BoAr: Bourne: Cooke G A

Latest edit 13 Nov 2008

The Bourne Archive

George Alexander Cooke’s Description of Bourne

This is transcribed from a copy of the book in the Willoughby Memorial Library, to the trustees of which, I offer my thanks.

The itinerary lists the notable residents of the Bourne vicinity as: at Hanthorpe, Col. Pack, R.: at Bourn, Mrs. Pochin [her husband died in 1798 (Birkbeck p.56)] and James Digby, esq.: at Grimsthorpe Castle, duke of Ancaster [he died in 1809]: at Thurlby, J. Barnes, esq.

The Topographical Description follows a number of routes through the county beginning with that from Barton to Deeping, through Lincoln. The description of Bourne is as follows: -

About seven miles from Aslackby, after passing through the village of Morton, we arrive at Bourn, a market-town, situated in a flat adjoining the fens. Contiguous to the town is a spring, remarkable for the purity of its water, which turns three mills within a very small distance of its head, and runs through the town to Spalding. From this stream the name of the town derived; Bourn signifying a stream of water. Here was formerly an abbey and a castle; of the abbey there are some small remains, which evince the antiquity of the place, if we may credit a date upon one of the stones, in the upper part of a wall, which is as early as 161. This abbey, at the time of its dissolution, posessed an annual revenue of 167l. 14s. 6d. per annum. [£167 14s.6d.] Very few vestiges of the castle are left; a few steps being the only remains, which are formed out of some of the old stones laid across a dry part of the moat, which are yet very fresh, as are the entrenchments round it. It does not appear, however in the annals of Britain, that this castle was ever made serviceable in any of the internal wars of this kingdom, though this town was formerly, according to an ancient historian, the residence of men of prowess and valour; for, says this writer, when the Danes made an inroad into Lincolnshire, one Alger, of Spalding, was sent to oppose their progress; and, being joined by Marcot, Lord of Bourn, and his numerous family and attendants, trained in arms, with about 250 men from Croyland Abbey, they marched northward, and met the Danish army at Laundon, where a desperate battle ensued, which was terminated in favour of Alger and Morcot, after slaying three of the enemies’ kings; from which circumstance the town received the name Threekingham, which by a corruption of pronunciation, is now called Freckingham.

Bourn at present is but a dirty mean-built town, of about a mile and a quarter in length from east to west, and about half a mile in breadth from north and south. It has one parish church, and a chapel for dissenters. The Church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is a handsome structure, consisting of a lofty chancel, a nave, with side aisles, and a short transept on the south side. The nave is separated from the aisles by plain circular arches, springing from large columns, exhibiting a specimen of the early Norman style. It had formerly two large towers at the west end, of which one is nearly down.

Here are two Almshouses, one for six poor men, and the other for as many poor women, each endowed with 30l. per annum; and also a Free-school. Besides these, there are many other gifts, donations, and benefices, belonging to the poor of this town. In the centre of the Market-place is an ancient Town Hall, where the petty sessions for the parts of Kesteven are regularly held at Michaelmas and Christmas.

About 50 years ago, a tesselated pavement was discovered, in the park grounds, and a few Roman coins have likewise been dug up in the neighbourhood.

In a farm-yard within the town is a medicinal spring, much frequented, the waters of which have a brackish taste, and a purgative quality.

A canal has been cut from this town to Boston, for boats of ten tons burden, by means of which some mercantile business is carried on; its chief trade, however, consists in tanning leather. The market is on Saturday, but is not much frequented; it has four annual fairs, viz. March 7, May 6, October 29, November 30; and its common is noted for horse-races.

Bourn has twice suffered severely by fire; on the 25^th of August, 1605, that part of the town, called Manor Street, was totally destroyed by fire, not leaving a single house standing: and again on the 25^th of March, 1637, another fire destroyed the greater part of Eastgate.

The town, which is situated 97 miles from London, contains 282 houses, and 1,474 inhabitants. It is famous for being the birth place of the great statesman, Sir William Cecil, lord treasurer, who was born here in the year 1521; created Baron Burleigh in 1571; and died in 1598. The unfortunate Dr. William Dodd was likewise a native of Bourn, whose father was vicar of the place.

Commentary

This small book is not dated but its information comes from before the old Bourne Town Hall was pulled down on completion of its replacement in 1821 and the death of Mrs. Eleanor Pochin in 1823. It is after the building of the Abbey Church chancel, which appears to have happened in 1807 and the deaths of George Pochin in 1798 and of Mary Pochin in 1804. If its information was up to date when it was published, it is earlier than the death of the 5^th Duke of Ancaster in 1809. The writers of this sort of book were more alive to this sort of information than to that shown in expensive map printing plates, as it was important to their clientele. They sold their books to this sort of person; therefore, they would be judged on the accuracy of this sort of information. It is therefore reasonable to estimate that the book was published close to 1808, after the completion of the ‘lofty chancel’ in 1807 and before the death of the last Duke of Ancaster in 1809.

The map of Lincolnshire which is included is not accurate enough for drawing conclusions about small details such as whether the alignment of the road leading westward out of Bourne is the modern one or the old one. However some things are clear. The Bourne to Colsterworth road is still shown as passing close to Grimsthorpe Castle rather than round the park to the north as it does now. Similarly, the Bourne to Sleaford road passes to the west of Aswarby Park.

The road across the Fosdyke Wash is not shown. However, the old Fenland course of the Witham is. This was changed in the 1760s so we can assume that the expensive process of re-making the map was not embarked upon for this edition of the book. It is notable that despite the new development of sea bathing, Skegness, Freiston Shore and so on are not ranked as worthy of a dot. Apart from Saltfleet, the Marshland roads stop short well inland, at Wainfleet and Alford.

The origin of the name Threekingham (grid reference TF0936) which is pronounced Threkingham, will be as ham, ‘the homestead of; so to speak ‘the ingas’ (that is, the people) of ‘Threk’: the Threkingas’ homestead. The Domesday Book calls it Trichingeham (entries 3,55. 10,4. 24,91. 26,42. 48,7. 57,40. 67,11.) but also, entries 12,77. 29,21;24. 38,9. make reference to ‘Tric’, of which the site is not securely known. It was nearer the coast, somewhere in the Burgh le Marsh, Wainfleet, Skegness area as it is recorded (entries 29,21 & 29,24) as being in the South Riding of Lindsey, in the Candleshoe Wapentake. It is possible, from information given there, to make a list of places in which it was not and Skegness remains as a likely guess.

Wherever it was, it seems that some of its people moved inland and settled at Threekingham. Their arrival will have been noteworthy as it seems that only the narrow coastal strip was initially settled by the Angles directly from the sea. Much of Lindsey and Kesteven was initially, settled from the Humber, moving southwards. The two groups of people would have been distinct, particularly after two or three Generations. The odd exceptions to this settlement pattern were therefore noteworthy and were recorded in the place-names. An example of the reverse of the Threekingham movement was that of the (K)esteveningas (Kesteven people) to the Wash coast at Swineshead. They are commemorated in the manor, variously recorded as Estevening, Steyning or Stenning. Grid reference TF232401.

Threekingham is in Kesteven, on the Salters’ Way, a trade road leading inland from the coast. Steyning is in Holland, at what was the seaward end of the road from Old Sleaford, providing a depôt for the Kesteveningas, at the head of Bicker Haven.

The tesselated pavement was found in ‘the park’. In Bourne, this usually refers to what is now called the Abbey Lawn. See White’s. The park was laid out as an adjunct of The Abbey, a house built on the site of the claustral buildings of the monastic abbey. The house (nowadays, normally referred to as Abbey House) was built in 1764, a period which could qualify as being ‘about 50 years’ before 1808. The conversion of the ground to a sheep lawn for the house would therefore seem to be the occasion on which the pavement was found. This fits better with the version of this story which is told in Paterson’s Roads p.399. That puts the finding of the pavement sixty years before 1826. The Abbey Lawn site is well placed to be the residence of an overseer of the passage in and out of the Roman Emperors’ lands in the fen by way of the Old Ea (better known to archaeologists as the Bourne-Morton Canal). RJP3