IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Recreation Road, BOURNE, PE10 9HD

Temporary buildings were used for twenty years by youngsters playing with Bourne Town Juniors Football Club at their ground in Recreation Road but were replaced by a new £70,000 sports pavilion with changing rooms, toilets and showers which opened in time for the start of the season in the autumn of 1999.

The houses at the end of George street were laid out in a curve. Although the house plan is otherwise identical to the others, the effect of a crescent was formed, and this little corner facing the recreation ground was always popular.

Sunday morning football cheered on by parents is a familiar sight at the recreation ground in Bourne which has been in use for over a century. It was opened in 1911 to mark the coronation of King George V and has been in continuous use ever since, not only for youthful games of football but also for community events which attract the whole town such as the Guy Fawkes Night bonfire celebrations and for travelling fun fairs as well as being a favourite spot for people living in the vicinity to exercise their dogs.

Council houses were built in Harrington Street during the early years of the 20th century as the population of Bourne began to increase. These were constructed between 1947 and 1950 although were sold to sitting tenants under Mrs Thatcher’s Right to Buy legislation in 1985 and remain in private ownership.

View across the recreation ground to the little crescent in Image] - at the end of George Street. The other houses in Recreation Road, the football and playing pitches, and the changing rooms are all in shot.

Council housing proliferated in Bourne after the Second World War, mainly on the east side of town where Harrington Street was greatly extended in 1947 and 1950 although many of these distinctive three-bedroom properties were sold to sitting tenants under Mrs Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme in 1985 and are now privately owned.

At one time a small factory stood behind the houses on Harrington street. Around 50 workers sewed ladies undergarments in a flat-roofed brick building. When it was closed the land was used to build this tight little close of small homes, called Baldwin Grove.

There has been a youth centre at various premises in Bourne since 1945 and the present clubroom was built in Queen’s Road in 2004 at a cost of £432,000 to replace former hutted accommodation which had become outdated. The building has since been extended and now includes a baby clinic.

The old youth club premises in Bourne were prefabricated buildings erected in Queen’s Road as temporary classrooms for Bourne Secondary School in 1946 but were demolished when the new youth club was built in 2004. See Image

Replacing a former temporary classroom building that stood here, when it was just part of the Robert Manning school playing field, this purpose built youth centre is now used by all ages of the community. The car park is shared with the swimming pool, or "Leisure centre" as we are supposed to call it.