Charlie Broxholme        Pat Broxholme
    1920-2005                             1929-2007

In June 2007, a seat was installed on the village green at Dyke, near Bourne, in memory of Charles Broxholme, tireless worker for the community for more than half a century. It was dedicated in a simple ceremony conducted by David Stubbs, former chairman of the village hall committee and a long time neighbour, when his life was remembered by family and friends.

Charlie, as he was always known, was born at Twenty in 1920 but moved to the village with his family in 1945 and continued his career in farming, working for Richard Boaler Gibson, the Bourne corn merchant, who owned land in the area. When he died in 1958, his agricultural interests were eventually acquired by the Ash family and he remained working for them until retiring as farm foreman in 1987.

On 11th November 1950, he married Miss Pat Luesby of Bourne and she moved into his stone cottage off the village main street where they had two children, daughters Lynda and Jenny, and remained there until his death in 2005 at the age of 84. The property has been recently demolished and Pat went to live elsewhere in the village to enable the site to be cleared for residential development but it will be known in the future as Charlie’s Yard in his memory.

This will be a reminder of his unquestioning willingness to lend a hand, whether preparing the football pitch for matches in which he also played, a fete, or helping organise some other function, and although never a committee man, Charlie was always the first to volunteer for the task in hand. Yet he always had time for his kitchen garden where he raised vegetables of sufficient quality to win prizes at the annual produce show.

For fifty years, his readiness to help became a byword in Dyke and the seat has been financed with money that had originally been contributed by friends who attended his funeral in lieu of flowers, the main beneficiaries being the village hall fund and the Baptist chapel of which he was an ardent supporter.

It is a fitting memorial to a man who became the epitome of the perfect villager and will serve as a permanent reminder of him in the heart of the place that he loved so deeply and to which he devoted so much of his life.

His wife, Pat Broxholme, was born at Woodview, Bourne, on 10th September 1929, second child of Harold and Marie Luesby, and within a few weeks of her birth, the family moved to a house in Recreation Road. She attended the Abbey Primary School and although she passed the 11+ examination, was unable to continue her education at Bourne Grammar School.

During her working life, she was employed by South Kesteven Rural District Council as secretary to the clerk, Joseph Goulder, leaving for a spell when her children were born, and returning to work in 1966. Following the reorganisation of local government in 1974, she become well known as area housing officer for South Kesteven District Council with responsibility for Bourne, a task covered today by an entire department. She was also deputy registrar and later superintendent and for many years was responsible for collecting information for the annual register of electors.

Pat retired on her 60th birthday in 1989 but continued with her voluntary work, serving the community for more than half a century, always willing to help for the good of the village, mainly as a member of the Village Hall Management Committee since 1978, first as treasurer and from 2001 as chairman. She was also a popular founder member and committee member of the Dyke branch of the Women's Institute, holding office as either treasurer, secretary or president for 40 years, and was also actively involved with the Abbey Church at Bourne, Dyke Baptist Chapel, the village millennium committee and Bourne Outdoor Swimming Pool.

Pat Broxholme (seated) celebrating the memorial seat on Dyke village green
in 2007 with Councillor Don Fisher and assembled villagers.

As a member of Dyke Troubadours, the village concert group, she helped entertain many organisations for twenty years and appeared at concerts in the village hall, their Wednesday evening rehearsals always a source of much hilarity when, fortified by a glass of sherry, Pat showed a very different side to the bustling efficiency which was her usual demeanour. She was never afraid to dress up in the most outlandish costumes and her rendition of I Want to Sing in Opera was a regular show-stopper.

Pat died in Peterborough Memorial Hospital on 13th September 2007, aged 78, after suffering a fall at home. Her funeral was held at the Abbey Church, Bourne, on Wednesday 26th September 2007 followed by cremation at Peterborough. The service was conducted by the vicar, the Rev Christopher Atkinson, with a eulogy by the Rev David Hughes followed by a reading by her granddaughter, Rosie Brailsford.

IN MEMORY OF PAT BROXHOLME In June 2009, another memorial seat was installed in Dyke, this time to remember Pat Broxholme and it was sited outside the village hall, the project to which she had devoted so much of her time.
IN MEMORY OF CHARLIE BROXHOLME

REVISED NOVEMBER 2007

See also The Belgian refugees

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