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The recreation ground

The recreation ground

The town celebrated the coronation of King George V by opening a new recreation ground which is still in use today. It is a large open space with play facilities that have been added in recent years and surrounded by council houses, mainly in what is appropriately known as Recreation Road, and Harrington Street.

The official opening was held on the day of the coronation, Friday 30th June 1911, and it must have been a grand occasion because the Stamford Mercury later reported:

In the afternoon at 2 o'clock, all the children of the town met in the Market Place, formed in procession and headed by the Band, members of the Council etc paraded to the new Recreation Ground which was formally opened by Alderman W R Wherry. The other members of the Council taking part were Messrs G H Mays, William Nowell, J B Shilcock and T B Measures, the latter being Chairman of the Recreation Ground Committee. There were 1,100 people present.

Trees were planted along the western boundary of the ground but many of these died soon afterwards and were replanted by Bourne Urban District Council.

The recreation ground has been well used since, being a regular venue for the Guy Fawkes Night bonfire celebrations, football matches for the younger boys and girls at weekends.

Temporary dressing rooms

New dressing rooms

Temporary buildings, pictured left, were used for twenty years by youngsters playing football on the recreation ground but they were quite inadequate and often vandalised. They were the only accommodation available for the 200 boys and girls aged from nine to fifteen from the eleven teams of Bourne Town Juniors Football Club who played or practised there every weekend but in 1999, the club won its fight to have them replaced. The new sports pavilion, pictured right, was built later that year at a cost of £70,000, providing four changing rooms, toilets and showers, and it was completed in time for the opening of the season in the autumn. The pavilion was a joint project between Bourne Town Council and South Kesteven District Council but supporters of the club raised £10,000 towards the cost through donations and fund-raising events.

More recently, the ground has been used for the travelling fairs that visit Bourne annually, rather than allow them use the car park in the town centre. It is also a favourite spot for people living in the vicinity to exercise their dogs. Vandalism has been a problem in recent years and a block of public toilets that once stood alongside Recreation Road was demolished by the local authority, now South Kesteven District Council, because they had been so badly damaged.

THE RECREATION GROUND IN PAST TIMES

The recreation ground circa 1924

This picture dates from circa 1928 when most of the houses in Recreation Road were completed. Some play equipment is in evidence, namely a seesaw, and the two sets of supports are for the swings while a roundabout can be seen in the middle distance. All public playground facilities in those days had a hard concrete standing which was particularly dangerous for any child who fell and each of these attractions were removed many years ago.

The Luesby family

Among the play equipment installed in the recreation ground was an ocean wave machine seen here with the Luesby family enjoying an afternoon out in 1935. Most of this equipment was secured on a concrete hard standing that was removed in later years because it was deemed to be dangerous if children fell.