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The Market Place
A market has been held in Bourne for more than 700 years under a royal charter granted to the Lord of the Manor of Bourne, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279. The original charter document, dated two years later, is now in the British Museum. It gave permission for a market to be held on a Saturday and this tradition has continued to the present day although a Thursday market was later added and this has become the more popular of the two. The manorial rights were subsequently acquired by the Cecil family whose distinguished member William Cecil was the first Lord Burghley, and this entitled his descendants, the Marquesses of Exeter, to receive the market rents. During the 19th century, the collection of these tolls was delegated to the Moisey family and successive members carried out this duty until the then Marquess sold his ownership of the market rights to Bourne Urban District Council during the middle years of the last century. During protracted negotiations with the Marquess over a number of years, there was some dispute over ownership and a meeting of ratepayers was held at the Town Hall on Thursday 3rd November 1921 to sanction the purchase. The main opponents to the transaction were members of the Moisey family but their claim to have held the market rights for more than three centuries was disputed. Alderman John T Swift, a noted local historian, was called in to give his opinion and he told the meeting that he had searched the church records but there was no such name as Moisey registered in Bourne 300 years before. James Moisey, who then collected the tolls, withdrew his claim after a private financial settlement from the Marquess. A survey of the market was carried out in October 1921, prior to the meeting of ratepayers in the Town Hall the following month, and it showed that there were 62 stalls at the weekly market occupying a frontage of some 225 yards. Suggested scales of stallage were laid down, e g 2½d. per lineal foot for ratepayers with a stall and 3d. for non-ratepayers. The importance and scale of the market to the town at that time appears in the minutes of Bourne UDC for May 1924 when it was decided to inform the Marquess that residents living in the vicinity were complaining about the late hour of closing on Saturday nights and suggesting that his Lordship give instructions for the stalls to be taken down at 10 pm, an indication that market hours tended to be very much longer that today. In 1923, Bourne Urban District Council renewed
its attempt to buy the rights for the sum of £50 but negotiations proved to be
abortive and they remained with the Marquess and administered through the
Burghley Estates for a further period before they eventually passed to South Kesteven District Council during
the re-organisation of local government in 1974 and this authority now collects
the market tolls and is responsible for its administration. Weekly markets were the main places for trading in England and almost all had a market cross around which goods and produce were sold such as butter, cheese and poultry, and some had several, hence the surviving name in many towns of the butter cross and its variations. Bourne too had its own stone cross on the west side of the market place and appears to have been similar in shape and size to that which still exists at Swinstead. It is referred to in 1586 by the historian William Camden (1551-1623) who visited the town while writing Britannia, his survey of the British Isles, in which he described it as being ten feet high on an octagonal base with three steps, and although it seems certain that it was simply a market cross, he suggested that it had been erected to commemorate a battle and added: "It was a place of sanctuary, and around it worship was wont to be held." This was certainly the focal point of the village in times past, where visiting monks and priests preached the word of God, and John Wesley, the evangelist and founder of the Methodist movement, visited Bourne in 1782 when he addressed townspeople from the steps of the market cross after the parish clergy had closed their pulpits to him. The annual fairs were also held here and proclamations of important local and national events were made from this spot. It was also the place where villagers gathered to meet and to talk and discuss the momentous events that affected their lives because they realised, as we do today, that there is a security in being with your neighbours in times of crisis and an unspoken fellowship when there is cause for celebration. The market cross in Bourne is known to have survived until 1803 although its fate after that is unknown. A much later feature of the market place was the Ostler memorial fountain, erected in 1860 in memory of a local benefactor but removed to the cemetery in 1960 because it was causing a traffic hazard. The relief of Mafeking after a prolonged siege during the Boer War (1899-1902) was celebrated in the Market Place on 18th May 1900 when an effigy of the Boer leader Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the Transvaal, was suspended on a rope strung between the Town Hall and the hardware shop on the corner of West Street and South Street, then occupied by F J Clarke and now by Harrison and Dunn. The effigy was later retrieved by townspeople and ceremoniously burned. Queen Victoria's 81st birthday was also celebrated with a bonfire in the Market Place and there was a demonstration by the Bourne Volunteers under the command of Captain Cecil Bell. There was also a well in the market place although its origins are vague but early photographs show a pump standing near to or over the site outside the Angel Hotel and its existence became apparent in recent years when excavations were carried out on the roadway in North Street. Shops in mediaeval Bourne were clustered mainly around the market place for this was the attraction that brought them their custom. Market stalls in those days were known as shambles and it was not always easy to distinguish them from the shops but by the 16th century, they were generally small premises erected for the sale of fish and meat and let out to townsmen and traders from other places on market days. For example, William Kent of Morton, who died in 1619, had a shop in the "Butchers' Shambles", indicating that it was not uncommon for country butchers to have a retail outlet in the adjoining market town. Shops were more permanent structures than shambles having wooden pentices or projecting covers that extended several feet into the street and they were open each day. Usually, they clustered around the market place and were often rented by the same families for several generations. Such craftsmen as shoemakers or tailors carried out their work under the pentice, visible to the public, with the master sitting in the centre and his apprentices on either side. By the early 19th century, the town hall in Bourne had become dilapidated and a site occupied by a house adjoining the Bull Inn (now the Burghley Arms) on the east side of the market place was chosen for a new building but this too was to have a shambles or set of stalls underneath, and from this arrangement sprang the eventual street market that became a familiar sight in the town during the 20th century. The market place was also the venue for the annual fairs that were held in Bourne and these were a more elaborate version of the weekly markets, although also dealing in livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep. The annual statute fairs for the hiring of servants was also held here, although this was not strictly a fair but was derived from the mediaeval Statutes of Labourers of which the first was enacted in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) when there was a shortage of agricultural workers. Most of the English charter fairs had their origins in Norman and subsequent times but may even have been held much earlier, going back to the days of the Roman occupation and the name itself, fair, is derived from the Latin feria meaning a holiday. It is likely that Bourne had only one fair a year in the Middle Ages but by 1816 there were three, held on March 7th, May 6th and October 29th and by the end of the 19th century there was also a fourth on September 30th. Today, there is only one annual fair and it is confined to pleasure only, a fun fair that arrives every October and is confined to a local car park, clinging precariously on to its past traditions but unlikely to survive long into the 21st century. The weekly market was an occasion for both buying and socialising and the situation was similar to that we see today although during earlier times, even until the 1950s, 60% of those who attended the market travelled between one mile and five miles to get there. Goods were brought in for sale from the farms and villages and tradesmen would arrive to display their wares in the shambles. Local shopkeepers and craftsmen would also have an eye to business by trying to attract custom from the visitors who had arrived for the day and who often depended on the market town for the supply of those goods which they could not obtain at home. But the market itself was strictly regulated with toll-gatherers and other officials who checked the quality and the price of goods for sale. Market hours would also be fixed and there were other regulations to ensure fair play: no one, for instance, could sell their corn until other merchants had arrived from neighbouring villages. But buying and selling were not the only activities in town on market day. The taverns were always busy while farmers and their wives would gather to hear the latest news and gossip, to discuss their various illnesses, exchange opinions on the topics of the day and even to criticise the government.
Over the years, little has changed. The market continued in the town centre, along the western kerbsides in North Street and West Street, until the closing years of the 20th century when increasing traffic flows made road conditions too hazardous for shoppers and on Thursday 13th December 1990, it was moved to a purpose built paved area behind the town hall, planned as part of the Burghley Arcade and Corn Exchange developments on the site of the old cattle market that had closed in 1981. The move was marked by a civic ceremony at which the mayor, Councillor Stan Pease officiated, and a ribbon was cut by Councillor Ian Croft, chairman of South Kesteven District Council's amenities committee to herald the start of business. Budgens' supermarket that now overlooks the market place, had been opened two years earlier on 27th September 1988, replacing their former premises in West Street that had become too small for their volume of business.
This was a significant day in the history of the market although traders were at first dubious about the move on the grounds that the new location would not attract sufficient custom but their fears have been unjustified and market days continue to be an occasion for buying bargains as well as creating a crowded social occasion, especially on fine summer days. The site for the new market is particularly relevant in the history of the town because the shambles or stalls incorporated in the plans for the new town hall of 1821 provide a direct link between our present modern market and that of past times. REVISED OCTOBER 2004 The October Fair The cattle market The market place in past times 
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