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The Bourne Archive
John Moore’s Notes on Bourne
from his Account of the Hundred of Aveland.
Published at
This document was transcribed from a book lent by the Willoughby
Memorial Library, to the trustees of which I offer my thanks.
It is presented here as an historical document so the
credibility of what it says should be assessed. The reliability of old essays
on history is usually best on points to do with the writer’s own time.
The symbol system of
The numerical superscripts without symbols refer to my
notes in the commentary.
The small book is
divided into two parts: dealing respectively with Aveland generally and with
Bourne. This page deals with the smaller, Bourne part from which I have already
separated the paragraphs concerned with the castle and the abbey, onto their
own web pages. Those given here cover what
In
his preface,
“It may, perhaps, be expected (as is generally
customary with authors) for me to assign my reasons for publishing the
subsequent account. My first is the desire of seeing a history of the place of
my nativity laid before the public, on which account I have made it my chief
study to render the account of Bourn, correct and satisfactory.”
So, he was born there and as a fairly educated man, he
is likely to have been taught as a boy, in the Grammar School. He demonstrates
a fashionable antiquarian interest so he looks to his education to explain the
past but for us, what he says about his own time will be more interesting as it
is more likely to be accurate. However, he may know a thing or two, from what
to him was history, which has been forgotten since his time.
Collections for a Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive Account of
the Hundred of Aveland. by John Moore.
BOURN.
1
____________________________
Bourn,
or Burn, was evidently built on a Roman foundation, by the Saxons, “who it is
highly probable had some place of defence here,” as we may judge from the
ruins, coins, pavements, 2 &c. which have at various
periods been discovered. “At least their coins shew that it was possessed by
the Britons when the legions were drawn home;”*1
but with respect to its name at this period, I am unable to give any
satisfactory account.
The
earliest notice on record respecting this place, is in a time of the Saxons,
when
We
are informed by Ingulphus that Morcar, lord of Brunne, 3
with his numerous family and attendants, fell in defence of their country at
the battle of Laundan (Threckingham), A. D. 870, when the Danish marauders
destroyed this, a principal town of
In
Richard II. reign, 5
it is described as a flourishing town, thickly inhabited. “At this time (says
Dugdale*2) the marsh or fen land belonging
to Bourne, did extend from a certain place called 6
Arfthwenth
to Potter-street, in Brunne, thence to Merton, thence to Littledyke, and thence
to the ditch belonging to the prior of Spalding; and the profits of the turfs
digged yearly there amounted to C shillings; 7
and the profits of strangers’ cattle there agisted to annually as much. And
moreover there was a certain yearly commodity, called poundage, taken in the
said fen, for the strange cattle, for greshyre,8
from Merton to Sekholme, and thence to the gates of Wrigbolt, and thence to
Dewehurne, and thence to Brunne Eau to Goderhamscote, and thence to Estcate,
and thence to the cross at Esthawe, and thence to Meaylhawe, and thence to
Arfthwenth, 6 which poundage was worth by the
year, IV shillings.”
We have the following account of Brunne, when the castle was
seized by lady Blanche Wake, widow of Thomas Wake, of Lydel, the 4th
of Richard II. A. D. 1380. 9 At this period, “Brunne consysted
of VII. streets, wch was called Manor-street, Potter-street,
East-street, West-street, Water-street, North-gat, and
This town has twice suffered severely
by fire. The first occurred on the 23d of August, 1605, by which that part of
the town called Manor-street, was destroyed, and not a single house left
standing. It continued burning for three days.
Again
on the 25th of March, 1637, another fire destroyed the greater part
of Potter-street; it also did much damage to the East-gate or, as it is written
in records, Eaugate. The cause of the first was never known; but the second
happened through the carelessness of the persons entrusted with the management
of the potteries, (from which the street received its name) which were
destroyed with the street, and never rebuilt. 10
Bourne
in its present state is low, and meanly built; and though the town is large and
well situated, yet the market is but indifferently attended. 11
The
town is situated in a flat country, adjoining the fens, and consists of four
streets, exclusive of out-streets; its length from east to west is about a mile
and a quarter, and its breadth from north to south three quarters of a mile. In
the centre of the market-place is an ancient Town-hall,12
said
to have been erected by one of the Wake family; but from the arms of Cecil,
carved in basso relievo, over the centre of the east front, it is more probable
that it was built by the treasurer lord Burleigh. The petty sessions for the
parts of Kesteven, are regularly held here at Michaelmas and Christmas. Under
the hall is the butchers’ shambles. 13
On the west side of the Market-place formerly stood the cross; the shaft of
which was octangular, and elegantly formed, and stood upon a deep basement,
ascended by three steps. Gough says “the shaft was ten feet in height, out of
which grew an ash tree; but both the shaft and tree are now removed.”*4
It
appears that the same “cross was worshiped by ye parishens ther as
crosses be commonly worshipped in other places.Ӡ2
The
cross lately destroyed was built with the ruins of the basement, and placed on
the east side of the Market-place; of this there now only remains a heap of
loose stones and earth.
Bourne
contains a parish church dedicated to St. Simon and St. Jude, and a
meeting-house for general baptists; also two alms-houses, each endowed with £30
per annum – one for six poor men, 14
and the other for six poor women. 15
Here is also a free-school founded A. D. 1625, 16
by William Trollope esquire, and endowed with a salary of £30 per annum for the
master. It is now in the gift of sir John Trollope, bart.
____________________________
*1. ^ Salmon’s New Survey of England. Vol. I, page
249.
†1.
‡1. Edmund
was king of the East Angles, in which kingdom Buers was situated; it is
therefore more probable he was crowned in that place than in Bourne, which was
in the
*2. History
of Imbanking and Draining the
*3. Peak’s
M. S. account of the towns in Cestevern, Page 10, 11. It appears that the Monks
and other Inhabitants of the abbey and castle are included in the number of
inhabitants, as no other account is given of them, but only under their
respective heads.
*4.
†2. Peak’s
MSS. entitled “towns in Cestevern.” These crosses, many of which still remain
in various parts of the kingdom, were erected, some of them for boundaries of
property, parishes, and sanctuary; and others commemorated battles, murders and
other fatal occurrences: but they were principally intended for devotional
purposes, and are commonly seen near churches, or in the crossways leading
thereto, where they were undoubtedly regarded with idolatrous adoration. 17
Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet, Vol. III, Storer and Grieg.
____________________________
Here
is part of the description of the church.
____________________________
REd hall
THE
present edifice consists chiefly of brick work, and appears to be of the date
of James I. 18 It is partly surrounded by a deep
moat, and partly by a morass. 19 The present owner and occupier is
James Digby*5, esq. one of the deputy
lieutenants for the
____________________________
*5. A
descendant of the famous and ancient family of the Digby’s. “Sir Everard Digby
who wickedly conspired with these execrable incendiaries to destroy his king
and country, at one blow of hellish thunder, branded this family with
everlasting infamy. He was one of the handsomest men and finest gentlemen of
his time, and was drawn into the powder plot by the priests.*7
Sir Kenelm his son, became very
illustrious in the 16th century, for his virtue and learning. King
Charles I. made him a gentleman of his bedchamber, commissioner of the navy,
and governor of the Trinity house. He was a great lover of learning, and
translated several authors into English; and his “Treatise of the nature of
bodies and the immortality of the soul,” discovers great penetration and
extensive knowledge. In the beginning of the civil wars, he exerted himself
very vigorously in the king’s cause; but was afterwards imprisoned by the parliament’s
order, in
*7. Gough’s
____________________________
THE
BULL INN 20
WAS
built by William lord Burleigh: It is a very specious edifice. In one of the
rooms was a pannel with the portrait of queen Elizabeth, habited in black
velvet and jewels, long white lawn veil and on the rim of a wooden sieve or
colander, in her left hand,”*6
in capitals,
A
TERRA IL BEN,
IL
MAL DIMORA IN SELLA.
____________________________
*6. See
this device in Blount’s Jocular Tenures, and
Q. if this device relates to this
reflection, and might be adopted afterwards? Gough’s
____________________________
THE
ALMS-HOUSES.
IN
the 3d of Charles I. A. D. 1627, William Fisher, gent. 21
founded an Hospital in Water-street, for six poor aged women belonging to this
parish, and endowed the same, with an annuity of £30, issuing out of an estate
at Tumby Woodside, near Coningsby, in this county. And in the 12th
of Charles II. (1665) the workhouse was erected.
____________________________
THE
FREE SCHOOL
WAS
founded in the 2d of Charles I. by William Trollope, esq. and endowed with a
salary of £30 per annum to the master. It is a spacious handsome building,
situated on the East side of the church-yard. 22
____________________________
The
subject now turns to Bourne Abbey;
as a monastery and as the parish church.
The
sections concerned with Bourne Castle
follow.
They
are here presented on their respective web pages.
____________________________
1. ^ The town’s name has been spelt in a number
of ways but during most of the nineteenth century it was usually ‘Bourn’.
Though the final ‘e’ was used by some at an earlier date, it became the
standard form only late in the century after consultation by the railway
companies, when they found difficulty in differentiating between the places of
the same name in respectively,
2. A
mosaic pavement was found in the
3. We
have to be careful when reading of information from Ingulf, of Crowland. It is
a retrospective work, written after Ingulf’s time. sometimes, its facts become
muddled. The ownership of Bourne by Morcar may be confusing the man of 870 with
another who held it in 1066.
4. In
the nineteenth century, as today, historians have used the term ‘Saxon’ to
cover anything pre-Conquest and Germanic in
5. ^ 1377-1399.
See Richard II, of England.
This ‘flourishing’, ‘thickly populated’ town was described 30 to 50 years after
the Black Death
first struck the region. In 1369, it had killed Blanche of Lancaster at
Bolingbroke, in
6. See
Bourne Places.
Wrigbolt (Rigbolt) and Dewehurne (Dovehirn) are outside Bourne parish, in
Gosberton and Pinchbeck respectively. ‘Merton’ would mean the parish boundary
with Morton.
7. 100/-,
100 shillings or £5.
8. ‘Greshyre’
will become more intelligible if we think of it as ‘grazing hire’, a charge for
the use of pasture.
9. For
a sometimes tentative location of these streets, see Bourne Places.
It is interesting to see the garrison numbered at 200. I suspect that this was
the staff generally rather than solely soldiers. The archaeology gives an
impression that, about a hundred years before, the castle had been converted
into being more a residence, secure against wandering bands of marauders, than
a fortress. Even so, men would have been needed as a security guard.
10. ^ Moore
uses the modern name for Eastgate but makes it clear that the name used in the
seventeenth century was Eaugate, that is the street along the riverside. The
document he is quoting distinguishes clearly between
11. 1809
came during the period of the Napoleonic Wars when agriculture was more
prosperous than it became afterwards. Also, mixed and livestock farming were
much more prominent than they are today in the area, so it is interesting to
see a lack of demand for a livestock market if nothing else. Apparently,
farmers were employing drovers,
to drive the stock to larger markets, nearer the site of consumption. In 1824
people were attempting to revive Bourne market
and again, in 1860
when the railway was newly open.
12. This
was used as the court house and would be replaced in 1821 by the present Town
Hall, then demolished soon after. It stood in the middle of
13. The
present Town Hall was designed to accommodate the shambles in the basement at
ground level. For many years it housed the fire engine. The space is now
enclosed and used as the council offices.
14. Tudor
Cottages, in
15. ^ On the East side of
16. The
date often quoted for this foundation is 1636 but this was the date when
Trollope, left an endowment for continuance of the school which he had already
founded.
17. When
used as boundary markers, the cross form was evidently used so as to improve
the chances of the mark’s being left undamaged. There are remaining examples
around Crowland. In towns and villages, the free-standing cross is likely to
have originated as a preaching cross, like the one in
18. There is no relevant documentary evidence from before 1633 but
19. The
field to the north of the Red Hall lies in the bottom of the natural valley of
the river. The modern houses to the north of the hall stand on the spread
remains of a dam which impounded water in the valley, so forming a defensive
lake on the south side of the castle. Clearly, by 1809, the lake had been
drained but its bed was still soft and wet. When the railway station was built,
the ground below the dam was raised to form its entrance road so the former presence
of the dam is not now readily noticeable. Traces of the moat are visible in the
field but in other quarters, the railway works have obliterated it.
20. ^ Now
the Burghley Arms, in the Market Place. It is on the site of the house where Lord Burghley was
born in 1520.
21. Fisher was the owner of the Red Hall when
he died and it is very likely that he had it built. These alms houses were
replaced in
22. Trollope’s founding, or at least his
building of the school came in 1626 (year 2 of Charles I) but the endowment was
part of his will, when he died in 1636. His
building, with major,
subsequent repairs, still stands but the institution is older: the admission of
a master to the school is mentioned in 1330. (Birkbeck p.2)
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