BOURNE CELEBRATES QUEEN VICTORIA'S GREAT DAY

The Market Place has always been the focal point for public celebrations since the earliest times and special efforts were invariably made for royal occasions. When Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee on Tuesday 22nd June 1897, the frontage was decorated with flags,  bunting, portraits and the royal Coat of Arms and the public flocked there to join in the observance of this great day.

See also
Royal occasions

Iron railings once stretched across the frontage of the Town Hall, as can be seen in this postcard from 1910 (above). The railings were also a convenient and popular place to fix posters and advertisements before being dismantled during the Second World War (1939-45) when metal from public and private locations in the district was salvaged as a raw material for the manufacture of munitions. Ornate tombstones in the town cemetery were similarly robbed of their metal railings together with frontages of houses built in this style during the Victorian period, particularly along North Road, and the remaining iron stumps can still be seen at many locations around the town.

The Town Hall circa 1965.