Eastgate Mill

One of the last grain mills in Bourne to be pulled down was a familiar landmark in the town, a huge red brick building on the north bank of the Bourne Eau in Eastgate, built during the 18th century and demolished in August 1969 to make way for road widening and improvements to the nearby bridge.

The four-storey building had been owned since October 1916 by T W Mays and Sons Ltd, who used it as a store, having been bought from another Bourne company, Wherry and Sons Ltd. It was situated next to the bridge at the south end of Eastgate at the junction of what is now Cherryholt Road.

Mr E K Wherry, who was then chairman of the firm, remembered that when he was a child, the company moved wheat from farms in the fens by barge and on arrival at the mill, it was transferred to horse drawn wagons which took it on by road to Grantham and from there it went by canal to grinding mills in the Midlands. Iron rings at the base of the building indicated where the barges were moored while unloading on the Bourne Eau.

The old mill building was so tall that from the top storey, there was an uninterrupted view of the surrounding fens and on a clear day, you could see Boston Stump, the nickname for the 272½ ft. high tower of St Botolph's Church, the second highest church tower in Britain, which was almost 20 miles away as the crow flies. The site has been occupied in recent years by a firm of tyre distributors, Fossitt & Thorne, but is currently being developed for new houses.

REVISED NOVEMBER 2007

See also     The corn trade     Wherry and Sons     Flax