March

Wednesday 23rd March 2005: The advent of spring brings with it thoughts of getting outdoors and of rejuvenating the garden, now looking so forlorn after being neglected during the long winter months, and bringing it back to the colourful and attractive state it was last summer. With Easter upon us, this means a visit to one of the many garden centres in the area that can be relied on to provide the flowers we need, all ready for popping into the pot or herbaceous border, and among the most popular is the primula. This is the cultivated variety of our beloved wild primrose that can still be found clinging to many places in the countryside where it survives the ravages of agro-chemicals, and there seems to be an endless variety of variegated patterns to choose from. They are also far more robust in colour and hardier than their delicate cousins and therefore provide a lasting display as proof that winter is past and bright days are returning fast.

Thursday 24th March 2005: Spring is only a day or so away and the trees have already started to show their leaves, particularly the weeping willows around the War Memorial gardens in South Street. This is a particularly tranquil spot, enjoyed by ducks and moorhens as well as visitors from the town, and as the warm sunshine arrived this week it was just the place to be to observe the changing of the seasons. The Bourne Eau shown here is the old moat section around which may have been a castle, a back water without a flow, and its progress was rather sluggish until October 2001 when a pipeline was laid from St Peter's Pool 200 yards away to boost the supply and flush away some of the silt that had been causing an eyesore. The result is a lively waterway that is greatly appreciated by everyone, not least the water birds that live hereabouts.

Thursday 10th March 2005: The flowers, plants and shrubs for sale are a sure sign that spring in approaching and the Thursday market in Bourne is the place to buy them. The advent of warmer weather has already enticed many people out into their gardens to tidy up from last year and to plant their displays for this and so stalls are doing a brisk business, especially in daffodils, primroses, primulas and hyacinths. There has been a market in Bourne since the earliest times, a place to buy a bargain, as the ladies garments on the left priced at £8,99 attest, but also, and perhaps more importantly, somewhere to meet old friends, to stop for a while, exchange pleasantries and gossip about the weather and events of the day. The weekly market has established an important place in the history of our small towns, both as somewhere for tradesmen to sell their wares and for the people to congregate, and long may it continue. See also The Market Place.

Tuesday 9th March 2004: Bourne Wood is an attractive and friendly place to walk and one that has been our favourite for more than twenty years. There are many seats along the main paths, an essential amenity for those of advanced years who walk this way because they provide a place to rest and catch the breath before going on to the next stage. In years past, many of these wayside seats have been vandalised and brass plates, put there by relatives in memory of woodland walkers who passed that way before they died, ripped off, but the Forestry Commission has replaced them with new benches that are well anchored and of a more robust design to withstand future assaults by uncaring youth. A walk in these woods is an absolute delight on a sunny day and the sight of seat ahead, such as this one on the way to the lakes, is reassuring to those who are less steady on their legs than they were for it enables them complete a much longer distance than they ordinarily might.

Monday 31st March 2003: The commonplace that you come across in the countryside can become important when you pause to consider why it is there. This stile, for instance, can be found on the waymarked public footpath between the A15 north of Bourne and Meadow Drove to the south of the town, a walk of about two miles through open fields with hedgerows and dykes keeping company with the track along much of the way. The path encounters many obstacles such as hedges or fences and as a gate is not always practicable or convenient for the farmer, this ancient method is adopted to allow walkers pass while still providing a barrier to stock. Stiles have been used in England for centuries and are mentioned in a grant of land by King Offa as early as 779AD and today they take many forms to enable the hiker cross comfortably without causing damage to the fence. The common wooden step stile shown above is the type you will encounter most in this part of South Lincolnshire and when you next find one, pause for a while and consider its pedigree because this is a peculiarly English solution to crossing field boundaries.

Monday 25th March 2003: There has been a rookery in the horse chestnut trees lining the edge of the Wellhead Gardens in South Street for as long as I can remember but then this is not surprising as rooks (Corvus frugilegus) are likely to colonise the same nesting sites for centuries, descending on them during March to prepare for the breeding season. Their nests are composed of untidy bundles of twigs high in the branches and usually set in open countryside but they also favour urban areas where there is no threat to their safety. They are noisy, particularly at this time of the year, and it is a spectacular sight if you happen to be in the vicinity as the rooks suddenly rise in the air to form a great black cloud, chattering incessantly as they go. Contrary to general belief, rooks are friendly to man and do no harm at all, living mainly on corn and fruits, but their preferred foods are those which should endear them to farmers, namely beetles and their larvae and many forms of insects and grubs that are injurious to crops which is why they can often be seen digging for food in soft ground.

Sunday 23rd March 2003: I last photographed the daffodils in this lay-by alongside the main A15 near Morton, three miles north of Bourne, two years ago (see below) and when I returned today there were fewer in number but still as delightful to behold. They survive in an alien environment, just a few feet away from a  continual cloud of exhaust fumes from passing traffic, and in a place where wild flowers once proliferated but are now decimated by farm chemicals. The lay-by was once the main road which is why these daffodils have colonised this spot, having been dropped from farm wagons in past times when they were grown as a commercial crop that is now confined to the Spalding area of South Lincolnshire. But they still give enjoyment to many and I have spoken to several drivers of lorries and vans who tell me that they pull in here regularly every year to stay for a while and enjoy the sight of so many daffodils in such an unexpected place.

Wednesday 19th March 2003: We are just two days away from spring and the weather we expect during that season is already with us, blue skies and warm sunshine and what better way to celebrate than a visit to Dole Wood, our favourite spot of woodland, marooned in a sea of farmland to the south of Bourne. There have been reports in the local newspapers of motor cyclists driving through and causing damage but thankfully there was no evidence of their presence and instead we found primroses already in bloom alongside the entrance path and once inside the wood, the floor was covered with bluebell plants sprouting in readiness for their annual colourful display which will become evident next month, and wood anemones in profusion and carpeting many of the woodland glades. This entire small wood can be seen from the perimeter track that can be walked in less than half an hour, a microcosm of the English countryside as it was before intensive farming and agro-chemicals destroyed so many of the flowers and plants that once adorned it at this time of the year.

Tuesday 18th March 2003: The pair of black swans that live on St Peter's Pool in Bourne are busy trying to rear a family for the third time this year. Their eggs on two previous occasions have been stolen by foxes because they made their nest on the bank which was an easy target for predators but this time they have been coaxed into using an artificial island made from wood and floating in the middle of the water out of harm's way. The bright sunshine of past days is still with us, reflecting on the willow trees in the late afternoon and turning their early buds a golden yellow, making the perfect backdrop on the far bank with the historic Wellhead Cottage just discernible through the trees. We found them busy making repairs to the nest with the cob bringing in bits of twigs and algae and the pen taking them and making them secure beneath her but after a while, she moved off and we were able to see that she was sitting on three large greyish eggs. Hopefully, these will escape the attentions of predators this time and that later this year we will see their three cygnets swimming happily around the pool. 

Thursday 6th March 2003: This picturesque cottage is one of the oldest domestic buildings in Bourne and can be found in the Wellhead Gardens, nestling behind high hedges with the tower of the ancient Abbey Church as a backdrop. The origins of this house are uncertain but the most recent records tell us that it dates back to the 18th century and was formerly part of the Castle Farm, built in the local style with a blue Collyweston slate roof and rubble and limestone walls. It is a Grade II listed building owned by Bourne United Charities and rented as a private home to suitable tenants and is known appropriately as the Wellhead Cottage. The location suggests that the materials used in its construction may even be older and could have come from Bourne Castle, if one existed, when it disappeared in past centuries because England is full of old houses that were made from the stone of far grander mansions that were demolished in the name of progress. The water table hereabouts is also high and long periods of wet weather, especially during the winter, bring flooding to many parts of the park as can be seen here, but this may also be exacerbated at the present time by a defunct borehole nearby that has burst its cap and has been spurting thousands of gallons of water non-stop for the past four weeks. 

Saturday 30th March 2002: Daffodils have begun to bloom along the banks of the Bourne Eau in South Street to remind us that spring has arrived. Sunny mornings such as this also show off the new leaves of the weeping willows that provide a colourful backdrop to the Wellhead Gardens, as though an artist had splashed green paint on his canvas of the sky. This place is only a short step from the busy town centre yet it is also a haven of peace and tranquillity, somewhere to sit and watch the world go by and to reflect on Bourne in past times. From this spot, you can see many reminders of our history such as the stone-built Wellhead Cottage, the farmhouse that reputedly stands on the site of the Norman castle built by Baldwin Fitzgilbert and before that the Saxon manor house where Hereward the Wake may have lived, while on the left is the more recent War Memorial that bears silent witness to those young men from this town who gave their lives in successive wars. 

Wednesday 28th March 2001: Winter fails to dull the landscape here at Greatford Sluice, seven miles south west of Bourne, where there is almost as much green on a February morning as there is in springtime, which is just around the corner. This is the West Glen River where the water levels are maintained by electrically controlled sluice gates installed between 1955 and 1957 when the Greatford Cut was dug across country to the River Welland at Market Deeping, a shallow and embanked channel varying from 16 to 24 feet in width and designed to take discharge water from the river in times of flood which in the past has inundated large tracts of arable land in the locality. 

Wednesday 14th March 2001: The most rewarding sights when travelling in the countryside are those which you come upon unexpectedly, whether it be a fox or a badger caught in the headlights of the car while driving home, a kestrel hovering over a grassy verge seeking out its prey or a herd of deer crossing from field to field a few yards ahead. These experiences act as a reminder that the woods and meadows hereabouts are home to a wide variety of wildlife and it is a privilege when you see them because they have been treated badly by man over the years and have become shy and elusive creatures as a result. On a fine day last week, we spotted a long-eared owl perched on a branch at the roadside near Corby Glen, seven miles north west of Bourne, and although we had to drive on for another 200 yards before finding a parking spot, this magnificent bird waited there long enough for me to dash back and take this picture from close range. 

Tuesday 21st March 2000: Daffodils are a familiar sight in this part of England because more are grown here than in Holland and both bulbs and blooms are exported around the world. Many self-setters, dropped from farm wagons during loading in past times, have taken root at the edges of fields and on roadside verges and here, alongside the main A15 three miles north of Bourne, they have colonised a lay-by to the delight of passing motorists. But many of our wild flowers are under threat from those who regard them as plants to be filched for their gardens although to take flowers from their natural habit is unlawful. 

Sunday 28th March 1999: The countryside north of Bourne is part of unwrecked England where the landscape has hardly changed in recent centuries. There are innumerable back roads just waiting to be explored and to drive along any one of them is an adventure into the unknown for those who have not been this way before. This is the old Roman road two miles south of Threekingham with Beacon Hill farm in the distance.

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