In 1066 William the Conqueror's half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain, held the manor of Bourne. By the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, Bourne was an established hundred with a church, watermill and 16 saltpans. The manor was still a Royal Manor and there were a number of sub-manors whose names survive locally today, such as Esthall and Beverington. The hundred, which was a political area of no specific size, usually incorporated several parishes; but in the case of Bourne the parish and hundred were as one, and it was thus a relatively large parish but one of the smallest hundreds, covering 5,000 acres which included 3,560 acres of ploughland.

The Parish Church of St. Mary

The first phase in the building of the present church was completed between 1160 and 1190 with Caen stone shipped from Normandy; the site of the earlier church is unknown, as there is no architectural detail or documentary evidence to suggest an earlier church on its site. In all probability, the Saxon church was elsewhere, perhaps near the extensive Saxon cemetery on Ocklynge Hill. The lack of any early post-Conquest material from an extensive excavation adjacent to the church supports the theory that the centre of the community had moved some time during the 11th or 12th centuries.

Corbel in the south aisle
of St. Mary's Church

The 13th and 14th centuries were times of expansion and change as entrepreneurial instincts and leadership produced an exciting period, very similar in approach and fervour to the Victorian era. This is reflected in the material expansion within our area and the social and economic activities during the medieval period in general.

The parish church, whose dedication had been changed to St. Mary, was greatly enlarged in the 14th century with the addition of a western bay in the nave and the erection of a tower at the west end. During the same century, internal additions included an Easter Sepulchre, sedilia and a vestry at the east end. Bartholomew de Badlesmere, an early 14th century absentee Lord of the Manor of Bourne, is credited with the extensions to the church, particularly the south chapel. He went against the king and was hanged as a rebel in 1322.