5 Interesting Facts About the Town Hall's Lower Level

The downstairs area of the town hall building is both inside and outside, due to the passageway which runs the length of the building on the south side.

Have you noticed the new supports there? Our opening up works revealed some issues with the joists in the Judges’ Retiring Room which sits over the alleyway, so supports have been put in place until full renovation of the building begins.

It may just be a side-alley, a modern-day means of accessing one of Bourne’s main car parks, but it is a passage which has played an important part of the story of Bourne Town Hall over the years.

Although in nineteenth century newspaper reports, the ground floor of the building is often referred to as the basement of the town hall, with the importance being placed on the courtroom on the first floor above, there is nothing underground about the construction; this part at the rear of the building is called the Shambles, named after the indoor/outdoor meat market and stalls which were originally held here; you can see the doors which opened into the alleyway in this old photo.

However there have been many other uses of the downstairs through the past two centuries and in finding out more, it is easy to conjure up in your mind’s eye the busy comings and goings that the passageway has witnessed.

Did you know these five former uses for the ground floor of the town hall building?

1. As a holding prison for criminals convicted in the courtroom upstairs. One story reported in the Stamford Mercury in 1830 (and highlighted by Rex Needle) tells of the escape of a prisoner who cut away enough of the wood to open the bolt on the door which held him in the basement of the building.
   

2. An office for the Inspector of Weights and Measures. Installed in 1892 after Kesteven County Council agreed to spend £120 to renovate and enlarge the basement to accommodate the office.
   

3. The former shambles market area was rented out as stores. This part of the building was being rented out for stores use but in 1898 as Mr Bott sought to end his contract, there was discussion about whether the fire service, housed in the front of the building, might need to use more of the space.
   

4. For the storage of Royal Mail postage sacks. In the early 1960s, the PO stored their sacks of Christmas mail here; thanks to our blog reader who told us of his job helping with Christmas post as a student.
   

5. As a Delaine bus waiting room until 1970s. From all of the memories shared on Facebook about this, it seems that there were wooden benches around the room, smoke hanging in the air and several local characters hanging out there! The picture below has a Waiting Room sign above the main entrance.