Bourne, Lincolnshire

Baldock's Mill heritage centre

The Ancient Woodland of Bourne Woods is still extant, although much reduced. It originally formed part of the ancient Forest of Kesteven and is now managed by the Forestry Commission.

The earliest documentary reference to Brunna, meaning stream, is from a document of 960, and the town appeared in Domesday Book of 1086 as Brune.[2]

Bourne Abbey, (charter 1138), formerly held and maintained land in Bourne and other parishes. In later times this was known as the manor of Bourne Abbots. Whether the canons knew that name is less clear. The estate was given by the founder of the Abbey, Baldwin fitz Gilbert de Clare, son of Gilbert fitz Richard, and later benefactors. The abbey was established under the Arrouaisian order. Its fundamental rule was that of St Augustine and as time went on it came to be regarded as Augustinian. The Ormulum, an important Middle English Biblical gloss, was probably written in the abbey in around 1175.

Bourne Castle was built on land that is now the Wellhead Gardens in South Street.[5][6][7]

Toft Tunnel

Bourne was an important junction on the Victorian railway system, but all such connections were severed after the Second World War (see Railways section). The business stimulus it brought caused major development of the town and many of the buildings around the medieval street plan were rebuilt or at least refaced. Improved communications allowed a bottled-water industry to develop and coal to be delivered to the town's gas works.

The local authority at the time, Bourne Urban District Council, was active in the town's interests, taking over the gas works and the local watercress beds at times of financial difficulty and running them as commercial ventures. Large numbers of good-quality council houses were built in the early 20th century.

Bourne sent many men to both world wars but was otherwise not much affected. During the Second World War a German bomber shot down in May 1941 crashed into the Butcher's Arms public house in Eastgate. The landlord, his wife and eight soldiers billetted across the road were killed, as were the bomber's crew.[8] In a separate incident several bombs were dropped on the Hereward Camp.[9]

St. Peters' Pool, Wellhead Gardens. The pool referred to in the town's founding legend

The town is located on a Roman road now known as King Street. It was built around some natural springs, hence the name "Bourne" (or "Bourn"). which derives from the Anglo-Saxon burna or burne meaning "water" or "stream".[2] It lies on the intersection of two main roads: the A15 and the A151. The civil parish includes the main township along with the hamlets of Cawthorpe, Dyke and Twenty.[10] In former years Austerby was regarded as a separate settlement, with its own shops and street plan, but is now an area of Bourne known as The Austerby.(52.763°N 0.370°W / 52.763; -0.370 (The Austerby)).[11]

Parish outline within Lincolnshire

The ecclesiastical parish of Bourne is part of the Beltisloe Deanery of the Diocese of Lincoln and based at the Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul, in Church Walk.[12] Other religious congregations in the town include Methodist, Baptist, United Reformed and Roman Catholic churches.

Much of Bourne's 19th-century affluence came from the corn-trade boom that followed the mechanisation of fen drainage. The Corn Exchange in Abbey Road dates from 1870.[13]

Bourne Town Football Club plays football in the United Counties Football League,[25] whilst Bourne Cricket Club plays in the Lincolnshire ECB Premier League.[26] These teams play their home games at the Abbey Lawn, a recreation ground privately owned by the Bourne United Charities.[27]

Motor sports

Motor Racing Memorial

The racing-car marques English Racing Automobiles (ERA) and British Racing Motors (BRM) were both founded in Bourne by Raymond Mays, an international racing driver and designer who lived in Bourne.[28] The former ERA and BRM workshops in Spalding Road are adjacent to Eastgate House, the Mays' family home in the town's Eastgate.[29]

The Abbey and Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul

There are currently 71 listed buildings in the parish of Bourne, the most important being Bourne Abbey and the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul (1138), which is the only one scheduled Grade I.

• Bourne is reputedly the birthplace of Hereward the Wake (in about 1035), although the 12th-century source of this information, De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis,[30] refers only to his father as being "of Bourne" and to the father's house and retainers there.[31][32]
• Robert Mannyng (1264–1340) is credited with putting the speech of the ordinary people of his time into recognisable form. He is better known as Robert de Brunne because of his long period of residence as a canon at Bourne Abbey. There he completed his life's work of popularising religious and historical material in a Middle English dialect that was easily understood at that time.[33]
• William Cecil (1520–1598) became the first Lord Burghley after serving Queen Elizabeth I.[34] He was born at a house in the centre of Bourne that is now the Burghley Arms.
• Dr William Dodd (1729–1777), was an Anglican clergyman, man of letters and forger. He was prosecuted, sentenced to death and publicly hanged at Tyburn in 1777.[35]
• Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895), son of a solicitor, lived at Wake House in North Street. He moved to Paris and became a renowned designer of women's fashion and the founder of haute couture. The French government awarded him the Légion d'honneur.[36]
• Sir George White (1840-1912), MP for North West Norfolk, a seat he held for twelve years until he died in 1912. He was knighted for public service in 1907.
• Lilian Wyles (1885–1975) was the first woman officer of the Metropolitan Police's CID in 1922. The only daughter of the Bourne brewer Joseph Wyles, she started her police career in the women patrols, assisting young girls at risk.
• Raymond Mays (1899–1980), son of a local businessman, was a successful motor racing driver and manufacturer.

Media related to Bourne, Lincolnshire at Wikimedia Commons

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Bourne.

• Bourne Website
• Bourne historical summary (UK & Ireland Genealogy page)