[Transcription © SA Whittle-Bruce 2002]

Bourne,Lincs

Universal British Directory 1791

Bourn is distant from Deeping, 7 miles; Folkingham, 9 miles; Stamford, 10 miles; Spalding, 12 miles; Peterborough, 16 miles; Sleaford, 18 miles; and from London, 97 miles; on the high road to Lincoln and Hull. It is famous for being the birth-place of that great statesman, Sir William Cecil, lord treasurer, who was born here in 1521; created Baron Burleigh in 1571; and died in 1598. The manor came to him in right of his mother, Jane, daughter and heiress of William Heckington, of Bourn, Esq. The streets are watered by a spring remarkable for the purity and quantity of its water, which turns three mills within a very smal distance of its head; and no doubt was the cause of the town being called Bourn, which signifies a stream of water. Here was formerly an abbey and a castle: of the abbey there are some small remains, which speak much for 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 the the year 161_. Very few vestiges of the castle are left; some footsteps are now the only remains; and these are formed out of some of the old stones laid across a dry part of the moat; which is yet very fresh, as are the entrenchments round it. We do not find, in the annals of Britain, that this castle was ever made serviceable in any of the internal wars of the kingdom; though Bourn was doubtless, anciently, the residence of men of prowess and valour; for a valuable, old, and scarce, historian, writes to this purport: "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 -abby, they marched northward, and met the Danish army at Laundon, where a desperate battle ensued, which was terminated in favour of Alger and Marcot, after flaying three of the enemies' kings; from which circumstance the town received the name of Threekingham, which by corruption of pronounciation is now called Freckingham." Some say Edmund Ironsides was crowned at Bourn in 1016: but, if we consider that this king swaved the sceptre but about nine months, and was engaged in wars the whole of this time in the southern parts of the kingdom, this will carry with it but a small degree of probability. But to wave these matters, and speak of Bourn in its present state, we must say it is but a dirty mean-built town, of about a mile and a quarter in length from the east to west, and about half a mile in breadth from north to south. It has one parish church, and one chapel for dissenters. The market is on a Saturday; fairs, March 7, May 6, and Oct.2: this last, though a small fair, is a great feast or wake. Here are two alms-houses, one for six poor old men, and the other for as many poor old women; each endowed with 30 l. per annum; and also a free-school, with a yearly salary of 35 l. for the master. Besides these, there are many other gifts, donations, and benefices, belonging to the poor of Bourn. The tanning-business is much carried on here; and its common is noted for horse-races. The mail arrives at ten o'clock, and goes out at one daily. The Lincoln coach passes throuigh here to and from London every day in the week, Sundays excepted; inns at the Golden Cross one day, and the Spread Eagle another. The Lincoln waggon to London up and down through this town once a week, and inns at the White Bear, Basinghall-street. Tilley's waggon carries goods to and from Stamford and Bourn every Tuesday and Friday; and Halford's boats do the same to Spalding every Tuesday.

The following are the principal villages and seats in the vicinity of Bourn.- Morton, between Folkingham and Bourn, 3 miles.- Thurlby, 2 miles.- Grimsthorpe the seat of his grace the Duke of Ancaster, (of which see a description in vol. iii. p. 162) 4 miles.-Edenham, near Grimsthorpe, and 3 miles from Bourn, has a charity-school. Irnam is a pleasant village, with good water and in a wholesome air, 8 miles distant. Here is the seat of Everard Arundel, Esq. - Gretford is 6 miles distant, and has a charity-school. Here Dr. Willis has a seat.-Witham-on-Hill, by the Red Deer Park, 3 miles southwest of Bourn, has a charity-school. Here is the seat of ----- Johnson,Esq.