Bourne in 1839
Bourne is in Aveland wapentake, in the parts of Kesteven, on the road from London to Lincoln, 97 miles from the former, and 36 from the latter. There was formerly a castle here, which was the seat of a lordship of some note in the Saxon times. Hereward, the Anglo-Saxon chieftain who opposed the most protracted resistance to the Norman conquerors, was the son of the lord of Bourn, or Brunne. The parish comprehends 8,190 acres, with a population of 2,569 : it is divided into three hamlets, of which that of Bourne, with Tongue-End, contains a population of 2,355, nearly one-half agricultural. The town consists chiefly of one long street of modern well-built houses. In the centre of the market-place is an ancient town-hall, said to have been built by the great Lord Burghley, a native of the town ; the lower part is used as a market-house. The church is large, but appears to be only part of a more extensive plan. The piers and arches of the nave are of Norman, the clerestory of perpendicular date. At the west end, portions in the perpendicular style have been ingrafted upon others of an early English character. There are two towers at this end.
Wool-stapling and tanning are carried on, and the town has some trade in leather and wool : there is a navigable canal communicating with the river Glen. A tessellated pavement and some Roman coins have been dug up in the neighbourhood, and there are the traces of the site of an Augustinian priory, the revenue of which at the Dissolution was £197, 17 shillings and 5 pence gross, or £167, 14 shillings and 6 pence clear. There are some dissenting places of worship. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Lincoln, of the clear yearly value of £320, with a glebe-house. There were, in the year 1833 in the parish, one dame-school, with 20 children ; an endowed school, with 18 boys ; a national school, with 125 children ; nine other day-schools, with 167 children ; and two Sunday-schools, with 169 children. |