The corn trade

The corn trade

Arable farming has been one of the mainstays of the local economy in Bourne and cereal production has played an important part. Wherry's grain warehouse in South Street was built in the late 18th century to handle the wheat, barley and oats grown by local farmers who delivered their yield by horse and cart which waited outside while the sacks were hauled up by gantry. Older inhabitants of Bourne have fond memories of some of the horses used in this exercise, particularly a white Shire called Flower. This horse was owned by the proprietors and was regarded with some public affection and continued in employment until 1967.

The building is now standing empty and there has been concern about its future because other similar properties have either been allowed to fall down or have been demolished in the name of progress. There were fears that this warehouse might suffer the same fate although it has now been acquired by the J H Wand Group, a local firm of electrical retailers, who intended to use it as a warehouse and renovation began in 2000 with the addition of a new roof but there has been no work on the project for several years and the building continues to deteriorate.

The corn trade during the 18th and 19th centuries resulted in the construction of many similar wholesale warehouses around the town and although most have disappeared, some survive and have been converted for modern commercial purposes or have been demolished and the sites redeveloped.

One of the last to be pulled down was a familiar landmark in the town, a huge red brick mill on the north bank of the Bourne Eau in Eastgate, built during the 18th century and demolished in August 1969 to make way for road widening and improvements to the nearby bridge. The four-storey building had been owned since October 1916 by T W Mays and Sons Ltd, who used it as a store, having been bought from another Bourne company, Wherry and Sons Ltd. It was situated next to the bridge at the south end of Eastgate at the junction of what is now Cherryholt Road.

Mr E K Wherry, who was then chairman of the firm, remembered that when he was a child, the company moved wheat from farms in the fens by barge and on arrival at the mill, it was transferred to horse drawn wagons which took it on by road to Grantham and from there it went by canal to grinding mills in the Midlands. Iron rings at the base of the building indicated where the barges were moored while unloading on the Bourne Eau. The old mill was so tall that from the top storey, there was an uninterrupted view of the surrounding fens and on a clear day, you could see Boston Stump, the nickname for the 272½ ft. high tower of St Botolph's Church, the second highest church tower in Britain, which was almost 20 miles away as the crow flies. The site is now occupied by a firm of tyre distributors, Fossitt & Thorne.


Two of Bourne's old grain warehouses, in Burghley Street (left), now earmarked for conversion into flats, and Cherryholt Road (right)

A four-storey grain warehouse overlooking the car park in Burghley Street was used for flax processing in the early 20th century and until recently for storage and distribution by Nursery Supplies (Bourne) Ltd although this firm has now closed down. The building stands empty but is being maintained and was re-painted during 2002 and is likely to be converted into flats as part of the town centre redevelopment scheme announced in January 2005. In Cherryholt Road, a similar warehouse on the banks of the Bourne Eau is used for car auction sales and other enterprises.

CORN CAUSES CIVIL UNREST

There was a corn riot in Bourne in 1740 when a gang of angry townspeople tried to prevent a consignment of grain from being sent by barge to Spalding along the Bourne Eau. This was a year of rising prices and a scarcity of food and they resented corn grown locally being sent to feed people in other parts of the country when they themselves were hungry.
John Halford of Bourne wrote to local landowner Sir John Heathcote at his residence in Epping Forest: "We have had a Disturbance by the Mobb at Bourne. They cutt some sacks of wheat in the boat and obstructed its passage to Spalding for a time but was quel'd seasonably by Officers of the Town and 5 women committed to the House of Correction; I am glad to hear all reports concerning your Honr's having a hand in exportation of corn and being besett in your coach are falss. I always believed they wear only the mallicious invention of hatefull and disaffected persons against Authority and Superiority."

REVISED MARCH 2005