Although twinning began after the Second World War in 1945, Bourne came late to this arrangement and it was only 17 years ago that links were established with Doudeville. But there was a previous attempt that flourished for a short time and was then forgotten.

The initiative was known as a goodwill campaign and was the idea of Councillor Thomas William Revill (pictured above), chairman of Bourne Urban District Council from 1949-50, who chose Bourne in Massachusetts for his transatlantic town friendship. The opening move had been made by Harry I Avery, chairman of the Board of Selectmen at Bourne, Mass., who invited the people of Bourne, Lincolnshire, to correspond with citizens on the other side of the Atlantic.

BUDC was celebrating its golden jubilee that year, having been formed in 1899, and he had written to Mr Avery promising to do all he could to further mutual contacts between the two towns and their citizens. “Our Bourne is only a small place”, he wrote, “but its roots lie deep in the history of the English speaking peoples.”

The Bourne in USA is situated in Massachusetts, one of the original 13 states first settled by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620 and becoming part of the union in 1788. It is located in the north-eastern part of the country and is variously nicknamed the Bay or Old Colony State, covering an area of 8,299 square miles with a population of more than six million people. The capital is Boston and it is rich with a diversity of industries including electronics and optical equipment, precision instruments, dairy products, fruit and fish. The state also has a chequered Civil War battlefield history with many national parks and museums while the town of Salem was the site of the infamous witch trials of the 1690s.

There is also a wealth of interesting places on the eastern seaboard, including Plymouth where the Mayflower carrying the pilgrims from the old country landed in 1620, several former whaling ports and the small town of Bourne, a medium-sized rural community at the gateway to Cape Cod and the Cape Cod Canal runs through it, crossed by the Bourne and the Sagamore bridges as well as a lift railroad bridge. The canal is well known for its superb game fishing, scenic bike rides and for carrying ships flying the flags of all nations while the scenic park campground can be found beneath the Bourne Bridge and is a perfect location for those seeking to enjoy the canal.

The town has numerous quiet harbours and inlets for boating and swimming and the shell fishing in the area is particularly enticing. It is a quiet community without the summer tourist crush experienced by some of the other Cape communities although the annual Bourne Scallop Festival, which is held in early September each year, brings visitors from across the nation.

The message from Councillor Revill was soon flashed around the district by the local newspaper, the Massachusetts Standard-Times, the editor devoting the entire front page to the story with his photograph together with pictures of the Abbey Church and the Red Hall and a short history of the town. The importance of the proposed goodwill link to the Americans can be gauged by the fact that the newspaper that day ran to 36 pages at a time when newsprint was still in short supply as a result of wartime economies and most British newspapers rarely exceeded eight pages.

Also included was a picture of 11-year-old Margaret Burton, of 2 Victoria Place, Bourne, one of those local people who had written to Mr Avery seeking a pen friend and saying that she wanted to go to America to see how they played baseball.

“Councillor Revill is to be congratulated on his initiative”, enthused the Stamford Mercury on Friday 9th December 1949. “The reception accorded his message in America augers well for closer contact between the two places.”

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm was not to last. By the following year, the initiative had begun to peter out and although many townspeople continued to correspond with their new found American friends, full twinning never materialised and Councillor Revill, a railway clerk who lived with his wife Edith and their two children Alec and Miriam in George Street, Bourne, died in 1959, aged 61, without his wish being fulfilled.

It was to be another 40 years before Bourne turned to France for twinning to come to fruition and the link with Doudeville has been maintained ever since.

WRITTEN DECEMBER 2006

See also Thomas Revill

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