Bourne Civic Society stalwarts step down from committee after decades of service

A retired couple who have dedicated almost a century of service between them to preserving a town’s heritage are easing down on their duties.

Brenda and Jim Jones joined Bourne Civic Society in 1978 - a year after the group was formed - after moving to the town from their native Liverpool.

Having served as chairman for the last 25 years, ill health forced Brenda, 84, to make the difficult decision to step down from the committee, along with her husband.

The couple made the announcement at a committee meeting recently where Brenda was presented with flowers.

“This illness has forced me to step down. I will miss it, but I just cant work to the level that I was,” she said.

“It was very difficult to face the members. I was trembling to speak, I was so upset about it.

“It touched me everything people said about us. It really touched my heart.”

The couple have no intention of stopping their volunteer work.

Within two days of their announcement, they were back at the society’s Baldocks Mill HQ to roll up their sleeves and help with cleaning and repairs.

“I love being involved in history and our volunteering has taught us a lot about the town and the people,” Brenda added.

“It’s been very busy as chairman and there’s always plenty to do. It's not just one job - I go down from the chairman to the cleaner!”

The couple were part of a civic society campaign to save the mill from demolition in the late 1970s and put their hands in their own pockets.

“At one time, the mill was going to be knocked down, so we as a society stepped in and took it on,” Brenda said.

“We had no money - a few of us had to pay the bills to start with because there was no money in the pot.”

Jim, 85, spent his working life as a chief engineer and leant his many practical skills to important conservation work, receiving an MBE in 2009 for services to the community.

Perhaps his biggest challenge was to replace the wheel which powered the 19th-Century water mill.

“We had to get a lot of money and sponsorship for that which took years,” Brenda recalled.

“He built it on the mill room floor, but it ended up being too big, so it had to be taken apart and rebuilt!”

After the mill opened as a heritage centre in 1981, the couple were instrumental in setting up permanent exhibitions to two famous Bourne sons - motor racing pioneer Raymond Mays and fashion designer Charles Worth - which occupy two of the mill’s three floors.

“We are so grateful to them both for all they’ve contributed financially, and in terms of their time and efforts. Thank you from us all,” read a post from the civic society.

Keeping up with the Jones’ is no easy task - great-grandparents Brenda and Jim have been and remain active volunteers with a string of other local organisations, including Bourne Abbey Church and Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.

And Brenda, a self-confessed people person, is determined to “carry on as normal”.

This includes her daily early morning patrol to pick up litter around the town - and, of course, have a natter.

“I like meeting people, she said.

“ I go out every day at 10 to six. I know all the people and all the dogs, and all the people getting their papers - I even know what papers they get!”