Burghley Arms

The Burghley Arms

The Burghley Arms in 2005

The Burghley Arms, with its four dormer windows overlooking the town centre, is traditionally regarded as the birthplace of the illustrious Elizabethan statesman William Cecil, trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth I and the first Lord Burghley. A plaque on the front records this association:

After rising to become the Queen's Chief Minister, he built himself a far grander residence, Burghley House near Stamford. Once a coaching inn, the original coaching arch has been filled in to make way for the lounge bar entrance while a particular feature that has been retained to lend a horizontal emphasis to the facade is the fine pair of stone mullioned windows on the ground floor, each with six leaded lights and the central or "king" mullions thickened to take the weight.

The building ceased to be a private residence at least as far back as 1717 but was then known as the Bull and Swan although by the 19th century is was known simply as the Bull, a sign which appears in almost every town and which stems primarily from our forefathers' love of bull baiting. The name persisted until October 1955 when it was changed to the Burghley Arms in honour of Lord Burghley. It also marked the end of a major refurbishment programme of the inn over a two year period in which an oak-beamed bar area was added, a modern lounge and a renovated Burghley Room where an illuminated scroll was hung charting the history of the building.

The inn was a popular hostelry and also used as a meeting place for the Land Drainage Commissioners and various other local organisations. In 1832, the Bourne New Association for Prosecuting Felons held its annual meeting here followed by a dinner. This was a voluntary body whose members came from within a twenty mile radius of the town and was devoted to the pursuit and detection of crime before a county police force was established.

The Australian novelist and poet Frederic Manning (1882-1935) also stayed here for long periods between the wars while writing his highly acclaimed novel, Her Privates We, about life in the trenches during the Battle of the Somme in which he named his hero Private Bourne.

The Bull Inn circa 1910

These three photographs show the Burghley Arms as it was in the early 20th century when it was known as the Bull Inn with the central coaching arch still intact. In the picture above, the crowd outside had gathered in the market place for a public announcement of some sort circa 1910 although the occasion is not known. The pictures below of a less crowded Market Place were taken circa 1920 by the Bourne photographer William Redshaw whose business name plate is among those that can be seen on the inn wall to the right of the coaching arch in the bottom photograph.

The coaching archway leading to the stables at the rear was blocked in to provide a front entrance during the middle years of the 20th century and is seen here (below) circa 1936 as a meeting place for the young men of the town, waiting perhaps for the inn to open.

The old coaching archway

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