewgaws are no substitute for the thrill of opening a book and finding within its covers the information you seek, the tale to entertain or the journey of exploration you anticipated when lifting it from the library shelf.

I know this feeling only too well because a major influence in my boyhood was our local library which I discovered at the age of twelve, a small wooden building little more than a hut yet containing an introduction to the world of books which could be borrowed by the week and then returned and replaced. These visits on a Tuesday evening became the highpoint of my week in a world before television and other diversions and after a pleasurable hour browsing the shelves for my regulation copies of two fiction and two non-fiction, I would return home to devour the contents well before the allotted time span had elapsed.

At first, my reading was random but the librarian, a bespectacled spinster who had been my teacher at the elementary school I had recently left, soon realised that I was in earnest and began recommending authors and subjects from which I might benefit although she often frowned when I presented myself at the reception desk where she rubber stamped the outgoing volumes if I had selected something that had taken my fancy and of which she may not have approved.

Nevertheless, we established what would be known today as a working relationship and soon, realising that I was becoming an avid reader, she began to turn a blind eye to the rules and without comment would allow me to take home more books than I was officially allowed, knowing that they would be read and returned within the week, an arrangement which enabled me over the next few years to become familiar with the great literary works of the age.

This small, and by today’s standards, insignificant library was a turning point in my life and many others must have benefited by what it had to offer and although all of this happened in another age some seventy years ago the thirst for knowledge is undiminished. Despite the other and more immediate means of obtaining information, nothing can replace the book, not only for its binding, content and ease of use but also for its place on the bookshelf once read, a reminder of a pleasure experienced and to be taken down and savoured again at some time in the future.

Our public libraries therefore should be sacrosanct, preserved from meddling bureaucracy at all costs, yet they remain under threat and it is the duty of our councillors to ensure that they continue to be available to this and future generations.

From the archives: "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 the people 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.” - county councillor Phil Dilks, speaking in July this year after the High Court in London upheld a challenge by the Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign group over the authority’s decision to withdraw funding from 32 of its 47 libraries.

Imagine a huge patchwork quilt in the shape of the British Isles but instead of squares of patterned cloth each space is filled with a photograph. That in microcosm is the project currently underway by the Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency for Great Britain and one of the world's largest producers of maps.

Its origins date back to the 18th century when it was formed for a military purpose, that of mapping Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and there was also a more general and nationwide need in light of the potential threat of invasion during the Napoleonic Wars, reflected in the inclusion of the War Department's broad arrow in the agency's logo. Today, OS is a non-ministerial government department, executive agency and trading fund under the remit of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. It is also a member of the Public Data Group.

One of most recent major tasks is Geograph Britain, a most worthy undertaking to photograph the entire country with at least one picture for every grid square on the map. This web-based project began in March 2005 to create a freely accessible archive of geographically located photographs of Great Britain and Ireland, each chosen to illustrate significant or typical features of each 1 km × 1 km (100 ha) grid square in the Ordnance Survey National Grid and the Irish national grid reference system. There are 331,957 such grid squares containing at least some land and so the task is a formidable one but by November 2014, a total of 12,189 contributors had submitted 4,232,493 images covering 273,048 grid squares, or 82.2% of the total to be surveyed.

The Bourne web site pioneered the use of digital photography to attract readers when we began in 1998 and we have now joined the project as a registered user to share some of the images collected during the past sixteen years. Although our contribution is small at the moment, we hope to increase it as the weeks go by to reflect some of the buildings and places of note in Bourne to supplement those already on site taken by others with an interest in this locality, the object of the exercise being to create a pictorial chronicle of town and district within the nationwide context and at the same time compile a library of photographs that will remain available for future generations.

Not all of those submitted are accepted if they do not meet the rigorous requirement of the Geograph Project but so far every one of our images offered is now on site. We have begun with some of the main features from Bourne, each with its own historical narrative, and within a few months we hope it will expand into a considerable archive. If anyone wishes to see our efforts, then a list of the existing photographs and descriptions accepted for publication can be accessed from the front page of this web site.  Others have already made a considerable contribution to Geograph Britain and their efforts are worth close examination by anyone interested in this town or indeed the county and the country as a whole.

We have always been an advocate of volunteering, a selfless pursuit to help others and the community, but it does seem that the Friends of Bourne Wood may be setting their sights rather too high in their latest campaign to find 500 recruits for their very worthy cause.

The Friends are a group of local people who are involved with the promotion and maintenance of Bourne Wood, 400 acres of forest to the west of the town managed by the Forestry Commission and one of our finest environmental and leisure amenities.

There has probably been continuous tree cover on this site for the last 8,000 years and the present trees are a mixture of broadleaf and conifer of all ages. Their diversity has created ideal conditions for a wide range of flora and fauna and is therefore managed for conservation as well as recreation and timber production but many plants have survived and so make the woodland valuable in terms of wildlife preservation. The wild flowers that can be seen here in season include bluebells, primroses, wood anemone and nettle leaved bell flower while fallow deer are abundant and you may catch a glimpse of their smaller, shy cousin, the muntjac or barking deer. Other animals that frequent these glades are foxes, grey squirrels, owls, snakes, badgers and dormice and a wide variety of birds. Nightingales can be heard on summer nights and rare bats and dragonflies fly over the ponds at twilight.

The woods now attract around 150,000 visitors a year who come here to explore or just walk the main paths and forest trails for there is always something new to discover and it is this idyllic rustic setting that the Friends are anxious to perpetuate by organising events throughout the year when visitors have the opportunity to examine the flora and fauna in the company of an expert to explain them in more detail as well as helping with various tasks such as keeping the community orchard in trim with grass cutting and tidying around the trees. Their motto is that no experience is necessary and all that is needed is a spot of energy and enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, they have been forced to cancel the annual visit to the woods from Santa Claus this year, a seasonal delight for both children and their parents, because there are insufficient helpers to run the event and this has resulted with the latest appeal for volunteers which was published in The Local (November 21st) although many readers have already asked why they need as many as 500 and of course the answer is that they could not organise a small army such as this although as every organisation knows, chance would be a fine thing.

The duties would be small such as helping out at events which are usually held over a weekend or on a Bank Holiday such as putting up a marquee, moving tables, running stalls and guiding visitors and with a rota system operating on such occasions this would mean just a few hours on the day. Unfortunately, it is too late save this year’s Christmas event but the next big date in their calendar falls over the Easter weekend in April with a trail through the wood and other attractions currently being planned.

The recruiting drive is intended to form a pool of volunteers who will always be on hand when needed and although they will not be paid, the reward will be that feeling of satisfaction achieved by doing something worthwhile for a good cause while making new friends among like-minded people. “We cannot stage such events unless there are enough people to help out on the day”, explained secretary Sarah Roberts. “We have lots of ideas for the coming year but we do need more people to help out.”

Thought for the week: There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it and fills it with noble inclinations. - Washington Irving, American author and the country's first man of letters, best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle (1783-1859).

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