The Abbey Church in past times

This engraving of 1819 hangs in the vestry at the Abbey Church and shows the Abbey House on the left of the west front. The building  was demolished in 1878 and the materials salvaged to built a new vicarage nearby, now the Cedars retirement home, although some of the stones may have been stolen and survive today in various locations around the town, often as garden ornaments The building of the church was an act of faith by Baldwin Fitzgilbert but was fraught with problems and was never finished to his original ideal and a second tower, intended to be built on the left and which would have added symmetry to the west front, was never finished. These matters are discussed elsewhere in this history.

This view of the church is taken from a postcard published circa 1890. The fence on which the two people are leaning was later replaced by iron palisade railings, similar to those erected in 1869 further along South Street and which survive to this day. The railings on the wall in front of The Cedars (now Bourne Eau House) on the opposite side of South Street have also gone, perhaps cut down during the Second World War during an ill-advised government drive for scrap metal for the production of munitions

This photograph is from the same period, showing the church decorated for the harvest festival on Sunday 13th September 1868 when the box pews of earlier times and the double aisle are still in evidence but both features were removed during the restoration of 1892.

The church is decorated here for another, unidentified, occasion although it may have been a later harvest festival because the pulpits and altar are adorned with plants and flowers, although this this picture was obviously taken after 1892 when the double aisles had been replaced by a single one.

One of the great church celebrations of past times was the Bourne Pageant which was held in the garden of the old vicarage [now the Cedars retirement home] in 1938 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the founding of the abbey by Baldwin Fitzgilbert in 1138. There were several days of events in the church and on this occasion, a service was held in the open air with a fully robed choir while special stands were erected around the lawn for the congregation. Among the re-enactments staged by parishioners was that of monks taking the body of Hereward the Wake by river to Crowland Abbey for burial (below), although it has been established since that this incident has no historical foundation.