One of the most desirable places to live in Bourne today is Galletly Close, a cul-de-sac off North Road and in the heart of the town's residential area yet this attractive location had an unhappy gestation.

The development began in 1980 as a speculative project by a local builder who soon got into financial difficulties and by the summer of 1982 the row of six houses he had started had been abandoned, mere shells that soon became an eyesore, prompting a flood of complaints from people living in the vicinity who claimed that the area was being blighted and their own properties devalued.

Then two local businessmen stepped in, bought the site and finished the building work and soon the completed houses were snapped up and sold. Since then, other more ambitious properties have been added to the southern end making Galletly Close a most exclusive neighbourhood.

The two who saved it, the late Walter Lyon and his associate Robert Bailey, were subsequently honoured for their work when in 1985 the Rotary Club of Bourne presented them with their silver trophy for the best improvement project for the local environment during the past year. The development was later named Galletly Close by Bourne Town Council in memory of Mrs Caroline Galletly, wife of a local doctor who lived nearby in North Road who became a member of Bourne Urban District Council and was elected chairman in 1930-31, the first woman ever to hold that office.