The Burghley Arms, with its four dormer windows overlooking the town centre, is traditionally regarded as the birthplace of the illustrious Elizabethan statesman William Cecil, trusted adviser to Queen Elizabeth I and the first Lord Burghley. A plaque on the front bears the inscription:
William Cecil, Lord Burghleigh K G, Lord High Treasurer in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I, born here
13th September 1520.
After rising to become the Queen's Chief Minister, he built himself a far grander residence, Burghley House near Stamford. Once a coaching inn, the original coaching arch has been filled in to make way for the lounge bar entrance while a particular feature that has been retained to lend a horizontal emphasis to the facade is the fine pair of stone mullioned windows on the ground floor, each with six leaded lights and the central or "king" mullions thickened to take the weight.
The building ceased to be a private residence at least as far back as 1717 but was then known as the Bull and Swan although by the 19th century is was known simply as the Bull, a sign which appears in almost every town and which stems primarily from our forefathers' love of bull baiting. The name persisted until 1955 when it was changed to the Burghley Arms in honour of of Lord Burghley.
The inn was a popular hostelry and also used as a meeting place for the Land Drainage Commissioners and various other local organisations. In 1832, the Bourne New Association for Prosecuting Felons held its annual meeting here followed by a dinner. This was a voluntary body whose members came from within a twenty mile radius of the town and was devoted to the pursuit and detection of crime before a county police force was established..
The Australian novelist and poet Frederic Manning (1882-1935) also stayed here for long periods between the wars while writing his highly acclaimed novel, Her Privates We, about life in the trenches during the Battle of the Somme in which he named his hero Private Bourne.
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