Baston

A new village sign was erected at the approaches of Baston, four miles south of Bourne, to mark the new millennium and to welcome visitors to this historic fenland community lying between the road known as King Street, built by the Romans 2,000 years ago, and the canal called Car Dyke which they used to haul men and supplies to their armies in the north. 

The illustrated sign depicts scenes from the village's past and was planned and financed by the people who live here as a reminder that they are proud to be associated with Baston and acknowledge their heritage.

Baston lies on the very edge of Deeping Fen and is a pretty village with a medley of brick and stone houses. Its story is ancient and Saxon pottery and other remains have been unearthed here. An archaeological dig in  March 1966 on a site between the Car Dyke and Ermine Street that was in danger of destruction by ploughing revealed the remains of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The excavations revealed many unusual finds that provided evidence of cultural links with Yorkshire and North Europe and included  44 decorated cremation urns and two inhumations dating from the early 5th to the early 6th centuries. 

In the village are two wide and parallel streets with the mediaeval Church of St John the Baptist, much restored over the centuries, lying between them. The church has an Early English chancel arch although the chancel itself was rebuilt in 1860, otherwise it is mostly Perpendicular in style. This is one of the few churches in the Bourne area that is always open to the public during the day, although locked at night, and it is by far one of the best kept, clean and tidy and with fresh flowers to delight visitors. Entry to the church is by the 14th century south porch which has an elaborate niche above the entrance and a sundial which predates the imposing clock on the embattled tower. There is a pleasing simplicity about the white-walled interior with comic faces from the Middle Ages here and there and light streaming through unhindered from several windows, the Victorian east window being the most attractive and colourful. The pews, which can be seen in the foreground, were installed in 1851. 

There is evidence of business and commerce in Baston, most notably a large garage that has been established in the old Methodist Church, built in the traditional red brick style in 1877, and one of the more fashionable public houses and restaurants in the district, the Baskervilles, named after the famous Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the hound on the inn sign attests. The building dates from 1843 and a stone tablet on the front also carries the initials R S N, a custom that usually indicates the name of the original owner. There has been extensive rebuilding of the premises following a recent disastrous fire.

The old corn mill at Baston survives, neglected but not forgotten, at Mill House Farm which is accessed by a turning from the main A15 road south of the village. It was built in 1806 and was known as Hudson's Mill, a tower mill that was worked until the Great War when it was dismantled and the machinery is thought to have been used for another mill elsewhere. It had four patent sails and probably drove two pairs of stones for grinding corn. The stone tower, once rendered, stands on a low mound, which suggests an older mill on the site, and is now virtually a shell with only a few floor beams remaining. Part of the cap frame lingers on at the top and in its later working life it lost one of its sails when a farm wagon came too close for comfort although all four have now gone.

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