Dodsworth's entries for 1841 and 1842

PAST VICAR'S JOTTINGS FOUND
IN THE PARISH REGISTERS

by Rex Needle

THE HISTORY of Bourne depends largely on old documents, usually legal and official, and only few handwritten accounts of the way things were survive. But I have discovered a short but fascinating log of events surrounding the Abbey Church written during the middle years of the 19th century by our longest serving clergyman, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth, who came here as a curate in 1822 and was appointed vicar twenty years later, continuing in office until he died in 1877, aged 79, and so his association with the town and church lasted for well over half a century.

We do not know if he kept a diary and none of his letters are recorded but he was anxious to note down important occurrences during his ministry and the most prolific of these jottings appear in his handwriting on sheets of paper at the back of the parish registers, notably the record of baptisms for 1759-1812, which have either been overlooked or ignored by past historians.

The last official entry in this volume records the christenings of George and Sarah, son and daughter of George and Mary Pettinger, on 27th December 1812, in the florid hand of the officiating minister of Bourne, the Rev J Rooke, who had been appointed curate on 5th February 1804. But there follow several additions written by Dodsworth referring to events in later years which he thought momentous enough to note down. He kept a record of the various census returns, issued every ten years, and certain meteorological disasters. For instance, on 28th February 1860 he wrote: “A hurricane passed over Bourne and destroyed eighteen trees in the Abbey Lawn and much damaging the roof of the abbey and outhouses.”

There are three entries on the coming of the railway, a topic dear to his heart because Dodsworth was one of the main sponsors of the scheme to connect Bourne with the main line at Essendine and as the project was nearing completion, he made the first trip with his wife and daughter, travelling the length of the track and back on the engine tender. “The railway was opened from Bourne to Essendine on 16th May 1860”, he wrote. “Cost £40,000.”

Two additional entries record similar developments: “The railway from Spalding to Bourne was opened in the summer of 1866” and “The railway from Sleaford to Bourne was opened on 22nd January 1872.”

In July 1856, the foundation of a new school was laid in Eastgate and opened on 1st January 1857 at a cost of £350. The building became a mission church in 1905 and was eventually demolished circa 1960.

Most of the entries, however, relate to the Abbey Church and to alterations carried out and reveal information hitherto unknown. The first organ was installed in 1830 at a cost of £220 and a few years later, the church was repaired when the ceilings and walls were stuccoed and “the whole internal part repaired and beautified during the months of September and October at a cost of £800 and re-opened for divine service on 27th October 1839.”

The church became one of the first properties in Bourne to be lit with gas lamps in 1840 following the formation of the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company, Dodsworth being one of the trustees, while the chancel was refurbished in 1855 when the pulpit was placed against a pillar on the north side and a reading desk on the south side. A new communion table was presented to the church by William Parker of Hanthorpe House in 1856 and a cover for it purchased by subscription for £13 10s.

He also writes that in 1860, three new, painted ornamental windows (stained glass) were installed in the chancel, one financed by himself in memory of several members of his family, another by Edward Hardwicke, a landowner, of Dyke, and the third by businessman Henry Dove. Dodsworth also paid for a new stone and marble reredos or screen installed behind the altar and at the same time a new silver paten was presented by his daughter, Mrs Harlowe Turner, while a subscription among the ladies of the parish provided a silver flagon, a metal arms dish and several collecting plates, all of which were used for the first time on Easter Sunday, 1st April 1866.

By far the most interesting of Dodsworth’s entries is dated 1842 when he writes that the vicar, Rev Thomas Denys, died in London on January 22nd and he was instituted to succeed him on March 10th, subsequently moving into the Vicarage House, now Brook Lodge in South Street, but it proved to be an inadequate property and so during the summer months it was enlarged at a cost of £450.

Despite the alterations, the house remained unsuitable for his family and in 1849, negotiations began for the purchase of the Abbey House, built next to the church in 1764 by George Pochin, Lord of the Manor of Bourne Abbots, who had died in 1798 since when it had been leased for a while but was then standing empty. Dodsworth’s entry reveals details of the transaction to acquire the property because he wrote: “An exchange was affected with the old Vicarage House and about 40 acres of land in the North Field considered equivalent for the Abbey House and lawn and some small pieces of land in the South Fen.” The Abbey House was subsequently demolished in 1878 and the stone used to build a new vicarage but that too was replaced by the present one in 1986 and has since become the Cedars retirement home.

Dodsworth was among the longest serving of our fifty vicars and was given a grand funeral before being interred close to the chapel where his grave is marked with a magnificent six-foot high Celtic cross in red marble. Buried with him is his second wife, Ellen, who had died in 1876, aged 64, and other members of his family. His first wife, Hannah, who died in 1830, is buried in the nave and an inscribed flagstone marks her last resting place.

These jottings that have now surfaced, made with a quill pen on spare sheets of paper and probably by candlelight, survive him to increase our knowledge of the Abbey Church.

NOTE: This article was also published by The Local newspaper on Friday 14th March 2008.

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