The Pochin family

Two families dominated the ownership of land in the Bourne area during the 18th century, The Earl of Exeter was Lord of the Manor of Bourn while George Pochin was Lord of the Manor of Bourn Abbots, although his family did not reside in the town.

George Pochin, who also had estates in Leicestershire, succeeded to the title of Lord of the Manor of Bourn Abbots from his uncle Sir Thomas Trollope in 1761. Under the Enclosure Award on 2nd January 1770, he received rather more land than the Earl of Exeter, a total of 876 acres compared with the earl's 831 acres and, like the earl, he too had some old enclosures, in West Field and the Newlands, adjoing his new allotments while his name also appears as the owner of 36 communable houses and toftsteads. 

He built "a fine mansion", the Abbey House, near the church in 1764 and may have lived there for a time but moved out to make way for the Vicar of Bourne but this building was taken down in 1879 and the materials used in the construction of a new vicarage, now the Cedars retirement and rest home. George Pochin remained Lord of the Manor for 37 years and when he died in 1798, he was succeeded by his sister Mary Pochin until her death in 1804 when the manorial estates in the town passed to her sister-in-law Eleanor Frances Pochin who was George Pochin's widow. Both are remembered with a marble plaque on the wall of the chancel that records two lives of devotion to public service and Christian charity:

There is also a slate headstone over a servant's grave in the churchyard at Bourne, erected in memory of a long-serving family butler who must have been highly valued to have been so remembered. The inscription states: "In memory of James Drew who departed this life June 4th 1816 in the 64th year of his age, 33 years of which he passed as Butler to George Pochin Esq of this town and Eleanor Frances, his widow, who caused this stone to be placed here."

When Eleanor died in 1823, the manor was left in the hands of trustees but by the late 19th century, a descendant of George Pochin, William Ann Pochin (1820-1901), also from Leicestershire, had become Lord of the Manor, retaining the title until he died. William built many properties in the locality, large and small houses that survive to this day, and his initials and the date of construction were usually engraved on a stone plaques built into one of the walls.

Many of these are of red brick, notably the two large, semi-detached gabled houses in West Street, one Beaufort House and the Qu'Appelle Home for the Elderly which were erected in 1872, a terrace of five dwellings further along West Street, also built in 1872 and the farmhouse and outbuildings at No 50 North Road built in 1896, all of which are so marked. There is also a barn at Twenty bearing his initials and the date 1898 and a house at Toft dated 1873.

Nos 32 and 34 West Street, built in 1872 by William Ann Pochin

The Pochin family remained connected with the Manor of Bourne Abbots until its existence ended during the 1930s and a son and grandson of William Ann Pochin were respectively Lords of the Manor.