IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mill Drove, BOURNE, PE10 9YE

As the demand for new houses increased, Bourne started to extend out into the fen where developers were given permission in 1989 to build 300 new homes on thirty acres of agricultural land on the eastern end of Mill Drove, the streets being named after Second World War locations including the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 and the Burma campaign. The buyers have included a large number of retired people from the south east anxious to escape from escalating property prices in the London area.

In the background can be seen Dyke Village. To the left of the picture and just out of view in this shot is The Car Dyke

The Car Dyke is an artificial water channel, thought to have been constructed around AD125, which ran along the western Fen edge from Peterborough to Lincoln. It was approximately 15 metres wide at the top and between two and four metres deep. It is thought that its main purpose was to serve as a drain to control and divert flood waters, rather than as a navigable waterway along its entire length, although shorter sections could have been used for water transport. This is Car Dyke seen from Mill Drove on the very edge of Bourne.

Whitewashed cottages were a feature of the Bourne to Sleaford railway line which opened in 1872 where gatekeepers lived with their families which enabled them maintain a continuous duty opening the level crossing gates whenever a train approached and closing them when it had passed. Most survived after the line closed in 1965 and were sold as private homes such as this one here in Mill Drove which has since been considerably extended.

The Car Dyke is an artificial water channel, thought to have been constructed around AD125, which ran along the western Fen edge from Peterborough to Lincoln. It was approximately 15 metres wide at the top and between two and four metres deep. It is thought that its main purpose was to serve as a drain to control and divert flood waters, rather than as a navigable waterway along its entire length, although shorter sections could have been used for water transport. This is Car Dyke seen from Mill Drove on the very edge of Bourne.

Mill drove is an old road and there was a level crossing here on the Bourne to Billingborough railway. The whitewashed house was the crossing keeper's home.

The red house is built were the trackbed of the Bourne to Sleaford railway ran. The road upon which I am standing is called, therefore, "Stephenson way" although there is little direct connection with the railway pioneer.

The Car Dyke is an artificial water channel, thought to have been constructed around AD125, which ran along the western Fen edge from Peterborough to Lincoln. It was approximately 15 metres wide at the top and between two and four metres deep. It is thought that its main purpose was to serve as a drain to control and divert flood waters, rather than as a navigable waterway along its entire length, although shorter sections could have been used for water transport. This is Car Dyke seen from Mill Drove on the very edge of Bourne.

Speed bumps were installed in Mill Drove and Beech Avenue about 10 years ago to stop them being used as rat-runs. There are lots of them.