The Bourne Identity

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If you key Bourne into a search engine, the chances are the top listing will not be Bourne, Lincolnshire. The Bourne Identity. The Bourne Supremacy. The Bourne Ultimatum. The Bourne Legacy. The Bourne film franchise. Jason Bourne. All are likely to head up the list of answers. Poor old Bourne - the market town - will probably be relegated to the also rans of the list. I can honestly say that films - movies in certain circles, without the desire or inclination to visit the cinema, often pass me by. Big screen action is fine, but listening to a soundtrack of people nearby munching on an oversized portion of popcorn isn't really too appealing. Similarly, the next bite at the showing on an overpriced satellite TV channel isn't in the family priorities. I can therefore honestly say that I haven't viewed any of the above listed films. On a rather more disappointing note, it also dawned on me that I had never visited Bourne, Lincolnshire. Clearly, it was time to put that right.

Traffic was light on the A1. It was a surprise to a certain extent. The first weekend of the school summer holidays is often a disaster. Folk tend to forget previous months of moaning about the cost of living and the national self determined right to have a "well deserved break" for a few weeks kicks in. En masse, it is all in the car and off. Post Brexit, it could end in tears at Dover as the French authorities dare to properly check and stamp passports. The trains were "on strike" this particular Saturday too. It might have been an overtime ban not a strike, but it has been going on so long now we all forget. At a guess, many have cancelled the train idea from their travel plans altogether.

We pass the signs for the village of Stoke Rochford. We went there once as kids. My mum's uncle made his life there. He joined the RAF in World War 2, married a local girl and never came back. It must have been a real culture shock from the offerings of industrial East Cleveland in 1945. We turn off at the Colsterworth junction. It used to be another of those annoying roundabouts on the A1, but that is long gone. The Highways Agency has provided us with a proper junction, complete with truck stop, obligatory Ronnie Macs and a confusing road layout. Progress? As always in Lincolnshire, progress on the road is slow. We meandered towards Bourne, making a mental note to possibly revisit the impressive looking Grimethorpe Castle should dogs be welcome to the party. We stopped off at the Bourne Woods - not to be confused with Bourne Woods in Surrey, which incidentally has a more extensive set of film credits than "Bourne" itself. Vera needed to have a proper walk, before her town pavement wanderings. Bourne Woods is a couple of miles before town on the Grantham side. A sharp turn into an unmade road leads to a car park with probably space for 75 cars. The tracks are a mix of woodland paths and more extensive gravel roads used by the Forestry Commission to extract timber. Vera was more interested in the size of the squirrel population.

We parked up easily on a side street in the town centre. The focal point was the old Town Hall in the centre of a rather busy junction. The building was a gift from the Marquis of Exeter - the local big cheese - in 1821. The original purpose was as a courthouse and a market. By 1890, the local fire brigade and their horses had moved in too. When fire broke out in 1933, in theory the original clock should have been safe - the fire brigade been housed beneath. Alas, it was completely destroyed. The court moved out in 2008. I am assuming that the fire brigade sought a more suitable base some years beforehand. The pub next door - the Burghley Arms - caught my eye. Well, the plaques on the front of building to be precise. It turns out that William Cecil - he of Burghley House near Stamford and local boy made good in Tudor times - was born there. The pub was originally called the Bull Hotel, but obviously the connection to Cecil merited a change. A second plaque referred to Australian author, Frederic Manning, penning part of his novel "The Middle Parts of Fortune" at the pub in 1929. Manning named his hero of the World War 1 trenches, Bourne, whilst in residence. The original print of 520 numbered copies is now worth a few bob, so if you spot one in a charity shop snap it up. We had a very nice panini for lunch in a coffee shop, Don't Lose Hope. The unusual name turned out to be the name of the charity operating it. Well recommended, by the way - staffed by a group of very polite teenage volunteers. We all feel comfortable with a chain or a brand because in theory you know what you are getting, but I wouldn't hesitate to suggest that you give this place a try if you find yourself in Bourne.

We set off to find Eastgate House. Geography in Bourne is not an issue. The roads leading from the Market Place are North Street, South Street, West Street ..... and Abbey Road. Eastgate is for some reason slightly detached from the central pivot. Eastgate House is a very nice listed property in it's own right, but plays a significant role in the history of modern Bourne. It was the family home of racing driver and Formula 1 team owner, Raymond Mays. We think today of Formula 1 as the multi millionaire sport of glitz and glamour and high technology, space age factories usually based out of the Silverstone / Brackley area or in the backyard of Mercedes or Ferrari. Raymond Mays was a very competent racing car driver in the 1930s, who used that as a springboard to establishing the British Racing Motors team after World War 2. British Racing Motors (BRM) were one of the leading teams in the Formula 1 sport in the 1960s. They won the constructors championship in 1962 and finished runner up in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1971. The team competed in 197 Grand Prix in their time and won 17 - in a time when the season was a lot more compressed than today's global circus. Graham Hill won the driving championship title in 1962 in a BRM. Other drivers over the years included Jackie Stewart, Clay Regazzoni and Nicki Lauda. The latter two were both poached by Ferrari, as the team declined. It was probably a culture shock .... swapping southern Lincolnshire for northern Italy. Whether any of the drivers enjoyed a quiet, off duty pint in the Burghley Arms isn't recorded. All of the above was achieved from a small factory behind Eastgate House and using a test track on an old RAF airfield nearby. Quite remarkable really. The Bourne Museum has an exhibition to the achievement, but there was no time to properly check it out. If you follow South Street, you will find a flowerbed with a Memorial to BRM on the corner of Coggles Causeway - a classic BRM silhouette passing a chequered flag. There is also a Memorial to the achievements of Raymond Mays by the Museum. As with Cecil and the Burghley Arms, Mays has a pub named after him. The Wetherspoons establishment carries the name, The Raymond Mays. A man can have no greater honour.

We walked off towards the attractive Bourne Abbey, otherwise known as the Church of St Peter and St Paul. The town once had an abbey in the formal sense of the wold, but it disappeared along with all the others in Tudor times. Bourne Eau House stand just behind it - rumoured to be the oldest house in town. The lawns of Wellhead Wellhead Park were well manicured and the flags fluttering in the light breeze on the War Memorial. It was, as always, time for some football. Bourne Town were entertaining their visitors from Selston in Nottinghamshire. We had seen them arrive in their minibus, as we had our lunch. It was the opening day of the season gor the United Counties League, so both teams were keen to get off to a flyer. The game was played at Abbey Lawn, once the back garden and sheep field of the aforementioned Abbey. Today, the area is a multi sports hub for the town - football, cricket and bowls were all at home today. The area also plays host to the Bourne Lido - ond of tye oldest surviving outdoor swimming pools in the UK still operational. The 50 yard heated pool was created from an old Abbey duck pond in 1919. The football ground is a really attractive setting. A classic stand - some seating and a covered terrace - the other 3 sides are hard standing bordered by pivot hedges. The best hedges outside Brechin perhaps? Bourne won handsomely according to the scoreline, but the reality was Selston were in the game for a long time. They never recovered from the early Bourne goal and went chasing it in the end. If they play the same in future fixtures, they will have better days out in their minibus.

Appendix 1

United Counties Football League Division 1

Bourne Town FC 3 Selston FC 0

Venue: JJ Mac Stadium, Abbey Lawn, Abbey Road, Bourne. Lincolnshire. PE10 9EP

Date: Saturday 29th July 2023 @ 1500 Hours

Attendance: 279

Scorers: Bird 2 Mins (Bourne Town), Sandby 63 & 84 Mins (Bourne Town)

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Photos

Eastgate House
Home of Raymond Mays ... founder of BRM

Bourne
BRM Monument

Bourne
Old Town Hall

Burghley Arms, Bourne
William Cecil Plaque

Bourne
Monument to Raymond Mays

Bourne
Raymond Mays Memorial

Burghley Arms, Bourne
Frederic Manning Plaque

Bourne
Old Town Hall