Saving Bourne’s Bridge 234: an artist’s vision
ARTIST Maggie Porter has produced this beautiful oil painting as part of the growing campaign to save Bourne’s Bridge 234.
The late Victorian farm accommodation bridge, designed by engineer Charles Stansfield Wilson (1844-1893), is the sole-surviving publiclyaccessible railwaybuilt structure in the Lincolnshire town which owes much of its 20th century development to the fact it was a busy four-way junction – until BR closed its station, along with much of the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway system in early 1959.
Appeal lodged
Long entombed in undergrowth which became an sizeable unofficial wildlife haven – to the extent that many people who moved to Bourne in recent times did not even know of the existence of Bridge 234 – housebuilder Bellway Homes gained planning permission to build 373 homes on surrounding land as an extension to the 21st-century Elsea Park estate. However, none of those homes were earmarked for the bridge site, and on September 16, South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee threw out the developer’s bid to knock down the classic brick overbridge to create a ‘pocket park’ for future residence. Bellway has since lodged an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against that decision.
As reported in issue 288, the Bridge 234 Preservation Society was formed by local historians and conservationists to save it and stop a significant piece of the town’s history from being lost forever. They want to form a charitable trust to maintain it as part of the proposed recreation area.
After the developers stripped 25 acres of vegetation from the site last autumn, Bridge 234 now stands all alone, surrounded by safety fences, in the middle of a huge construction site.
The use last year of high technology to explore beneath the surface of town centre’s Wellhead park found that Bourne’s long-lost medieval castle was far bigger than anyone in modern times had suspected, and now a growing number of local people are determined that other monuments to the town’s past should not be similarly airbrushed from history.
Lend your support
There was, however, no such airbrushing by Maggie – but rather her accomplished skilled use of traditional oils on canvas, to show how she was inspired by the society’s vision of the bridge being saved as a landmark feature of the proposed park, surrounded by flower beds and trees, for the enjoyment and education of many future generations.
➜ To join the preservation society free of charge and without obligation, email savebridge234@gmail.com. Maggie welcomes commissions and can be contacted at maggie.porter411@btinternet.com