Beech Avenue

New building activity in Bourne during the first half of the 20th century altered the appearance of the town more rapidly than at any other time in its history. For example, in the years between 1914 and 1970, Bourne Urban District Council alone erected 546 houses, bungalows and flats, while during the same period, there was extensive private residential development on the west side of the town, stretching out from St Gilbert's Road towards Bourne Wood.

The main area of expansion was the Beech Avenue development on meadowland running alongside the woodland for which planning permission was granted after an agreement that it would not contain heavy density building. The site was destined to include houses, bungalows and chalets and although there was also provision for a shopping centre and recreational facilities, these have not materialised.

The result is that Beech Avenue, curving westward from St Gilbert's Road to West Road, is now just under one mile in length, making it the longest of the recently built new roads with other streets feeding off on both sides, all appropriately named after woodland trees. 

An awareness that developers were becoming less responsible to the local authorities, was expressed during a meeting of Bourne Town Council in June 1975 when the second stage of the Beech Avenue development came up for approval on an additional 30 acres of meadowland, adding a further 254 new houses to the scheme. Councillor Michael Taylor warned that housing estates in Bourne should not be erected ad hoc and although previous criticism had got them nowhere, it was the duty of the local authorities to regulate how many properties to the acre were intended.

See also Housing in Bourne

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