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A visit to Bourne, Lincolnshire


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  • RMweb Gold

Before I joined Andy & Co at Warners, I had a quick wander around Bourne's main shopping centre.

 

Some of the buildings are crying out to be modelled, and the juxtaposition makes for a very appealing line of structures.

 

Firstly, here is The Angel Hotel, where I spent the previous night. According to the bumph, this was an old coaching house.

 

Situated in the heart of Bourne, the Angel Hotel has played a key part in the history of the town. The hotel was renamed the Angel in approximately 1800 and it served as an important posting house during coaching days. Bourne was part of one of the main routes from Lincoln and York to London and a daily coach service passed through, often making an overnight stop and usually picking up passengers. 

 By 1857, an omnibus left the Angel Hotel every morning, except Sundays, at 8am to connect with the railway station at Tallington on the Great Northern line. The livery stables at the rear of the building were eventually incorporated into the main hotel.

The courtyard and outbuildings can still be seen together with an Ostler's bell and there is a pattern of small gables across the coaching arch.   Outside on the main road, the town pump was strategically placed to provide for the needs of the coach horses which stopped here.

The Angel was also registered as an Excise Office from 1808 onwards where makers of a wide range of goods were required to pay their necessary duties.

 

The front of the Hotel :

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The coaching arch :

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The courtyard and outbuildings :

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  • RMweb Gold

Bourne - Part 2

 

Next to The Angel Hotel is a bank - note the faces in the lower window keystones.

 

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Next to the bank is a shop we can all tell the origins of - note the very different style to the upper floor to that of the bank. 

 

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Further along the same side of the road is this building - six upper floor windows, but one far more ornate than the others - why ?  What was this building before it became a pair of shops ?

 

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Further along still is this part shop, part town house.  Nothing too unusual, until you look closely at the window below the larger Colman's sign - the bricks over the window seem to have slipped. The sign is hiding most of the failed brickwork, but the same slip can be seen in the upper window too.

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Bourne - part 3

 

Crossing the road we find what used to be an old mechanic's garage. Note here the rows of colours bricks in a criss-cross pattern over the upper floor windows and the ballustrade along the edge of the roof.

 

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Heading back towards the cross roads we find one building hosting a coffee shop and another bank.

 

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Next is another public house

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Bourne - part 4

 

Next to the pub is Bourne's Town Hall. This impressive building boasts a double curved staircase to the upper floor. It was built in 1821 by local architect Bryan Browning.

 

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Several lunches have been had in Smith's and the Jubilee!

 

It's a town with bags of character; not as conventionally charming as Stamford. Did you spot the old road sign on the corner at the lights?

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  • RMweb Gold

Several lunches have been had in Smith's and the Jubilee!

 

It's a town with bags of character; not as conventionally charming as Stamford. Did you spot the old road sign on the corner at the lights?

 

No, must have looked right past it !!

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Truly inspirational Stubby, might have a go at some of those, thanks for sharing.

 

Way back when I was writing the odd article or two for  BRM, David Brown, the then editor, took me walkabout in Bourne which included the railway yard and the biggest goods shed that I had ever seen !

 

Cheers.

Allan.

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  • RMweb Gold

Truly inspirational Stubby, might have a go at some of those, thanks for sharing.

 

Way back when I was writing the odd article or two for  BRM, David Brown, the then editor, took me walkabout in Bourne which included the railway yard and the biggest goods shed that I had ever seen !

 

Cheers.

Allan.

 

I thought The Angel Hotel looked like one of your buildings !

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I go to Bourne quite often. Nothing to do with model railways but to visit the large commercial laundry.

 

Several lunches have been had in Smith's and the Jubilee!

I too have enjoyed a number of lunches at Smiths's. It really is quite a nice little town.

 

Andrew

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  • RMweb Gold

Correct me if I'm wrong but the town hall is the old corn exchange building which served as a cinema at one time.

Sorry, I have no idea ( I'd never even heard of Bourne until a couple of weeks ago !)

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  • RMweb Gold

I used Google Earth Street view to prewiew where I was going and noted the huge variety of building styles. Hence I made time for a quick photo shoot in the morning.

I'm sure there are many more buildings which would be great to model.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have never been to Bourne but if its high street is like a lot of old towns those buildings with ornate fronts probably have very plain brick rears.

 

Market Harborough high street where I live has similar buildings and old coaching inns but when you go round the back down the alleys they are just simple plain brick boxes, in fact according to the local history in the library most of the high street buildings were and still are of timber frame construction that have false fronts and reinforced with bricks when required.

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  • RMweb Gold

There are lots of smart-fronted buildings in Cornwall with the side and rear walls made from rough stone - it's probably a generic practice across the world.

 

Makes for more interesting buildings to model though :)

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  • RMweb Gold

There are lots of smart-fronted buildings in Cornwall with the side and rear walls made from rough stone - it's probably a generic practice across the world.

 

Makes for more interesting buildings to model though :)

I don't know about Cornwall Stu but I do wonder if they applied the same practice as elsewhere with new facades simply grafted onto the front of older buildings?  We have several examples in the town and past demolitions have revealed the structures of much older buildings behind what was on the face of it a Victorian structure. 

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