Collecting the market tolls

An impression of the street market in 1977

The original charter document granted to the Lord of the Manor of Bourne, Baldwin Wake, by King Edward I in 1279, is now in the British Museum.

It gave permission for a market to be held on a Saturday and this tradition has continued to the present day although a Thursday market was later added and this has become the more popular of the two. The manorial rights were subsequently acquired by the Cecil family whose distinguished member William Cecil was the first Lord Burghley, and this entitled his descendants, the Marquesses of Exeter, to receive the market rents.

He appointed various agents to collect these tolls and in December 1921, the job went to John Henry Pool (1886-1956) of No 10 Harrington Street, Bourne, and an official deed of contract was drawn up and signed by his lordship (then William Thomas Brownlow) to this effect. The document, reproduced below, has remained in the family until the present day and in May 2003, Mr Pool’s son, Trevor, aged 77, presented it to the Heritage Centre in Bourne for display.

The marquess subsequently sold his ownership of the market rights to Bourne Urban District Council and these passed to South Kesteven District Council under the re-organisation of local government in 1974.

The market continued in the town centre, along the western kerbsides in North Street and West Street, until the closing years of the 20th century when increasing traffic flows made road conditions too hazardous for shoppers and on Thursday 13th December 1990, it was moved to a purpose built paved area behind the town hall, planned as part of the Burghley Arcade and Corn Exchange developments on the site of the old cattle market that had closed in 1981.

See also John Henry Pool

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