Cavalry House

This unusual house in South Street is so named because the former owner Mr Thomas Rawnsley (1755-1826), a wool stapler of some means, raised at his own expense a volunteer yeomanry troop known as the Light Horse Rangers among local residents in the early part of the 19th century when Britain was at war with revolutionary France for national defence against a possible invasion threatened by Napoleon. 

The volunteers practised military drill regularly on common land in the town while the emergency lasted but had no chance to display their valour because the invasion never came. The unit was commanded by Sir Gilbert Heathcote and his wife, Lady Heathcote, presented him with a handsome silver goblet in 1808 in recognition of his services. 

Rawnsley was a member of a well known Lincolnshire family who settled in the county during the 18th century. He was the great-grandfather of Canon H D Rawnsley, author of Memories of the Tennysons, and of W F Rawnsley, who wrote Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire, and owned land in the town and in Thurlby, the Isle of Ely and Norfolk, but chose to live in Bourne where he married a local girl, Deborah Hardwicke, in 1784. Their fifth son was the Rev Thomas Hardwicke Rawnsley (1789-1861) who became rector of Folkingham. Thomas Rawnsley died in 1826 and there are memorial tablets in the north arcade of the Abbey Church to him, his wife and six of their children who died in infancy. 

The Abbott's Garden once formed part of the picturesque grounds of Cavalry House but this land has since been sold for development although in past times, it was the venue for many public events, such as garden parties and concerts, through the generosity of a former owner, Mr Albert Dainty. A typical occasion was a promenade concert on Wednesday 21st June 1899 to raise funds for the Volunteer Corps when the gardens were illuminated and there was dancing late into the night.