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The Wellhead Gardens are just a short step from the town centre and a popular walk for townspeople, especially in springtime when the cherry blossom is in bloom. The white and pink flowering cherry trees that line the main path through the gardens form a colourful avenue for walkers and lunchtime strollers and I have seen many visitors walk the path and then, enchanted by the sight, retrace their steps to take another look. Towards the end of April, the petals fall and float down from the branches like snowflakes in winter and when I saw them this year I remembered a fable from my childhood of an Icelandic princess who married a Portuguese prince and went to live in his country but missed the coming of winter and so he planted an avenue of cherry trees to please her because they would simulate the falling snow each year when their blossoms fell.
This picturesque cottage is one of the oldest domestic buildings in Bourne, nestling behind high hedges with the tower of the ancient Abbey Church as a backdrop. The origins of this house are uncertain but the most recent records tell us that it dates back to the 18th century and was formerly part of the Castle Farm, built in the local style with a blue Collyweston slate roof and rubble and limestone walls. It is a Grade II listed building owned by Bourne United Charities and rented as a private home to suitable tenants and is known appropriately as the Wellhead Cottage. The location suggests that the materials used in its construction may even be older and could have come from Bourne Castle, if one existed, when it disappeared in past centuries because England is full of old houses that were made from the stone of far grander mansions that were demolished in the name of progress. The water table hereabouts is also high and long periods of wet weather, especially during the winter, bring flooding to many parts of the park as can be seen here, but this may also have been exacerbated when this picture was taken in March 2003 by a defunct borehole nearby that has burst its cap and was spurting thousands of gallons of water non-stop for many weeks. Winter in the Wellhead Gardens can be as attractive as summer and although its appearance changes with the seasons, there is always plenty of colour, especially on sunny days. The trees for instance, are conspicuous at this time of the year because visibility is less obscured by leaves and so their identification from silhouettes, bark or twigs can be a fascinating pastime. The path to the north east and leading to West Street is lined with red horse chestnuts that bloom with a mass of scarlet candles during May.
This tree is a hybrid between our own native horse chestnut and the American red buckeye and is widely planted throughout Britain as an ornamental species, reaching a height in excess of 60 feet, and is a favourite for public gardens and alongside roads. These have been here for almost half a century, ever since 21 acres of meadow were developed for the town by Bourne United Charities as a permanent parkland in the years following the Second World War of 1939-45 and so when we walk in this place, we should be grateful to those who ran our affairs in years past for their foresight in providing such an amenity within the town centre area.
One of the most attractive features of the gardens are the weeping willows (Salix x 'Chrysocoma'), graceful trees that are among the most characteristic of our English landscape, especially near water where they can grow to heights of 65 feet. They can however, choke drains, dry out the surrounding area and even threaten the foundations of buildings if planted in suburban gardens but here on the river bank in a public park (below), the damp soil provides the perfect environment where their long and slender yellow branches covered with brilliant green leaves cascade over the water, providing a colourful display in springtime and hanging like silken drapes gently brushing on the surface.
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