Tongue End

The most isolated fenland community in the Bourne area is undoubtedly Tongue End, a flat and featureless place with a few houses strung out along one side of the road that runs parallel to the drainage dyke known as the Counter Drain three miles south of Bourne, constructed during the 19th century to carry overflow water from the 400 acres of the Deeping Fen washes and to relieve the River Glen during periods of heavy rain. This place was first mentioned in a document of 1781 describing the nature of the land at this point, where Baston Fen, Thurlby Fen and Bourne Norton Fen, all converge and where the Bourne Eau flows into the River Glen, and it is this geographical feature that gives this village its colourful and descriptive name because the piece of land where the two rivers meet is tongue-shaped, hence Tongue End. 

Tongue End once boasted three public houses but all have closed. The Boat Inn has gone and so has the Chequers which was built in the hope of attracting business from a local railway station on the Bourne to Spalding line but the opportunity never materialised and the Counter Drain station was built a mile away instead. Finally there was the busiest of them all, the Carrington Arms, named after a local landowner, Lord Carrington of Wycombe Abbey in Buckinghamshire, one of the Adventurers who helped finance the drainage of the fens. This inn opened in 1811 and must have been one of the earliest buildings in the village, surviving as a public house until the mid-20th century but is now a private dwelling, still accessed by a concrete bridge over the Counter Drain that runs past the front of the pub and was used by wagons and then lorries to bring in regular beer supplies from the brewery. 

Most of the village inhabitants were farm labourers who left school early, sometimes at the age of 10, for a life on the land, and social conditions were not good. There was a square called Tongue End Yard where families lived in very cramped conditions and about 1848, one old house called Eastcote had been divided into five tenements, each with separate tenants. There was no public water supply and they took what they needed by bucket from the Counter Drain although a standpipe was eventually installed outside the Carrington Arms to bring in water from nearby Tongue End Farm and this became a focal point for villagers to meet and exchange gossip. Poorly sited houses, bad living conditions, overcrowding, an unsatisfactory water supply and inadequate sanitation, all contributed to the prevalence of  tuberculosis that cost the lives of many children, including three in one family. 

Council houses along the main street

The old school, now used for car sales

But spiritual matters played a major part in community life during the 19th century. When the religious census was taken in 1851, Methodist services were being held in one of the houses, according to the Rev John Bowman of Bourne, who went on to report that it had "no title, being a dwelling house. Preaching every alternate Sabbath."

The foundation stone was laid at a ceremony on Monday 25th April 1864 by Mr Francis Brown, a solicitor, of Market Deeping, who had donated the site, and the work was finally completed by the following summer. The official opening was a grand occasion, coinciding with the village's Sunday School Festival, and the Stamford Mercury reported the event on Friday 14th July 1865:

The opening of the chapel, in conjunction with the 6th annual festival, took place under very favourable auspices on Wednesday last. Two commodious marquees, supplied by Mr Aitken of Peterborough, were erected in Mr Fisher's large meadow. Mr C Roberts again placed at the disposal of the committee the gratuitous use of his boats, seven large corn boats being fitted up for the purpose, in which 370 persons proceeded to Tongue End. The decorations and arrangement of suitable mottoes in the marquees etc were very tasteful. Shortly after two o'clock, the building was formally opened, in the course of which the Rev Percy Strutt, of Spalding, offered up a very fervent prayer, imploring the divine blessing to rest upon the undertaking. In one of the marquees, at ¼ before 3, the Rev T W Aveling, of London, preached a very eloquent sermon, taking for his text the 2nd verse of the 45th Psalm. At a little before 5 (in the other marquee) the public tea commenced, which was effected in twice, between 600 and 700 being accommodated at the first course; the total number who partook of tea was about 1,000, the crockery for which was supplied by Mr J Boyer, without charge. The tea arrangements seemed to be admirably conducted. The tea was followed by the public meeting, presided over by Mr C Roberts, of Bourne. Several agreeable speeches were delivered, for which we are unable to find space. The chairman announced that the estimated cost of the building would be about £420. There had been received towards that object £283 15s. 6d., leaving a balance of £136 15s. 6d. unpaid previous to the commencement of this anniversary. The collections after the sermon in the afternoon and the evening meeting amounted to £19 17s. 9½d.. After this, other donations were promised bringing the total of the day's proceedings (exclusive of the tea) to about £70, so that above half the balance remaining previous to the opening is provided for. The gathering was altogether a very successful one, there being probably not far short of 2,000 persons present at one time. The children had their treat the next day.

In the early 19th century, Sundays in Tongue End were noted for drunkenness and prize fights and rival gangs often arrived from the surrounding villages to take part in these affrays. But the building of the chapel ended this disorderly conduct. Sunday meetings were always crowded and there were frequent temperance and revivalist gatherings. The chapel continued in use until the late 20th century when it was turned into a village hall but this venture collapsed through lack of support and the building has now gone, cleared to make way for a new housing development. The Church of England also had a presence with St Michael's Church, built of brick during the early 20th century, but dwindling congregations forced its closure and that too was demolished. 

Children were taught reading and writing by a cobbler who held regular classes in his workshop attached to the Carrington Arms until the North and South Township School was built in 1876 with classroom space for 126 boys and girls and it must have been popular because in 1885 the average attendance was reported to be 96. This building and the adjoining schoolmaster's house remain the last of Tongue End's old public institutions but is now used for second hand car sales and its 19th century red brick frontage is totally obscured by masses of old vehicles. 

Near to the village is Earl's Farm and the remains of the old Counter Drain railway station. Between 1866 and 1959, the railway line crossed both the Counter Drain and the River Glen within a few yards of each other and the bridge over the river is still intact. Bus services no longer run as they did half a century ago when the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company operated a Tuesday and Saturday service into Spalding and Route 318 had one of the oddest worded timetables of any service in Lincolnshire: Spalding-Pode Hole-Cuckoo Bridge-Counter Drain-Tongue End. 

A mile west of Tongue End was Woolley's Mill at Windmill Farm, one of the fifty windmills listed as working in Deeping Fen in 1763 to drain some 30,000 acres of farmland. The mill ground corn and other grain brought in by barge along the River Glen and navvies working on various drainage schemes over the years were housed there and fed from the adjoining bakery which also supplied residents of Tongue End. The mill closed in 1912 and has since been demolished.

Despite its depressing history, Tongue End is enjoying a small revival in popularity. Council houses built in 1914 and again during the housing boom following the Second World War are all fully occupied and by the summer of 2001, several residential developments were underway and now modern homes are lining the road where once there were dilapidated cottages and run down public buildings. The new villagers however, do not work on the land but commute to the surrounding towns for better paid employment that brings in sufficient remuneration to make them home owners. 

See also A Country Practice     Sunday Schools

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