Down memory lane

by Janet Turner

IT WAS MOST interesting listening to Pat Edmunds and learning more about Bourne in earlier days. Her great grandfather Robert Mason Mills came to Bourne as an apprentice apothecary to help the local chemist. He went on to become manager and eventually owner of the business.

The shop, which was known as Mills and Baxter, was in the Market Place and it was there that Pat was born. The shop displayed the Royal Coat of Arms as it held a Royal Warrant for supplying mineral water to a member of the Royal Family.

Robert Mason Mills, who realised the purity of Bourne water and had the ambition of making Bourne a spa town, set up the factory R M Mills and Co factory in 1864. Over the years the company's bottled water was transported by rail to all parts of the country. A label on the bottle would read "Mills (Bourne Waters) Ltd" and stated that Bourne water was the purest in England.

As well as sparkling or still bottled water, about one dozen different types of aerated beverages were produced, including lemonade, tonic water and ginger beer. Flavouring extracts from selected roots and herbs were used and special medicinal waters made one called Lithia Water. The drinks were carbonated to get that special fizz. Pat can remember the smell of the lemons as they were prepared for use and the wasps they attracted.

Not long before R M Mills died his partner and son-in-law, Thomas More Baxter, the chemist who married Emily Fanny Mills, took over the business. He had come to live in Bourne from Wisbech.

Pat attended Miss Chamberlain's Dame School from the age of six. The school was at Stamford House in West Street, Bourne, and she stayed there until the age of ten. Then she was "packed off to boarding school" as lots of her friends were in those days. She would be put on the train in the charge of the guard at Bourne Station and other girls would join the train en route as it journeyed to Suffolk. Her holidays from school were spent in Bourne with a stay at the seaside during the summer - sometimes just with mother or on occasions both parents if father was not too busy with work.

The railway played a big part in the life of the town. Many people used to take advantage of a daily trip to the coast during the summer and Pat remembers a notice at the station advertising a trip to Skegness for five shillings. At one time the ticket office was sited in part of the Red Hall, Bourne, but when Pat used the station the ticket office had been moved and was on the enlarged platform. Also at the station there was a W H Smith stand and a lending library.

The average wage in the 1930s was about £2 and prices were very stable then. The 1930s were not good times for farmers but, as this was not an industrial area, there was not the mass unemployment that was seen in other parts of the country.

Games enjoyed in the 1920s and 1930s were hopscotch, whip and top, hoops, scooters and sliding on the ice when it was freezing. Skating on the fens was also extremely popular. Youngsters would go everywhere on their bicycles, dens were made in the woods and playtime could be a real adventure.

The swimming pool, which was frequented regularly in the summer, was Monk's fish pond, which had been dredged out. The sides were corrugated iron, there was a high diving board, a spring board and mud on the bottom of the pool which you could feel with your feet. The changing rooms were made from sacking. Tennis was played by Pat and her friends from the age of eight. Her mother was a keen player and encouraged her daughter's interest in the game. Pat recalled that her first visit to the cinema in Bourne was to see Al Jolson in The Singing Fool. This was quite an event.

It interested me to hear about the curfew bell which had been rung in Bourne since medieval times. This tradition carried on until wartime with the church bells being rung at nine o'clock every evening by the verger. The bell was also tolled when someone in the town had died - one ring for a· man and two for a woman.

The fire engine used to be housed under the Town Hall and there was a bell to ring a when a fire was seen. Other recollections were of sheep and cattle going to the weekly cattle market; the Cottesmore Hunt meeting in the Market Place and the hounds being unloaded there; the baker calling at the house with bread; the fishmonger and a man called Titchy Lloyd who was the Town Crier.

The Felons' Association was something I knew nothing at all about but I discovered that it was founded when in the 1840s and 1850s "naughty drunken men would gather in the Market Place and break a window or two". Shopkeepers and traders paid into a fund as a form of insurance so that if they were unfortunate enough to have a window broken the funds would be available to have breakages replaced free of charge. Then times changed and crime was greatly reduced. In fact it was reduced to such an extent that no claim was made on the fund for years. With monies in the fund having built up it was decided to hold a dinner each year and spend some of it.

The Corn Exchange was used a great deal in those days. The local operatic society would put on shows and the Gilbert and Sullivan productions were very well attended. Fund raising events for charity were held there, much as they are today. Dances were also very popular and Pat told me "we danced till the old floor creaked". There was also a Gentleman's Club at the Com Exchange where card games and billiards were played.

The church hall used to be called the Vestry Hall and was in North Street. It is still there, near to where the Conservative Club is today. The Badminton Club used to meet in the Vestry Hall and I learned there was a pub opposite where the players could get refreshed when they were thirsty.

Going back to earlier days, I heard about the charity cricket match that was played on the Abbey Lawns in 1914. This was quite a social event and very well attended. It was a Gentlemen v Ladies match and the sporty men of the day actually bowled and batted left handed to make things a little more even - I wonder if such chivalry would be offered today? I didn't discover which team actually won but it sounded as if it was a super occasion.

Reproduced from the Lincolnshire Free Press, Tuesday 12th May 1998

Return to Pat Edmunds