Red Hall, a Grade II listed building in Bourne, Lincolnshire

The Abbey and Parish Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

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Bourne is a market town on the western edge of The Fens, in southern Lincolnshire, England. The town owes its origin to the Roman road upon which it was built, and also to the exceptionally fine-quality water supply derived locally from natural springs. more...

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The name \"Bourne\" (or \"Bourn\", as the town was originally known) is a common name for a settlement and derives from the Anglo-Saxon meaning \"water\" or \"stream\". The town lies on the intersection of the A15 and the B1193 (formerly A151) roads at TF0920. As well as the main township, the parish includes the hamlets of Cawthorpe, Dyke and Twenty. The town economy was based on rural industries. The coming of the railway opened up a market for mineral waters bottled locally. Today the local economy is still mainly rurally-based, revolving around agriculture and food preparation and packaging geared towards the modern system of supermarkets, but there are also important light engineering and tourism activities. The district as a whole has one of the fastest-growing housing markets in the whole country, with much of the new building taking place in Bourne. The town population is now (2006) nearer to 15,000 than the 12,000 or so given in the 2001 Census data.

Bourne people

Bourne is reputedly the birthplace of Hereward the Wake (in about 1035), although the twelfth century source of this information refers in this connection, only to his father as being 'of Bourne' and to the father's house and retainers there. Charles Kingsley used the De Gestis text for his lively novel which repeats the fundamental story with much descriptive embelishment.

Orm (or Ormin) the Preacher (flourished 1180) also worked at Bourne Abbey a century earlier than Robert Manning but his presence here has only been revealed during recent research. His collection of homilies known as The Ormulum has been well known to linguists and language historians ever since the 17th century but its source has only recently been established as Bourne Abbey. Orm's language provides a glimpse of the English vernacular of the time and before it was strongly influenced by the French. It is assumed that the manuscript remained at Bourne Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540 and after various owners, is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Robert Mannyng (1264 – 1340) is perhaps the most notable of the town's past citizens in that he is credited with putting the speech of the ordinary people of his time into the recognisable form that we have today. He is best known as Robert de Brunne because of his long time residence as a canon at Bourne Abbey where he completed his life's work and in the process, popularised religious and historical material in a Middle English dialect that was easily understood by the people of his time. His work Handlyng Synne is acknowledged to be of great value because it gives glimpses into the ways and thoughts of his contemporaries and even more, shows us the language then in common use.