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Tennyson Drive, BOURNE, PE10 9WD

The memorial drinking fountain erected to celebrate the life of John Lely Ostler (1811-59) began life in the market place, now the town centre, but was moved to the cemetery in 1962 and is pictured here before being Grade II listed and restored by the town council at a cost of £9,000 - see Image

One of the few stone monuments in Bourne is the Ostler memorial fountain, a fine example of Victorian gothic erected by public subscription in 1860 as a memorial to one of the town's 19th century worthies, property owner John Lely Ostler (1811-59), and paid for by public subscription. The fountain was originally sited in the market place but a century later it had become an obstruction to increasing traffic flows and so in 1962 it was moved stone by stone to the town’s cemetery in South Road. In July 2007, the fountain was given a Grade II listing and Bourne Town Council subsequently agreed to spend £9,000 on restoration which included the erection of protective iron railings. See the memorial before restoration Image

John Lely Ostler (1811-59) was a major benefactor for education and religious instruction and is remembered by a memorial fountain in the town cemetery but his nearby grave is less well known, the protective railings having been removed as part of the scrap metal campaign during World War II and although the stone was once cleaned by young members of the Civic Society, it is now neglected and forgotten.

Not everyone who passes on wants a tombstone and at Bourne, many who are cremated are remembered with a rose bush planted in a memorial avenue between the graves, each bearing an engraved plaque.

The town cemetery opened in South Road, Bourne, in 1855 because there was no more room in the churchyard and since then there have been more than 10,000 burials and the original four acres almost doubled. More space is now needed and Bourne Town Council is currently negotiating for additional land to cope with future demand for an expanding town.

Amid the dead springs new life as snowdrops colonise the ground around their last resting place. Patches of them can be found around the town cemetery in South Road, Bourne, where conditions are conducive to their growth and so they soon spread between the graves and beneath the trees. Those who are buried here are now long forgotten and the delicate flowers that bloom around their tombstones are a reminder of the fragile hold we all have on life.

The cemetery was opened in 1855 and remains a place of peace and tranquillity, frequently visited by those who have relatives buried here but also by those who find the solitude a refreshing break from the noise and clamour of everyday life.

The Victorian chapel in the town cemetery was built in 1855, designed by the architect Edward Browning (1816-82), and one of the first to be erected in England after the passing of the Burial Act in 1853 which sanctioned burials outside the churchyard for the first time. Administration of the chapel passed to the present town council in 1974 but since then the building has been allowed to fall into disrepair and in January 2007, members voted to pull it down but their plans were thwarted by a Grade II listing granted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Since then it has deteriorated further despite approaches by Bourne Preservation Trust who have drawn up plans to restore the building for use as a columbarium but after six years of negotiation with the town council they have yet to be given the key to the door.

Like the cemetery; clean and tidy.