J D Birkbeck was a teacher at Bourne Grammar School and in 1970, after three years of writing and research, he published A History of Bourne which runs to over 100 pages and contains several maps and ten pages of black and white pictures. The book is now out of print although there are copies in the public library and it occasionally comes up for sale at second hand bookshops when the usual price is £15-£20 according to condition. 

It was published 60 years after Joseph J Davies wrote his book Historic Bourne in 1909 and although this was full of interest for anyone concerned with the history of the town, there had been an increase in the amount of material available including numerous volumes from the Lincoln Record Society and other papers deposited with the Lincolnshire Archives Office. A more modest work came from the pen of local magistrate J T Swift in 1925 entitled Bourne and People Associated with Bourne but this was little more than a rehash of what J J Davies had written and it contained only a small amount of new material but neither he nor Davies had access to the wealth of documents that became available to Mr Birkbeck. 

His book on Bourne was written at the suggestion and with the encouragement of a local solicitor Mr Horace Stanton, a partner with the law firm of Andrews, Stanton and Ringrose in North Street, Bourne, who gave him access to various documents, including the records of the Manor of Bourne Abbotts, one of the two Manors of Bourne, of which he had been steward in times past, and a copy of the Bourne Enclosure Award of 1770. 

"Starting with these, I was then encouraged to research more widely with material provided from numerous local sources", said Mr Birkbeck. "The main difficulty was the time factor. The more I became involved in the research, the more I realised how much might have to be done if the final product were to be a reasonably comprehensive survey of Bourne's history. My main interest was in the changes which the passing centuries brought to the town as a whole. It was in that respect that I sought continuity of theme rather than in the development over the years of any single facet of Bourne's history. 

"The task of research and the actual writing of the book certainly had their rewards. I was brought in touch with numerous people who were glad to help and I was able to explore more thoroughly the resources available at the County Records Office in Lincoln and other places where documents were held. But I felt that in fairness to Mr Stanton, I ought not let the project run on for years and so after three years of research and writing, the book was published." One thousand copies were originally printed but these were soon sold and a second edition of a further 1,000 copies followed. 

John Douglas Birkbeck was born in Westmorland, now Cumbria, on 13th December 1921 and was educated at Appleby Grammar School and the Queen's College, Oxford, where he graduated with a degree in Modern History and a Diploma in Education. He was appointed senior history master at Bourne Grammar School in 1948, taking on the additional duties of school librarian in 1960 and in 1970, he became deputy headmaster. In 1948, he married a fellow teacher at the school, Margaret Balmer, who also taught history as well as politics and economics from 1966, and they have three sons and five grandchildren. They retired in 1981 and returned to Cumbria to live at Soulby, Kirkby Stephen.

He continued with his interest in his locality and in 2000 published a history of Kirby Stephen.

Mrs Birkbeck died in 2002 but Douglas continues to live at their home in Soulby and is still active at the age of 96.

He remains quite modest about his work. "The book was inadequate in some respects but once published, it sold very well and later ran into a second edition which was particularly gratifying", he said. "It is beginning to look a little out-dated by now and so perhaps in due course it will be superseded." 

REVISED AUGUST 2018

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