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George
Freeston’s contributions to ‘ Round and About’ the
Blisworth Village Magazine With George down the Age History
is bunk, somebody once observed. ‘Nonsense!’
must be the instant retort of the agreeably large audiences who
listened, rapt, to Mr. George Freeston’s delightful evocations of the
Blisworth of other days in his recent series of talks. Delving
deep into his unique scrapbooks, he took us vividly through the
centuries, and effectively brought home how our village history is all
around us for those who take a little trouble to look.
We are all in George’s debt for bringing the past alive for us
and incidentally, raising some £100
for the village needs of today. The
least we can do for some historian of the future selfless enough to take
on the daunting task is to see that nothing that has the merest sniff of
history is lightly tossed away. I
do hope somebody is keeping a complete file of ‘Round & About’.
Even its most mundane event will be eagerly picked over by a
Freeston – minded villager of 2080. J.H. Brittain, 48
Pond Bank. SUMMER 1975
Issue No 1 It all began with
‘Blide’s Worp’
Ed. 'p' represented phonetic symbol for OE 'th' sound.
[2] This
village in which you live has been in existence for a long, long time.
Early man of prehistoric times was here, leaving as evidence some
of his burial tumuli. Romans
too roamed around our woodlands and open spaces . . . they left behind
pieces of their pottery. There
was a long list of invaders and tribal wanderers, followed by the long
period which is generally termed mediaeval, again most of those former
people have left evidences of their existence here mainly in the form of
fragments of broken pots, which pieces are commonly called ‘sherds’. With
the gradual formation of land divisions, shires and parishes came into
being . . . villages were grouped into lots of 100, which were likewise
called ‘hundreds’. Blisworth
was embraced into the ‘Hundred of Wymersley’ probably named after a
Saxon Lord named Wimer or Winermar. Blisworth
also had an honourable mention in the Domesday survey, which was
compiled in the 19th year of the Conqueror’s reign.
At that time of the survey, Blisworth was held in part by King William’s
‘natural’ son whose name was William Peverel.
The Domesday Book also gives us the spelling of our village name
as ‘Blidesworde’ which was possibly of ancient origin even at that
time (1088). In ‘Place
names of Northamptonshire’ it is suggested that ‘Blisworth’ comes
from the dual words of ‘Blide’s Worp’, meaning ‘Blide’s
Enclosure’. From then on
the name of Blisworth had many variations.
‘Bliswurde’ 1162, ‘Bliseworthe’ 1166, ‘Blideswurde’
1184, ‘Blieswurth’ 1199, ‘Blitheworth’ 1200, ‘Blicheworth’
1215, ‘Blethersworthe’ 1220, ‘Blidewurd’
1220, ‘Bliheswurth’ 1242, ‘Blecchesworth’ 1284, ‘Blysworth’
1317, ‘Bleseworth’ 1337, ‘Blayseweurthe’ 1348,
‘Blusworthe’ 1362, ‘Bleseworth’ 1388,
‘Blyseworthe’ 1400, ‘Blisworth’ 1428, and
‘Blissworth’ in 1791. I
might add in conclusion that my postbag often contains letters with an
odd assortment of ‘Blisworth’ spellings in spite of modern
documentation, and in local jargon the village is simply ‘Blis’oth’.
A
PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FRISBY COACH EN ROUTE FOR TOWCESTER RACES EASTER
MONDAY 1926
This photo was taken by Mr. Walter Alexander, born in Blisworth
88 years ago. Many village
inhabitants will remember his photo display (labelled the Passing Show)
in the High Street. A
pioneer photographer of the Victorian age, Mr. Alexander deserves a
tribute from Blisworth. Autumn 1975
Issue No. 2 The ‘Ups and
Downs of the Old School’ [3] Apart
from the parish church no other village building has survived so many
changes of fortune as that of the ‘old school’ since the first
school was built around 1500. Originally
the ‘old school’ was named the Roger Wake Chantry and Free School of
Blisworth. Later the name
of Grammar School was added. Thus
for some 400 years prior to 1913 a continuous schooling was afforded to
the boys of Blisworth in one building or another. Roger
Wake Esq. was Lord of the Manor up to the time of his death in 1503.
(Go and look on his memorial brass on his tomb in Blisworth
church.) Around 1500 the said Roger Wake founded a Chantry and Free
School, the master to be a graduate of Oxford, and the school kept in
good order for ever. The
master’s salary was fixed at £11,
which at the time was more than the master of Eton College received. In
1556 a master died named John Curtis and he directed in his will that
the new tenants be bound ‘upon sueteyes to maynteyn both glasse and
reparacions, and especially the TACKE, that all tressells, forms, in all
the house remaine as standerde, and that the glass be not diminished,
but all things stand HOLL to hym that shall succeed me’. That
there were subsequent demolitions and rebuilds is evident from long and
full documentation, especially during the 17th and 18th
centuries. Each rebuild
could well have been in the same place or at least in the same area as
that of the present ‘old school’. Wattle
and daub construction is mentioned in one description of a former
building. The penultimate
closure to the present one was when the great fire of Blisworth in 1798
not only destroyed twelve dwellings but the village school as well.
In quick time that site was cleared and part was sold to a
Wilhaim Westley for the sum of £40
on which he built a fine new house for members of his family in 1799,
this was demolished in 1972. The
present school was also soon rebuilt and later added to, to cope with a
growing population. A
Master’s house was also added next to the school on the south side.
The money given for part of the former site went towards
rebuilding the school. Following
compulsory education in 1870 the school became subject to inspection by
the new Education Authority, and it was soon suspected of being too
small. A new infant school
was built on land given by the Duke of Grafton on the opposite side of
Stoke Road in 1874 (see the date on the chimney).
Both the old school and the infant school closed in 1913 when the
new school was ready for occupation in the Courteenhall Road.
The
trustees for the old school group were the rector and his two wardens,
and they were answerable to the higher authority of the Peterborough
Diocesan Board of Finance. For
most of its remaining years up to the time of the present closure the
‘Old School’ has proved its worth by giving great pleasure to
countless village people. Perhaps
regrettably, as it was a non rated building, the Trustees were unable to
charge a viable fee, so only the cost of lighting and heating plus a
very little for repairs was permitted. Thus heating appliances, tables, chairs, cups etc. and the
occasional decoration was provided by an ever willing band of money
raising volunteers, whose work goes recorded, though nameless. GEORGE FREESTON. Spring 1976
Issue No. 3 May Day [3b] Little
or no documentary evidence survives of the ancient May Day celebrations
at Blisworth. The rituals
of such festivities were carried forward over the years by ‘word of
mouth’ as with so many of our customs.
There were no printed books of rules.
There is little doubt however, that Blisworth children have
enjoyed their May Days from time immemorial.
Within living memory there is evidence that organised May Days
were very sporadic. Much
depended on the enthusiasm of either the school master, or mistress, who
would be willing to drill the children on the ancient rituals of May
Pole dancing, together with the relevant music and songs, and last but
not least, the selection of the young May Queen.
Failing an organised May Day many village children ‘went it
alone,’ or by the formation of pairs or groups. On
the evening prior to May Day there was great excitement as the first
spring flowers were gathered and placed in water until the next morning
early. One much sort after
flower was the Crown Imperial, often called ‘the crowned emperor’
which would be placed at the top of the garland.
The traditional Northamptonshire garland was an arrangement of
flowers placed atop of a staff with a doll in the centre. Dolls prams, push carts and hand carts were also decorated.
A very favourite way was to decorate our mothers wicker clothes
basket with flowers and ribbons with the doll in the centre. With
the arrival of May Day and the decorations completed, the children
whether individuals, in pairs, or in larger groups would parade the
village going from house to house. May day songs were sung, in return, one hoped, for a copper
coin or a cake. One song
was as follows:- ‘A
branch of May I have brought you and
at your door I stand. It’s
well set out and it’s well spread about by
works of our Lord’s hand. And
when the day of judgement comes, God
will remember you, God
will remember you. And
now I’ve ended my little song, I
can no longer stay, I wish you all, Both
great and small, A
Merry Month of May A
Merry Month of May.’ Blisworth
always observed the 12th of May as their May Day, which was
called ‘Old May Day’. Some
villages preferred the 1st of May.
Confusion arose in 1752 when England adopted the Gregorian
calendar year when 11 days were dropped out of the calendar.
Thus the original May month of the former Roman calendar, which
was the third month of the year, became the fifth month in the new
calendar, together with a complete reshuffle of the days. George Freeston. Tribute to a
Villager
1886
to 1976
[3c] I
am sure that most of the inhabitants of Blisworth will remember a glass
fronted case sitting on the garden wall of No.14 High Street. On the frame facing the street were the painted words ‘The
Passing Show’. Inside the
case was displayed a photograph of old Blisworth or of a
Northamptonshire scene. Those
photographs were regularly changed and that exhibition gave much
pleasure to many people, and the whole idea was the work throughout of
Blisworth born Walter Alexander who died on the 6th of March
aged 89 years. Mr.
W. Alexander was born at 12 High Street where his father had a
greengrocers shop. Much of
the produce came from their greenhouses situated east of the old British
Bacon premises in Stoke Road. There
Walter worked, firstly for his father and then later on his own account
until a bomb devastated the greenhouses in the last war.
The High Street shop was closed in 1940. Following a fire at No.12, Walter and his family moved next
door to No.14 High Street, the garden wall providing the base for the
‘Passing Show’. Walter
Alexander had been a Parish Clerk, Baptist Deacon (life member),
Philosopher, Poet, Friend of the village, Horticulturist by profession
and Photographer extraordinary, over most of his life time.
The village school was Walter’s starter and from then on he
never stopped reading. The
subject matter of his books was very varied but he constantly stuck to
the Poets, Shakespeare and the Bible. Walter
belonged to a class which was taught to give and not to take . . . hence
he never knew the riches of money but he seldom complained and was very
content. Following the
death of his wife he was looked after by his three devoted daughters
who, although living away, kept a watchful eye upon him.
He had six grandchildren whose present standard of living and
education was something which Walter, as a boy, certainly never knew or
even dreamed of. He
earned and deserved the affection and the great respect of the village
of Blisworth both past and present.
He will long be remembered. George Freeston. Summer 1976
Issue No.4
No contribution from
George Autumn 1976
Issue No.5 Arthur Eaton
Basford
1886-1976 [4] Blisworth
born Arthur Eaton Basford died on June 18th, aged 90 years;
his parents lived in one of the twelve Railway Cottages on the
Northampton Road. His
father was a railwayman, as were all the other menfolk in the other
eleven houses in the row, which were built for railway workers by the
London & Birmingham Railway Co. in 1848. Arthur
Basford commenced his schooling in the Infant School in the Stoke Road
(built 1874, closed 1913) and then graduated to the senior school
opposite (the building now awaiting restoration as a village hall). The
Basford parents were staunch Baptists, but the village school was church
controlled and of a foundation from the year 1500.
Clashes were inevitable between some of the Baptist families and
the Church over the doctrinal teachings.
Arthur’s parents objected to the compulsory teaching of the
catechism. They also
objected to the local tax towards the education of the village children
which did not allow the Baptist community to have a say in running the
school. In
1876 in the next village of Roade a National School was built for boys
and girls. This school was
non-denominational, and this fact interested the Blisworth Baptists very
much. Subsequently,
Arthur Basford and a small band of other Baptist children went to
Roade National School. They walked to and fro daily taking with them their meagre
meals for the day. Young
Arthur was quick to learn that this morning walk could be put to good
account and for the sum of two shillings and six-pence a week he
delivered the then small amount of daily papers to the villages of
Courteenhall, Roade and Stoke-Bruerne using both the morning walk and
the evening homeward trip to do so. Newspapers then were issued from the bookstall situated on
the platform of the main line at the important Blisworth Station. On
leaving school Arthur obtained work at Blisworth Station in accordance
with family tradition. By
steady progression and subsequent promotions he duly arrived at
Willesden Station. At
Willesden he met and married his wife where they settled down and
brought up their family of one daughter. On
retirement Arthur and his wife came ‘home’ to Blisworth, and lived
in Connegar Leys, where they enjoyed a splendid ‘evening’ of their
lives. Arthur
Basford was a superb product (together with many of his contemporaries)
of a Christian family – a strict though kindly education of the
primary factors, i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic.
He was further blessed with a good brain by which he absorbed a
great measure of the good things of life through self education during
his wonderful life of 90 years. Oh!
One last thought, Arthur was denied his 21st birthday
party, for on that day his Mother presented the family with a daughter. That much loved daughter is still with us at Blisworth –
she ‘chuckles’ just like her brother Arthur did right to the end –
and who is she? None other
than Mrs. ‘Bill’ Marriott (nee Dora Basford) of Chapel Lane – need
I say more. George Freeston,
‘Plowmans’ 1976 The Wild &
Woolly
[5] Tunnel Hill Farm. Christmas
will soon be here again, followed by Boxing Day, the day of outdoor
activities for themany who ate and drank too much on Christmas day. Good
exercise can be found at Blisworth, for an event that has put our
village on the sporting map over the past fifty-one years takes place on
the morning of 26th December, at the farm in Stoke Road
called Tunnel Hill Farm. Permission
to hold the event is given by the holders of the lands Messrs. T. Davies
and Son. The event is named
‘The Wild and Woolly’ which embraces a gruelling motor cycle trial,
made all the more difficult by adverse weather conditions. In
1925 Tunnel Hill Farm was occupied by Mr. R. Slade, whose sons were keen
motorcycle riders, and it was from a suggestion by one of them that the
Northampton Motor Cycle Club ran the first ‘Wild and Woolly’ on
Sunday, 22nd November, 1925.
The early course was different from that of today for much of it
ran the full length of the grass lane towards the Parish of Shutlanger.
The mounts used were of the ‘big’ class, namely
Ariels, Enfields, Scotts, A.J.S, etc. complete with magnetoes
which were a major problem at the water splashes. In
the next year, 1926 the event was switched to Thursday, 24th
November, owing to certain local opposition regarding Sunday sports.
The following next three events were likewise held on Thursdays.
It was nor until 1929 that Boxing Day was selected, and from then
on Boxing Day has been ‘the day’, except for the occasional spell of
extreme weather, or during the war years of petrol restrictions.
Speeds have increased considerably for twelve miles an hour was
once considered a good average. Annual weather conditions contribute to the diversity of the
course, for example the dry weather of last year produced high speeds
with little water at the brook crossings, while 1974 saw the heavy
winter rains which produced an excess of water and mud.
The present day course is of interest too for it crosses the line
of the canal which runs underground, the outward evidence being, the
many field undulations and mounds from the original excavations of
tunnel and canal around 1800, and the ventilator chimneys.
In the first field there is a considerable irregularity which is
crossed by an embankment. This
earthwork is a remnant of the Blisworth Hill Railway which was in
operation from 1800 to 1805 during which time the tunnel was built, thus
completing the whole length of the canal.
The Blisworth Hill Railway can still be traced in much of the
three miles of track from Blisworth to Stoke-Bruerne bottom locks, and
it made history by being the first railway built in Northamptonshire. Originally,
money collections were made at the trials for the Northampton General
Hospital but after nationalization the collections were made for other
needs. The village owes a
sincere ‘Thank you’ to Mr. T. Davies and Son for allowing the
continuance of the ‘Wild and Woolley’ which has given so much
exercise and pleasure to so many people, not forgetting the proceeds of
many of the collections. George Freeston. Spring 1977
Issue No 6 Village
Celebrations [6] Through
village records of past Royal occasions I see that the people of
Blisworth never failed in ‘celebrating well’ the special day. George III had his Jubilee in 1809. (I don’t think any of you will remember that).
The morning was ushered in at an early hour by the ringing of the
church bells and the flag was hoisted on the tower.
At 10am a fat sheep ‘dead’ was drawn around the village
preceded by the church band and much flag waving. The
sheep was duly roasted whole and distributed among the poor people with
bread and butter in equal proportions to each family.
The women of the village were also provided with cake and tea at
a street party. The
‘respectable’ inhabitants gathered at the ‘Grafton Arms’ for
their supper, and harmony and convivial mirth crowned the festivities of
the day. In
July in either 1813 or 1814 a great day of festivities was held after
Napoleon’s abdication. All
the inhabitants decorated their houses with laurels and flowers.
Two triumphal arches were erected across the road, one at the
west end of the village and the other near to the Elm Tree.
Each carried the inscription ‘Welcome Sweet Messenger of Peace.
LONG LIVE THE KING’. At
10am a parade took place which lasted until 1pm.
That parade was headed by six gentlemen each carrying a white
staff, after which came 20 females clothed in white each carrying a
flag. It is said that the
appearance of the whole parade was truly delightful.
The parade was accompanied by the village brass band.
It was recorded that the parade called at all the houses in which
lived a respectable person and three cheers were given at each such
house. Some persons
attended the afternoon of fun and feasting that was held in ‘the
Park’ of Blisworth House. 700
people sat down to a free meal of roast or boiled beef followed by plum
pudding and plenty of ale. The
band continued to play ALL DAY !! Queen
Victoria’s coronation was much enjoyed and on her golden jubilee
celebrations of 1887 and her diamond jubilee of 1897 the villagers
marched to Blisworth Hotel Pleasure Gardens (which are now the caravan
site) where there were sports and free tea for all, followed by a
firework display, medals were also given to the children. Celebrations
were likewise held at the coronations of Edward VII and King George V. Summer 1977
Issue No. 7 In
the Spring issue of 1977 ‘Round and About’ a brief account of past
village celebrations was penned, covering the years from 1809 (George
III) up to 1910 (George V) when the days celebrations were held at the
Blisworth Hotel Gardens (and without the help of the motor car).
The Peace celebrations of world war one were marked by a Fete in
Blisworth House Park, when a cricket match was held followed by free
meals for all, and sports. The
next great day was on 6th May 1935 which was the Jubilee of
King George V and Queen Mary. A village church service was first held followed by a
procession. Trees were
planted on ‘the green’ at West Bridge, all of which survived the hot
year and now make an attractive entrance to the village for travellers
coming from Towcester. An
outdoor tea and sports were fully enjoyed.
Medals were given to the children and the grown ups danced the
night away at the school. George V died on the
20th January 1936. Edward
III ascended the throne on the 20th but abdicated on the 11th
of December so this very short reign was not the time for celebrations. King
George VI then followed in 1936 and his coronation was celebrated at
Blisworth by virtually the whole population ‘listening In’
to the radio broadcast from London on the 12th of June
1937. A village church
service followed, after which there were sports and a free tea with mugs
for the children. Dancing
followed in the evening but the proposed firework display was abandoned
owing to rain. The
Women’s Institute planted a beech tree in the corner of the field
opposite to Mr, Bonsor’s Cliff Hill Farm House at the entrance to the
village and this tree is also in very good condition. For
the greater part of the reign of George VI and Queen Elizabeth, England
was again at war and George VI was to die after only 15 years on the
throne. The country did,
however, hold one great celebration during his reign, which was the
‘Festival of Britain’.
Our village made great efforts to mark this occasion. On Sunday 20th May 1951 the Rector of Blisworth made village history
when he invited the Baptist Minister to preach at a United Church Service to mark the
opening of the village ‘Festival of Britain’ celebrations.
One attraction went on throughout the week
and into the next . . . this was an exhibition of Blisworth’s History and local
antiquities in the Old School. Also
there was a concert by the music and drama society when they
presented ‘Tom Jones’. There
were also other interesting functions.
King George VI died on 6th February 1952 and was
followed by his eldest daughter Elizabeth
II. Coronation Day, the 2nd of June 1953 was a
‘great day’ for the village which at that time had a much smaller population.
Firstly there was a church service.
Then people were able to enjoy a time of early ’tele’ watching.
The afternoon started off with a fancy dress parade followed by the crowning of the Coronation Queen.
There was dancing round the Maypole followed by sporting events. Teas were first served to the ‘pensioners’, and then the children, after which there was tea for all other village
adults. At 6.30pm a comic
football match was held and a choice for the remainder of the evening
was offered in either a Whist Drive in the Old School or Dancing in the Primary School.
There should have been a village Lantern Procession at 11p.m. but this had to be cancelled
owing to bad weather.
The Coronation Queen was Delia Chapman supported by six Maids of
Honour who were
Doreen Blood, Margaret Digby, Valerie Hale, Valerie Burbidge and
Sally Edwards. Oh Boy, what
a day it was ! ! . . . The Mercury and Herald sponsored a ‘Coronation
Village Scrap Book competition and out of some 60 entries Blisworth made
headlines by winning the first prize of £50.
It is hoped to display this document during the present Jubilee
year followed by slide projections and talks on the entire book pages.
The compiler of the ‘Scrap Book was described as ‘dark
haired, YOUNG and vigorous’.
. . . those were the days ? ? ? So
to everybody in Blisworth ‘Happy Jubilee and please go on making
village history. George
Freeston ‘Plowmans’
May 1977
Autumn
1977 Issue No.8 High
Street [6b]
(Historical Note)
Mr. and Mrs. Pyke live in the house which was for very many years
the house of a family of bakers named Birch.
The bake-house stood in the yard behind the dwelling house and it
was from that ancient bakehouse that the great dinners were cooked at
the time of village feasts. Spring 1978
Issue No.9 The Last Stage of
the ‘Old School’ [7] From
1500, there has been a succession of buildings in Blisworth, housing an
Endowed School, which was founded by Roger Wake, Esquire, Lord of the
Manor of Blisworth. The
last of that long line of buildings was built in 1815 in Stoke Road.
The former school was on the same site, but had suffered
structurally in the large fire of Blisworth in 1798.
The last day of the Endowed School came on the 30th of
May, 1913, the pupils being moved to the NEW village COUNCIL SCHOOL on 3rd
of May the same year. The
rector and wardens of the parish church continued to administer the
building as a Sunday School, etc. In 1975 the Old School was purchased by the Parish Council
for conversion into a Village Hall;
restoration began last year.
As the structure was not of great age, it was not expected that
‘finds’ of great interest would be located.
However the list of items found is as follows:- Coins
of George III. /
Early pages of 19th century algebra exercises,
complete with rubbings of George III coins.
/ Matchbox labelled
‘Vulcans STANDSTICKER’. / Skeins of
lace-makers thread. / A new reel of white cotton labelled ‘from J. Phipps,
Northampton’. / An
empty cotton reel labelled in gold tinsel ‘Queens Thread’.
/ A section of
sulphur candle, dominoes and old buttons . /
Three wooden lace bobbins and one bone bobbin engraved
‘A PRESENT FOR BETSY’. /
One knitting sheath, one tiny thimble.
/ A quantity of
broken slate pencils, etc. I
do hope that a village history exhibition can be arranged this summer in
the new Hall so that the above and many other items from Blisworth’s
past can be viewed by all. I shall call for volunteers later. Autumn 1978
Issue No.10
No contribution from George Winter 1978/79
Issue No.11
MAY OR MAY NOT EXIST Jan/Feb 1979
MAY OR MAY NOT EXIST Mar/Apr 1979
MAY OR MAY NOT EXIST May/Jun 1979
MAY OR MAY NOT EXIST Jul/Aug 1979
No contribution from George Sep/Oct 1979
Congratulations
Bill [8] Mr.
William Sturgess of Greenside fully deserves
the well wishes and congratulations of the village for he has
just completed 70 years as a member of the Parish Church Choir.
He is also a most active and valued member of the Blisworth
Choral Society from its formation in 1946, and was likewise a member of
at least two pre-war choral societies. To
many old villagers Bill is remembered as the village baker, for he
carried on the family business until his retiring age.
His father commenced the Stoke Road Bakery in 1895. Bill’s
activities are remarkable enough for he underwent a major heart
operation in 1974, the outcome of which was a battery operated heart
pacemaker ‘stitched’ securely in his chest. So
let us all wish Bill a continued long and happy life complete with
batteries and song. George Freeston, Vice President, Blisworth Choral Society. Nov/Dec 1979
No contribution from George Jan/Feb 1980 What
Has Happened in our Village During the Past 600 Years [9] A
series of Historic Village Talks will be given by George Freeston
on the following dates. Jan/24th,
Feb/6th, Feb/21st
March/20th, in the Village Hall Mar/6th,
in the Parish Church
Mar/20th, in the Baptist Chapel All
at 8pm Mar/Apr 1980
Missing May/Jun 1980
No contribution from George Jul/Aug 1980 Historically
Speaking [9] It
seems a long time since the spring session of Blisworth History talks
were held, but I am constantly reminded of them from the kindly comments
of the many folk who attended them
. . . and who are getting pleasure from their walks by looking
deeper into the buildings and the fieldmarks with added zeal. I
would like to record rather belatedly my gratitude to all who attended
and so making the meetings so happy and successful.
I can assure Mr. J.H. Brittain that his kind remarks are heard.
The History Talks will go forward into the village archives . . .
for all copies of ‘Round & About’ will be deposited into the
County Archives at Delapre in due course, together with the many
hundreds of collected items which at present are bulging the walls at
‘Plowmans’. I
am always pleased to receive any Blisworth data of village activities
for inclusion in the Blisworth collection.
Where photos are involved do please put with the people’s
names,the place and date. Over
the many years I have been able to assist many students with their
projects on Blisworth, and should any reader wish to add to his
knowledge of his environment, I am always willing to help where
possible. G.F.
‘Plowmans’ Miss Bessie Wood [10] of Connegar Leys
died last Tuesday, June 17th,
following a brief illness. On
May 20th she had arrived at her eighty-seventh birthday. There
were many of us who referred to her as Bessie for she was so friendly,
genteel, and ever grateful for the acts of kindness which she received
from her many frtiends and neighbours. One soon became aware of an aura of gentility, and this
answered itself as soon as one became aware that her second Christian
name was Westley, in fact she was a direct descendant of the great
Blisworth miller, Joseph Westley, one of the villages outstanding men of
the last century. Bessie
Westley Wood was born at Brackley where her father carried on a family
business of bakers, and who in turn had been Mayor of Brackley and one
of the towns great Methodists.
Long
ago Bessie had come to Blisworth to look after her Aunt Miss Mary Ann
Wood, firstly in Chapel Lane then moving to the newly erected bungalows
in Connegar Leys. Probably
due to Bessie’s good nursing Mary Wood reached her 100th
birthday and Connegar Leys was busy on the morning of Sept. 9th.
1956 with comings and goings of locals and outsiders, plus the postman
– all bringing good wishes to the aged aunt.
The B.B.C. radio programme ‘Silver Chords’ made mention of
the birthday and played her favourite hymn ‘Bringing in the
Sheaves’. Mr.
and Mrs. Frank Holding, her new neighbours provided the tea and cakes. All
of Bessie’s life together with that of her Aunt oozes with the love
and affection of her friends, neighbours and relations all of which has
been handed out so liberally around Connegar Leys.
She was always aware of these kindly acts and was ever grateful.
So passes yet another chapter of village history, and I in turn
consider it a great privilege to have counted Bessie Westley Wood as one
of my friends. G.F.
‘Plowmans’ Sep/Oct
1980 Damage to
Cemetery Wall
During the past years concern has
been expressed by kindly villagers over the broken north wall of the
cemetery, and the use of the burial ground as a play area. The
Church Council members are grateful for the suggestions put forward in
an attempt to stop the unprecedented vandalism. The
lower wall of the Cemetery now has a gap of some 5 yards in length, and
such a breach did not happen without the use of hands, large or small.
Volunteers from Pond Bank have in the past very kindly repaired
small gaps as they appeared, but at the present rate of destruction the
total wall could disappear within a few years. The
Church Council are already spending £3,000
per annum on Church maintenance and they simply cannot combat such
expensive repairs as vandalised walls. As
it is doubtful whether the offending minority of vandals will read this
letter, I do appeal to all parents to drop a kindly word of advice to
all children viz. ‘Please
Keep Away From The Cemetery And The Wall’ . . . Thank You. George Freeston Hon. Sec. P.C.C. Nov/Dec 1980 Spring Quartet [11]
I have managed to hire the film
‘SPRING QUARTET’ which was shot last year at Blisworth in the snow
as a sales project for PETER NEWCOMBE’s postage stamps.
This film has since won three ‘Gold Awards’ in the film
world. As we can only see
it on one night I have made arragements for it to be shown four times in
the Village Hall on MONDAY NOV 10th. George Freeston Jan/Feb 1981 Wild and Woolly [12]
I would like to think that all
Blisworth folk are aware that much of the farmland belonging to Messrs
Davies & Son where the annual ‘Wild & Woolly’ is held is
undermined by the canal tunnel . . . hence the name of the farm being
‘Tunnel Hill Farm’. Some
of the hazards of the course are the spoil heaps and earth works of the
tunnel building which was completed in 1805. The
little brook through which the motorcyclists travel on more than one wet
occasion is called ‘Fisher’, originally ‘Fishwier’.
It was also called ‘Winter Brook’ owing to the extra water
volume during the winter months. Another local name was ‘Washbrook’ for where the lane
crosses over the brook there is still the remains of a brick constructed
basin which was the dipping pool for the sheep prior to them being shorn
in the springtime. By
raising the water levels the basin became a deep pool across which a
pole was fixed just above the high water level . . . sheep one by one
were pushed into the pool, then directed towards the pole, under which
they were ducked by a man using a long forked prod.
At the south end of the pool was a wooden constructed upright box
made of elm and water tight in which stood a man.
His job was to receive the swimming sheep which had been passed
under the pole, and he would manipulate the sheep under a sluice of
water which emerged from the damned brook where it entered the brick
pool. By holding the
swimming animal he would twist and turn it around so that it had a
complete washing. By now
the very wet sheep would be directed towards the sloping brick exit
where it ran up the incline and out into the field to dry off. Many
of the old villagers (including myself) remember with pleasure this
annual sheep dipping operation which was not only used by the resident
farmer of Tunnel Hill Farm, but by other local farmers who did not have
running water, brook, and sheep dip. G.F. Mar/Apr
1981 What’s in a
Name? [13]
In the last ‘Round &
About’ I penned a few words about Tunnel Hill Farm and ‘Fisher’.
Before the canal came to Blisworth and the tunnel constructed,
‘Fisher’ was the green lane to Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger.
The present road to Stoke-Bruerne is called Stoke Road and it was
formed at the end of the last century purely as an overland route for
canal traffic and the tow horses which could not go through the tunnel. For a period of time it was a toll road.
‘Fisher’ lane therefore became redundant which has well
proved to be our advantage for I and many more consider it to be the
nicest and most interesting of our village walk ways.
Just
past Tunnel Hill Farm (Mr. L. Davies) is a turning left.
This road to Roade goes by the name KNOCK Lane . . . please
remember the name and use it so that it does not get lost. As
one goes to Roade the level fields on either side take on a different
look, for the area is a Geological Plain laid down after the last ice
age. The area within the
Blisworth Parish is therefore Blisworth Plain and that in Roade Parish
becomes Roade Plain. Let
us continue to the Stoke Road and continue southwards to Stoke-Bruerne.
The first farm after Tunnel Hill Farm is named Blisworth Hill
Farm (Mr. D. Taylor). You
will also note that the road runs parallel to the tunnel which is at
this point about 125 feet below. The
next farm about a quarter of a mile on carries the ancient name of
Buttermilk Hall. The
romantic name belongs to the late 18th century when the
former dwelling housed the series of gamekeepers who were there to keep
law and order in the lands and woods surrounding Buttermilk Hall. I
often find that many of our local parish names are not known, and I
earnestly invite you ALL to become familiar with the locality and its
naming for the sake of continuity and so creating an interest with all
ages in an endeavour to . . . ‘PASS THE NAME ALONG’. George Freeston May/Jun 1981 Blisworth Plain
Continued [14] For
this issue of history notes, I am taking you again to the high ground
situated between Stoke-Road south of the village to the road to Roade,
which to Blisworth folk is called ‘Knock Lane’.
The plain is shared with two neighbouring parishes, Roade and
Stoke-Bruerne. In
mediaeval times the plain was open land with an abundance of scrub and
thorns with scattered forest trees of natural self-regeneration.
The adjoining villages enjoyed the freedom of commanage which
meant that they could tether their cattle, collect scrub for their
winter faggots and larger wood for their fires.
(Wood has always been jealously guarded by landowners so it must
have been a great privilege handed out to the locals to gather fuel.) Trouble
seems to have started after the death of the last of the resident Lords
of the Manor who was Roger Wake Esq.
His death was on March 16th 1504.
He left the Manor to his wife Elizabeth during her lifetime. She then married Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley around
1522. It was then that the
new Lord of the Manor, though he did not reside at Blisworth, enclosed
part of the plain with fences and ditches thus stopping the locals
enjoying the commonage as heretofore.
The village men-folk took up their tools and marched on to the
plain where they filled in the ditches and broke down the fences
claiming that they had been robbed of their commonage of the plain.
Court proceedings followed with Sir Richard Fermer (Easton Neston)
and Sir Thomas Lovatt (Astwell)
as Commissioners. The
elders of the surrounding villages were called upon to testify that over
the past years the plain had been used as commonage. These old men came from ‘Ahen’ (Ashton),
‘Roddersthroppe’ (Rothersthorpe), ‘Corknoll’ (Courteenhall) as
well as from Blisworth and Roade. It
is not clear from the parchments to what extent the inhabitants claimed
the rights to cut down trees or wood on the plain, but it would appear
that the landowners won the day, thus taking away the ancient practice. The
plain was gradually brought into cultivation as part of the open field
system, and later oaks were planted with hazel undergrowth, possibly as
timber for ships of the navy. At
the beginning of the 19th century, maps show some eight or
nine areas of woodland on Blisworth Plain.
The nearest to the village was named ‘Hangman’s Wood’,
others were ‘Stoke Thorn’, ‘Sale Wood’, and ‘Bury Hill
Copse’. During this
century these woods have been gradually taken over for agriculture. The last two woods were felled and cleared since the war.
The whole group of those woodlands was named ‘Plain Woods’.
Many of us retain happy memories of our trips to the woods
especially around Easter-time for it was a recognised outing to go and
pick the first primroses either for church decoration, or, when during
the early days of the first world war, the children sold bunches of
primroses to the folk going through the village en route for Towcester
Races on Easter Monday. There
are no woods now, but as nature never stands still, who knows that in
two or three hundred years that Blisworth Plain will blossom forth in
woodland and furze as heretofore. George Freeston From Talks to
Walks
I apologise for not making
time for History talks as promised – but I will arrange Village
History Walks as soon as possible.
Look out for notices. ‘If
the oak is in leaf before the ash, You
expect the summer to rain and splash. If
the ash is in leaf before the oak, You
expect the summer to burn and smoke. George Freeston Jul/Aug 1981 John David Monk
died April 14th aged 81 years [15]
Johnny was one of a family of ten
children, they and their parents lived in a house where now stands
Doctor Bull’s dwelling. Johnny
had worked for a firm of coal merchants based in Northampton, Messrs
Wiggins and Co. They also
had depots at Blisworth Station, to which the coals came by train, and
one wharfage on the canal, next to bridge 51 (near to the present
British Pepper & Spice mill). Canal
boats carried about 40 tons and it was Johnny’s job as a youngster to
unload the coals and to stack them on the wharf for two shillings and
sixpence for every ton so handled.
His regular starting wage was twelve shillings per week. During
the first period of this century times were hard and so was work.
Johnny’s father worked at the Hunsbury Iron Ore Furnaces
(now Blackwood Hodge & Co.) to which place he walked to and
from each day, a good round eight miles.
He told me that he often would handle and load into waiting
railway trucks the staggering amount of ten tons of pig iron before he
had his breakfast break. All
the family were equally hard workers, and I hazard a guess that such
manual work did much to aggravate their health during their last years .
. . Many of us owe to
Johnny our thanks for keeping us warm by his deliveries of coals
throughout much of his life time in all weathers and at almost all times
of the day. The
Monk family were Baptists and it was sheer numbers of such families that
once filled every pew in the Baptist Chapel. Alfred
Monk of Courteenhall Road is the sole survivor of that once proud and
great family. George Freeston Edward Chapman
B.A. (Cantab) F.R.C.O. Died by accident
March 6th 1981 aged 78 yrs. [16] Thomas
Chapman (Edward’s father) came to Blisworth towards the end of the
last century. He was a mill
engineer and he came to supervise the stationary engine at the Westley
Flour Mill next to the canal at bridge 51. John Westley the Miller lived nearby in a fine House which
was formerly a coaching inn called ‘The Grafton Arms’. In due course Thomas married a village lass whose name was
Butler. To
work for the Westley family one had to be a Baptist and a
Liberal. Thomas Chapman and his wife were both. In due time a son was born (Edward), followed by a daughter
(Gladys). The children
commenced their education at the Church controlled village school (now
the village hall). Under
the watchful eye of the headmaster Mr. A. Green it was noticed that
Edward had the potential of a pianist.
He went on to receive lessons both from Mr. Green, and also the
Baptist minister the Rev. Chennels.
Mr. Westley soon became aware of Edward’s talent and forthwith
Edward became his protégé. When of the required age, Edward was sent to Northampton
Grammar School, which time was followed by a period of teaching at one
or two schools in the area including Milton Malsor.
He then went to Cambridge where he had a distinguished career
under Charles Standford the Irish composer, organist and conductor. In 1928 he moved to Highgate School as Director of Music.
It was entirely due to his efforts that Highgate School emerged
in the 50’s as a leading musical centre.
The choir was one of the first to take part in the Promenade
Concerts, and he went abroad on numerous occasions with his choir to
give outstanding performances. He
retired in 1968 but returned later to become the musical director of the
Junior School, at which he taught the day before he died. His
periods of living at Blisworth were sporadic, but he had been with us of
late, during which time he taught many pupils on the piano and organ.
He was also a welcome organist at both Church and Chapel whenever
the occasion arose, and he was returning from Towcester church when he
met his fatal accident on the night of March 6th. George Freeston Sep/Oct 1981
No contribution from George Nov/Dec 1981 George’s
Exhibition [17] The Rector, in the
October Church News Sheet has expressed his sincere thanks to all who
helped, visited and gave their time and cash to the sum of £763.77p. I in turn wish to
add my thanks to all who in anyway whatsoever were partakers in that
very memorable get together. Such
an exhibition could not have been staged without the generosity of the
many village folk who, over the past sixty years or so, have donated
their old photographs and items to me.
Many too were the friends who assisted me by actually taking
photos especially for me, in readiness for such a show, or to record the
changing village scene. One
name I must mention is the late Walter Alexander, village photographer
extraordinary. Although
some of the illustrations on show did not carry the name of the
photographer, I do have records of those friends, and I hope to catch up
with my overdue documenting this winter.
The contents of my files will go to Delapre ultimately, and I
hope that your descendants will be able to benefit from the Blisworth
archives. I thought that
the church was a splendid and rightful place for a village exhibition,
after all, most of the past villagers have gone through those ancient
doors in one way or another during the past 800 years.
I am most grateful to our Rector for allowing the church to be
used for the occasion. . . P.S. I
have quite a few letters from folk seeking lost kin once connected with
our village. One ex-army
officer is seeking his former batman whose name was Baxter and who gave
his address as Blisworth . . . can anyone enlighten me of this Mr.
Baxter? I
will give a list of the letter writers in the next ‘Round &
About’ . . . one never knows, each one of us may have a rich uncle
seeking out his lost relation. G.F. Jan/Feb
1982
No contribution from George Mar/Apr 1982 Scouts ‘Gang
Show’ [18] CONGRATULATIONS
to the organisers and helpers together with the young farmers who put on
such a spectacular ‘Gang Show’ during a two night ‘full’ house.
(I personally enjoyed the ‘rock session’ and felt like
joining them on the stage.) This
combined effort of Scouts, Cubs, Guides and Brownies marks the 75th
anniversary of the Scouting Movement. . . Scouting which was started by
Robert Baden Powell in 1907 grew at an amazing pace and Blisworth got
involved soon after 1907. Blisworth’s first Scoutmaster was a civil servant named Mr.
Cheyney, a relative of Bob Young. Camps
were held regularly, but Scouts in those days marched to and fro towing
the handcart which carried all their gear.
From those days we still have two old Scouts, Mr. W. (Bill)
Sturgess and Ron Freeston. Brother Ron’s enthusiasm introduced him into the realms of
signalling, both with morse code and with semaphore. The
first Scout Troop was dismantled during the first world war.
The rebirth came in 1933 when Mr. W.A. Woolacott was Scoutmaster
and his assistants were Richard Caesar and myself . . . again a wretched
war intervened . . . a war to which most of the Scouts were called, one
of these Scouts being a young Dennis Bodsworth who went into the Royal
Navy . . . The war over, Scouting niggled in one or more heads, but it
was not until 1966 that Dennis Bodsworth with the aid of Alan Westell
formed a Scout troop . . . so scouting flourished again and it became a
family involvment with the Bodsworths.
I should mention at this stage that following the formation of
the Scouts, the Rector, the Rev. Bunker formed a Cub pack which Mrs.
Greta Bodsworth took over in 1970.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Bodsworth retired from active service in
Blisworth in 1980. In
1971 a young Stuart Turner of Milton Malsor, to escape boredom, came
over to help. He became
assistant Cub/Scout leader and in 1979 became Leader . . .1973 saw the
realisation of a dream when the Cubs/Scouts’ own building situated in
the northeast corner of the playing field was completed. Space
does not permit me to mention by name the host of supporters and active
helpers who have given of time and money to keep the four groups
solvent, but the packed stage of the Gang Show of youngsters, together
with the current leaders and helpers, convince me that Blisworth will
continue to be a happy land for many years to come to all to who join
the Scouts, Cubs, Girl Guides or Brownies.
George Freeston May/Jun 1982 One For the
Record [19] During
the past past weeks much activity has been evident along the line of the
BLISWORTH TUNNEL at the north entrance. Exploratory
excavations have been made on the spoil heaps which do not carry a
ventilation shaft. Also
digs have been made in field areas to find old infilled working shafts
holes which carry no spoil heaps. A
separate team are drilling and taking strata samples of the area through
which the tunnel runs. The
parking area at the Blisworth Tunnel end is now filled with parked
equipment, vehicles, mobile office, and work vehicles.
Specialised boats are also being equipped with generators etc.,
prior to the tunnel work. Villagers
will also have noticed the many small yellow directional signs in the
area bearing the name McAlpine. These
indicate that the Parish is about to be crossed from South to North by a
second oil pipe-line which will run from London to Birmingham. These
modern engineering works simply add another chapter to the developments
affecting our Parish over the past 200 years . . . beginning with the
canal and tunnel construction of 1793 to 1805 . . . then the main London
to Birmingham Line (opened 1838) . . . followed by iron-ore workings
from 1852. I
hope to see the forthcoming ‘by-pass’ which should conclude our long
period of Parish disturbances. George Freeston Baxter/Daft [20] In
last year’s R&A I appealed, on behalf of a retired Army Officer,
for information concerning a man named Baxter who, it was thought, had
lived in Blisworth. Numerous
friends ‘phoned me saying that they had known a soldier named Baxter
who was billeted at Blisworth during the war and that he had married a
girl from Greens Norton. This
line of investigation, however proved negative. My
next informant, Mrs.L.Bull, stated that she had known a man at Gayton
before the war who was a butler at Gayton Manor, whose name was (wait
for it)- DAFT; When Mr. Daft joined the army as a batman, he sensibly
changed his name to BAXTER. On
leaving Gayton he had left his last will and testament with Mr. &
Mrs. Wakelin senior who at that time kept the ‘Eykin Arms’.
This document they still held and I was allowed to inspect it.
All the cash held by Baxter/Daft – in Post Office Savings etc.
– was to go to their son Colin. Following a search by the Post Office it was found that
Baxter/Daft had at some time withdrawn all his monies, cutting out Colin
Wakelin’s inheritance. So
thanks to all helper, but I have to report that neither Baxter alias
Daft or his money have been found. . .
It’s been fun! George Freeston
July/Aug 1982
No contribution from George Sep/Oct 1982
No contribution from George Nov/Dec 1982
No Contribution from George Jan/Feb 1983 A Winter’s Tale [21]
In
1868 the Northampton Progressive Industrial Society was formed.
As Blisworth was an emerging village with canal links, railway
junction and iron ore within the area it is quite possible that the
Society had eyes upon the village as ready for exploitation.
A plot of ground in the High Street was made available for them
to build the square bricked premise as a shop and dwelling for a
manager. Thus the
Northampton Industrial Society established a Village General Stores.
The Society’s dream empire soon came to a sad end and was wound
up in 1870. In December of
the same year the business was bought by Walter Young who forthwith
notified all people that he, ‘having taken over the premises, and
stocked them with a selection of GROCERIES & PROVISIONS, trust by
having access to the best markets, and personal attention, with moderate
charges for Genuine Articles, to merit a share of your kind
Patronage’. YOUNG’S
STORE IS STILL WITH US, Bob being the third generation of the same
family since 1870 . . . good
going! Bob’s father loved
to tell his little village stories; here is one of them . . ‘During a
hard winter when the snow lay heavy on the roads, the village butcher
discovered on the morning of Christmas Eve that his whole stock of
Christmas meats and poultry had disappeared. The path of the thief was plain, horse hoof prints led away
to Northampton showing the way the thief had gone.
It was much later, alas, that the Police discovered his full
cunning. The wily thief had
reversed his horses shoes and had galloped off to Towcester, while his
pursuers had chased to Northampton. . . I doubt if Bob will be able to
cap that one! G.F. One For the
Record
[22] Since
my last notes on Blisworth Tunnel were printed much has happened.
To help understand what has been done up to date, I suggest that
the reader makes a mental picture of the 1¾
mile tunnel under Blisworth Hill which was opened in 1805.
DIVIDE THAT LENGTH INTO THIRDS.
The third nearest to Stoke Bruerne still retains water and will
only undergo minimal brickwork repairs. The
middle third (that is roughly between Blisworth Hill Farm {Mr.
Taylor’s} and Buttermilk Hall) is empty of water, and it is this
section which is very corrupt and will be completely torn out and
rebuilt during the next two years. The
one third northern section up to 1,885 metres in from Blisworth portal
will likewise undergo some brickwork replacement.
It is this length which will give the access for men and machines
up to the central third. A
very substantial road has been laid down - some 5000 tons of hardcore
were first put down then overlaid with steel mesh mats, followed by
continuous concrete capping, making a splendid road into the tunnel. .
.The concrete floor has also been extended from the north portal up to
the Stoke Road. A section
of the Tunnel Hill Farm just south of the tunnel head has been made even
and office blocks have been installed. The
small numbers of workmen carrying out the preliminary work were Mowlem
employees and I am delighted that Messrs Mowlems have now been appointed
to carry on with the whole of the workings . . . Of interest the first
John Mowlem’s office was at Paddington Basin in London in 1822. I
have been privileged to follow the workings since they commenced last
April and I hope to continue my recording throughout the total
restoration of the tunnel. In
November I gave an illustrated talk about the work done and I have been
asked to repeat the showing. This
will take place on:- THURSDAY
JAN. 27th – 7.45pm VILLAGE
HALL – ADULTS 50p - CHILDREN 25p G. FREESTON Mar/Apr 1983 Have You Seen? [23] a
SEDGE of HERONS, a HERD of SWANS, a BROOD of HENS, a COVERT of COOTS, a
GAGGLE of GEESE, a BADELYNE of DUCKS, a RYE of PHEASANTS, a COVY of
PARTRIDGES, a CONGREGATION of PLOVERS (or PEEWITS), a FLIGHT of DOVES, a
BUILDING of ROOKS, a MURMURATION of STARLINGS, a HOST of SPARROWS, a
WATCH of NIGHTINGALES, and a CHARM of GOLDFINCHES ?
Of the birds mentioned I certainly have watched recently,
plovers, rooks and what is a most descriptive term
a murmuration of starlings, and although I have not seen a full
charm of goldfinches this winter, I have my regular three or four who
come to feed on my teasles . . . I have missed the WRENS and the ‘milk
top’ BLUE TITS . . . WHERE ARE THEY. George Freeston A Village Story [24] A
Tribute to the late Henry Cecil Cherry who died on January 23rd
at his home Blisworth Stone Works. Fifty
three years ago John Cherry moved from Harpole to Blisworth with his
wife and their three sons and daughters.
They moved into a premise which was colourfully described as ‘A
stone 17th century house – with Butchers shop, slaughter
house, fasting pen, fowl house and pigstyes’ none of which exist
anymore for they were demolished in 1973; but memories linger on in the
minds of many villagers in respect to that property. Adjoining
the above dwelling was Cliff Hill Farm, where lived the Griffith family,
and now occupied by Mr. George Bonsor.
On the south side, the property was bordered by an attractive
unit of three cottages, now divided into two, which have just been
thatched . . . John senior had a son, John, who made the army his
career. Then there was Sid,
followed by Cecil who was 21 years old when the family came to Blisworth
in 1930. During
the following years the family built up a dairy herd and milk business.
Some of the milk went in bulk
to Northampton, the remainder was distributed on a retail round of
Blisworth, Gayton and Rothersthorpe.
At first deliveries were made from two gallon milk cans, the
‘dips’ being of one or half pint capacity.
Later on bottles were used bearing the name CHERRY.
Deliveries graduated from walking to a tradesman’s bicycle,
followed by a covered-in three wheeler motor cycle which having no doors
was ideal for popping in and out with the milk . . . Then followed a
line of faithful Morris vans, which as they grew older in daily service,
became tied up with binder string to either keep the doors open or shut.
The farm cows were put to graze in fields along the road to
Northampton. Every day
during the summer months the cows would journey four times from fields
to farm for milking. In
winter, once they came up in the mornings, they were kept in the yard
and fed on hay before being returned to the fields in the evening . . .
The cows claimed and took priority of the whole road width, completely
ignoring the motorists who were late on their journeys, but the cows
could’nt care less (nor could the Cherry men folk) no matter how much
the irate motorists blew their horns.
Such was only part of their daily work.
Water was always needed for cleansing equipment, and they also
had a water cooler for the milk . . . The snag was that ALL water for
both domestic and dairy use had to be fetched from the village pump
which stood in front of where the newspaper shop door is now . . . We
did not have piped water until FEBRUARY 1954! In
due course Cecil married and had two children.
Cecil and his wife counted their
blessings for having such a home loving family.
It was wonderful of Cecil however ill he felt over the past
years, to raise a smile in telling little tales about his grandchildren,
they were all good pals. The
members of each generation have been sons of the soil, a hard life
maybe, but they always found time to give a helping hand, and they were
most kind to man and beast . . . not to mention their generosity.
All these things will be remembered of Cecil who certainly was a
highly esteemed member of our village from 1930 to 1983. G.F.
‘Plowmans’ May/Jun 1983 Blisworth Tunnel
Notes [25]
It seems a long time since I penned my last notes . . . The
following jottings will tell of just a few developments since Jan. the
10th when the men returned from their Christmas holiday.
The site was cleared of all the old caravans.
Most of the men have since distributed themselves in and around
the village for lodgings. The
whole area was fenced in. Portacabin
office blocks arrived and were duly connected to mains lighting and
heating. Then followed a
drying room (an absolute necessity), shower rooms, a new mess room, and
of course the ‘portaloos’ and workshops. There
were still many tunnel mud clearance days, but new electric pumps to
keep the incoming water at bay diminishes the site’s noise problem. Pneumatic
pumps were set up at the tunnel mouth, constantly running, they feed the
power to the tunnel machinery. Snow
transformed the scene from February 7th to 8th.
It was a change to see an all white setting to the tunnel instead
of the blue clay. A huge
transporter crane came and was assembled.
Quantities of concrete, moulded segments, arrived and these are
now being used in the tunnel at around 950 metres onwards. At
the moment there are up to a total of 40 employees on site.
During the past two weeks, a small team of miners have been
removing entire rings of tunnel bricks and after excavating virgin clay
to a greater depth from the cavity, a ring of concrete segments will be
built in and bolted together. This
seemingly dangerous work is proceeding inwards to a distance of 8 metres.
There are fifteen segments and one ‘key stone’ to every
circle. The segments weigh
about half a ton each. This
excavation when lined, will present a chamber larger than the tunnel.
It is here that the shield incorporating the cutting machinery
will be assembled, and then the ‘cutting out’ of the tunnel’s
decaying mid-section will proceed and be reconstructed. Despite
some help from minimal mechanical aids this present job demands all the
‘muscle’ that the small team of operatives can muster.
Clay, water, and very limited space do not present the ideal
situation in which to swing half ton blocks of concrete up and over ones
head. Permission
is being sort to fill in the hollow in the ‘fisher’ field
immediately next to the works compound.
This operation will certainly help the situation, by having such
a nearby hollow in which to dump the tunnel brick debris
I
marvel at all I see. As the
weather improves I hope that many of you will take a walk up to the
site. Remember that the
bridle ways and field footpaths have not been closed. G.F. Parish Assemblies
Past & Present [26]
Since
Easter two important assemblies have taken place in the village.
The first was held in the Parish Church.
Open to all, it was publicised as the ‘The Easter Vestry’ and
was followed by the Annual Parochial Church Council Meeting. The
Easter Vestry goes back over many centuries.
Vestry meetings also used to be called for the discussion of
village affairs at any time of the year.
The church bell was rung to tell the village folk that a meeting
was imminent. From ancient
times the business of the Vestry meeting included the administration of
both civil and ecclesiastical powers and duties within the Parish.
The Rector’s warden and a ‘peoples’ representative were
chosen. This practice still
continues . . .The Rector’s Warden is Dr. Bull and the elected
‘People’s Warden’ is Andrew Newbery.
The full powers of the ‘Vestry’ came to an end in 1894 when
Parish Councils were formed. With
the old vestry meetings, overseers were also elected, their job was to
pay out church monies to the poor and needy within the parish . . . In
fact they did virtually all that the state now does for us in looking
after the poor and needy. Prior
to 1894 all payments were recorded in the Warden’s ledger.
The many entries made during past centuries make interesting
reading, here are a few:- rents
and burials were assisted, even a new ‘waiscot’ was provided,
(Warden’s spelling), garments,
shoes and medical assistance were funded, and in one case, an annual
subscription for the ‘Oddfellows club’ was paid.
One of the obligations of the village Parson was to provide a
Bull and a Boar for village use, that splendid service came to an end in
the early part of the last century.
(I‘m glad that it did, for as Clerk to the Parochial Church
Council and Vestry, I could now be looking after those special beasts .
. . and arranging their marriages). The
second annual meeting held on April 18th was the Parish
Council Assembly. As I said
earlier the village ‘government’ moved away from the church in 1894
and became the responsibility
of the newly formed Parish Councils.
The first annual Parish Council meeting was held in December 1894
and in May 1895 the first Annual Parish Council meeting was held,
which 70 parishioners attended who were seemingly interested in
the new venture of local government.
At that meeting a rate of a half-penny in the pound was levied .
. . The estimate for this years Parish Council expences is about £4000 ! George Freeston Hon. Sec.
Blisworth P.C.C. Jul/Aug 1983 Blisworth Tunnel
Notes [27]
During
the last 3 months small teams of tunnel miners have been working around
the clock in shifts of 10 hours duration.
They have excavated and re-lined a section of the tunnel at the
950m mark. This enlarged
central chamber is approx. 4.5m larger than the old tunnel.
The extra space was required for erecting the tunnel
‘demolition’ machine called ‘The Shield’ which will tear out the
old brickwork, followed immediately by the installation of the new
tunnel lining. The
lining is made up of segments of pre-cast concrete bolted together,
making a circle. This work
will proceed day and night until the 1,885m mark is reached.
The mammoth shield which has literally ‘bunged up’ the tunnel
weighs around 100 tonnes, and is the greatest piece of machinery that I
have ever seen – it’s a subterranean monster. As
it presses forward the torn out debris is brought to the rear on a
conveyor where it is loaded on to one of the two new huge dumpers.
This old brickwork is being dumped in the large hollow
immediately to the south of the present Mowlem ‘village’ area. The
attractive and familiar hollow has already been cleared of the top soil.
When the hollow is filled with the debris the top soil will be
re-instated – but we shall miss the winter sledging slopes – and so
will the entrants in future ‘Wild & Wooly’ Boxing Day
motor-cycle trials. But where there is the will – so there will be (I hope)
alternative routes. On
approaching the village from the south via the Stoke Road the
transporter crane and the cement hoppers made an attractive temporary
new skyline. Maybe
my own personal appreciation of this local exercise is not shared with
those living near to the tunnel but we have all seen a year pass, and as
most of the work will now be carried out underground, we should all
survive until the completion. In
closing . . . At the opening of the Blisworth
Tunnel in 1805, ‘an amazingly large concourse of people
assembled to view the stupendous works at Blisworth Tunnel, and to see
the Grand Procession in honour of the opening of it’. . . . Bands
provided the music and the pitchy darkness of the tunnel journey of the
hundreds of boats was relieved by a number of flambeaux and lights.
5,000 people attended the south end to see the great procession
arrive at Stoke Bruerne after the journey which took one hour and two
minutes ! I
will leave you with a suggestion, that we all get together and make a
grand slam in the name of Blisworth when it re-opens including the
ringing of the Church bells, a tunnel top gala day . . . and all the fun
of the fair with maybe an exhibition and boat trips.
We want a leader for the project . . . any Volunteers ! ! P.S. As there are a few rabbits around
the Tunnel site, it appeared to be quite natural when an employee
approached a technician and asked for some thin wire for making a snare
– when asked ‘how long ?’ the answer came, ‘Oh, only until
Wednesday’ ! G.F.
‘Plowmans’ Sep/Oct 1983 Tunnel Talk [28]
My
last tunnel notes were written on June 25th.
Since that day much has happened in and around the tunnel north
end. The mammoth shield was
completely constructed in the enlarged chamber at 140/50 metres.
Articulated vehicles commenced a delivery of various sized
concrete segments. Often
six deliveries were made each day . . .the stacks of these large
segments changed the profile of the work-yard. The
concrete segments were made by C.C. Buchan (concrete) Ltd. Of Coleshill,
Birmingham. Early in July
the segments for the new section went into the tunnel. Two
861 Volvo dumpers take them in: the drivers have to make all the inward
journeys in reverse – a neck twisting job – which, with the
deliveries gettingever longer, the drivers could become the first of a
new Homo Sapiens Species to have fully rotating necks through 360
degrees ! By
July 6th, the miners had constructed 30 concrete rings:
each ring is made up of 13 segments, making the weight of each
ring 11 tonnes. It is
anticipated that 1,225 rings will be needed to rebuild the mid-tunnel
length. Each ring is .74
metre wide. St. Swithen’s
day (July 15th) came and went without rain so it was assumed
that as it had not rained, that we should have 40 days of hot weather
instead of the proverbial 40 days and nights of wet weather – thank
you St. Swithen. Tons
of cement in bulk and bags arrived too, all being destined for the
tunnel. By various
operations the cements are for infilling the spaces behind the new
segmented lining. Grouting
by pressure injection is a hot dirty and tough operation.
A small team of ‘grouters’ get rid of some 12 tins of liquid
mixture each shift of 8 hours ! At
the end of July, 118 complete rings had been installed.
My July visits were concluded with an unexpected bonus . . . a
toadstool appeared growing from an 180 year old piece of timber in the
tunnel wall which, until recently, had been below water level.
This fleeting fungus growth appeared at 240 metres in, (others
have appeared further in the tunnel). To
date, August 20th, the last ring completed contains two
windowed segments. Segments
with 450mm square windows are inserted in the rings to line up with the
old side headings, so maintaining the existing water inflows which, in
the past have made trips through the tunnel memorable by the cascades of
water, but from now on they will not be quite so spectacular. 283
are in . . . not bad going for two small teams of miners and operators
who share by shiftwork a day and night work force . . . The goal is the
1,875 metre mark, which by rough calculation could be reached by
Christmas 1983. P.S. One site employee to the other,
“I never b . . . well swore until I came to Blisworth Tunnel . . .
!’. The reply came
‘Your’e b. lucky, I had never worked until I came here”. G.F. NORMAN THETFORD 0f
16 Greenside died on July 20th aged 76 years. He stemmed from Norfolk.
Norman came to live in Blisworth 16 years ago and very quietly
took his place in the village community. From
a college training he first taught at March Senior Boys School.
In keeping with many other teachers of his day he realised that
the first campaign in life’s battle is best fought on the Playing
Fields, this he put his heart and soul into.
His second love and personal interest was in drama.
He became an accomplished actor forming many local societies.
He was a member of the Wisbech Male Voice Choir.
He became an active member of the League of Nations Union in 1929
and he was in the armed forces during the last war. Before
coming to Blisworth he taught at the Convent School at Pitsford.
At Blisworth he attended all the drama and musical concerts . . .
assisted in helping others wherever possible.
He compiled many of the questions for the recent popular village
quiz. Norman
slipped into the village quietly, helped quickly and went to hospital
where he quickly and quietly died.
He will be remembered by many. G.F. Nov/Dec 1983 Village
Reflections [29]
A
tribute to Thomas Alfred Thorpe who died September 13th 1983
. Mr. Thorpe was a Mason
and a long serving member of the Parish Council both as a councillor and
chairman. He became a
County Council representative, a school manager and an active member of
the Choral and Drama Societies. He
led an active life in the Home Guard and he sat on the bench at
Towcester for 29 years. He
served on the Church Parochial Council and was for some time the
Rector’s Warden. Up to
the time of his death he was Vice Chairman of the Northamptonshire
County Association for the Blind. Mr.
Thorpe certainly served Blisworth well, he had a full and happy time
together with his wife, son, daughter and five grand-children.
What better ! Doris
Collins died on October 6th.
Village born ‘Doll Leach’, as she was known by village folk
was a faithful member of the Baptist Chapel.
It was said that if the Chapel door was open, then Dolly was
there. She taught at the
Sunday School and played the piano.
Dolly and her mother were always to be found when village
functions such as the Women’s Institute, Coronation and Jubilee days
called for tea. ‘Thanks
for the memories’. G.F. Jan/Feb 1984 A New Year
Starter [30]
On
October 12th 1918 a great character of the village was
buried. He was 73 years old
and had lived and worked at the cottage now numbered 20 Stoke Road.
In his days the village houses were not numbered but went by the
occupants name. Everybody
knew JOHN GREEN for his trade was that of cobbler and when he was not
cobbling he was thinking up song tunes and words and church music, he
was a self taught organist. He
also wrote hundreds of poems, which he illustrated with wonderful pen
work . . . It is said that he never repeated his pen style twice . . .
the following lines were written by him and displayed in the ‘Royal
Oak’ . . . see what you make of them ! BE
A MERRY TEST, FRIENDS, AND ENJOY OUR YOUR CIGARS GLASS,
THE AND VERY CALL BEST; IN BE WHEN ALWAYS YOU JOVIAL
THIS WHILE WAY YOU PASS; STAY
YOU’LL PART FIND FRIENDS OUR DRINKS CALL WILL
ANOTHER STAND DAY Key
to the wording: Beginning
with the first word, read each alternate word ie.1st, 3rd
5th, etc .to the end. Then
return to the beginning and read 2nd, 4th, 6th,
etc. and you will find that you are invited to the Blisworth Royal Oak .
. . G.F. Happy New Year Tunnel News [31]
My daily visits to the tunnel workings reached a climax on
December 16th when at 10.30 on that day I witnessed the last
segment being handled into the final concrete ring of the new section of
Blisworth tunnel. Instead
of penning a full report on the tunnel to date, I hope to give you a
pictorial story (slides & talk) of the last half of 1983 as
follows:- THE
BUILDING OF THE NEW SECTION OF BLISWORTH TUNNEL MARCH
TO DEC 1983 At
Village Hall 7.30pm – Tuesday Jan 31st
50p AND
REPEATED TUESDAY
7th FEB . SAME PLACE . SAME TIME Blisworth Hotel [32]
Blisworth
Hotel was born on the 25th March 1847 when the Duke of
Grafton granted to a Mr. Shaw of Northampton a seventy nine year lease
to build a Hotel on land adjacent to the newly opened Blisworth Station
and the branch line of 1845 to Peterborough via Northampton. This
new form of Hotel, often named ‘Railway Hotels’ spread rapidly with
the growth of the national
railway system. It was
assumed that train travellers would need to break their journeys and
stay at nearby hotels. The
Blisworth Hotel was also provided with an extensive pleasure garden
which was destined to provide a most pleasant venue for thousands of
Northamptonians and others who came by rail from greater distances.
Week-end entertainments included balloon ascents, picnics, mass
bands, and many other current forms of ‘fun giving’. Good
stabling was also provided for hunters, the horses often arrived with
their owners, or were hired to the many folk who came by train to hunt
with the Grafton, or Pytchley Hunts. Faced
with the many changes of the various modes of travel over the years the
Hotel has adapted itself very well.
The ever increasing travellers on the nearby A43 and the M1, a
couple of miles away at exit 15, almost turned the Hotel into a newly
coined name ‘Motel’, yet pleasantly retaining its local connections.
The once splendid ‘Pleasure Gardens’ are now a property
separated from the Hotel ownership and have become a residential caravan
park. This
historic local, long surviving Hotel deserves to win and progress, long
may it do so. G.F. JOHN
& JOYCE WELCOME YOU TO THE
BLISWORTH HOTEL We
have completely re-decorated the BARS, rendering them warm and Comfortable 2
POOL TABLES have been installed & A
DART’S ROOM refurbished RESTAURANT Mar/Apr 1984 Tunnel Talk [33]
Firstly
I wish to say ‘thank you’ to all who supported the two “Blisworth
Tunnel’ evenings. I
consider myself so fortunate and privileged beyond words in being
allowed to follow the workings so intimately and as the job will go on
for many more months, I hope that I can conclude my recordings for your
pleasure next winter. I,
in company with many other village folk, have often thought that the
black hole of the tunnel was ghoulish, dank and something which just
went on and on . . . It also has had many bad chapters during its 179
years, accidents causing boats to sink, deaths by drowning and
asphyxiations. Over many
years however, in friendly association with the various local resident
canal engineers, I have made a fair study of the old structure, but over
the past two years I have witnessed a transformation of the old tunnel
beyond my wildest dreams. Not
only do I hand out full marks to the present tunnel miners and their
support teams using highly technical machinery and equipment, but I do
also acknowledge the efforts
of our own village men who, with other canal workers kept the tunnel
going by countless hours of day and night work over the past 179 years. On
Friday December 16th at 10.30am I, together with five members
of the attendant ‘on-site’ engineers, saw the completion of the last
of the great segmental rings which brought the total up to 1,223, thus
completing the re-built middle length of the tunnel. This is not the end of the story . . . there is still much
work to be done . . . As the last two tunnel talks were on Tuesdays, I have been asked to give one more so that others can attend. One of the very few evenings available at the Village Hall is on a Monday. Therefore there will be . . . A Repeat Tunnel Talk with Slides on MONDAY
MARCH 26th at 8pm.
(50p & 25p) G.F. May/Jun 1984 Tunnel Talk [34]
Most
of you will have seen or heard that the restoration of the tunnel is six
months ahead of schedule and that it will be open for traffic by this
coming Autumn . . . then will follow the restoration of the areas
disturbed around both north and south portals.
In all probability an official Opening Ceremony will occur when
the whole job is completed next year.
That’s my guess ! .
. . Mr. John Woods, the Mowlems Site Agent will give a talk (with
slides) in the Village Hall as soon as it can be arranged.
The title of the talk will be:- ‘Mowlems reply to
George’ Maybe
I shall be heavily slated ! But
it’s too late to apologise for my misdoings !
Watch for date and place of this ‘exposure’ on the Post
Office wall notice board. A collection will be taken for the Primary School Equipment
Fund. G.F. Memorial Plaque Of
late, numerous Village folk have registered concern at the disappearance
of the Memorial Plaque from the end wall of ‘CRIEFF HOUSE’ in Stoke
Road. It is quite safe and
now restored, for it had suffered from the weather and vandalism.
It will soon present itself in the Village.
In the next issue of ‘R&A’ I will give its full history. G.F. Jul/Aug 1984 Blisworth Tunnel
News [35]
You
all would have heard or read that the Blisworth Tunnel will be opened by
the Waterways new Chairman, recently knighted – Sir Leslie Young.
The date is WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22nd.
I somehow think that British Waterways will plug for the ‘Big
Show’ to be held at Stoke Bruerne for there they have their
‘Showcase’ museum and other amenities.
The Blisworth end, having carried the weight of the construction
road and greater disturbance, will take longer to put in order.
Perhaps the Parish Council will soon know something positive, so
that some sort of celebration could be made at Blisworth. I
can hardly believe that way back in April 1981 I made my first
observation and commenced a log book of events.
Since then I have noted most of the work, and making a quick
assessment, I seem to have penned some 120,000 words. I
dare not make a count of the slides taken, but these I hope will produce
a few more happy get-togethers in the Village Hall over the coming
Autumn and Winter. G.F. MEMORIAL PLAQUE [35] In
the last issue of ‘Round & About’ I made a brief reference to
the MEMORIAL PLAQUE which had been removed from the end wall of
‘CRIEFF HOUSE’ while Mr. Fairs was having the stonework re-pointed.
The plaque has since been refurbished by FRANK WEBB.
A new oak frame was the work of BILL NIGHTINGALE of Gayton.
The oak was donated by British Waterways Board.
The frame has been fitted with unbreakable glass donated by
Messrs. Glass Ltd. Northampton. All
negotiations and transporting the plaque around was the kindly work of
P.C. COLIN WOOD. Alternative
locations for hanging the plaque were considered by the Parish Council,
but it has been resolved to put it back to its original position on
‘Crieff House’ by kind permission of Mr. Fairs and at the request of
Mrs. Webb. Memorial
plaques can be found on walls and in churches throughout the county.
At the end of the last war, Sir Thomas Hesketh put forward the
idea of a county appeal to commemorate the fallen in battle in the form
of a new hospital out-patients department.
This proposal was received with enthusiasm.
Within 3 years £250,000
was raised and the new hospital department was built. In
Blisworth, meetings were held and Committees formed headed by the
landlord of the ‘Royal Oak’, Mr. SAM BROWN.
Competitions and Flower Shows were held and a total sum of £800
went from Blisworth to the Hospital Memorial Fund.
In due course the village received the inscribed plaque which was
placed on the end wall of ‘Crieff House’ then occupied by Mr. &
Mrs. T. THORPE, Mr. Thorpe being the treasurer of the Appeals Fund of
Blisworth. The plaque
carried a deeper meaning and a historic recording by the added names of
two villagers who lost their lives during the 1939-45 war:- P.G.
MALIN (who married a
village girl Miss. BERYL PACEY and T.A.
WHITMORE (Blisworth born
and unmarried) Private
Malin lost his life in the great battle around the strategic Casino
Monastery in Italy. It was
during a Mediterranean sortie that Tommy Whitmore was shot up.
He was the only one of the crew to be killed and was buried in
Malta on November 7th 1941 aged 25 years.
The names of Percy Malin and Tommy Whitmore are also recorded on
the Churchyard Memorial Cross together with the names of the 23 village
men who died during the 1914-1918 war.
The war dead are also recorded in the Baptist Chapel Memorial
Book. I
AM INDEBTED TO Mrs. FRANCES WEBB (nee Whitmore) who gave me the
information regarding her brother Tommy and to Miss E. Pacey for the
story of her nieces husband Percy Malin.
The plaque carries the following:- ‘SWEET
MERCY IS NOBILITY’S TRUE BADGE’ G.F. Plowmans Sep/Oct 1984 Blisworth Tunnel
News [36]
The
tunnel story is now coming to an end . . . most of you will know that
the water was let into the tunnel over the past weekend (Aug 19/20) and
by the time you receice this current ‘Round and About’ the tunnel
will have been officially opened by the Chairman of the British
Waterways Board , Sir Leslie Young, CBE., DL.
In hope to continue my canal jottings for there are lots of jobs
to be done yet, and I guess that the contractors and finally the
consultants will be with us for a few more months.
Then nature will have its fling and next year it will be as
though little has happened. I
thought it fitting to include some of the report which appeared in the
‘Northampton Mercury’ on 30th March 1805.
This very full report was headed:- THE
OPENING OF THE GREAT TUNNEL AT BLISWORTH 25
MARCH 1805 ‘The
Grand Junction Canal – that grand line of communication between the
metropolis and the most distant parts of the kingdom, which the Grand
Junction Canal was to effect, was completed on Monday last when an
amazingly large concourse of people assembled, some of them from
considerable distances, to view the stupendous works at Blisworth
Tunnel, and to see the grand procession in honour of the opening of it.
One of the Paddington packet-boats, called The Marquess of
Buckingham, was the first boat that went through the tunnel.
This was early in the morning in order to join the other boats
assembled at the north end of the tunnel, at Blisworth, to form a grand
procession. About eleven
o’clock the committee of the Canal Company (who had superintended this
great work), messrs. Praed, Mansell, Unwin, Parkinson and Smith and a
great number of others of the principle proprietors, entered the boats
attended by messrs. Telford, Bevan and others of the engineers employed
on the canal and by a band of music, and proceeded into the tunnel
amidst the loudest acclamations of the spectators.
The pitchy darkness of the tunnel was shortly relieved by a
number of flambeaux and lights; .
. . . . . . . . In an hour and two minutes the boats with the company
arrived at the south end of the tunnel and were greeted by the loud
huzzas of at least five thousand persons who were assembled and who
accompanied the boats with continual cheers as they proceeded down the
locks to Stoke and from thence to Old Stratford.’ I
hope to continue with my tunnel slide evenings, for it is such a pity to
put them away so soon. Watch
the noticeboards please . . . you haven’t finished with me yet !
Kindly folk ask me what I’ll do now, I need only show them a
neglected cottage garden etc. G.F.
‘Plowmans’ Nov/Dec 1984 WHAT A DAY IT WAS
! [37]
In
1981 I commenced a daily diary of events around the tunnel and canal, a
task which was to take up most of my time over these past three years,
culminating on 22nd August 1984.
At 11am on that Wednesday morning the Blisworth Tunnel was
re-opened by the British Waterways’ chairman, Sir Leslie Young.
And what a pageant it turned out to be.
A day for the young, the not so young and the old ‘uns who
congregated at all points along the canal and up to the north end of the
tunnel. A day of perfect
weather, lots of colour and jollity and little or no commercialism. Many
spectators went overland to join in the fun at Stoke Bruerne.
The ringing of our church bells was carried out by a visiting
team of the Peterborough Diocesan Guild of Ringers
. . .full marks to them. I
was privileged to travel on a replica of a former Blisworth Tunnel tug
named ‘Spider’. Mr.
Bedford was on board too, mostly below deck where he was ‘franking’
his First Day Covers. Most
of the remaining space was occupied by television crews who were
constantly asking me to ‘sit down’, ‘lie down’ or anything just
so long as my head was not in the way.
But I am afraid I could’nt do much about it . . . I think they
would have loved me to have fallen in the ‘cut’.
But it was all good fun. Frank
Bedford’s costume from around the 1800’s was from the Post Office Headquarters’
Museum. Of local interest,
the original tug named ‘Spider’ was followed by successive tugs
named ‘Hasty’, ‘Pilot No.1’, ‘Pilot No.2’ and ‘De Salis’.
The job of the tugs was to haul the working long boats to and fro
in the tunnel, the boat horses going over the hill via the road which we
now call Stoke Road. A
tunnel tug worksheet for 2nd September 1928 shows that ten
trips were made by the tug commencing at 5am with the last haul at
6.30pm. This was a seven
day per week job. Records
also show that in 1908, 12,440 boats were pulled through the tunnel
which represents a tremendous tonnage of goods carried annually by
canal. Now
back to the tunnel and the Mowlem work site.
All the offices, work shops, the cookhouse and most of the work
force have gone. Had it not
have rained so heavily last week the whole site would have been levelled
and handed over once again to Mr. Davies.
He has lost his pleasant ‘hilly’ corner of the field, but he
has gained a more useful acreage, now raised much higher than it was at
the beginning of the tunnel repairs.
The office staff or what is left of them, have housed themselves
in a cottage overlooking the canal within the work yard of the British
Waterways at Blisworth Arm. Their
job will also soon be completed. I
consider myself the most privileged of men to have been alongside the
workforce in all the odd places in and on Blisworth Hill.
I shall certainly not forget them, and somehow I think that many
in return (including the Geordies) will also have a happy remembrance of
Blisworth. NOW
FOR THE COMMERCIAL. I WILL
BE GIVING THE LAST TUNNEL TALK FOR THIS YEAR, TELLING MUCH OF THE STORY
PLUS THE OPENING DAY. THIS
WILL BE ON MONDAY
19th NOVEMBER 7.30pm
in the Village Hall A
collection will be made for the Ethiopian Famine Fund. If
any of you have something that will do for a prize, please Bring
it along so that we may have a draw.
Thank you all. G.F.
‘Plowmans’ Mar/Apr 1985 Blisworth Tunnel
Postcript
After the Mowlem site was vacated,
some of the office staff moved up to temporarary office quarters at
Blisworth Arm. With the
Christmas break over, they made a brief return until 8th
January 1985. The tunnel is
being closed on the 4th of March for two weeks and de-watered
again – this time for an inspection of the work done to see that all
is in order. Somehow I
don’t think I shall want to enter the tunnel again ! And by popular
demand . . . Another
TUNNEL TALK has been arranged for Monday
the 25th of March at 7.45pm in the Villlage Hall There
will be a collection for the Wardington Court Home For the Blind. G. Freeston. Jan/Feb 1985 A Little Bit of
History [38]
On
1st November , All Saints Day, our newly sited Post Office
and posting box came into operation having been transferred from the
Stoke Road/High Street corner. The
new combined Post Office and grocery business now occupies the former
Young’s Stores 1871-1984 , which has been extended to accommodate the
postal department. The
Postmaster, Frank Bedford, and his wife came to the old Post Office in
1979 and this move gives them much more space following a complete refit
of the former grocery business premises. Now
for a little past history. During the previous 200 years, Blisworth played an important
part in postal history. Towards
the end of the 18th century postal communications extended
throughout the county. The
ancient routes such as Watling Street running through Towcester came
fully into use. In 1794
horse drawn Royal Mail coaches were brought into operation.
The London to Chester coach passed through Towcester, which
became a Post staging place. Here
the mails for Northampton and up to Thrapston were transferred by post
boys on horseback and later by postal carts passing through Blisworth.
Retracing our story back to 1793 when work on digging the Grand
Junction Canal began at Blisworth.
As if anticipating the need for an improved road from Towcester
to Northampton for the movement of merchandise arriving at the canal
wharfs, in 1796 this length of road became a Turnpike Road complete with
toll gates and milestones, two of which are within our parish and are
the only survivors between Towcester and Northampton.
The new Turnpike was called the ‘Towcester to Cotton End’
road. A new ‘Grafton
Arms’ coaching inn (now Grafton House) was built near canal bridge 49.
During the following years the running of the Royal Mail coaches
reached the peak of their efficiency.
A rapid decline followed as railways were introduced, for the
speed of the steam train was usually double that of the horse drawn
coaches. Thus with the
coming of the London to Birmingham
line through Blisworth in 1838, not only were local mails carried by
train but the mails for Northampton and district were also handled at
Blisworth. At first, owing
to the slowness of the early trains, the mails were almost man-handled
to and from the train while in motion, but as speeds improved mail bags
were ejected from the mail coach into a large captive net cage and the
outgoing mail bags were hung from a kind of gibbet and collected
as the train rushed by. Occasionally
accidents occurred with the transfer of the bags.
They were torn open and the contents strewn over the line and
embankment. Mails were
carried to and from Towcester and Northampton by mail messengers. In
1845 the branch line from Blisworth to Peterborough was opened.
This then put Northampton on a direct communication with the main
line here. Mail continued to come to Blisworth by the same operation of
the ‘catch nets’ but now the mails for Northampton were carried by
hand along the line to the station and forwarded by train.
Mails for the Towcester area continued to be taken by Mail Cart
until the railway to Towcester was opened in 1866.
Even after the area had total rail communication, high speed
trains continued to use the ‘eject and pick up’ method until world
war II. This had to be
discontinued owing to the enforced ‘blackout’ for as the apparatus
was along the high embankment between the station and the bridge over
the A43, torches and lanterns had to be used.
From about 1860, Blisworth became designated as a Railway Sorting
Office (RSO) and this was all that was necessary for letters addressed
to the village, apart from the person’s name.
Later it was requested that Northants be added.
This continued well into this century.
As the years went on, Blisworth served the
villages of Gayton, Collingtree, and Rothersthorpe with mail,
most of which came to the village in bulk and was sorted in an outhouse
next to the Post Office. Distribution
was by walking or on bicycle – no mean feat at Christmas.
With Christmas still in our minds and our thanks to the motorised
postmen from Northampton, I will bring this chapter to a close. So HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY. G. FREESTON
‘Plowmans’ Mar/Apr 1985 A Little Bit More
History
In
the last issue of ‘Round and About’ I attempted to give a picture of
Blisworth’s contribution to postal history since 1793.
I mentioned the postal prefix of RSO, which I wrongly gave as
‘Railway Sorting Office’. I
should have said ‘Railway Sub-office’. Early
19th century postal records for the village are scarce.
In 1841, Harriet Fretter was a ‘postworker’.
The name of John
Ratley appears, too, as a ‘post person’.
From 1841 Mrs. Ann Coles is listed as a ‘letter receiver’.
She not only conducted the postal business, but was also a
teacher at the village school. Her
schoolboy son was listed as ‘Postboy’ and during her years of duty
the incoming mail was at 8.15am and the outgoing mail was collected at
5pm. Mrs. Coles’ name
disappears in 1869. Around
1871 Mr. Fred Warren became the new Sub-Postmaster.
He lived in one half of a relatively new twin cottage built
earlier on an empty space left by the Great Fire of 1798 (the same
devasting fire had also left a vacant plot adjoining on which the
Northampton Progressive Society built
the unsuccessful grocery shop c.1869 and which in 1870 had
been purchased by Mr. Walter Young).
Mr. Warren’s Post Office was in what is now 21a
High Street. Within the
rear door was an inner porch cut off from the main living room by a
boarded partition. Access for postal business was via a small, glazed sliding
window. Mr. Warren little
knew that coincident with his opening shop, the most popular of all
items of postal communication was to start, ie the Post Card.
They were cheap, plentiful and captured the imagination of the
fast-growing population. All
levels of society were travelling, and the postcard became a medium that
was to reflect their delight in those far away places.
Those early postcards are now collectors’ items.
Post Office business increased with the handling of money orders,
Savings Bank and a telegraph service. By
the early 1880’s a William Hickson takes up the village postal trade,
but as Mr. Warren stayed in his cottage Mr. Hickson took over the
corner premises on the Stoke Road and High Street as his Post Office, a
position which was to continue up to 31st October 1984.
By the turn of the century, Sub-postmaster Alfred Pike took over
the premises vacated by Mr. Hickson.
He was assisted by his daughter Millicent.
In 1903 the trade directory listed Mr. A. Pike as Sub-postmaster
with the following abbreviations: MO,
TO, TMO, ED, PP, SB, A&IO, IRL together with the postal address of
Blisworth RSO Northants. Telegrams
were part of the daily business for as yet the ‘phone had not yet come
to the village. The
Freeston family business was next door to the Post Office, so the
younger boys were often called in to deliver telegrams to the outskirts
of the village or surrounding villages.
The revenue from telegram deliveries was very handy.
If the telegrams carried good news we were offered a tip or a
piece of cake and a drink from the recipient, but quite often the
telegram was a dreaded article – it so often told of disaster, deaths,
or tragic happenings. I have seen folk tremble and cry bitterly over the contents
of such telegrams. With
the Pike family giving up the business, a Mr. W.
Billingham and his wife took over the Post Office.
Their stay was from 1924 to 1936 and they did much to increase
the grocery business as well as the postal side.
The next to take over were Mr. & Mrs. Horace Faulkener,
followed in 1953 by Mr. and Mrs. R. Smith, who retired in 1963.
Mr. Bruce Newman and his wife Pamela (nee Robinson) took over in
1963, selling out in 1979 to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bedford who came to
Blisworth and who on 31st October last year changed the
village pattern by moving shop and Post Office to the former Young’s
Stores, Mr. Bob Young having sold up and retired. Now
I’m going on strike until the next issue of ‘Round and About’ in
which I shall continue with Blisworth’s Postal History – subject to
your approval and the deft fingers of the Editor on her typewriter ! G.F.
‘Plowman’s. May/Jun 1985 Blisworth Postal
History Part Three
In
these third history notes, I wish to elaborate on our past village
telegraph and telephone services. Prior
to 1921, the only telephones at Blisworth were the ones used by the
railway staff at the important Blisworth station, which were for the
internal workings of that huge framework of tracks and trains.
As an ‘under the counter’ act, the Railway wives often
carried non-rail information, such as racing tips, (scandal ! ) or
national news - handy at
times but it all depended on your personal relationship with the
operators of the ‘phones. A
short distance north of the station was (and still is) Blisworth Arm, a
settlement built around the junction of the main canal and the junction
to Northampton. Here was
not only the work yard for the northern section of the Grand Junction
Canal, but the Assistant Engineer of the canal company lived there, Mr.
T. W. Milner. His territory
extended from Braunston to Fenny Stratford and he controlled it by
telegrams, or slips of paper carried by the lengthmen, or a spoken word
direct. It was very natural
for him to think of the telephone as a more efficient means of
controlling his waterways empire. By
1910 he had considered installing a telephone, but his chief, Mr. Gordon
Thomas, did not agree and wrote to Mr. Milner:-
‘I have placed this matter before the chairman and he does not
consider there is the necessity at present for the telephone’. The
GPO needed to have 3 subscribers to make the initial installation
financially viable, so Mr. Alfred Westley of
Messrs. Westley Brothers & Clarke roller flour mill beside
the canal at bridge 51 (now the pepper and spice warehouse) was
interested. Following a
second unsuccessful attempt by Mr. Milner to get the ‘phone installed,
Mr. Westley, when informed, wrote:
‘Dear Mr. Milner, Thanks for your letter of the 5th inst, but I am
afraid that we shall not get it, as so few want it’ (1913). The
next move came from the GPO 3 years later when they again touted for 3
subscribers. But again the
three were not forthcoming. Then
followed seven years of silence before the canal engineer, Mr. Milner,
applied again for a telephone, supported by 7 other subscribers who were
willing to pay the rental of £2. 5s per quarter plus ‘phone call charges. There followed a period of delays and apologies from the GPO
engineers – ‘shortage of materials’ they said.
But at last the Blisworth Arm waterways house and toll house were
connected on 14th of May 1921, with the Northampton number
973. Mr.
Milner’s triumph was short lived, for in September the canal
company’s chairman decided that the phone was too costly and the
contract was terminated ! On
May 14th 1922, Mr. Milner writes (dejectedly) to his
chairman: ‘.
. . begging to report that the Post Office engineers have removed the
telephone. I hope they will
leave the piles (posts) and wires intact for sooner or later I quite
think it advisable to restore the telephone to this office’. It
was not until 1924 that he got his ‘phone connection restored,
together with the 7 new numbers – all 3 were connected to a small
exchange at Roade. Soon
afterwards however a single manual switchboard was installed in the
Stoke Road corner Post Office at Blisworth.
The shop area was much smaller than that of latter days, so
ordinary customers at the Post Office stood next to the young lady
operator as she took calls and manipulated the plugs and wires.
That first assistant was Miss. Cockerill from Gayton.
It was a scene reminiscent of the ‘Wild West’ telephone
operators on our television screens – but what a splendid source for
the gossips to pick up first hand village information. As
new subscribers were connected, it became necessary to build a small
wooden exchange in Little Lane (c.1935) housing the new automatic
apparatus. Its capacity was
for 100 subscribers. The
numbering range was 10-99 and there were 4 call boxes connected to it. Also that exchange was one of the first in the area to use
pre-fabricated equipment which were factory built but wired on the site.
Due to expansion the equipment was upgraded and transferred to a
nearby mobile unit, with the possibility of taking up to 299 customers. In
June 1955, subscribers were again transferred to yet another new
exchange in order to cope with the quantity of new subscribers.
It was then that the new-fangled dialling system commenced, but
this only took in an area of up to 15 miles around Blisworth.
By 1973 the telephone had become a household necessity, so once
again another exchange was built with a wide access road from Little
Lane ( the original wooden one is still nearby).
The cost of this new piece of modern technology was £76,000
and I am told that it will be able to cope with an ever increasing
number of subscribers until the year 1990.
What then I wonder ? Video
screens showing you- and me – when ‘phoning each other.
Oh boy – I must learn to be more discreet ! GEORGE FREESTON,
Plowmans [39] Talking Point
Currently
on the house market is a property in Courteenhall Road at £43,000. Described as ‘an
attractive Victorian end of terrace of four cottages . . . Beautiful
village location’. Built
around 1870 in the traditional Grafton Estate manner, copying an earlier
mode of building in dark (Ironstone) and light coloured (lime) stone and
attractive ‘bargeboard’ decorated gable ends (see the same design in
Stoke Road and corner of High Street/Church Lane).
The terrace in Courteenhall road is first documented in the 1871
census as ‘new cottages’, tenants being James Paxton, Nathaniel
Clark, John Ratford and
James Gaffield Ayres. From
the time of their building, the terrace was most appropriately named
‘Mount Pleasant’ – I would love to think that the four present day
occupants were still using that splendid derivation, for the elevation
facing the west is certainly a splendid situation. The
long gardens front and rear befit the fashion of the period when every
endeavour was made to encourage vegetable growing sufficient to make
cottagers self-supporting. To
end this little story, I now give you the name of the occupants in the
1919 sale catalogue – Mrs. Paxton, Mrs. Douglas,
J. Griffith, and Fred Kirby.
The description read ‘a row of four capital 5 roomed cottages,
long gardens to front and rear and a good well of water.
Their selling price at the 1919 Duke of Grafton’s Wakefield
Estate sale was . . . £450
. . . for the lot of four ( the annual rent paid to the Duke of Grafton
up to 1919 was £23 for the four). To quote
an ancient villager ‘What would the old folk say today’. G.FREESTON
Plowmans Jul/Aug 1985 [40] Gossip Time
For
this month’s property talking point I have chosen to give a brief
account of a top level village residence situated near to the church and
with the entrance to the grounds watched over by three splendid beech
trees in Church Lane, as we now call it, but which used to be called
‘The Alley’. – Yes, you have guessed correctly . . . It is Blisworth
House, which has just changed ownership. As
with most of our long-lived properties, the house has undergone numerous
alterations and has been named, ‘The Mansion’, ‘The Hall’, and now, ‘Blisworth
House’. Way back in the
17th century, it was a typical Northamptonshire long house of
one bay width. The position
of the site would suggest that there must have been earlier dwellings on
the area – early drawings show that there was a dovecote nearby, which
suggests yeoman status at the least.
From the last quarter of the seventeenth century, Blisworth House
was occupied by an already long-established Blisworth family named
Plowman (or Ploughman). In
1702 a William Plowman and his wife Elizabeth ‘modernised’ the north
frontage (facing from Church Lane).
The steeply pitched roof contained dormer windows.
To commemorate their work, William inserted a fine date stone
over the front door in which was cut his, and his wife’s initial plus
‘P’ for Plowman, together with the date 1702.
Until a few years ago the front door was protected by a Victorian
brick-built porch with a slated roof, the apex of which hid most of the
date stone. Some two years
ago, Doctor Gerard Vaughan, M.P., and his wife (now Sir Gerald and Lady
Vaughan) then owners of the house, decided to restore the north front.
The first act was to remove the Victorian porch and in doing so
the fine date stone once again saw the light of day.
Large panels of ivy were also removed from the walls of the house
and the whole façade was sympathetically restored to its 1702
appearance, a most praiseworthy operation. Now
back to 1810 records tell us that it was still a long house of single
bay depth. Some time during
the next 16 years the house was enlarged by building another bay
alongside the old house on the south side.
The new part was topped with a new form of shallow pitch slated
roof. The old steeply
pitched roof was likewise raised and rebuilt to make it similar to the
new roof, thus forming a doubled hipped roof pattern as seen today. The former dormer
windows then became the top range of windows in the newly raised front
wall. These served the
attic rooms. Of local
interest is that welsh slates were unknown in the midlands until the
coming of the canal. By
1796 states were arriving on the canal wharf nearby for sale.
Blisworth House must be amongst the earliest houses in the
village to be slated with that natural product which was soon to
transform the many rooftops of the towns and villages. But
I must stop at this point as it is coffee time.
I’ll continue the story in the next issue. I am almost
forgetting the point of my story !
At the 1919 sale of the Grafton Estate, Blisworth House was sold
for around £3,500.
Early this year Blisworth House was put on the property market. A
price of £170,000
was invited by the agents . . . which I call a ‘snip’. GEORGE FREESTON,
‘Plowmans’. Sep/Oct 1985 Gossip Time
In
penning the regular village stories – I do realise that out of our
population of 1,900 (plus or minus a few dozen) that few families remain
from the pre-war village – I therefore trust that the large number of
post-war villagers will enjoy and understand my ramblings, and thus help
them to put down their roots for the next decade or two. In
the last ‘Round and About’ I referred to Blisworth House and will
continue to do so in this and the next issue.
The
ancient family of ‘Plowman’ came into the story of occupation of
Blisworth House, and also will be the basis of this insert. One
Plowman named William leaves us with a few details of his possessions in
1668 when he made his will. Here
are a few extracts:- ‘I give unto my naturall son Thomas Plowman – the table in the hall, together with three joint stools, my biggest brasse kettle – the great chair from the parlour, and a joint bedstead’. To his wife Elizabeth – William leaves the rest of his household goods – as well as the crop of corn sowed, or to be sown – with all the cows, sheep and other cattel, etc. Thomas the ‘naturall’ son is to have £21 when he reached the age of 21 years. A grandson Fransis is to receive the sum of 5 shillings. The said William Plowman was buried in the chancel – a privileged position – his memorial carried the following inscription:- ‘Stand Still, Reader, and spend a tear’ Upon the dust that slumbers here; And whilst than read-st the fate of me, Think of the glass that runs for thee.’ However,
I trust that rain or shine that all readers enjoyed this new fangled
August Bank Holiday. P.S. I
was reminded that on August 22nd – a year ago – many of
us were basking in that glorious summer sun as we watched and
participated in the re-opening of the Blisworth Tunnel – it certainly
was a day to remember. GEORGE FREESTON,
Plowmans. Nov/Dec 1985 Gossip Time Blisworth House
(No.3)
Remembering
that most of Blisworth was part of the extensive Northamptonshire
Grafton Estate 1673 – 1919, and that Blisworth House had good
stabling, it was only natural that its tenants became active members of
the Grafton Hunt. Thus
from 1800 the list of occupiers of Blisworth House includes names of
Cavalry Officers who had served in battles of the ‘Crimea’ onwards
to ‘World War 1’. In
coming to Blisworth they simply wanted a country gentleman’s life –
with foxes, hounds and a goodly steed. So
it was until 1925, but the happy sequence was broken when the then owner
of Blisworth House out hunting near to Preston Capes was thrown from his
horse and received a broken neck. His body came back to the village in the brushed out
Blisworth bakers delivery van driven by Mr. W. Sturgess and accompanied
by the village constable and the groom.
The villagers were shocked at the Colonel’s untimely death. And
so Canadian born Lieutenant Colonel H.W. Clinch met his death having
served some 30 years with horses in army service which included the South African War and the
Great War (3rd. Hussars).
All he had looked forward to on retirement was a long period of
hunting with the Grafton Hounds, but
it was not to be. Colonel
Clinch was buried at Blisworth in a plain oak coffin made in the
traditional manner by the village carpenter, Mr. William Whitlock,
(Whitty by name and ‘whitty’ by nature.
His words). A copy of the account is as follows:- ‘To making Col: Clinches oak coffin with brass fittings and full attendance. Four bearers at 5/6 each Opening up ground. Rectors fee and tolling the bell’ All for £16. 16 .0 (Old money) Col:
and Mrs. Clinch had come to Blisworth House in 1925.
His widow stayed on at Blisworth until May of 1946 when she died
following a very brief illness. Col:
Clinch was a Magistrate of the County. Mrs.
Clinch dedicated herself to the well being of the village, and was on
the Parish Council for 14 years. Together with Women’s Institute members she compiled a
Blisworth History, and she was a founder member and the first president
when the Womens Institute was formed in 1925. She
was a great supporter of
the Girl Guides Company which was formed in 1922, and in 1935 she became
‘Brown Owl’ to the pack of Brownies. By
her efforts the Parish Field names were recorded and she was an ardent
tree planter. Following
the Colonel’s death in 1925 no ‘hunter’ has since occupied the
stables at Blisworth House. GEORGE FREESTON,
Plowmans Mar/Apr 1986 Blisworth House
Continued Following
Colonel Clinch’s death whilst hunting, his widow stayed on at
Blisworth House but as she was a Christian Scientist by faith she had
little to do with the Village Church. She
bequeathed the house, grounds and contents to a friend from ’World War
I’ days, a Canadian who had come over in the forces and had met up
with Colonel and Mrs. Clinch in the Dover area.
(The Canadian became a professional singer and was sponsored by
Mrs. Clinch). This lucky
man was named Hugh S. Martindale and he and his wife took possession of
the house. He had dreams of
growing peaches commercially on the walls of the kitchen garden . .
maybe our weather did not help him for by 1948 he had changed his mind
and put the house and garden on the property market. In
England at that time a certain Danish gentleman and his English born
wife were looking around the area for a suitable house to move into.
They had almost given up their quest when they were told that
Blisworth House was on the market.
The house was well known to Mrs. Erichsen – for as a young lady
she had often played tennis with Mrs. Clinch.
Mr. Erichsen had never seen it before but he was captivated by it
and the purchase was made for around a figure of £10,000. Mr.
& Mrs. Erichsen together with Mrs. Erichsens daughter then went back
to Copenhagen to pack up their Danish house contents for shipment to
England and BLISWORTH. Also
in their ‘baggage’ was their pony ‘Jane’ and the trap. OUR
STORY NOW GOES BACK TO 1928 . . . Mrs. Erichsen was English and her
first husband was Mr. Basil Laver who was an honorary surgeon at
Northampton General Hospital. They
were married at Gayton Church. Mrs.
Laver (nee Crockett) was ‘given away’ by her grandfather Sir James
Crockett. Within
a few years Mr. Laver had died of cancer leaving behind a widow and a
daughter – Thurle. During
the passing years Mrs. Laver had met and married Mr. K. Erichsen of
Denmark. The family the
moving over to Denmark to live. World
War II came . . . the Germans occupying Denmark.
At Copenhagen where the family lived they could not use their
car, but they had ‘Pony Jane’ and the trap for brief excursions. With
the war over they came to Blisworth as I have described earlier . . .
with their huge amount of goods and chattels plus ‘Jane’ and trap.
Their Danish cook also came, as well as a Danish au pair.
(Something for the village gallants to get excited about).
Not only did one such ‘lovely’ come, but others followed to
help in Blisworth House . . .so hearts continued to flutter with two of
them marrying village suitors. Now
a word about ‘Jane’ the four legged filly . . . on arrival at
Blisworth ‘Jane’ was put in the loose box which had been used before
by the late Colonel’s hunter . . . ‘Jane’ was unsettled . . . for
at the first moment possible she escaped; running after her were the
gardener and a house manager shouting at the top of their voices
‘STOP’ . . . ‘HALT’, ‘WHOA’.
But ‘Jane’ did not know the English language so she kept trotting.
It was not until Mr. Erichsen caught up with her and quietly said
in Danish ‘HOLLER-OP’ that ‘Jane’ was brought home. Mr.
Erichsen established a Danish Piggery . . . producing high quality
Danish Bacon. Even the pig
houses were fitted with double glazing long before we even knew the
term. In
1953 a farm named ‘Home Farm’ in Stoke Road was put on the property
market. The farm building
and land extended eastwards with the house
on the street front and a nice kitchen garden occupying a plot of
ground opposite, bound by Church Lane and Stoke Road, which also was in
the sale. Mr.
Erichsen wishing to increase his pig farming bought Home Farm and land .
. . The farm buildings were converted into Piggeries with a young Danish
manager occupying the farm house. In
1966 Mr. Erichsen decided to ‘retire’ so the ‘Home Farm’ with
house and land was sold. At
the same time other parcels of land adjoining were sold. With
a demand for new housing it was inevitable that the land would be built
on . . . and so it was, forming the new roads of ‘Buttmead’, Home
Close’, ‘Eastfield’, ‘Windmill Avenue’, ‘Wellspring’ etc.
The new street names were related to the former fields in the
area. The Farm House was
demolished to make way for ‘Buttmead’, the road into the new estate.
It was the greatest change the village had ever undergone,
doubling the population in one great swoop. Mr.
Erichsen died in December 1970, aged 80 years. Later
in time his widow vacated Blisworth House in favour of her daughter and
husband Doctor Gerard Vaughan M.P.
Mrs. Erichsen having converted the old stable and coach house
block into a delightful home into which she moved. The
transformation of the stable block was done in a delightful manner so
that few would now now that it had been changed . . . the former wide
doors to the loose boxes were left ‘in situ’, ‘Jane’s’ old
door is still there and can be opened . . . but . . . the opening is now
bricked up. All former
doorways are treated similarly. Blisworth
House was once more vacated by Sir Gerard and Lady Vaughan in 1985 and
put on the ‘Estate Market’. To be continued . .
. GEORGE FREESTON
Plowmans May/Jun 1986 Blisworth House This
jotting brings the current story up to date . . . Over
the past 150 years or so little mention is made of children at Blisworth
House. As most of the
tenants were retired from the Army, their children if any, were grown up
before their parents came to Blisworth. Following
the sale of Blisworth House last June, 1985 the ‘Family Situation’
has undergone a complete turn around . . . there are now four children
to romp about in the delightful surroundings.
Two families own the house but it is occupied by three families
(this may sound a bit ‘Double Dutch’) but all will be revealed. Starting
with the elders of whom there are two . . . Mr. and Mrs. F. Yardley,
then follow their daughter and son in law . . . LESLEY AND Bob Daniel,
who have two children . . . Zoe, (8 years) and (Thomas (6 years). To
complement the happy household are two friends . . . Marilyn and John
Dalton who also have two children, Alex (6 years) and Lizzie (3 years).
Three of the children go to Blisworth School and little
Lizzie goes to the ‘Woodleys Farm Nursery’ which is on the A508 near
to Courteenhall House drive entrance . . . (a point of interest is that
Woodleys Farm was at one time a Coaching Inn called the ‘New Inn’
near to which was a Toll Gate . . . also it is said that the House is in
Courteenhall Parish and the farm buildings adjoining are in Roade
Parish). The
parents of the children are involved in ‘Computerisation’ (if there
is such a word), teaching, and other modern technicalities . . . far
beyond me . . . and are scattered between Milton Keynes, London, and
Buckingham University where Bob Daniel is a Professor of Business
Studies. To
put on record their first Christmas at Blisworth I can only but say the
following . . . There were 19 folk seated at a long table which number
include four sets (or pairs) of Grandparents belonging to those present
which is in itself unusual . . . and, what reads like a page from Mrs.
Beeton’s Every Day Cookery Book, the spread was made up of Pheasant,
Turkey, Duck, Partridge, and Pigeon plus . . . after which they were
able to survive their first winter in the house and the most severe
since 1947 . . . but I understand that they did suffer a few
‘bursts’ . . . with their domestic plumbing. I
wish them a long and happy stay in the house and grounds which over all
my lifetime I have known so well, with no changes in its general
structure. Long
may it survive. G. FREESTON
Plowmans Nov/Dec 1985 [41] The Bus Shelter Congratulations
to ‘Snowy’ and his partner for putting the jigsaw of stones together
so well. I do hope that he
will not be called on again for such a job . . . but who can tell with
so much traffic about . . .
Considering this last accident I feel that it’s unique
occurrence deserves recording. Here
goes . . . Many will remember a friendly gentleman who ran the village
garage some years ago . . . I won’t give his name other than calling
him Mr. H.
[Henson, R.F.] Well on a certain morning
Mr. H. came to Blisworth on business and he parked his vehicle in the
Stoke Road, leaving in the cab his dogs one of which was an Alsatian
(the guard dog) . . . Off
goes Mr. H. . . . but
the dogs became restless and the handbrake was released.
Slowly the vehicle moved off down the slope . . . faster and
faster, safely crossing the main road which miraculously was free of
other traffic – which in itself was unusual – until it buried itself
in the bus shelter. The
first person to rush up to the scene went to the cab door expecting to
find an injured driver – BUT INSTEAD he was confronted by the sight of
a competent Alsatian sitting in the drivers seat with its two front paws
on the wheel – as much as to say ‘How’s that for a bit of good
driving ?’ . Needless
to say the dog would not let anyone touch the door – so until Mr. H.
was found little could be done – I have not been able to find anyone
to describe the look on Mr. H’s face – or what he said when he was
told of his dogs escapade . . . perhaps it was better not ! That’s
all for now. GEORGE FREESTON,
Plowmans. Jan/Feb 1986 Gossip Time [42] Christmas
morning – Blisworth 1940 – War Time, and stories of German
parachutists abounded, so the local policeman [Mr. Wooding {R.F.} was not exactly concerned
when his dream of a quiet Christmas was rudely shattered when a message
came that a house had been broken into in the village. He rallied a partner and proceeded to the case. Seemingly
a neighbour next to the house in question had been asked to ‘keep an
eye’ on it while the owners were away for Christmas, and it was he who
saw a broken window and notified the Police . . . (The
cottage was in fact Victoria House in Stoke Road now occupied by Mr. and
Mrs. M. Holiday and the son Edward.)
Two Policemen soon arrived and were met by the informant who had
set himself up with a large axe . . . he showed them the broken window .
. in true Sherlock Holme’s pattern they explored the garden and found
‘LARGE’ footprints leading to the house.
Looking through a window they saw the footprints again . . . wet
and muddy . . . ‘Ah Ha’ they said, and with the key provided by the
helper they entered the house and followed the footstep marks up the
stairs . . . peeping into the bedroom from which issued sounds of heavy
breathing. . . . The three wise men withdrew to hold a conference to
determine the method of attack. They
had seen that the intruder was dressed in a uniform and that his face
and hands were covered in cuts, scratches and abrasions.
In the words of the Constable they decided to take no chances . .
. so they rushed the bed and handcuffed the man before he was aware of
what was happening . . . the helpful neighbour stood at the door with
the axe raised, holding the line of retreat.
The prisoner now awake muttered words of which the police thought
could be French or English . . . even noticing a slight accent ! Their
hopes of a medal each were soon dashed when the ‘body’ recognising
the police uniforms announced that he was an Officer in the Canadian Air
Force. The
foursome then withdrew to the neighbours house where they partook of
strong hot tea liberally laced with precious war time Scotch. The
Officer fully recovered then told his remarkable story . . . He had, he
said, well and truly celebrated Christmas with friends in London on
Christmas Eve and was very much ‘under the weather’ . . . His
friends knowing that he had to report to the North bundled him into the
‘Night Scot’ at Euston Station and the Guard was asked to put the
‘body’ of at Crewe. Sleep
soon came to the traveller and he did not awaken until he was needing a
toilet . . . at this very time he was approaching Blisworth at 80mph and
when on the high embankment between the A43 road bridge and the canal he
opened the carriage door proper instead of the toilet door . . . he was
literally flung out into the night . . . crashing down the embankment in
the fog and pitch darkness. When
he regained his feet he plodded in the direction of the canal . . . on
climbing over the railway wooden fence he moved a
few steps and fell . . . straight into the cold canal. He
blindly struck out and refound the towpath which he followed southwards
little knowing where he was or where he was going.
He certainly reached somewhere in the tunnel area, for he
clambered up the bank and found himself in the garden of Victoria House
(at that time there was no Green Side or new Stoke Road housing). He
said he knocked gently on the house door . . . but as no one answered he
broke a window and put himself to bed . . . and slept and slept . . .
until he was rudely awakened by the Policeman . . . His story was
believed. To
confirm his story they all went up to Blisworth Station where the night
staff had noticed that the ‘Night Scot’ roaring through the Station
had a door swinging open. Rugby
was notified and the train was stopped . . . the poor puzzled guard had
to report that his ‘charge’ was missing, so a search was made at
Blisworth, in the darkness,
but NO body was found. With
daylight the search was resumed, and they were able to see the bashed
path through the undergrowth where the body had travelled.
They thought that no one could have survived such a fall but it
was later rightly surmised that the speed of the train, coupled with the
angle with which he met the
ground, had saved his life. The
railway staff were able to put him on another north bound train, but
before departing the Officer insisted that he left ten shillings to pay
for the broken window and the mess in the house ! The
true occupants came home after Christmas and were amused to hear the
story . . . So like the true Christmas bed time stories – ‘they all
lived happily ever after’. (Appended Note) . .
. The house holders were a Mr. and Mrs. J. Taylor and their two school
boys, one named Julian and the other Jeremy . . . both boys loved our
village which supplied them with all they needed to satisfy their thirst
in ornithology, botany, and geology.
These studies they still follow as a profession.
The family is now at Alstone, near to Tewkesbury. Mrs.
Taylor on the telephone thought that the date of the incident could have
been later than 1940* . . . I hope that a reader will fully remember
when it happened and be able to fill in any gaps for this village story
of long ago . . . My
thanks go to Parish Clerk – Tony Lack who came across the case via a
friend, of a friend, who was related to one of the Police Officers who
caught the ‘prisoner’. – Thanks Tony. *
[Correction by George in Mar/Apr R&A.
‘Following
my Christmas Story of Victoria House and the uninvited guest, I have
been corrected with the date of the incident.
It was 1943 (not 1940), also, the next door neighbour was Mr.
William Perkins and his wife with Miss Annie Massey next to them . .
.’
GEORGE FREESTON
Plowmans That
leaves me to Wish all readers a comfortable, SAFE and Happy Christmas
Period . . . and coupled with two moralisers . . . Don’t drink and
drive . . . and don’t take a train journey and drink either . . . See
what I mean . . . GEORGE FREESTON,
Plowmans Jul/Aug 1986 [43] Gossip Time Around
900 years ago Blisworth was surveyed and recorded in Domesday Book.
For the next 800 years it is highly probable that the landscape
and lay of the parish contours would have been the same, there had been
no need to change it. However,
my next series of the Blisworth Story begins in 1793 when the first of
many great dramatic changes occurred. Blisworth
folk in that year were aware that we had gone to war with France and
that the militia were being sent to Ireland.
They too could have heard tales of something far away in the
North where an Industrial Revolution was at hand . . .
but Blisworth was safe from all that?
So they must have thought. They
must have been aware though of strangers walking the fields surveying.
‘Surveying what?’ . . . for they would gossip around and in
all probability the news would go round that a grand man made waterway
was to be built through the
parish fields . . . where’s the water coming from? . . . and how can
they go up and over hills? Soon
they were to see it happening for early in 1793 the navvies commenced
digging and building the Grand Junction Canal at Braunston where it
joined the Oxford Canal. By
September 1796 the great ditch had arrived at Blisworth.
Digging was suspended and the water filled the new length of
approximately 16 miles to the Braunston area, and beyond to the coal
fields etc. A
Wharf was constructed where the A43 now crosses over the canal in the
region of the Pepper and Spice Mill. Thousands of tons of coal and other materials arrived and
were distributed by road to around and including Northampton and
Towcester etc. The
village of 1793 was a closely knit cluster of farm-houses, barns,
workers dwellings and the 12th century Church, from the tower
of which surveyors and villagers climbed to have a birds-eye view of the
canal trailing away to the north. It
wasn’t until 1805 when the canal was completed southwards (Including
Blisworth Tunnel), that a through canal from London to Birmingham etc.
was fully open. The
ancient water mill was at the bottom of the present Chapel Hill, not
then so called for the Chapel had not yet been built. There
were no outlying farms and the canal was cut through the unenclosed
outer stretches of parish land. (ie. No hedges or enclosures were
evident.) The
parish was roughly divided into four sections (Mrs. Clinch’s Blisworth
History). One quarter
belonged to the rector as Glebe Land. The
other three acres were cultivated in strip pattern.
When ploughed the soil was built up into the attractive ‘Ridge
and Furrow’ pattern the remains of which are now seen at their best in
the old station area, and around Blisworth Arm. Apart
from the Church land no one man held any great sections, for the parish
was handed out annually in small sections at all points of the parish,
so creating a fair distribution of good and bad soil conditions.
Crop rotation was discussed and controlled at the annual ‘Court
Leets’. The crops in
general cultivation were corn, beans or roots, and one third was left to
lay fallow. Cattle would be
turned onto sick ground, grazing whatever there was to find, and
manuring it. Each year the
pattern was rotated. The
surrounding villages were connected by grass lanes, good in summer, but
rough in winter. The
village straddled the ancient route from Oxford to Northampton but this
was in general disrepair. Practically
all the land and properties belonged to a succession of Dukes of
Grafton. In 1773 the Lord
of the Manor was Augustus Henry the 3rd Duke of Grafton
(1735-1811). His
Northamptonshire family house (or Mansion) was at Wakefield Lawn,
situated in the parish of Potterspury. The
lay of the land and the old strip plough system had probably been the
same since Saxon days, but all was soon to change.
1793 was the great turning point for village history. So
having briefly outlined a village and parish of ancient days, I invite
readers to go out on the coming summer evenings north-west up the canal
tow-path, to survey the great railway tree covered embankment, and
splendid stone arch. Make
this record of all the buildings you see. The Blisworth Hotel, the caravan park, and space opposite to
the Hotel where since 1845 the important Blisworth Station stood.
(closed in 1960 with the final demolition in 1972). Carry
on to Blisworth Arm, weigh up the properties, count all the bridges,
such as railway or canal (there are at least 12 assorted). Look
at the old snippets of grass field still displaying their ridge and
furrow patterns. Then
when you are back home shut your eyes and try and make a mental picture
of the area you have just surveyed.
Having removed almost everything you have seen, most of them man
made, you will be back in
your imagination to 1793. By
now if you are not exhausted, I
am. I will continue the
story of the vast developments which occurred to the parish in general
during the last century, and into this. G. Freeston
‘Plowmans’ Sep/Oct 1986
No contribution from George Nov/Dec 1986
Missing Jan/Feb 1987
Missing Mar/Apr 1987
Missing May/Jun 1987 [44] Gossip Time ‘Station
Road’ walk
about continued . . . In
the March/April Round and About we parted company at the former Station
Masters house now in ‘Private Hands’. If
you still have that copy I would ask you to refer to the map
occasionally for it still includes items which I have written about this
time. On
the south frontage of the ‘Station Masters’ house you will see a
short length of track leading from the Station Road towards the Railway.
It was yet another access road to the railway siding from the
main line, on which cattle came to Blisworth in large numbers especially
for the Northampton Cattle Market.
It is fenced on both sides and has gates at either end.
As many as 300 head of cattle would arrive at any one time, so
fencing and gates played a major part in marshalling the animals, which
were a bit wild after their long journey in the cattle trucks. Gates
were also erected across the approach to the Station main buildings,
together with the Hotel forecourt on both north and south approaches.
The Station Road from the A43 was the property of the Railway
Company and to assert their ownership they closed all gates once a year
for a day. Intending
passengers and other road users having an agreement with the company
would of course be admitted. Of
further interest, when the Station Road from the Northampton Road was
first made it only went as far as the Station and Hotel complex.
It was not until 1850/51 that the road was extended alongside the
Hotel gardens (Now the Caravan Park) to join up with the existing
Blisworth Arm and Gayton and Tiffield Lanes as we now know it. It
is highly probable though that once again the aforesaid Lane will become
a cul-de-sac for the Blisworth By-Pass flyover will ‘muck things up’
somewhat for that area. Now
back again to the ‘Station Masters’ house next to the former cattle
unloading bay. This
following narrative comes to you via me from an old friend, Doctor
Leonard Griffith who together with his wife lives in British Columbia.
Leonard’s parents lived at Cliff Hill Farm where he was born.
This property is now owned by the aged Mr. George Bonsor.
Doctor Griffith’s father was a foremost Midlands cattle dealer,
as well as trading extensively in Gloucestershire which was well
serviced with a railway system connected to Blisworth Station.
On occasions writes Dr. Griffith cattle were sometimes herded in
the vicinity of the Hotel frontage.
The Hotel had a permanent resident, a splendid grey amazon
talking parrot. As the
cattle were controlled by dogs and the whistle calls of the drovers, so
the parrot did its best by copying the whistles and shouts, adding much
confusion to the scene, for the dogs could not differentiate between man
and bird ! ! Dr.
Griffith’s second story tells of cattle arriving and being started on
their walk to fields adjoining the A43.
As they approached Stockwell Bridge no.49 (see map) the animals,
after their journey in cattle trucks, badly needed a drink. As they smelt the canal some of them would leap over the
parapet wall, or were perhaps pushed over by the pressure of other
beasts as they squeezed together between the narrow bridge walls, and
would land in the canal, suffering no apparent discomfort.
One hard winter day however the canal was deeply iced over.
About 20 animals likewise smelling the water of the canal went
over the parapet wall breaking the thick ice.
They were drowned and Dr. Griffith said that it was weeks before
the thaw came and then the corpses could be seen under the ice.
A sad story indeed. At
this point of the narrative some of you in viewing the five foot walls
of the bridge today may doubt these words, but since those days the
‘Stockwell Bridge’ has been rebuilt, the former ancient bridge was
very humped backed, with narrower and much lower walls. As
we are still at the viewing point on the said bridge I invite you to
look northwards to the concrete bridge from 1838 that carries the main
London to Birmingham line. Within
that concrete casing is the original cast iron bridge.
Go and look at the underside and there you will see part of the
iron work. The
strengthening of the bridge was carried out at the time of electrifying
the line. Many
will remember the splendid building that stood directly next to the
bridge on the south west side; that handsome example of early Victorian
railway architecture was erected in 1846 and demolished in 1966 (It
really should have survived as a Train ‘Buffs’ ‘IDEAL HOME’ or
‘MUSEUM’. The ground
floor housed a water pumping engine etc., to force ‘canal’ water
from the two adjacent reservoirs up to the massive iron tank on the roof
which Mr. Chambers of Stoke Road informs me held 40,000 gallons of
water. The middle section
of the building was the home for a series of resident engineers and
their families. Access to
their front door was up the flight of stairs which can be seen in the
photo. Originally
there was another group of lesser buildings attached and a tall square
chimney which extended well above the whole building.
There was also a sizeable Gasometer and Gas Retort; in other
words gas was made there for lighting the Station (except signal lamps)
and I think the adjoining Hotel and the house named ‘The Loundes’
nearby, but more of this in the next issue. So
much for that past history. What we now see is the splendid new stone built bungalow
alongside the canal. The
two reservoirs are still there between the bungalow and the canal. One was almost filled with rubble when the ‘Gas House’
was demolished, but one survives as a super private fish ‘tank’. Now
Who owns the new bungalow, field and reservoirs?
None other than Mr. and Mrs.
Peter Griffith. Doctor Leonard Griffith out in British Columbia is Peter’s
uncle. It’s a small world
at times. It’s a home
coming for Peter, for with marriage he moved away from Blisworth where
he had lived together with his parents and brothers, John, Bill, and Roy
in a bungalow on the same site which was demolished to make way for HIS
new home a few yards away from where they all started life.
So Best Wishes to Peter, wife Fay, daughter Katie and ‘Wild and
Woolly’ motor cyclist trials rider James. P.S. The
annual gallonage of canal water taken via the large header tank for
‘feeding’ the great steam trains at Blisworth Station was
staggering. In 1903 for
instance it was 8,846,819 which was good revenue for the Canal Company. George Freeston.
Plowmans. Thomas Hardy wrote
this:-
I know not how it may be with others
Who sit amid relics of householdry
That date from the days of their mothers’ mothers,
But well I know how it is with me
Continually.
I see the hands of the generations
That owned each shiny familiar thing
In play on its bump and indentations
And with its ancient fashioning
Still dallying.
Jul/Aug 1987 [45] Gossip Time ‘Station
Road’ walk
about continued . . . For
this issue of ‘Round and About’ I have returned to the Station Road,
and ‘Beadles of Blisworth’ – the new name given to the former
Blisworth Hotel, by which name it had been widely known to countless
thousands of folk over its unbroken occupation as a purpose built
Railway and Posting Hotel since 1846/7.
Following a change of ownership last January it emerged under its
new name – the official landing was at an evening reception on May 19th,
1987 to which I was privileged to attend. I
fully enjoyed myself as I waded through the menu – fortunately I sat
at the same table with Doctor and Mrs. Bull.
This was a comfort to me for I thought that should my blood
pressure reach boiling point the Doctor would give me a gentle kick
under the table to remind me to ‘go slow’. (No I wasn’t under the table but seated opposite to the
Doctor – see what I mean?). So
thanks to David Unwin and Partner John Everett for such an enjoyable
evening I wish them lots of luck and success in their new venture. Since
the Station’s closure in 1960 demolition continued up to 1972, leaving
the empty site as we see it today opposite to the Hotel.
I get asked, ‘why does such an attractive building stand away
from the A43 and the village of Blisworth?’
I will attempt to answer that question briefly. In
1825 the railway from London to Birmingham was projected following much
the same route as that of the Grand Junction Canal of 1805 and passing
through Blisworth Parish. After
a long and costly series of Parliamentary Bills, ‘for and against’,
the first contracts were entered into in 1834, followed by the building
of the first 20 miles. As
the line ultimately entered Northamptonshire the engineers met
difficulties at Roade and later at Kilsby – the former being Roade
cutting and the latter Kilsby tunnel.
On coming out of Roade cutting into Blisworth parish the line was
carried over the turnpike road of 1795 (now the A43) by a fine single
arch bridge and embankment. (originally it was planned as a five arch viaduct).
This monumental arch is attributed to our village born Richard
Dunkley who cashed in on a considerable amount of railway construction.
(I hope to devote a chapter to the said Richard Dunkley later). When
it was realised that Northampton would be by passed by the line, and
that Blisworth would be the nearest place of access, numerous meetings
were held at Northampton and Towcester in support of a ‘First Class
Station’ at Blisworth. Roade
and Weedon also staked their claims for village Stations. One
of the major points in support of Blisworth was that it was already on a
good turnpike between Towcester and Northampton, as well as extended
routes both south and westward. A
trump card was that the Parish of Blisworth was part of the vast estate
of George Henry the 4th Duke of Grafton who had inherited the
Grafton Estate in 1811, and who was most anxious to fix the Station at
Blisworth. His predecessor
the 3rd Duke had undergone all the same traumas during the
construction of the Grand Junction canal,1793-1805, together with the
formation of a turnpike system. This
had already placed the village on the map as an inland port.
Water transport had been more readily accepted than the coming of
the ‘steam engines’ on rails. It
appears however that the 4th Duke saw the possibilities of
the Railway in relation to the more hazourdous means of horse drawn
vehicles. As one writer
recorded:
‘No more by coach we lumber on,
by storm or stress delayed,
since the great George Stephenson
the Iron Horse has made.’ By
1838 the construction of the line was nearing completion and most
Stations had been mapped, but not Blisworth. Meetings
were urgently called at Northampton and Towcester requesting Blisworth
as the Station for Northampton. At
a March meeting in 1838 George Peach, Mayor of Northampton, issued a
strongly worded denial that Northampton preferred Roade for a Station in
preference to Blisworth, and that Northampton had always been the most
strenuous advocate for a first class Station at Blisworth etc, etc.
This statement to which hundreds of signatures were affixed
records an almost complete register of ‘Who’s Who’ of
Northampton’s Trades and Professional Bodies.
The petition was duly despatched to ‘The Directors of the
London and Birmingham Railway Company.’ A
second petition in support of Blisworth followed in April 1838 when some
56 of the counties ‘top men’ duly signed, headed by the Lords
Northampton, Lilford, Compton, and Messrs Bouverie etc. Excitement
ran high and the visionaries could already see the possibilities of
branch lines running from Blisworth east and west, and so Blisworth was
accepted by the Railway Company but sadly not as hoped for.
‘The Station’ was constructed adjoining the bridge over the
turnpike with a stairway leading up to the rail track on the high
embankment relegating it to a ‘Third Class Station’. By
June 1838 the line was useable from London to Denbigh Hall (Bletchley)
and from Birmingham to Rugby, but not the middle section through
Northamptonshire. Subsequently
passengers were transferred to horse drawn carriages up and down the A5
until the whole length of line was opened on the 17th of
September 1838, bringing into service the high level station at
Blisworth. It
was quickly realised that this first station was quite inadequate.
Pressures were applied to locate a suitable site on level ground
so that merchandise, cattle, carriages, and horses could be accepted for
rail transportation. Numerous alternative sites were surveyed in the
vicinity. The most
favourable was the level ground some half a mile westwards. This
would mean building a road from the turnpike and roughly parallel to the
embankment. A bridge over
the canal would be needed and the road continued to the level ground
further on. The most
important question was now asked. ‘Who
would build the road, the bridge, and the Station?. This
new development coincided with the call for a branch line to
Peterborough via Northampton which would commence from the chosen site,
and so bring about the much needed ‘First Class Station’. Remembering
that the land belonged to the Duke of Grafton who was an interested
party in the project he was consulted and duly replied by giving and
making the road, bridge, and site, for the new Station. And
so on the 13th of May, 1845 the branch line to Northampton
and Peterborough was duly opened. This brought the status of Blisworth up to a ‘First Class
Station’ as well as a junction, as wished and directed by the town of
Northampton, and district surrounding. Watching
keenly from the wings in this dramatic development were Richard
Dunckley, our village railway contractor, Mr. Thos. Shaw, who ran the
‘Angel Hotel’ in Northampton with its team of endangered stage
coaches, the Duke of Grafton’s agent, and the Duke himself. It
could well have been Dunkley and Shaw between them, who saw the
possibilities of a ‘Hotel’ near to the Station.
This idea was put to the Duke of Grafton in due course and he
also agreed. All
things went well and on March 25th 1847 the new Hotel was
accepted by Mr. Shaw supported by the Directors of the Phipps Brewery in
Northampton on a 79 year lease which included the ‘Pleasure Garden’
adjoining. Throughout the
Duke insisted that everything was to be first class including the
provision of stables at the rear of the Hotel.
This 79 year old lease was terminated by Phipps in 1926. So
140 years ago the ‘Blisworth Hotel’ was born.
Long may it continue. In the next ‘Round
and About’ I will continue the story of the Hotel and the Pleasure
Gardens., followed by the building at the Lowndes nearby. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1987 Gossip Time Blisworth Hotel
and Gardens [46] From
the word ‘Go’ back in 1845 with the opening of the branch line to
Northampton and Peterborough coupled with the establishment of the First
Class Station on the new site, Thomas Shaw of the Angel Hotel,
Northampton and our local Richard Dunkley lost no time in formulating
their plans to build a new ‘Railway Posting Hotel’ and ‘Pleasure
Garden’ next to the Station built by Richard Dunkley. Both
men were already experienced in the new world of railway needs,
especially where money could be made. The
Shaw family of the Northampton hotel ‘The Angel’ in Bridge Street
had already developed an important coaching service, so it was simply a
case for them to switch the routes for their horse drawn vehicles to
connect to the new Railway Stations.
Likewise, Richard Dunkley, the Blisworth entrepreneur had been
heavily involved in the years prior to 1838 in railway work, and he
leapt at all the opportunities of furthering his business. So
it was with the new station at Blisworth.
Both men were primed for action.
One factor in their favour was that they both had previously met
and dealt with the land owner George
Henry the 4th Duke of Grafton who was a keen supporter of the
new level Station, which being well served by new local turnpikes
offered the Duke a splendid service from his mansion at Wakefield Lawn,
Potterspury to enable him to connect with trains running north and south
as well as the new branch to Peterborough.
In those early days of travel the Duke could arrive at Blisworth
with his own horse drawn carriage, which was then lifted onto a railway
flat top truck, thus enabling him to tirelessly arrive at London,
unload, and drive about London in his own vehicle.
There’s nothing new in this mode of travel be it by car or
rail, or crossing the Channel with your car on a ferry. The
Duke of Grafton kept a close watch on the building of the Stable Block
at the Hotel, insisting on the highest standards.
It was often said that horses had better accommodation than the
labourers. The
lease for 79 years was accepted by Mr. Shaw and supported by the
Directors of the Northampton Phipps Brewery who likewise had had good
business relations with the Shaw family and the Angel Hotel. With
the Hotel built by Mr. Dunkley the 3¼
acre garden site was tackled, laid out in terraces, with a large central
level area, and liberally planted with trees and shrubs, many of which
have survived to the present day. Within
a couple of years ‘Blisworth Posting House Hotel’ and ‘Railway
Hotel and Pleasure Gardens’ became widely advertised.
The Railway Company soon became involved too by putting on
‘Pleasure’ trains from Northampton to Blisworth on weekdays, but NOT
on Sundays. Train
fares combined the charge for the Hotel Gardens as well as a discount on
refreshments. First class
travel return tickets were one shilling, and second six pence.
Music was provided by a seemingly endless supply of Brass Bands
both civil and military. Stage
artists and general entertainers were already conducting tours by rail,
much as our present day ‘Pop Stars’ do today.
Pleasure Gardens were springing up in all cities and towns
especially if on or near the growing railway network.
For instance stars from London’s ‘Vauxhall Gardens’ or
Manchester’s ‘Belle Vue’ duly arrived at Blisworth to give
performances. In
October 1849 a Mr. Creed arrived with his ‘Royal Victoria Balloon, but
rain stopped his first appearance.
On the following week he made a successful ascent with two
passengers. Travelling
westwards it got caught up with a ‘raging wind’ during which the
balloon basket caught trees and fences.
It made a safe descent in a field near Tredington near to
Shipston-on-Stour after a trip of 1hr.20mins.
Again
in 1850 an even larger balloon arrived, made with 1,200 yards of silk,
120 ft in circumference, held 200,000 gallons of gas and with the
underrcarriage attached was 66ft. high. It was billed that a ‘ Living Animal’ would be taken up
attached to a parachute and duly launched over the Gardens. As no description of the animal was stated it leaves the
reader to conjure up whether elephant or mouse was used. The Gardens opened all day for this event.
Special trains ran every half hour from Northampton.
A Brass Band attended which played ‘All Day’.
As I have not located a record of the balloonists achievements I
am unable to tell you whether the day was a success or not. Newspapers
carried even larger advertisments announcing that Thomas Shaw offered
fun for all the family with refreshments at both the Hotel rooms or at
the Station refreshment room which was also a Shaw sideline. Not
only did folk arrive by train but Mr. Shaw’s horse drawn omnibus plied
to and from Towcester and the area around.
From the Hotel one could hire (self drive) post-chaises, flys,
and saddle horses etc. In
June 1858 ‘Mons Julliens’ and his unrivalled band played in the
Pavillion assisted by a choir of ‘Damoiselles’.
(Oh Boy ! ). A
troup of Chinese magicians turned up from the Royal Theatre at Drury
Lane with their acts of ‘Legerdemain’ and ‘Necromancy’ etc. In
1862 the Great Blondin came bringing his ‘High Rope’ which was
stretched across the centre lawn. (He
had previously crossed the Niagra Falls). This same act was repeated by walking the ‘high rope’,
then standing on his head, followed by wheeling a wheelbarrow with a man
on his back. (The man
should at least have sat in the barrow.) Most
of the special occasions were followed by spectacular Firework Displays
and music. Northampton Floral
and Horticultural Society held their shows at the extensive and
beautiful Hotel gardens. Picnics
and food were arranged and the trees were hung with thousands of glass
candle lamps in various colours. But
still NO Sunday opening. Parties
came in even greater numbers; Sunday School Outings, and Workhouse
Inmates came on their Annual Outings.
Temperance Unions held their Grand Fetes enlivened by their own
Brass Bands and large quantities of TEA. Not
only was the Hotel fully used by the public but the Shaw family somehow
squeezed into the remaining spaces.
At the 1861 census there was Thomas Shaw aged 54 and his wife 52.
Their seven children were Anne 22, Charlotte 20, Thomas Jnr.19, Emily 15, John 14, Richard 12, Elizabeth 9, and a second
cousin 28. Resident
staff were a cook 51, house maid 18, kitchen maid 19, waitress 21,
barmaids three, 19, 21,28 respectively.
One hostler 25 and the most important ‘boots’ aged 16 yrs. I
am quite sure that the staff was doubled by day workers needed to attend
to the stabling and the gardens. They presumably would have been locals. By
1866 Thomas Shaw ‘called it a day’ and appointed a manager.
He made the following statement to the local papers:-
‘I tender with grateful thanks to the nobility, gentry and
general public for their kind and flattering patronage afforded me
during the many years I have occupied Blisworth Hotel and Gardens.
I have appointed a Miss. Whiteman as manager, late of the Midland
Hotel at Derby. The Shaws
continued to hold both the Angel Hotel at Northampton and Blisworth
Hotel under the watchful eye of Mrs. Shaw and managers.
Mr.
T. Shaw died in 1874. It is
recorded that he was one of the largest and most extensive coach
proprietors in England; no one kept better horses; he saw railways
arrive, which killed off many of his rival companies, but T. Shaw by
moving into the greater Hotel trade made a success;
he was a keen cricketer; and as a dying Christian he thanked God
for the many mercies he had received.
I would assume that he was buried at the Northampton Church of
St. Giles as was his father. The
Blisworth Hotel Shaws did however have a connection with our village
church for three of his daughters were married from it, Anne, Emily, and
Elizabeth, and his son Thomas. Having
written briefly of this fascinating local family I considered that I
could close the Shaw story but research often moves in a mysterious way,
so to close I will simply tell you that on June 19th, 1952,
John Chamberlain aged 23 married Iris Sheila Stratton at
Blisworth church. The
Rector was the Rev. P.K. Challen. Sheila
with her parents lived at ‘Jasmine Cottage’, High Street. From Northampton John is a great grandson of the said
Thomas Shaw of Blisworth Hotel.
‘Nuf said’. . .
GEORGE FREESTON. Nov/Dec 1987 Gossip Time Blisworth Hotel
and Gardens Continued Mr.
G. J. De Wilde (1830-1870) editor for 40 years of the Northampton
Mercury wrote the following: ‘To
write of Blisworth and to say nothing about Blisworth Gardens would be
almost like playing Hamlet and leaving out the character of the Prince
of Denmark’. He goes on
to mention the charming grounds, brilliant with flowers and refreshed
with greenest turf and shady bowers . . . but a pleasant place to
saunter in with a book at noon-day, or when you desire a ‘nest for
evening weariness’. He also mentioned the twinkling lights in the shrubberies and
the lingering sound of music . . . and . . . ‘ladies laughter coming
through the shade’. I
must not let such romantic visions cloud my brain so I will press on
with the story of the Hotel and Gardens. The
previous notes in ‘R&A’ concluded with the death of the
proprietor Thomas Shaw 1874 and the management being handled by his
widow up to 1879. The new
proprietor was Charles Parker who found the establishment a little run
down, incidentally this was the first change since the inception of both
Hotel and Gardens in 1847. Mr.
Parker was quick to make extensive alterations especially to the
Pleasure Gardens. He built
a covered orchestra pavilion to accommodate 100 performers.
A new Concert Hall for indoor entertainments and a new Roller
Skating Rink of 700 sq.yds. Additional
refreshment bars and tea arbours were erected as well as an open air
stage. He continued to run
the refreshment rooms on the station platform, charges that were higher
than in the Hotel Gardens. To
this complaint he blamed the rentage charged by the Railway Company. On
completion of the improvements he widely advertised, (see illustration),
claiming that the Hotel and Gardens were the most accommodating and
central place of Public Resort in the Midlands. The
Grand Re-opening Fete and Gala was billed for Saturday 6th
October, 1879, and on the following Monday.
(Still seemingly never on a Sunday.) ‘BUT IT RAINED BOTH DAYS’
He boldly claimed that he
could give 3000 persons in various rooms and pavilions good
entertainment – AND ONLY ONE MINUTE FROM THE STATION. Poor
Charles Parker did’nt live long enough to enjoy the fruits of his
labours for by 1881 his widow took charge until 1890 when she gave up
the Hotel. Then
followed a Robert A. Ashby whose name appears in the local trade
directories from 1890 to 1898, by which time he would have read of the
new form of transport i.e. the internal combustion contraption called
the motor carriage which was to gradually oust the horse from the roads. By
1899 yet another proprietor appears, this time a 45 year old widower
names Jos. Cooke Wareing who in the same year married a 41 year old,
Patty Darley whose father was a House Steward, and the bridegrooms
father was a builder. Altogether
a useful combination of in-laws. The
Gardens flourished and were used for a great variety of celebrations. The
formation of a branch line westward from Blisworth Station in 1866 had
opened up a large catchment area with easy access to the Blisworth
Hotel. Blisworth folk made
good use of the Hotel and grounds for their Fetes and money raising
stunts. For the non walkers
the farmers provided wagons to get the people there. I
recently found a programme card issued for a ‘QUADRILLE PARTY’ held
at the Hotel on the 13th March 1894.
It was certainly totally different from our modern discos ! !
Here it is, it’s worth repeating:- The
decorated programme card is lined with printed dance titles aginst each
line a space provided for the holder of the card to obtain the names of
partners she would wish to dance with thus filling the evenings
programme. The date of the
programme is 13th March 1894 and I give you some of the
dances:- Polka-Waltz; Quadrille; Mazurka; Lancers; Princes Quadrille;
Schottische; Caledonian waltz; Cotillion; with the grand finale Waltz
Gallop. I
must say that I think I have seen the lot, for in my youthful days it
was ‘May I have the pleasure’ when approaching a likely partner –
now it’s ‘grabs and jive’. Mind
you I quite care for a ‘hot jive’ which doesn’t need a partner,
and leaves me quite free to sit down occasionally and recover.
All periods of dancing needed and will continue to need
‘Stamina”, but to press on.- [46a] Following
Mr. Wareing 1899-1908 there appeared a Mr. and Mrs. Edward Francis
Tresham whose name lingers on in memories of numerous village elders
including myself. The Tresham parents
had two children, a girl named Nora, and a boy named Guy. A somewhat fitting name for the family stemmed from the
celebrated Northamptonshire family, one of whose members Sir Francis
Tresham, had been one of the conspirators with Guy Fawkes in the
Gunpowder Plot. In
keeping with past Hotel proprietors who in turn had witnessed early
balloonists, steam railways, cars, motor cycles, and cycles, it was the
good fortune of the Treshams to see their first flying machine.
It so happened that a pilot, Claud Graham White had entered his
flying machine, a Farman bi-plane in a race from London to Manchester.
The other competitor was a Frenchman named Mssr. Paulan.
Starting late in the day Graham White was forced to land as night
approached at Roade where he stayed at Dr. Ryans house.
It is said that the local farmer, in who’s field Mr. White
landed, padlocked the gate and going over to the intrepid pilot said,
‘Now Sir you got in without permission but I’ll see you don’t get
out for I’ve locked the gate’.
Hundreds of people made their way to Roade to see this early
aircraft including the Tresham family from the Hotel.
Many folk kept vigil all night in order to see the departure next
morning. The Frenchman had
landed in Lichfield for the night well ahead of Mr. White.
Graham White however decided to take off at 2.50am the next
morning in the dark, a feat never before attempted in Europe. (Sadly the Frenchman was informed of this manoeuvre so he too
made an early start). At
Roade cars ringed the field with their car headlights on, and not
without some qualms amongst the onlookers the aircraft rose and sailed
away into the night, but sadly again the engine later developed trouble
and a second landing was made. Thus
Mssr. Paulhan the Frenchman arrived at Manchester to win the £10,000 prize at 44mph average speed.
A spectator commented;- ‘T’was a curious thing said Jones to
me, relieving his mind of a load, that the French machine in the famous
race, was forced to go by Road(e)’. And
so back to Blisworth Hotel and the Treshams during their period
1908-1926. During the World
War I years German prisoners were off loaded from the railway at
Blisworth and marshalled in the station yard fronting the Hotel, then
marched to the ‘Prisoner of War Camp’ at nearby Eastcote. The prisoners reception guards used to arrive in good time so
that they could enjoy their ‘pintas’ at the Hotel Bar.
There were numerous incidents on these occasions.
I well remember seeing the prisoners. Following
the 1914-18 war other entertainment centres were attracting pleasure
seeking folk. Franklin’s
Gardens in Northampton became a new centre for Northamptonians.
Their attractions followed much the same pattern as the Hotel had
done in the last century such as balloonists and pageants.
The Blisworth Hotel lawn was turned into Tennis Courts. Regular dances were held in the Ballroom.
Wedding parties were well catered for etc. The
79 year lease expired in 1926. Although
some previous occupiers called themselves proprietors, they were in fact
managers . Foreseeing
changes ahead of ownership, probably caused Mr. Tresham to call it a
day, after 18 years at Blisworth. He
retired and lived at Duston. Their
daughter Nora had married and had three sons, Guy likewise named, in
1935 and Thomas and Francis, thus keeping alive the names of their
illustrious forebears. Why
then do I tell you all this in the Hotel story ?
Well, living in the bungalow numbered 5 and named ‘Stone
Wall’ is widowed Mrs. Guy Tresham and her son Thomas.
It’s a small world at times. That’s
all for now, more to follow. GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1988 Gossip Time Blisworth Hotel
and Gardens Continued In
the previous R&A I stopped with the retirement of Mr. E.F. Tresham
who had been the Hotel Manager for 18years 1908-1926. Also
in the year 1926 the 79 year old lease held by Phipps Brewery of
Northampton expired. The
next recorded licensee was Mr. Christopher Finnegan.
He made a small contribution to the history of the Hotel by being
the first Blisworth Hotelier to have a telephone installed.
His local exchange number was 16. Mr.
Finnegan stepped out of the Hotel in 1929 when a Mr. G. H. Roberts comes
into the picture for a short period.
By
March 1932 the Hotel and Gardens were bought by Major Steedman.
Many changes were made by him including the construction of a
splendid swimming pool which was fed from a natural watercourse running
through the gardens. There
were 75 changing cubicles, a children’s paddling pool, and a high and
spring diving board, as well as a water slide. This local innovation attracted a lot of people from a wide
area. Transport via the new
family cars brought in the crowds. After
four years Major Speedman sold out to a Mr. G .W. Hodges in 1936, who in
a quick turn-around sold the Hotel and Gardens lock, stock and bathing
pool to Miss. Marjorie Somers in 1939 In
November 1944 there was another change of ownership to Messrs Gensalve
Ltd. The Licensee
Manageress could have been a Mrs. Maude V. Godier, but of these facts I
am not quite clear. Then in
quick time three changes of ownership followed one after the other. From the Magistrates licensing list the following names are
recorded:- January 1946, Gertrude V. Curry; April 1946, Alfred F.
Charlton; followed by Richard C. N. Woodhouse in 1947. During
the war years plus the Hotel attracted a large following from the
American Airforce bases, especially those from the Oxford direction.
It was voiced that the whisky supply was endless, so seemingly
was the American money. By
March 1948 a new owner took over whose name was Sir Francis
Leyland-Barratt who installed as his manager/licensee, John Henry
Eaton-Hall; both men were
ex-Life Guardsmen who had served in the forces together. John was a very popular ‘Landlord’. In February 1949 he married a Miss Eleanor Morgan whose
father was the licensee of the ancient Talbot Hotel at Towcester.
All things looked set for a long run and it was hoped that Mr.
and Mrs. J. Henry Eaton-Hall would make the Hotel their home for many
years . . . but it was not to be. On
The 6th October 1955 the Hotel & Gardens were put up for
sale by auction in London without reserve; the report also stated that
the furniture and contents would be sold in November (surmising that the
Hotel would be sold). BUT
THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE BID MADE FOR THE HOTEL ! ! It
was thought that a caravan firm was interested in the site attached to
the Hotel. Dancers
circulating on the ballroom floor on the night of 18th
November 1955 thought that it would be their last night, and on the
following Monday the locals were to have had their last pint with the
landlord. The
auction sale of the whole contents of the Hotel had been advertised,
beer engines and the lot, including garden seats which carried a plaque
saying that they came from Lady Leyland-Barratts Walk.
Presumably the Barratts property from their former home. [46c] But
hold on. News soon spread
around that buyers for the whole of the Hotel and gardens had turned up,
and subject to the exchange of contracts, it had been sold as a going
concern. ‘Hurrah’ said
the locals. Change of
ownership took place on Tuesday 13th December 1955. Outgoing
Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Eaton-Hall moved down to Newmarket where they took
over a Hotel in the High Street. The
new owners were Mr. Harold Faithful of New Bradwell and Mr. Horace Green
of Bletchley. Neither having any experience in the hotel line, seemingly
appointed a manager whose name could have been Thompson. By
this time caravans had appeared in the Hotel grounds, many belonging to
the engineers and workers employed in the construction of the
Northamptonshire stretch of the new M1 Motorway which was opened on the
2nd November 1959. By
May 1960 the two Buckinghamshire businessmen pulled out of their hotel
venture, and on the 8th of June the establishment was again
on the market. At the
auction the highest bid was £4000, £1,000
short of the reserve price even though a lot of interest had been shown
by some of the 50 people present in the hotel’s ballroom at Blisworth.
The outgoing owners named the restaurant ‘The Hunter’s
Moon’. Once
again the hotel was sold privately to a Mr. R. G. Archer of Hockcliffe,
the price was not revealed. Mr.
Archer said that he would run the premises as a Hotel with mid-week
dances, and also at week-ends commencing 8th July 1960.
The next names that appear on the scene were Mr. Frank Topham and
his father John, they represented a syndicate calling themselves Topham
Estates. They had bought
both Hotel and gardens. In
1963 a young Alan Mathews arrived at Blisworth Gardens from London.
Together with his wife, Alan’s job was to assist Frank Topham
in the development and running of the then established Caravan Park. Seemingly
Mr. Topham realised that land surface was worth more than water so the
swimming pool which had become rather tatty was filled in, and the area
was conceived as a car park. Later
Mr. Topham sold the Hotel but retained the gardens, and Alan. With
the development of the new and larger caravans so the Park developed on
more permanent lines. Individuals
created splendid pocket gardens around their homes. The
Topham syndicate sold the Park in 1969 to a Charles Simpson
Organisation. Alan
continues as Manager and under his direction the whole Park is being
transformed into a splendid residential area of permanent dwellings
starting at £30,000
to £65,000. I
now come to the last chapter which takes us up to the present year.
Following the Topham sale of the Hotel the next name I have is
Mr. P.H. Vanderveldon and partner Mr. Ernest Huff.
In February 1974 Mr. Dino Charalambous bought the Hotel on a 40
year lease. Later in 1974
Mr. J .R. Yates became the Licensee.
In May 1978 Mr. C. E. Bentham appears and with him a partner Mr.
N. S. Fookes. Between June
1982 and 1983 Mr. Fookes stays on but two different partners names
appear. In July 1985 the
tenant Licensee was a Mr. D. Horrix changing again in February 1986 to a
Mr. J. Reisman. Finally to
date Mr. David Unwin with partner Mr. John Everett took over on the 1st
of May 1987 followed by a splendid opening celebration on Tuesday 19th
May, 1987 and no longer using the name ‘Blisworth Hotel’ it becomes
‘Beadles of Blisworth’. Oh
! Just a short P.S. Mr. and
Mrs. Alan Matthews and their Blisworth born son Richard are well and
truly ‘dug’ in the Park. Recently
in jocular mood Alan wondered if he and his family had earned the right
to call themselves Blisworthians. I
readily replied that although the probationary time used to be spoken of
as 25 years, the today’s policy is that as soon as any newcomer takes
up residence in the parish acceptance is ‘INSTANT’.
So don’t lose sleep Alan and I wish all ‘Blisworthians’ a
‘Very Happy Christmas and a Bumper New Year of Good Health and
Contentment’. GEORGE
FREESTON P.S.
As I have only mentioned names taken from the Magistrates list of
Licensees I have not mentioned wives and families who likewise came to
Blisworth Hotel and in many cases shared in schooling and other village
activities, plus of course the need for a feminine hand in the Hotels
running. G.F.
Sep/Oct 1987 [47] I
have not given a property ‘FLASH’ for some time, so here goes. Clematis
Cottage (85 Stoke Road) has just been sold for £85,000
complete with its own septic tank.
The twin cottages existed long before the canal came, and their
description fits an old document which says that the two cottages were
built on waste land for poor people. The area was a Common Green sometimes referred to as ‘Goose
Green’. Hence the present
road nearby named ‘Greenside’.
Originally fronting the cottages the land extended down the
valley through which ran the brook called ‘Fisher’ or more correctly
‘Fishweir’, an ideal place for the village girls to tend their
geese. With the
construction of the tunnel the valley was deepened and the trees planted
closing the Cottages’ view westward.
The canal temporarily swallowed the brook. Following the elm tree disease gaps are occurring so the new
tenants of ‘Clematis Cottage’ will once again have a view. . . . I
wish them well. Here
is the crux of my story:- At the Duke’s sale of 1919 the whole of the ten acres plus
the adjacent allotment, together with the two cottages was sold for £900.
Rents paid for the cottages up to then had been £2.12.0 per annum !
The allotment site still remains as such, much of which was up
heaved for ‘Iron Ore’ early this century.
The price given for the cottages at the separation of the 10 acre
plot is not known to me but it would not have been a high one. That’s all for
now. GEORGE FREESTON Nov/Dec 1987 Late News Flash
For Tunnel Enthusiasts [48] John
Woods who was Mowlems agent at Blisworth is now Director of a company
named ‘Dynamoor’. A
note from him simply says:- ‘Channel Tunnel First Machine being
installed now’. Mott Hay
and Anderson are responsible for the design of the British section of
the Tunnelling Works, ventilation systems, and the railway track and
connecting roads to the British Terminal. David Bridges was
Mott Hay and Anderson agent at Blisworth. I
like to feel that our recent tunnel part rebuild was a good training
ground for them both and I wish them ‘Best of Luck’, with a hope
that I shall get an invite to go to the opening which is due in May 1993
. . . Did I hear you say ‘You’ll be lucky’. G.F. Jan/Feb 1988 The Lordship of
Blisworth [49] Most
people must have heard or read about the numerous County Manorial sales
of documents pertaining to the title of ‘Lord of the Manor’ One
such bundle of ancient deeds relating to the Lordship of Blisworth was
sold at the ‘Butchers Livery Hall’ in London on 3rd
November, 1987. The vendor
of the deeds was the present Duke of Grafton who lives at Euston Hall,
Thetford. The
1st Duke of Grafton was created ‘Lord of the Manor’ of
Blisworth in 1673, though the earliest Lord of the Manor was created at
the time of Domesday. The
Blisworth Manorial deeds sold by auction entitle the buyer to use the
title of ‘Lord of the Manor’. So our new
‘Lordship of the Manor’ has been bought by Tony and Denise Georgiou
who are directors with John Colvin Furniture Ltd.
The company which makes hand made traditional furniture is based
in the workshop at 45 Stoke Road. It
is their hope that they can develop the business in Blisworth so the
‘Lordship of the Manor’ can stay where it belongs. G.F.
Plowmans, Stoke Road. Mar/Apr 1988 [50] Gossip Time The Loundes
The
Jan/Feb ‘R&A’ brought to a conclusion the Blisworth Hotel story
to date. I now invite
readers to take but a few paces southwards to look at the adjoining
property standing well back from the ‘Station Road’. It
is well sheltered by established shrubs and trees including two
Californian Sequoia Redwoods, more often called Wellingtonians.
The house is approached by two short drives, the original is
nearer the Hotel with a lower or secondary one which was constructed at
the time when the house was subdivided into two dwellings.
The name of the house, now returned to a single unit is displayed
at each drive entrance as simply and plainly ‘The Loundes’. This
attractive property is contemporaneous with the nearby Hotel and the
former Blisworth Junction Station of 1845, now completely gone.
On one of the turrets of ‘The Loundes’ is a fine weathervane
bearing the date of building 1846; an entry in the 1849 Whellan
Directory states:- ‘The residence of Mr. Dunkley (The Builder) is much
admired, it stands on an elevated site and has a handsome fountain in
front of it.’ Over
the past years legend has claimed that the immediate area contained
earlier buildings but there is no evidence to support this.
The nearest known occupied sites go back into antiquity, for near
the Gayton/Tiffield crossroads was a Roman Villa, and a Roman/British
settlement on the Gayton/Milton Road. At
the 1861 census the Dunkley House was recorded as ‘Loundes Villa’
with occupants Richard and Lucy and a scholar son named Harry, and his
two sisters named Francis aged 24 and Caroline Aged 21.
The household staff ‘living in’ consisted of Susannah
Partridge, with Sarah Addington the cook. Other staff would have been obtained locally, so called
‘dailies’. The
1871 census revealed that ‘Loundes Villa’ had become ‘Loundes
Cottage’. This did not
infer that it was inferior, but it was following the trend of ‘going
rustic’ or ‘romantic’. Architecture
had broken away from the severe lines of Georgian.
Take a look at the distinct differences between the Hotel and the
‘Loundes’. The Hotel with it’s formality and the next door neighbour
with turrets and fretted barge boards to the eves and gardens, and the
fine chimney stacks. Such
decorated properties were often referred to as ‘Cottage Ornes’. At
the 1871 census the occupants of ‘Loundes Cottage’ were detailed as
Richard Dunkley now 64 years of age, with his wife Lucy.
One daughter Francis was still at home aged 34.
The household staff were Elizabeth Errington, 20 years, supported
by Amy Tee, 21 years, the cook. Caroline
the younger daughter was married at Blisworth Church in June 1868 to a
Richard Prothero-Jones, a mineral agent.
(He could well have been involved with the extensive local iron
ore extraction at the time). Richards father, Albert Jones was a clergyman. Mrs.
Dunkley died on 7th December 1871 aged 65 years and was
buried at Blisworth. At
some time following his wife’s death Richard Dunkley went to Alby in
Norfolk where he died on the 14th August 1886 aged 70 years.*
He was buried there, (this fact puzzles me).
Just inside Blisworth Cemetery is an interesting stone memorial
surrounded by an ornamental railing. On
one panel is the following legend:- In
Memory of Lucy Dunkley Who
died on Dec.7th 1871 aged 65 years. ‘My
Flesh and Mr Heart Faileth’ But
God is the strength of my Head and my portion for ever’ The
opposite panel reads:- In
loving memory of Richard Dunkley formerly Of
this Parish who died August 14th 1886 aged 70 years* And
was interred at Alby Norfolk [According
to ‘Ancestry.co.uk’ a Richard Dunkley died at Aylsham in Norfolk, in
1886 aged 79 years. There
is not a place called ‘Alby’ in the Phillips Navigator Road Atlas
but there is an ‘Alby Hill’ about 5 miles north of Aylsham.
R. F.] At
this stage of the Loundes story I will attempt to outline the origin of
the name. To help you I
have appended a copy of a map of the north/west corner of the Parish
dated 1827, this predates railways, the station, the road, the Hotel,
and of course the Loundes, and all adjacent properties.
It does however, include Blisworth Arm and the Navigation public
house circa 1805. The 1795 Towcester to Northampton Toll Road is shown. Ford
Lane included on the map was a service track leading off the main road
westward to a large unenclosed field which was cut through by the canal
and bridged, the ford was where the brook crossed over the track some
100yds from the main road. The
brook is still there but it now goes through a culvert and thence under
the steep railway embankment en-route to Milton Parish. When
the second station was built Ford Lane was extended to serve the
Station, Hotel and Gardens and the Loundes;
the canal bridge was built to carry the new traffic.
This bridge is now no.49 on the canal maps and the present one is
it’s third rebuild. To we
locals it is Stockwell Bridge, for some of the area westwards is named
‘Stockwell’ which implies that there was a stockaded watering place
for cattle. Until a few
years ago a pond existed near to one of the oak trees which could well
have been the ancient drinking place for cattle.
This was filled in at the same time as hedges were removed from
the vicinity. The
map also shows that some of the area went under
the name ‘Lounds’. See also that Lounds Lane ran from the Gayton/Blisworth Road
from a point next to where Mr. Colin Wakelins Hill Farm now stands. Lounds
cover could well have been the remains of an extended woodland, but as
it is called ‘cover’ this could indicate a ‘fix Covert’ as was
‘Goodes Bushes’ shown on the south side of the Gayton Road. Note also the name
Arbutts Lane from Blisworth to Gayton.
Who or what was Arbutt ? Can
anyone tell me please. Now
to slip back in time to understand the root meaning of ‘Lounds’ or
‘Loundes as at present, The
name has come down to us from the Danish occupation hence its
Scandinavian or Nordic sound. The
spellings have been varied from Lounde – Lowns – Lown wood. All come from the name Lundre, old Norse meaning grove, wood.
Even during its 142 years of life it has been ‘Lounds Villa’
and ‘Lounds Cottage’. When the property was divided into two dwellings the southern
section became ‘Turret End’. Now
it is back as a single house, much as originally, and I am pleased that
the name ‘The Loundes’ is fully applied once again. Formerly
there was a considerable service wing on the north side.
This was attached by corridors to the main structure.
A splendid billiards room occupied the space above the wing. For
a period of time the house and buildings lay empty and suffered through
dry rot and vandalism. It
was then bought by a Northampton builder who sub-divided the house.
He also demolished the service wing, billiard room, etc. but
leaving the old coach house standing away from the house.
During the following years the tenancy changed hands on numerous
occasions, until recently when the sitting owner of ‘Turret End’ was
able to buy the whole house and return it to one home as originally
built. What is more
important to local history it has become ‘The Loundes’ again.
Thanks to Mr. Barwell. GEORGE
FREESTON Mar/Apr 1988 Property Flash The Changing
Village [51] Here
is the first ‘Property Flash’ for the new year 1988. Bungalow
No.39 Stoke Road has just undergone a major refurbishing and is now on
the property market. Originally
it was a typical stone built thatched cottage tacked on to the south end
of a long row of single story buildings fronting Stoke Road.
At the rear end of the row is a generous yard now containing
numerous wooden structures. On
the south side of the yard is a substantial stone built house No.45
Stoke Road running east-west. Formerly
attached to the west end gable was a row of two thatched cottages
numbers 41 and 43 Stoke Road. These two cottages were demolished in 1958 leaving 45
standing free of any other building. At
the Duke of Grafton’s Estate Sale in 1919 all the above mentioned yard
and cottages etc., were offered in one lot.
The annual rent paid to the Duke of Grafton for all the property
was £16.14.0.
At the time of the sale the occupants of the properties were Wm.
Packwood , a coal merchant living in 45 whilst in 41 and 43 lived W.
French and family and the Denny’s, Joe Valentine lived in 39.
William Packwood the business man bought the whole lot for £365
which was considered to be a sizable fortune. Throughout
the following years the total property minus the two demolished 41 and
43 remained as one unit. Firstly in private hands (non business) and then followed a
series of ownership, ie Mr. Reeve and Son who constructed a building
business, the yard and outbuildings being the most suitable for such.
Then followed Mr. Bob Wood who was kindness beyond measure in
helping many villagers with their property problems. Then
followed a family business making pine furniture under the name of
‘Orchard Pine’ and owned by Mr. Saxby.
He was followed for a short period by Diamond Displays a four man
business making up exhibition stands. The
total unit was next purchased by Mr. A. J. Lewis in 1985 who conducts
his business from No.45, at the entrance to which property are two
signs. One
painted board which states:- John
Colvin Furniture Ltd. The
other notice engraved in a square of
polished ‘Brass’ declares;- A.
J. Lewis Chartered
Accountant “Pandloss
House” Curious
about the house title Mr. Lewis kindly explained it’s meaning which is
“Pandloss” taken from ‘PROFIT AND LOSS’.
A most fitting name for an auditor. GEORGE FREESTON ‘Plowmans’,
Stoke Road, Blisworth, Northampton. May/Jun 1988
No contribution from George Jul/Aug 1988 Gossip Time [52] Hello!
Here we are again after a short break.
I am limited to fewer words, but I hope to continue with
‘snippets’ of our village history. I
need not remind you that June is here (but not Flaming).
It is though, the wonderful month when ‘nature’ explodes and
displays her best in leaf and blossom:
weeds too, suddenly take over, all ones past efforts seem to be
of no avail, unless one is prepared to go forth each day with hoe and
sickle; even then nature generally wins. In
1872 the writings of George James de Wilde, the editor of the
Northampton Mercury were published.
Of our village he wrote:- ‘Blisworth,
irregular, straggling, and covering a considerable area, is a pleasant
and picturesque village, picturesque and pleasant in its irregularity.
Gardens and trees intervene between the houses; huge elder trees,
roses in masses, brilliant tiger lilies, profuse wall-flowers, delight
the eye and fill the air with odour.
Blisworth seems to have a special enjoyment in flowers.
On the Stoke Bruerne turn Mr. Westley makes the entrance of his
steam mills perfectly dazzling with geraniums and petunias, and other
brilliant plants. A noble
row of elms borders the churchyard and the rectory is fairly hidden in
trees. Almost from any
point in the village, an artist may make a picture.
At the north-east turn there is a tree which was once the
indispensable feature in the scenery of our ancestral villages: ‘How
often have I blest the coming day, When
toil remitting lent its turn to play, And
all the village train, from labour free, Led
up their sports beneath the spreading tree.’ To
conclude I will attempt to put forward a few parallels of Mr. De Wildes
Views of 1872 with our village of today June, 1988. Firstly
I would certainly say that Blisworth folk love their gardens, and do
their utmost to give pleasure to themselves and passers by:
He would be be amazed at the pleasant garden layouts of the
‘open plan’ front gardens of the post war village developments.
Much of the High Street and Stoke Road would be familiar, most of
which remains together with the flower bedecked frontages where space
permits. The ‘huge’ elder bushes which he recorded with some
affection have gone although one ancient one in the garden of 37, Stoke
Road remains with a trunk measuring 40 ins. in circumference. Elsewhere
in the village elders persist in growing as they do in every nook and
cranny. If they were left
untouched the paths and roads would be completely immersed by their
delightful full foliage and flowers, during June. I
fully enjoy the large bushes on the grass bank opposite my cottage.
Elders throughout the years have been venerated in folklore and
culinary practises. The
flowers for making refreshing drink for the land workers, then the rich
berries in season for puddings and wine making.
When cutting down some elder bushes in my garden some years ago,
and when Home Farm existed around me, the then owner requested me to
leave them for he said that they kept away flies from his animals.
I myself well remember seeing branches of elder tucked into the
head harness of farm and canal boat horses. The Stoke Road
entrance to Mr. Westleys flour mill be-decked with petunias and
geraniums went long ago. Gone
too are the monumental elm trees from the church yard.
So too has the village elm which stood in the junction of the
Courteenhall Road and the High Street.
Reference to the ‘Elm Tree’ still lingers on with the old
villagers. No 11,
Courteenhall Road Cottage is named ‘Elm Tree House’. Over the past centuries the cluster of cottages around the
former elm tree was named ‘Towns End’. To be continued. GEORGE FREESTON.
Plowmans , Stoke Road. Sep/Oct 1988 Gossip Time [53] Prior
to the first quarter of the last century our parish farm houses,
‘stock’ and ‘rick yards’ were part of each street within the
village structure. The
surrounding areas of the parish being divided into large open tracts
called ‘open fields’.
The system of planting was by rotation each year.
Crops were generally corn and roots, such
as turnips for winter feeding. A
third of the land was left uncultivated.
Stock however, was
turned onto it, thus feeding the soil in readiness for the next years
growing rotation. The rotation
system was governed by a Council of Elders at the annual meeting called
‘Court Leet’. In
1798 a village fire destroyed 7 cottages, three farms, ricks and barns;
there appears to have been no
hurry in rebuilding. The
properties were not insured but collections through-out the county
covered the cost of the losses. The
‘open field’ system came to an end following the ‘Award and
Enclosure’ acts of 1808 and 1815.
This massive operation plotted the shape of the new fields to be.
Tens of thousands of quick thorn hedges were planted.
Agriculture was thus changed dramatically.
New village farmsteads were built away from the village.
Blisworth Hill Farm and Tunnel Hill Farm around 1837.
Lodge Farm on the Courteenhall Road and Hill Farm on the Gayton
Road also came into being much at the same time.
On the Towcester Road hill, Rectory Farm, and Glebe Farm
properties were established. Two
or more farmsteads remained in the village; Home Farm in the Stoke Road,
was a part rebuild for it was badly damaged by the ‘Great Fire’.
In 1966 Home Farm was destroyed to make the access road into the
Buttmead development. Some
of the farms underwent a period of disturbance when they were exploited
for iron ore which went away by canal and rail. Those
part upheavals have gone but looking around I feel that ‘The Winds of
Change’ are blowing against us, for I read with alarm that Messrs.
Sandspinners Ltd., are attempting to stage a come-back with the mammoth
tip on land between the Courteenhall Road and Knock Lane. ‘Why
Oh Why’ should we have to suffer over many years as the recipients of
other people’s domestic, commercial, and industrial waste. GEORGE FREESTON Nov/Dec 1988 Gossip Time [54] Recently
most householders have received information re. the development
possibilities of housing and sporting facilities alongside Courteenhall
Road and land belonging to the Courteenhall Estate (Sir Hereward Wake).
Also there is the problem of the 8 acre ‘Rubbish’ Tip !!
The Wake family are no strangers to Blisworth, in fact they could
well have had an influence in our village over the past 800 years. The
present Sir Hereward Wake is the 14th Baronet by descent.
Numerous members of the family have been
buried at Blisworth prior to 1500.
The last Wake to hold the Manor of Blisworth was Roger Wake Esq.,
who supported King Richard III at Bosworth Field.
Richard was killed and the winner of the battle, Henry VII put
the said Blisworth Roger in prison and took his Blisworth lands from
him. But he was forgiven,
and the Manor of Blisworth restored to him in 1487 when he
joined up again with his family and wife Elizabeth in our village. GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1989 Gossip Time [55] On
Saturday 12th November 1988 I gave a village history talk
with slides entitled ‘When the Baptists Came’.
Running through the whole story was the name ‘Westley’ who in
general were the backbone of Blisworth Baptist Chapel, and major
employers for the village men. The
most notable member of the family was Mr. Joseph Westley, J.P., C.C.
Born in 1821 he was early educated to carry on the work of the
mill, for his father, Mr. Samuel Westley, died when Joseph was only
eleven years old. He became a big man in the milling world, for he was one of
those who in 1877 formed the National Association of British and Irish
Millers, and later he became president of the Association. It
was in that year that Mr Westley, in company with forty four other men
representing the milling trade in all parts of the kingdom went to
Vienna to visit an exhibition of the International Wheat and Seed
Market. Opportunity was
taken to go over some of the Austrian and Hungarian flour mills, which
were celebrated, for at that time Danube flour led the world. Originally
there was a big windmill at
the top of the village. This
was run in connection with the steam flour mill in Stoke Road (next to
the village hall). In 1878
the roller plant replaced the stone ground method.
The big mill by the canal side at West Bridge was built by J.
Westley and Sons in 1879. Here
as many as one thousand sacks of flour were ground each week.
Mr. Westley died in 1894. He
was succeeded in the business by his three sons, William, John, and
Alfred. The mill was closed
in 1929 to the general regret of the inhabitants, for many men were
thrown out of employment when this big industry ceased. The
mill books have an interesting record of an unusually early season of
wheat growing in this parish. It
was in the year 1893 that wheat was harvested, milled, and the flour
made into bread, all by the month of July The
Grand Union Canal Co. later bought the mill building for a warehouse and
demolished the great chimney. Since
then it has been a general storage base for numerous firms.
At present it is stocked up with bales of herbs and spices from
English farms and from Europe in general.
The final handling, cleaning, and packaging is carried out at the
Northampton depot of the British Pepper and Spice Co. at Brackmills. So
on a ‘Spicey’ note I will wish all readers a ‘Very Happy
Christmas’. I’ll be back next
year. GEORGE FREESTON. Mar/Apr 1989 Gossip Time [56] Many
thousands of working boats have journeyed safely through Blisworth since
the tunnel was opened in 1805. There
have been many accidents too, much as we find on our A43 through the
village, ie. overcrowding or parking hazards. One
such accident occurred in 1911 when a boat was being towed by a steamer.
About 200 yards from the tunnel into which it was heading the
steamer safely passed a moored boat but the towed boat struck it.
The boat was heavily loaded with a cargo of sheet iron. The shock caused the iron to shift to one side and the boat
sank. The
captain’s wife and son were inside the cabin asleep.
They were awakened before the water reached them.
His wife escaped wearing only her nightdress.
The lad coming out of the cabin swam to the shore.
Likewise their dog was trapped and released from the cabin.
This too swam to the bank in the icy water.
The
woman and boy were taken care of by kindly cottagers in the village and
were none the worse for their ducking. So
motorists and boaters alike, wear your safety belts and life jackets.
Be prepared. GEORGE FREESTON Mar/Jun 1989 Gossip Time Kettling in
Blisworth [57] Throughout
the past years members of village and town communities have taken part
in demonstrations against persons in their midst thought guilty of
infidelity, or other ‘misdemeanours’.
Blisworth was NO EXCEPTION. These
demonstrations were locally called ‘Tin Kettleing’ of
‘Kettling’. Another
name was ‘Low Belling’ and the term ‘Skimmingtons’ was also
applied. Word would quickly
pass around the village that Mr. ‘So and So’ was entertaining a
lady, not necessarily of ill repute, but who was temporarily ‘living
in’. The
‘attack’ was organised secretly, and the group members collected all
types of old tinware such as kettles, trays, saucepans, etc.
On the first night the ‘marked house’ was surrounded by the
so called ‘Tin Kettlers’, and if the noise failed to evict the
offender the same demonstration was repeated on the next night.
If this failed the third night was the ‘Big’ bang. A
bonfire was built outside the house topped by an effigy, and extra
energy was applied to the ‘Old Tins’.
The fire was lit and the frenzied dancing continued into the
night. By the next day the
unwelcome visitor has usually fled. The
Northampton Mercury of May 24th, 1895 reported a Blisworth
‘Tin Kettling’. Great
excitement extended from end
to end of the village. A
misdemeanour had been done (according to villagers) by an unmarried
couple. This deeply
offended the villagers who decided to put a stop to this.
All tin cans, trays, and bells were collected. For the first two nights the night air was disturbed by all
the clatter imaginable outside the house of the couple. The third night was to be the big demonstration when the
bonfire was to be lighted. The
protesters, estimated at 200, met at the outskirts of the village on the
Gayton Road and the march to the village began, but suddenly they were
confronted by two police officers who stood their ground and shouted
‘STOP’. Complete silence followed for one minute then all the
kettles, trays, tins etc., were thrown over the hedge and the party fled
in panic. The two effigies
lay in the road where they had been dropped. I
well remember a similar incident in 1920 at a group of buildings in
Stoke Road (now demolished). The
offender was a married man with an invalid wife, and he thought fit to
import another lady into his household.
The man in question was ‘Sammy Dasher’.
The closely knit neighbours soon decided that this incursion of
another lady must be brought to a quick end. The
organised attack was to be of the same pattern as heretofore (it is
difficult to eradicate village customs). For
three nights the ‘tin kettling’ continued, including the effigy
burning on the final demonstration.
The unwelcome visitor had departed by the next morning.
I well remember this episode.
Although I had been forbidden to go by my parents,
I still carry the memory of seeing the frightened lady’s face
illuminated by the flames, peeping through the curtains. One
would think that a civilised community would have forgotten about ‘Tin
Kettling’ by 1936 but oh NO not Blisworth. It
soon became a talking point that a gentleman occupant in a lone house on
the outskirts* of Blisworth had induced a lady to visit him.
The locals not trusting the gentleman, considered that the lady
visitor was in danger. So
once again the ‘Tin Kettling’ was re-enacted.
For two nights the tins were banged, but on the third night when
the effigy was to be burned the police intervened and the lady was
rescued. Old
customs ‘die hard’, but I cannot quite see that we would trouble to
use ‘Tin Kettling’ nowadays. Even
if the spirit is willing the tin cans etc., all go away now to the local
tip. There is no community
left. [*Halfway to the
railway arch on the Northampton Road R.F.] GEORGE FREESTON (N.B.
This article also appears in the Northamptonshire Local History
News, whose address is Hunsbury Hill Centre, Harksome Hill, Northampton.
NN4 9QX. If you are
interested they are always looking for new subscribers.) Jul/Aug 1989 [58] Garden Party It is ‘Garden Party Time’ once again at 31 Stoke Road, Blisworth when ‘Plowmans’ cottage and garden are open to you all on Saturday 1st July, 1989. Proceeds for our Parish Church Restoration Fund. Open at 2.30p.m. with selling from stalls at 3.00pm. Gifts for stalls and donations will be much appreciated. Admission 50p. (Adults) which includes tea and scone. FREE TO JUNIORS. ‘Exhibition of Bygones’. [59] Gossip Time Congratulations
to ALL who performed, organised ‘and pressed on regardless’ at the
very ‘HAPPY” three performances of the ‘GANG SHOW’, a real
united effort of Scouts, Guides, Brownies, & Leaders. Although
we do not see much of them in uniform it was grand to see a stage
occupied to an almost overspill of happy members of our youthful
village. I look forward to
the next ‘Gang Show’. Historically
I nearly brought along my brother Ron, now 90 years of age who must
claim to be the oldest Scouter in the village. Ron
was born in 1899 which period saw the Boer War 1899-1902 and the
emergence of Robert Baden-Powell who as Lt. General attained great
popularity during the South African War in which he applied new fighting
tactics in field warfare. He
founded the Boy Scouts Organisation in 1908 which quickly grew into a
worldwide coverage by 1920. Many
of his war tactics were applied to Scouting as a peaceful open air,
activity and brotherly exercise. Blisworth’s
first troup was founded around 1910, a small number who joined in with
Pattishall and Gayton for local camps etc.
Messengers were taught horse riding.
Two Blisworth survivors fro that first troop are Mr.Bill Sturgess
and my brother Ron. Ron
excelled in morse and semaphore, and he and other scouts were sent, in
1914, to take part in Coast Guard duties at Alderly Creek in
Lincolnshire. From there on
Ron volunteered and joined The Royal Naval Reserve. He soon found himself crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic
in the great convoys of ships bringing aid from Canada and America.
Radio was in its infancy but could not be used for fear of the
enemy locating the position of the ships.
Thus Ron with many other signalmen sent out and received the
messages in morse using lamps by night and flag semaphore by day.
Weather conditions on the Atlantic often brought signalling to a
stand still and often the convoy became totally scattered. That
first Blisworth troop of 1910 did not last for long after World War I.
A second troop was formed in 1933.
Mr. Woolacott was the Scout Master with two assistants Richard
Caesar and myself. That
troop enjoyed a period of scouting to the full, camping in Dorset, on
the East Coast, in Snowdonia and many other localities.
World War II arrived with the senior boys becoming cycle
messengers. As they came to
calling up age many joined the Forces.
With my calling up the troop came to an end. In
1966 Dennis Bodsworth (an old scout) took up the challenge and formed a
new troop assisted by his wife Greta, who took on the Cubs in 1970.
Their daughter and son in law came into the Scouting ‘family
business’, and in 1973 they saw their first scout hut built. Here
I must leave my story and hope that a present member will continue the
story to date for the sake of recording history. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1989 Gossip Time [60] The
hard working members of the Flower and Produce Show deserve a “BIG
THANK YOU’ for their persistency in keeping alive the annual village
show. Horticultural shows
rapidly grew during the last century.
The Northampton and County Floral Shows were a regular feature at
the Blisworth Hotel Pleasure Gardens.
With the railway station next door, folk were able to travel
cheaply from a wide area. Blisworth
too held its own village shows, doubts were often voiced about the size
of ‘old so and so’s’ marrows which as often as not, had been seen
at neighbouring village shows. It
was all part of the fun. Governments
encouraged cottage gardens and allotments and parish councils are
obliged to provide them. Cottagers
were expected to support their families with home grown produce.
At least one Victorian M.P. toting for votes, offered every farm
labourer an acre of land and a cow.
(It must have been Gladstone, I forget !)
However, many of us remember the last war slogan ‘Dig for
Victory’. Times have
changed since then for now the produce of the worlds horticulturalists
is presented in all our shops, often flown in overnight. At
the beginning of the last century, Blisworth’s open fields were
enclosed and hedges planted. Cottagers
had enjoyed old plots of land in the vicinity of their dwellings.
Following the 1810 enclosure, a 10 acre site was allocated for
allotments alongside the Stoke Road on the east side.
It was pegged out to accommodate 100 assorted plots.
Much of that area was lost owing to later iron stone excavation.
Further plots were lost in the construction of ‘Greenside’ in
1958. The Stoke Road
holders now number 32 with 2 vacant.
(A relic from the iron stone workings is a short deep gully.)
The site belongs to British Steel.
Around 1920, probably a post war demand, a second allotment area
of 11 acres was allocated off the Courteenhall Road.
There were 54 occupied plots, some 20 pole and others 40 pole.
The service road was originally the track to the former windmill. The farmland on the south side of the track is the site on
which an application has been
put forward to erect 104 assorted houses.
By a quirk of events, both allotments were sitting on a rich bed
of ironstone which had been discovered around 1850.
Both sites have been manually excavated for iron stone.
The soil was later re-instated and returned to allotment plots.
Up to 1919, most of the parish belonged to the Duke of Grafton to
whom a royalty of 6d per
ton on the ironstone extracted was paid. Both
allotment sites lost their original water table resulting in a quickly
drained soil. The old
gardeners called it ‘hungry land’.
It needs a lot of water and loads of farmyard muck. It
used to be said that should you take of your jacket and lay it on the
ground, that by the time you had dug a length, your coat would have
rotted and been eaten up by the starved soil. It
will be interesting to see the products of the land following the long,
dry, and hot July. So,
hey ho, come to the show ! George Freeston Nov/Dec 1989
No contribution from George Jan/Feb 1990 [61] Gossip Time Readers
of the Sep/Oct R&A will have noticed that the chairman of the parish
council lives in the Old Rectory. This
fine building west of the church was built by a new rector who had come
from Whitby in 1839. By
1841 he had demolished the antiquated former rectory and had built for
himself and his family a fine new one, the building stone coming from a
quarry on the Glebe land. From
1841 to 1914 the rectory was occupied by three generations of the Barry
family as rectors of Blisworth. At
some time the rectory was taken over by the Church Commissioners, who
during the years to follow found such large buildings a great burden to
upkeep. It was no surprise
when the Commissioners decided to sell Blisworth rectory.
Locally other rectories followed suit including Gayton, Tiffield,
Milton, and Stoke Bruerne etc. Blisworth
rectory and grounds, except for the walled kitchen garden, in which a
new rectory was built later, was placed on the property market in 1962
and bought by Mr. and Mrs.
Meath-Baker. The large
house and grounds were an ideal home for their four sons whose Christian
names were Clovis, Justin, Lysander, and Joshua.
The family were a colourful asset to the village. In
1976 the Meath-Bakers sold the Blisworth home and moved down to a family
mansion, Hasfield Court in
Gloucestershire. The
next purchasers of the Blisworth Old Rectory were Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins
in 1976. Now
back to the Meath-Bakers. Clovis the eldest son married a sweetheart named Lizzy.
They have a daughter named Boedicea.
Why not !! A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO
YOU ALL This insert was penned by Ron Freeston who died on January 21st aged 90. He loved all creatures great and small:- Exaltation of Larks, Clamour of Rooks, Charm of Goldfinches, Spring of Teal, Plump of Wildfowl, Stand or Congregation of Lapwings, Covey of Partridges, Wisp of Snipe, Paddling of Mallard, Murmuration of Doves, Peep of Chicks, Nye of Pheasants, Gaggle of Geese, Gobble of Turkeys, Watch of Nightingales, Fall of Woodcock, Sedge of Herons, Giggle of Girls. GEORGE FREESTON Mar/Apr 1990 [62] Gossip Time Following
brother Ron’s death at the age of 90 numerous villagers have asked
questions of his life time at Blisworth, thinking that he was born here.
Ron was born at Maidwell where his father had set up a
wheelwright and carpenter’s business.
Father came from Clipston of a long line of wheelwrights.
Mother was of a Maidwell family.
From Maidwell, father next moved to Hanslope.
He just couldn’t get on with the squire of Maidwell, R. Loder
esq. A
family tragedy occurred at Hanslope which made father and mother move
yet again by which time the family was four boys.
In 1910 there was a wheelwrights, already spacious, business, put
on the market as ‘To Let’ at Blisworth. Village
property was then part of the Duke of Graftons Estate comprising 14
villages. The previous
occupant of the vacant Blisworth wheelwrights business had also been the
Duke’s agent, a position of no little prestige. Father
was lucky enough to get the Blisworth business, and so in 1910 mother
and father together with four boys arrived by pony and trap.
Ron was the eldest, followed by Ralph, William and Frank.
They were soon settled in their spacious home.
The pony however was not so lucky for she was put into an empty
building which had in the past had a wooden floor made over what was the
‘Sawyers Pit’. Jane
restless on the wooden floor caused it to collapse with the result that
when morning came my father was surprised to find the pony ‘GONE’
into the pit. The
new premises comprised a stone and slated house containing 7 rooms, 2
attics, larder, W.C. and lavatory, and wash-house.
There was also a front sales shop, a long wheelwrights shop with
room above, paint mixing room, trap house, open yard, and a very large
garden which extended through to ‘The Alley’ (Church Lane to-day).
This property now belongs to Mr. M. Pusey and is No.4 Stoke Road
which has part of the garden. The
immediate neighbours of the newcomers were ‘Young’s Stores’ (now
M. Patrick, Post Office and Spa Shop), with the Post Office adjoining on
the corner of High Street and Stoke Road (now Corner Stores).
Adjoining the yard in Stoke Road was the Infant School (now no.6)
with the Senior School opposite (now the village hall).
Next to this was the bakehouse of Mr. Thomas Sturgess and the
remnants of Westley’s mill, later becoming ‘The British Bacon
Company’ which later moved down to the Northampton Road Abattoir.
This first belonged to Buswell Bros. but of recent years there
have been numerous ownerships. Just
below the ‘B.B.C. was Mrs. Cave’s Hat and Millinery Shop.
Nearby in the High Street opposite was Alfred Goodriges Smithy,
with another Smithy, Richard Goodridge along the High Street (east),
together with William Hill’s cobblers shop, and not forgetting Mary
Huggets sweet shop and the Royal Oak, both opposite.
All within a stones throw of the Wheelwrights premises. G. FREESTON May/Jun 1990
Gossip Time The story of No.4
Stoke Road premises (part two) The
Freeston family of parents, 4 sons, Ron, Ralph, Bill, and Frank,
together with dog, and ferrets, were soon settled in their new abode.
George the fifth son was born in 1911. The
group of stone built buildings housed the wheelwrights equipment of the
outgoing tenant with a spacious yard in the centre. The
annual rent to be paid to the Duke of Grafton was £20
for the house and 6/4d. for the land tax of the ¾
acre garden. A
long carpenters ‘shop’ ran along the Stoke Road together with a two
storey store and paint and mixing shop.
Within the carpenters shop was the standard long bench complete
with wooden vices etc. At
one end of the building was an 8 foot long treadle operated lathe,
capable of needing 3 or 4 people to work the treadle to spin the chuck,
which held the wood to be turned. It
was something like a giant treadle sewing machine in its operation.
The faster the peddling the faster the spin.
Father appeared to save all his wood turning jobs for Saturdays
when he could press gang his available schoolboy sons and their friends
to man the treadle bar. We
used to try all sorts of dodges to be missing on Saturday mornings, but
we were seldom successful. In
the yard was a blacksmith’s forge, and alongside it was an iron made
apparatus, built up with numerous rollers into which strip iron was fed.
As the handle was turned the flat length of iron became a
complete circle. The hoop of iron was then joined by heat and hammering
resulting in a NEW iron tyre for the cast and wagon wheels. The
iron figures before fitting to the wooden wheel were heated by fire in
the centre of the work-yard, and when red hot they were quickly lifted
out and placed on the wooden wheel, hammered down to fit, and then
doused with gallons of water from the nearby pump.
This operation caused the iron to shrink, thus causing a perfect
fit of the new iron tyre to the wheel.
All available ‘hands’ were needed on such fascinating
operations. The wheel was
placed on a 6 ft. diameter round platform which made a perfectly solid
base for fitting the tyre. GEORGE FREESTON P.S.
The iron platform is all that has survived of the buildings and
equipment mentioned. It is
propped against the wall in what is now Mr. Pusey’s yard.
Peep in and have a look. G.F. It is hoped to hold the ‘Plowmans Garden Party’ on Saturday 30th June 1990 G.F. Jul/Aug 1990 Gossip Time Re-cap:-
The Freeston family arrived in Blisworth in 1910 and took
residence in the house and premises now belonging to Mr. M. Pusey:- The
former tenant was Mr. W. Chester also a wheelwright, thus my father
Edwin Thomas Freeston of the same profession became the occupier of an
already old establishment. The
eldest son Ron forthwith joined the newly formed Scout troop and became
a proficient morse and semaphore signaller.
He and other scouts were sent to Andovy on the east coast to take
on Coast Guard duties. After
the war on Ron’s demob from the navy he joined up with his father and
two of his brothers in the family business which undertook carpentry,
house decoration etc. As
the business expanded extra staff were taken on.
A man’s wage was 8d. per hour, and a boy could earn 3d. an
hour. The
trade of wheelwrighting was on the decline, money was short.
Some of the, local farmers were unable to pay for the work done,
so occasionally it was the job of two of my brothers to go to the farms
and bring back a pig or two, a couple of hens or a sack of corn. When
a pig was killed at home my Father would say that we had too many
relations, and friends, for they all wanted, and got, some parts of the
pig. It was a friendly
gesture for when other folk killed a pig they paid in like manner.
For seemingly weeks following the killing of a pig, we lived on
the by-products; lard, scratchings, faggots, pork pies, chitterlings
etc., only the squeal was wasted. Following
World War I, 1914-1918, farmers and tradesmen gradually accepted tractor
and motor vehicles. Wheelwrighting
was faded out. This change
brought new life to the Freeston establishment for from then on any form
of vehicle propelled by internal combustion engines was made welcome for
repairs etc. Petrol
at first was bought and sold in 2 gallon capacity cans.
Prices varied around 2/. (10p now) per gallon.
Later petrol pumps were erected on the roadside between the
present corner stores and the post-office.
There was no pull in and vehicles of all sizes remained on the
road. Then there were only
a few hundred vehicles per day. Now
we are over 18,000 in 24 hours. Time
marches on, and so does the ‘By-pass’. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1990 Gossip Time Re-cap:-
The Freeston family arrived in Blisworth in 1910 and took
residence in the house and premises now belonging to Mr. M. Pusey:- From
an early time even before coming to Blisworth as a carpenter/wheelwright
my father had kept a ‘fleet’ of cycles for hire at around 6d. a day. A
large proportion of labourers walked to their work, few could afford a
cycle so when on occasion they wished to visit Northampton or villages
around they would hire a cycle. It
seems unbelievable that at this time a new Hercules cycle was little
more than £2,
and few could afford one. One
of the regular customers at Blisworth was Mr. J. Westley the miller
whose fine mill still stands next to canal bridge no.51.
It was often necessary to send a message to local farmers to
arrange the collection of corn etc., and as few had telephones, the
cycling messenger was despatched. Mr. Westley had a telephone installed in 1921, his ‘phone
number was 8, quite a difference from to-days thousands of ‘phone
holders. Father
continued with the carpentry and undertaking but my brothers gradually
took on the early car and motor cycles for repair and sales. This
new industry introduced new words in the vocabulary:
motor mechanic, garage (formerly motor shed),
chauffeur, motor cab, (later taxi). GEORGE FREESTON Nov/Dec 1990 [63] Gossip Time As
most readers of R&B will have followed the speedy development of the
long awaited bypass, helped by the remarkably dry summer, I feel that
there is little left to write, however:- A
by-pass of our village was called for and mapped way back in 1838 for
the benefit of the Stage Coach operators running in from the west to the
first railway station which was on the embankment next to the stone
built arch. By 1845 a
second station was built westward of the original one, together with the
fine Blisworth Hotel (still operating).
That early bypass was to miss the village bends by cutting across
the empty Pond Bank and
joining up with the toll road (now A43) at canal bridge no.51 next to
the ‘Sun,Moon and Stars Inn’ (now lying derelict). After
years of debate an improved bypass was mapped, again commencing at the
Railway Bridge, crossing Pondbank and the canal to join the A43 half way
up the Towcester Road hill. Yet
again this did not materialize. Still
later on an amended route was mapped to join with the A43 towards the
top of Towcester Road hill. Still
no bypass. On
January 21st and 22nd 1983 an exhibition of plans
showing alternative routes was set up in the village hall.
Silence followed but the bypass was not forgotten, for the
traffic flow through the village saw to that. It
was not until October 1987 that a week long ‘Public Enquiry’ was
convened in the village hall headed by Vice Admiral Sir Stephen Berthan
who very patiently listened to all the ‘for and against’ of
alternative routes for the bypass. Now
we know where we stand for on April 23rd, 1990 I recorded
that the first swathes had been cut through a field of rape at Tiffield
Rectory Farm on the A43. Commencing
at 138m. above sea level and
terminating at the Upton Way roundabout at 65m. above sea level the five
mile long dual carriageway will present a splendid scenic run.
The new road surprisingly in its short length touches the
following parishes:- Easton Neston, Tiffield, Gayton, Blisworth, Milton
Malsor, Rothersthorpe, Wootton, Hardingstone, Upton, and Northampton. That’s
all for now. I wish all
readers a ‘Very Happy Christmas’ and a mild winter so that the
by-pass will be completed earlier than stated. GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1991 [64] Gossip Time On
Saturday morning 8th December 1990, at 8.am two lumber jacks
turned up at Blisworth Stone Works as arranged with Mr. Derek Cherry.
Their mission was to cut down the dead ‘Monkey Puzzle’ tree
which had been a favourite with young and old over a long time.
Many a villager will miss it.
Throughout its adult life it had become a celebrity and a well
known landmark. Its
pedigree name was Araucaria Araucana a native pine from Chile.
The species were first introduced as seeds possibly to Kew in
1795 and again in 1822. Both
lots failed. In 1839 a batch of seedlings were bought back to England and
these soon became established thus opening the call for more as its
popularity increased. The
Blisworth tree could well have been planted soon after the building of
the Stone Works House around 1837. From
then on it became a well known tree to children especially when called a
‘Monkey Puzzle’ for it had a peculiar leaf structure on its branches
which seemingly offered a problem to monkeys in climbing them, or even
stopping them. But
to go back to the morning of the 8th of December, when I went
up in a snowstorm to see whether the tree men had turned up.
Not only were they working but tree surgeon David was perched in
the top most branches cutting away with his chain saw, the snow falling
all around him. Little by
little he worked his way down. The main trunk was then felled and sawn up into roundles.
All was cleared away except the stump, which following Christmas
activities could easily have been mistaken for a dinosaurs foot.
It’s worth a look as you go by. The trunk
approximately was 50ft. tall and when measured by me in 1953, and,
later, has remained up to the end of its life more or less constant at
96 ins. circumference, during which time it has slowly lost the zest for
living. G.F. [63a] Blisworth Bypass
I
have been privileged to walk about with my camera throughout the
excavations of the bypass, in much the same way as during the tunnel
rebuild. I
have booked the village hall for Friday 18th of January, 1991
for 8pm. To show my slides from the beginning.
I can assure you that they are most interesting, although many
have taken photographs. The cash takings will be ‘put to funds’ for some sort of
celebration on opening day. Do
please support this first of a sequence of slide shows.
Admission only 50p. With all good wishes
for 1991. G.F. Mar/Apr 1991 Gossip Time Bypass news Even
though the By-pass is well on its way to the long awaited completion
much still depends on the weather, even this recent snowy period could
have upset the project considerably. The met forecast speaks of a long winter.
The two showings of phase one have been well attended and I thank
all who came.
Looking through by by-pass records I was amused by the following
newspaper cuttingof
1965, 26 years ago. The
article stemming from the then County Surveyor:- ‘Residents
of Blisworth who live on the main road are becoming agitated about the
need for a Bypass.
There is little hope for such a scheme within the next 5 years’
. . . the County Surveyor
then added that villagers have placed a notice ‘BLISWORTH NEEDS A
BYPASS’ in a conspicuous
position by the roadside . . . ‘I saw it myself’ said he ‘as I
drove through the village
yesterday, of course it is quite unofficial, and as it is on the highway
I will have it removed’.
Strong words.
At that time, 1965, the traffic count of vehicles passing through
the village was just over 6,000
per 24 hours. By the time
the by-pass is opened the vehicle count could have arrived
at 20,000 per 24 hours ! !
‘PHASE
TWO’ slide talks of the by-pass construction from the main line bridge
(night work), the canal
bridge and on to the M1 at Rothersthorpe (Service Station) will be shown
on Tuesday 26th of
March, 1991, with a repeat programme on Tuesday 2nd. April,
1991. Both at 7.30pm in the Village
Hall. Admission 50p
All monies going to a fund for the ‘Opening day children’s celebration’.
GEORGE
FREESTON May/Jun 1991 [64] Gossip Time
As I write these few notes (Sunday 14th April), I feel
that the north/east winds could also bring
along an early frost to harm the plum blossoms etc.
One of the joys though of this
season is the dramatic sight of all the pure white blossoms of the
blackthorn. Each year I find
myself saying ‘It’s better than ever’, and the gin lovers will
look forward to the harvest of the
fruits, one of the ingredients of SLOE GIN ! Bypass
News [63b]
Most folk will have heard that the bypass is to be opened in
mid-summer. A day when we
hope that most of the heavy traffic at present going through the village
will find another way.
I wish to thank the many villagers who attended the slide shows
and talk of the development
of the 5 mile route. I
loved every minute of my excursions to it.
The admission cash to the talks amounted to £78.50 which will go to some form of children’s participation.
I don’t
quite think that the village will be closed to all traffic as dreamed of
(as was possible for some villages) for an hour or two.
This present bypass is certainly a costly road.
It could almost be described as a computerised machine made road,
employing a minimum of manpower. Very
different to the road maintenance and improvements of the past century
when stone breakers were employed to provide material to fill pot holes.
It is a little over 120 years since tolls were paid by road users
whether by horse drawn vehicles or droves of cattle along the Towcester
to Far Cotton turn-pike through Blisworth. We
are still paying road useage Tolls called Licences. G.F. N.B. We must seriously press for a weight
limit for ‘Heavy Goods Vehicles’ along the Courteenhall Road. Jul/Aug 1991 [63c] Bypass Opening
Day All
I wish to record is to say ‘What a day to remember’.
Truly memorable, smiles and sunshine all the way.
Well documented by camera, T.V. and Video. Former
celebrations were held when the tunnel was completed in 1805, and when
the main line was opened in 1838. On
all three occasions there were festivities and the ringing of the Church
Bells in Blisworth. The
following traffic counts are from the Northamptonshire County Council:- 1990,
29th May. Blisworth A43
Combined traffic through the village north & south bound
13,868 of which
1,489
were HGV’s. 1991,
4th June Blisworth
A43 Combined
traffic 5,908 (% Fall 57.4% of which 418 were HGV’s . Switching
from Old Road to Bypass
Combined traffic 7,960
of which 1,071 were HGV’s GEORGE FREESTON
Sep/Oct 1991 [65] Gossip Time ‘Where
have all the sparrows gone?’ Throughout
the past centuries, sparrows have been hounded and hunted, for they
certainly ate a lot of corn. Enemy
no.1 was the householder in whose thatch the sparrow started life.
That ‘man’ as likely as not kept ferrets, as we did, and they
were mostly fed on sparrows, which were shot by a pellet from an
air-gun, which was always handy. In
those days sparrows were looked upon as a pest, resulting in a serious
attempt to get rid of them. Throughout the Grafton estate, as well as other estates, so
called ‘sparrow clubs’ were formed.
Farmers and the Duke of Grafton made donations to the club.
A secretary /treasurer was appointed for each village, being
chosen at the annual Court Leet. The result of all this was that every sparrow had a price on
its head. After
dark a group of men and boys went out equipped with a large net, similar
to a strawberry bed net. This
was attached to two long poles, so that when erected it looked like a
large banner. The attackers
approached any building covered with ivy.
The net was placed against the ivy, and the surprised sparrows
which were roosting there were
caught in the netting, duly extracted and killed.
In season, nests were robbed of their eggs, and if the young were
there, they were likewise collected.
Young birds were called Bolshins or variants of this. The
resulting haul was then taken to the sparrow club treasurer, who would
pay out per head of sparrow and egg. The
payment would be shared between the hunters and was a regular source of
beer money. From
the Blisworth vestry meeting (the forerunner of parish councils) of
March 1888, the minutes reveal that the price for old sparrows was fixed
at 6d. per dozen if taken between Michaelmas Day and Lady Day, but only
3d. if taken between Lady Day and Michaelmas.
Eggs were paid for at 3d. a dozen and the same for newly born
Bolshins. Seemingly prices
varied at different times of the year. At
one time, the sparrow club secretary/treasurer was the church sexton and
clockmaker. He, like many
cottagers, also kept a pig or pigs.
I was told by his nephew that his uncle’s pigs were the
thinnest in the village, for they were only fed on sparrows and water !
! ! In
bad winters sparrows, and also blackbirds, were netted , skinned, and
their breast fillets were cut away and made into a sparrow or blackbird
pie. Sparrow
clubs seem to have come to an end after World War I. GEORGE FREESTON MESSAGE TO CAMPION
SCHOOL PUPILS During the past
Campion School term, I loaned out to pupils items relating to their
studies of the last war and HomeGuard.
May I call in all such items.. GEORGE FREESTON Nov/Dec 1991 [66] Gossip Time Over
the past summer I found that I had time on my hands after spending the
previous year recording the progress of the Bypass.
So I took to the familiar canal tow paths.
As with all we older members of Blisworth it comes impossible not
to mourn over the present state of the canal side-walks when once they
were free of the ever encroaching vegetation which was kept in order by
a body of labourers, carpenters, bricklayers, lock keepers etc.
Of that army of some 53 men, half were labourers, not an enviable
job in all weathers, mud and water being their constant companions. Wages
at the turn of the century were around 3/- to 3/6d. per day.
The area covered was from Braunston to Fenny Stratford.
The distance from job to home meant the labourers lodging out.
Six-pence per night was the allowance for a bed in a cottage, the
labourer taking enough food, often bread and fat bacon for the week. We
certainly cannot wish to see such wage conditions again but I cannot
myself ever foresee the return of any sort of regular maintenance.
Who pays ? ? Nature
is always the winner. Sorry
for that outburst ! P.S.
At the time of writing I have been unable to get a ‘bypass
count’ which really does’nt mean anything.
We know that we still would appreciate less and less traffic. G.F. Jan/Feb 1992 [67] Gossip Time From
ancient days the church officers appointed at the annual vestry meetings
conducted the business of helping the poor in need. Reorganisation
came in 1577/8 and 1601 when it became obligatory for the appointed
overseers to support the poor. The
rector and church wardens automatically held office, and provided the
vestry for the meetings. Looking
through the churchwardens accounts for 1826, it appears that some 357
villagers applied for relief in the form of cash, coals, or clothing.
The sums of cash were not great as few of the payments exceeded
4/-. Of greater interest
are the listed items for which the money was given.
Here are a few examples:-
For a child 12 weeks ill. 2d.
was given per week
For a family in distress. 2/-
For soling and healing boys shoes.
4/-
For paying two women for attending a dead villager.
5/-
For the grave digger. 2/-
For Jos. Davies for tolling the church bell.
2/-
Flock beds, bolsters, blankets, sheets, and coals were regularly
requested.
A John Linnett paid a 2/- fine for refusing to pay the poor rate.
A point of interest in reference to John Linnett is that he was
occupant/owner of the ‘Sun, Moon and Stars’ public house (now
derelict) and the datestone with his initials and year,
J. L. 1797 can still be seen on the brick wall facing the rear
yard (it is painted white). Have
a look at it while you can for it could disappear if and when the
building is restored or demolished. The
Duke of Grafton also gave ‘Blankitts, Shirts, Men’s and Women’s
Hose, etc., the hose for
men costing 2/-, and for the women 1/3d. The
Main rate payers were the Duke of Grafton, the parish farmers, and also
the canal company, who paid an annual rate of around £167.
The annual disbursement was around £260.
The money from
property holding villagers must have been minimal. It
is sad that more and more cash and material items are needed not only
for this countries poor, but for throughout the world.
Lets not forget them. ‘Wishing all
readers a Joyous Christmas’ G.F. Mar/Apr 1992 [68] Gossip Time Having
dealt with the culling of the common sparrows, which robbed considerable
quantities of the farmers’ ripening corn, another and more sisister
menace remained in the form of the common rat, which abounded everywhere
where food was available. Until
the arrival of the mobile combine harvester growing corn was reaped by
hand or the reaper machine which tied the corn into sheaves before being
carted to the rickyard and stacked.
The corn was threshed during the slack winter months. At
each rickyard were quantities of large stones which had been roughly
tooled into two shapes which when assembled looked like a large
mushroom, two or three feet tall. The
assembled stones were placed in the form of a square and rough timbers
were laid from stone to stone forming a platform.
On such a raised floor the sheaves were stacked and a rick was
formed, then thatched. The
mushroom shaped supporting stones were named ‘Staddles’ or stems and
caps. The
structure of the staddles prevented rats from getting into the rick for
they were not able to negotiate the overhang of the cap (or mushroom
shaped top). Occasionally
the farmer, not having sufficient staddles, was obliged to build the
rick directly on the ground, which was just what the rat needed for his
winter home of food and warmth. One
recorded instance when staddle stones were not used and where the farmer
had estimated a corn yield of four full cart loads of wheat he found
that only four sacks of corn were threshed.
All that remained after a 12 months storage period when the rick
was the home of a multitude of rats.
In fact the death roll of rats attempting to escape was 720.
On such occasions numbers of menfolk came along with their
terriers and other dogs, and a few small-bore shot guns, making it a
full day of sport. As with the payment for sparrows the farmer paid 2d. per rat. Staddle
stones were in use by the thousands in this country.
With the coming of mechanism and no longer the need to store corn
in the ricks, staddles were discarded in cart tracks, ponds etc.
Now they command high prices for garden decoration. Rats
small and large were very well known to us until the post war years.
With two farms and a bacon factory within the village, together
with cottage pigs and hens there was a plentiful supply of scattered
food for the rat families. In
one case where a heavy gauge overhead electricity cable ran, rats were
regularly seen running along it to gain access to adjacent food
supplies. So
if you think you have a rat problem don’t forget that out of your poll
tax is paid the area rat catcher (a public service that stems from
medieval times). HAPPY HUNTING ! ! G.F. P.S.
There are a few Bypass mugs remaining.
Why not give one as an Easter present, at £1.50
each, never to be repeated. All
profits to the village hall. Obtainable
from:- GEORGE FREESTON. May/Jun 1992 [69] Gossip Time Eighty
one years ago the name of BLISWORTH rang around the Commons in
Parliament. Paper headlines
followed:- ‘Village
housing famine: plain facts about Blisworth’.
I doubt if the majority of elected members knew where our village
was, except for the fact that it was part of the extensive Grafton
Estate in Northamptonshire ruled by a series of Dukes of Grafton. From
the year 1800 Blisworth parish was undergoing growing pains.
A major canal had cut through it.
Roads were turnpiked with toll paying gates.
The London to Birmingham railways cut over and through the open
landscape. A station was
opened which not only served Northampton town but a large area.
A line was opened to Northampton in 1845 and later Blisworth
became an ever busying railway junction with the opening of the line to
Stratford on Avon and the west. Vast
ironstone beds lay under the village and its close environment.
Blisworth became an early exporter of ironstone to Wales by 1851.
There were building stone quarries and brick making as well.
Other local industries developed, the main one being the milling
of flour by the Westley brothers. In
other words there was not only full employment for the locals but by
mid- century ironstone labourers walked from the local villages daily,
coming from Stoke Bruerne, Shutlanger, Alderton,Tiffield, Astcote,
Eastcote, and Pattishall etc. In
all ironstone pits gave employment to about 45 men.
In and up to 1800 the Duke’s simple thatched cottages in the
village sufficed, but they were overcrowded.
The old folk took in lodgers to help their cash problems.
The Duke charged 1/-
per week rent. One
tenant having at last obtained a cottage had changed lodgings nine times
before he was lucky enough to get one.
Another villager stated that he and his family of five children
shared a one-up, one-down cottage, occupied by an old man who slept
upstairs sharing the room with two boys.
Mum, Dad and three smaller children lay as best they could in the
one downstairs room. The
railway company had provided for their workers by building a terrace
block of twelve dwellings, but even they were overcrowded for some took
in lodgers who were on shift jobs. The Westley families became the best suppliers, for over the
years they housed around fifty families for their employees and others.
And with overcrowding, no piped water, simple earth toilets, but
satisfied with full employment, the villagers filled both church and
chapel on Sundays, and the village school during the weekdays.
No wonder that a headmaster of the last century wrote in his log
book, ‘they’ (the children) were packed like ‘bees in a hive’.
The successive Dukes seemingly did not want swallowing up in the
last century’s industrial revolution.
They did not need the outburst of Mr. Fred. Kellaway when he
appraised Parliament with Blisworth’s need for housing. Blisworth
could have joined up with Northampton or become another Corby,
Wolverhampton, or Crewe, or similar to any of the new industrial towns.
I am pleased we are as we are. GEORGE FREESTON Jul/Aug 1992 [70] Gossip Time One
hundred and twenty years ago the editor of the Northamptonshire Mercury
paper was James De Wild. As an occasional escape from the office he visited many of
our villages and documented what he saw in a publication entitled,
‘Rambles Roundabout’. One
such outing brought him to Blisworth and I surmise that he came by
train. He noted the trains
on the main line on which was Blisworth Station, and as it was a
junction the members of staff on the platform moved up the length of
‘stopping trains’ calling out ‘All Change’ for Northampton and
Peterborough, whether it be day or night. Should
he visit the same spot now he would be intrigued and astonished to find
no station, though high speed trains hurtle by.
We blame Dr. Beeching for the loss of the once celebrated
Blisworth Station with its branch lines east and west, or was it the car
? He
would however see and perhaps enter the Blisworth Hotel for he wrote
favourably of it and the adjoining pleasure gardens ‘with flowers and
greenest turf, and shady bowers’.
He would have been astonished probably running out of
superlatives in describing the present park with its colourful dwellings
and gardens. He
walked to Blisworth via the canal tow path.
He mentioned the sloping fields running to the waters edge along
the west side, but he had an adverse comment about the towpath which he
found covered with cinders and clinkers discarded by the steamers which
were then being introduced. That
comment on the steamers causes me to make mention of the recent arrival
at Candle Bridge of the sole survivor of steam propelled canal boats, a
classified ‘Museum’ long boat named ‘The President’ which was on
a mercy mission collecting food for a hospice of under 5 year old
children in Rumania and living in the shadow of death. From
the canal towing path Mr. De Wilde observed the willows and in the
distance the church, fronted by lofty elms and ‘peopled by busy
rooks’, both alas no longer there.
New elm suckers are making headway though, which is the usual way
whereby elms reproduce themselves unlike the Ash and Sycamore which one
day will take over Blisworth by seeding.
In his walk through Blisworth he mentions the cottage gardens
brilliant with tiger lilies, and what delighted his eye, as it does
mine, was the profusion of giant elders in full display wherever they
could get a foothold, they certainly are still with us. He
made notes of the wealth of 17th century stone houses and
cottages, all too many of which have now gone but the survivors are
admired all the more. He
mentioned especially the elm tree at the junction of the Courteenhall
Road and the High Street, alas no more.
He terminated his article with the following lines from Oliver
Goldsmith’s ‘The deserted Village’ :- ‘How
often have I blest the coming day When
toil remitting lent its turn to play, And
all the village train, from labour free Led
up their sports beneath the spreading tree. P.S.
We may have lost the tree, but we are certainly not deserted,
there’s you and me ! ! G.F. Sep/Oct 1992 [71] Gossip Time In
the last issue of R&A I mentioned the canal steamer named ‘The President’
calling at Blisworth to collect the food destined for the children of
Romania. This boat, now a
museum specimen is the sole survivor of a large fleet of canal steamers
once operated by the firm ‘Fellowes, Morton and Clayton’.
Way back in 1910 this same boat ‘The President’ was making a
journey northwards and when passing Stowe Hill a canal worker saw ‘The
President’ with ‘attachments’.
Being a conscientious man he went indoors and penned the
following letter to the canal engineer resident at Blisworth Arm:- ‘Stowe Hill June 15th, 1910 Mr. Milner, Sir, the Butty Boat behind the PRESIDENT ENGINE has three chaps hanging on to her in and out of the canal bathing they was naked when they past our house on the boat - it was indecent they was going on with it to the Station Weedon. Yours T. Dyke’
Undoubtedly this incident was
followed by stern letters being sent to the PRESIDENT’S owners, but
from my knowledge of the past years, hot summers brought forth canal
bathers, costumed or not in large numbers, letters of complaint being of
little avail. G.F. Nov/Dec 1992 [72] Gossip Time During
September and into October nearly 8 inches of rain fell on our parish,
localised flooding of property and fields resulting.
The canal waters rising to cover the towpath, a most unusual
occurrence. This
excessive rainfall brought a sudden stop to the gathering of the late
harvest crops, thus the congregations of the parish church and the
baptist church were a little premature in lustily rendering the great
harvest hymn ‘All is safely gathered in, ‘ere the winter storms
begin’ but with drying winds and sun yet to come the farmers remain
optimistic. G.F. Doctor Bull’s
Retirement On
Friday the 18th of October a representative number of
villagers gathered in the village hall to attend the presentation of an
oversize Barclay’s cheque, 40ins. x 16 ins., to the value of £670,
the result of the organised village collection. David
Dalton our parish council chairman made the presentation duly worded to
Dr. Bull, followed by a bouquet presented
to Mrs. Shirley Bull by the 1992 May Queen, Catherine Hennessy.
The parish council presented jointly a pair of cut glass
‘Brandy’ glasses, or whatever they choose to put in them. Doctor
Bull’s ‘thanks to all’ seen and unseen were expressed, together
with numerous amusing anecdotes of his past ‘Doctors dilemmas’.
I regret that I had forgotten to take my tape recorder. Coffee
was served by the ladies. Also
attending were friends from Rothersthorpe, on behalf of whom Michael
Farndon, presented the Doctor with a bed pan, in which their
contribution had been collected. Sincere
thanks go to ALL who assisted in the memorable occasion.
Other villages were arranging their own presentations. GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1993 [73] Gossip Time Old
Year, New Year, so often a time of looking back.
I think it is something that we elders do, often to the vexation
of the younger generations unless they are doing a school project, when
most of us are pleased to answer their questions.
My parents often used a popular quote saying ‘Don’t harp,
what’s gone has gone’. So
recently I found myself ‘harping back’ when I came across a copy of
the number ‘one’ ‘Round and About’ which was issued in the
summer of 1975. The lady
editor was Mrs. Jackie High, who though a relatively new comer, quickly
fell into promotions. Page
1 contained the diary of forthcoming activities, including the
presentation by the flourishing Choral Society of the musical ‘The
Arcadians’; the ‘Mother’s Club’ had invited a police frogman who
gave a talk on that subject. Following the abnormal recent rains we had almost needed the
advice of such a specialist. The
chairman of that first issue was Mr. R. Philtrip.
The subject matters under discussion were street lighting,
speeding vehicles through the village, and a Bypass. The
former old church school in Stoke Road had been purchased by the parish
council who planned to convert it into a much needed village hall.
Former buildings in the vicinity of the Old School had housed the
long established British Bacon Co. which had already moved out of the
village to the new abattoir on the Northampton Road, employing over 300
local people. The new name was Dalgety Buswell. Our
then local village resident Policeman P.C. Colin Wood wrote a lengthy
article entitled ‘My initiation into wild fowling’ which included a
total immersion through thin ice. Parish
council member Jimmy Payler wrote a lengthy article on rambling in the
area. A welcome feature
which he continues to support and instruct. The
time table of the visits by the Mobile Library covered 12 weekly calls. G.F.
penned a list of names used over the past many years of the spelling of
the village name, the first recording being ‘Blide’s Worp, meaning
‘Blides Enclosure, followed by ‘Bliswurda’ in 1162,
‘Bletherworthe’ in 1200, ‘Blechesworth’ in 1284,
‘Blayseweurthe’ in 1348, ‘Blisworth in 1428’ and often called
‘Blis’oth’ 1992 ! ! So
I conclude my ‘Harping’. I wish you all ‘A Happy New Year’ together with a goodly
share of ‘Good Luck’ and ‘Good Health’. Next
year is the bicentenary of canal navvies arriving at Blisworth involved
in the construction of the Grand Junction Canal.
We shall have to celebrate the occasion but how and what ideas
please. G.F. Mar/Apr 1993 [74] Gossip Time On
the 14th December 1762 a new rector to the village was
inducted into the Benefice of Blisworth Church.
The new rectors name was Nathaniel Trotter B.D.L. The
ancient rectory stood alongside the north/west corner of the belfry.
On standing nearby, and looking southwards Nathaniel would have
seen an established brook which had followed a valley south to north.
This important brook fed the nearby Manor pond and also provided
the water power for the mill. During
the next years Nathaniel Trotter was to meet with surveyors named Jessop
and a Banbury engineer named Barnes.
A regular caller would have been John Roper, the Duke of
Grafton’s land and estate agent who became an important watchdog and
mediator between his master and the Grand Junction Canal Company.
Verbal and written agreements and disagreements must have taken a
lot of time in the negotiations of land through which the canal was to
proceed:- i.e map makers were kept busy. As
the weeks went on more navvies came.
(The word navvy stems from the word Navigators.)
At times it must have been the busiest spot in the county. By
1796 the water filled canal was in action from Birmingham.
At least Nathaniel Trotter saw the canal completed up to
Blisworth. I wonder if he
was aware that within a few years his rectory and church would be cut
off from his Glebe farm land on Towcester Road hill by a broad navigable
canal. Sadly
the rev. Nathaniel Trotter died at Blisworth in 1797 and his body was
carted to Newbold Verdon (Leicestershire) for him to be buried in the
family grave. He had no
children. G.F. P.S. To date I have not received any
suggestions to mark the ‘200 years of the canal’.
What about a May Day pageant of costume ? G.F.
May/Jun 1993 Gossip Time
By
now the whole village will be aware that this year 1993 is the
Bicentenary of ‘Our Canal’. The
first general meeting 0f the company of the proprietors was held in
London on June 1st 1793.
Parliamernt had passed the act for the go-ahead.
The Marquis of Buckingham had become the patron ‘of this most
beneficial undertaking’. The
Duke of Grafton was the landowner of which much of the local stretch of
water was planned including the TUNNEL, which was to prove both
hazardous and costly in its untertaking. Work
commenced at Blisworth on September 26th 1793 and it was
reported that work proceeded at a ‘terrifuc pace’
By
December 6th 1793 a meeting was held at the George Hotel in
Northampton when again it was reported that the work was going ahead
with astonishing rapididity. A
mention was made of 3000 navvies and engineers who were employed. There
is so much to say about the canal’s 200 years of history, but I must
stop at this point and continue with the story over the following issues
of ‘Round and About’. GEORGE FREESTON Jul/Aug 1993 [75] Gossip Time During
this Bicentenary Year of the canal I have decided that my jottings in
R&A will be about our local stretch of canal and tunnel.
When one realises that the canal is 197 miles long one begins to
understand the enormous problems of maintenance now urgently needed
after its 200 years of wear and tear.
And so when Mr. D. Taylor of Blisworth Hill Farm ‘phoned me
saying that the crown of a tunnel mound had collapsed leaving a crater
12ft wide and the same deep I was concerned.
Slight panic for the tunnel interior was soon calmed after an
inspection. It was not until May when Blisworth Hill was ablaze with rape
and hawthorn blossoms that a team of Mowlems men came south to operate
on the crater. The weather
was splendid. At first
safety measures were brought in. A
bright colourful plastic fence was placed on the mound but this
attracted people’s curiosity, as did my car which appeared daily.
Testing was carried out by probing rods through the floor of the
crater. Then one of the
‘Yorkshire Boys’ was lowered into the crater equipped with a safety
harness as though he were on Everest.
Nothing happened untoward. Next
came huge deliveries of a black powder, a by product of slag waste from
the Electricity Stations. This
with a small amount of water mixed was pressurised through hollow probes
through the base and sides of the crater.
Then followed infilling of the crater with the same mixture which
ended up looking like a black duck pond.
No leakage followed and overnight the ‘water mixture’ had
solidified. Then followed
replacement of the top soil, the replacing of Mr. Taylor’s ‘Mound’
trees, mending the fence and away the team went.
An adjacent empty shaft was also filled with a chalky stone from
Leicestershire which in time will compact.
This was also an off line working shaft. What
next I wonder. I must keep
my safety hat ‘at the ready’. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1993 [76] Gossip Time On
September 26th, 1793 the village rector, the rev. Nathaniel
Trotter recorded the arrival of hundreds of navvies who commenced
digging a deep trench through his nearby glebeland southwards towards
the rising ground through which the tunnel was planned.
The tunnel was open by 1805 when on March 2nd 1805 a
banquet was held at Stony Stratford for all the engineers and landowners
etc. Mr.
James Barnes of Banbury attended and it was due to his last minute
expertise that the tunnel was completed.
It is recorded that he could neither read or write.
On his health being drunk he stood up and replied to the well
wishers. ‘Mr. chairman
and gentlemen, I beg to return my thanks, and since we are together and
the tunnel ended, the least said, sooner mended’ and sat down again. More to follow. G.F. Nov/Dec 1993 [77] Gossip Time Since
the opening of the canal tunnel nearly 200 years ago it has been held in
awe by ladies in particular, even nowadays the occasional lady with
children chooses to walk overland whilst the poor old Dad has to
manipulate his boat through the darkened 1¾
mile tunnel. Originally
only one of the working shafts was left open, which was soon found
insufficient for ventilation. Now there are seven conditions are much better, but the
tunnel is still left with a ‘ghost’ which is enough to scare some
would be tunnellers. In
1819 the tunnel was only 14 years old, a disaster fell on one family
during their journey through the tunnel.
The crew consisted of Mr. Law, his wife and two children.
There is no information of how the boat was propelled.
The boat was travelling north to Tipton and entered the tunnel at
11 o’clock on a Sunday morning. At
1,900 yards in there was a stoppage owing to the lowness of the water,
other boats continued to come in until the tunnel was completely full of
boats attempting to get through in either direction.
Owing to the smoke and sulphurous fumes from the domestic fires
within the boats the youngest child, Edward Law died while in bed in the
cabin with his mother and the other child.
Many occupants of the stranded canal boats were much affected by
the smoke as to render it doubtful for some time whether they would
survive. Happily no other
case proved fatal. The
Coroner’s verdict was ‘Accidental Death’. The body of 15 week old Edward Law was duly buried on 16th
November 1819 in our ancient graveyard surrounding our church.
The bereaved parents continued north to Tipton, but always
fearful of the Blisworth tunnel on repeat journeys.
They were not the only ones ! G.F. Jan/Feb 1994 Gossip Time In
a follow up to last months R&A I give another sad story of a more
disastrous accident in Blisworth tunnel on September 14th
1861. A
barge called ‘The Wasp’ fitted with a small steam operated propeller
was on its journey from Birmingham to London having another boat in tow.
In the first boat were two crewmen named Gower and Jones, and
with one or two men employed on the canal, they were travelling slowly,
for seemingly they were aware that work was being done in the tunnel.
They stopped at a place called
‘ A tank’ which consisted of a number of piles driven in to
afford a standing space for workmen repairing the tunnel wall.
A Stoke Bruerne man named Edward Webb was taken aboard for his
home going. Proceeding on
their way, and soon afterwards the boat named ‘The Wasp’ met two
boats which were being worked by leggers.
Somehow or other they became tangled up, but by some exertion
they were set free. However, the boat which the steamer was towing became
unloosed and was left behind. The
tunnel was filled with smoke which so much affected the two leggers that
they were unable to continue. On
board the steam boat the conditions were such that two men were
suffocated, one falling in the water was not found until some hours
later when the canal was dragged. A
third man in the company’s employ was so overcome that on arriving at
the Stoke Bruerne end of the tunnel he fell overboard.
The cold water however restored him to consciousness and he
managed to get on board the boat and turn the steam off. The
boat proceeded to the first lock when the catastrophe was at once
revealed. The young
carpenter was lying dead in the hold and one of the boatmen was missing,
the two engineman were lying near to the furnace badly burned. They
were carried to the ‘The Boat Inn’.
Medical men were immediately sent for from Blisworth and
Towcester, horses being their transport. The
two men with burns progressed favourably as reported later. There
have been reports of many accidents in the tunnel over the past 200
years for the 1¾ mile length had few if any safety measures. Apart from the erection of drag points little could be done
to rescue people should they fall into the tunnel waters.
Safety measures are now a must and the east side the tunnel is
now being installed with a timber fender from which lengths of chain are
uniformally draped. The
fenders are similar to those fitted alongside the new centre at Stoke
Bruerne. The modern fenders
are of a West African high density wood named ekki.
Telephones will be available at certain points thanks to modern
technology. So here’s wishing
all ‘boaters’ a safe and Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year. G.F. Mar/Apr 1994 [78] I
hardly know words sufficient to express my ‘sincere gratitude’ to
ALL who by ‘phone, flowers and ‘GET WELL’ cards have helped me
towards a speedy recovery. Blisworth’s
not a bad place ‘Yer know’ – it’s only me who caused all the
trouble – thanks and many thanks for your kindness. Gossip Time Over
the past issues of R&A I have dealt with the arrival of the
navigators working on the construction of the canal and tunnel.
Blisworth must have teemed to overflowing for accommodation had
been seriously reduced owing to the great village fire of 28th
May 1798. As the canal moved
towards the high ground prior to the tunnel mouth it is recorded that
3,000 men were employed. The
formation of the Towcester to Far Cotton turn pike, as well as,
following the completion of the canal, the new Toll Road from Blisworth
to Stoke Bruerne employed many men. By
1833 an act for the London to Birmingham railway
received Royal Assent. Large
numbers of navigators again appeared to assist in the Blisworth to Roade
cutting and the Blisworth embankment. September 1837 A
man named Richardson who had taken a job on the railway under a
contractor named Brown had failed to pay the men on a Saturday.
Brown was accused of holding on to the money.
On the following Monday Richardson accompanied by a large body of
navigators downed tools and marched on the Royal Oak at Blisworth where
Brown was taking his luncheon. Richardson
demanded the mens money from Brown, or his liver.
Later the gang came upon Brown and his hands were forced from his
pockets where the money
was, and the men paid. In a
short time one of the instigators of the money ‘grabbing’ was taken
into custody at the Royal Oak. News
spread quickly and a strong body of his comrades came to rescue him from
the pub. A fierce scuffle
ensued. Police arrived who
stood up to 100 rioters. Ten
men were secured and taken to Northampton jail. The
Royal Oak was badly damaged as well as the Railway Office, the rioters
having completely demolished every window within their reach.
Peace seemingly ensued and the railway was proceeded with apace
and opened in 1838. GEORGE FREESTON
May/Jun 1994 [79] Gossip Time Schools
and their history have been with Blisworth over many years from 1504 at
least. In the past many a
likely lad or lass was picked out by the Squire and often the Rector,
and with their wives they took upon themselves to give the youngsters a
trade or schooling for their edification. The
Wake family, now at Courteenhall, founded a Grammar School at Blisworth.
It was on such a scale that it might have become one of the
leading public schools in the country.
The school at Blisworth was called Roger Wake’s Chauntre Free
School. By 1617 the master
received a meagre salary of £11
annually. Presumably
the school stood in Stoke Road and what remained of it was destroyed in
the village fire disaster of 1708.
It was described as a grammar school. A
new building was duly erected on the same site.
By 1868 Kelly’s Directory speaks of a ‘Free School’,
supported partly by the Crown and partly by voluntary contributions. On
the opposite side of Stoke Road from the ‘Old’ school an infant
school was built in 1874 by the Church. This building is now a dwelling with the building date of
1874 on the chimney breast. This
is now on the ‘For Sale’ list. The
village hall is often affectionately referred to as the ‘old
school’, for it also served for many village functions while still
remaining the church sunday school. Following
a great appeal the present School was built on the High
Street/Courteenhall Road corner. The
level site had been excavated for ironstone and was of little land
value. This new school was
built and put into use in 1913. During
the past years it served the villages of Collingtree, Milton Malsor, and
Gayton as well as the growing village population. Within
the year 1938 the leading staff was comprised of a headmaster, Mr.
J.O.E. Cole, a junior master, and three ‘women teachers’.
There were 150 children on the roll.
1994 sees headmaster Mr. J.
Basham, approximately 8 full time teachers and 225 pupils on the roll.
The school has served the village well and many pupils have
progressed much further with their education. Other
education centres such as Towcester, Roade, and now Bugbrooke have taken
the senior students into their higher education. The
Wake family moved from Blisworth to Courteenhall and by 1672 they had
built a fine Grammar School. This
School, a free one, enrolled boys living within a 4 mile radius.
Adjoining the fine building was an equally splendid Masters
House. That same property
has just been restored and its new residents are Sir Hereward Wake and
his wife who moved out of their lovely family home set in the splendid
park. The
ancient school room next door is now the village hall. GEORGE FREESTON Jul/Aug 1994 [80] Gossip Time In
many villages June heralds the sound of cricket balls being hit for a
sixer, but not so with Blisworth for the parish has few areas suitable
for the game, although the odd game or two was played on the village
playing field. Pre war
their must have also been at least 12 private tennis courts.
Football appears to be the top game. Last
century and into the early years of this Blisworth had a fine well kept
cricket ground complete with a white painted pavilion.
This was on one of the level enclosures situated between the
railway arch and Youngs Garden Centre.
The village team and the visiting teams would have travelled by
horse drawn break or a brushed out farm wagon. In
1826 Blisworth House was occupied by Squire Stone who not only hunted
but was a keen cricketer. He
had four daughters, one of them Louisa was also a keen horsewoman and a
keen follower to hounds, and she not only played cricket but taught the
youth of the village to do so. It
must have been Squire Stone who supported and built the Blisworth
cricket pavilion. Earlier
at the turn of the century when Blisworth was witnessing the
commencement of the canal in 1793, a William Caldecourt who had
connections with the canal produced a son, another William who was born
on the 28th September 1802, reported as at Blisworth.
His father William senior was a keen cricketer which resulted in
William junior taking an interest in the game.
At the age of 9 he was introduced to the Lord’s Cricket Ground
as a ‘practice bowler’. By
the age of 16 he had progressed so well that he received a mans wage
from the Marylebone Cricket Club. A
player described him as a handslashing hitter, a most splendid fielder
besides being a underhand bowler of midda speed.
It is recorded that he made six hits for six each off an over of
six balls, each delivery being sent out of the ground. He became a great coach but was even more famous as an
umpire. Over the years his
name has been recorded as ‘Cawcott’, a shortened Caldecote, similar
to the local village near Towcester:
‘Caldecourt’: and ‘Caldicott’.
Way
back in the church register a William Plowman, commonly called
‘Caldicutt’ Plowman was buried on the 3rd of February
1705. Again in 1766 there
is recorded a Mary Cawcutt, daughter of a William Cawcutt. So
be it ! ! ‘Caldecote’,
Caldecourt’, ‘Cawcut’, and there was a William Cawcott, a
cordwainer named on the list of Blisworth men fit for the army against
the French. Which leaves me
bowled out. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1994 [80] Gossip Time There
must still be a few Blisworth ‘elders’ who remember seeing and
hearing the large droves of cattle journeying from Blisworth railway
station to the cattle market in Northampton or vice versa. Thousands
of cattle came by train from a wide area.
Our Blisworth station contained special sidings for dispatch and
unloading. It was all
bustle and shouts. Animals
arriving were mainly destined for the cattle market at Northampton.
Large
and small herds were driven by drovers, an ancient occupation, many of
whom became well known characters throughout the villages.
It was an occupation needing an expert awareness of cattle
control and was assisted by one or two faithful dogs, and helped by
young boys who simply revelled in the job.
Often the cause of truancy. On
market days there was a two way traffic caused by the buying and selling
of the cattle. Car owners,
bus drivers and other road users were glad when the droving of cattle
and sheep came to an end, and motorised cattle trucks took over. It
is worth noting that when the canals came into use as an industrial aid,
so too animal movement from the midlands to the London markets was
carried by the new waterways. Canal
working boats were part ‘loaded’ with stones as a ballast.
Two decks were constructed one above the other which were topped
with a protective roof against the weather.
The space between each deck was divided into 50 units so that
sheep enjoyed their own cabins. Real luxury ‘Baar’. The
journey to London Paddington from this area took 53 hours.
Now specialised motor vehicles are transcontinental. Folk
used to say ‘if pigs had wings they could fly’.
Who knows? GEORGE FREESTON Nov/Dec 1994 [81] Gossip Time ‘Sorry
folk, I’m slipping’. I fully intended to recognise that the previous R&A was
the 100th issue. The first was headed ‘Summer’ 1975.
The parish council chairman was Robin Philtrip who announced that
a quarterly ‘village bulletin’ of village ‘news and views’ would
be published and issued free of charge to every village house.
Notice was given that All allotment plots next to the Playing
Field had been taken. May I
put the question relevant to today ‘where have all the diggers gone ? Number
3 issue reported that the Ladies Sewing Circle’ raised £5,
the Northampton Motorcycle Club raised £47
for the village, and the Women’s Institute raised the noble sum of £55 by
holding a ‘Punch, Pie, and Pickle’ party, which I guess was a real
‘Rave’. Go steady
Girls. G.F. Jan/Feb 1995 [82] Gossip Time Over
many year the Royal Oak displayed a painted sign depicting the head plus
the crown of Charles II against a background
of the foliage of an oak tree thus perpetuating the legend of the
King hiding in an oak tree to escape from the round heads. Following
the recent ‘paint up’ the sign has been taken down and has undergone
a major renewal. The
supporting post has been shortened and a new look Charles and the Oak
Tree has appeared. Actually
neither the head of Charles or his body can be seen, that is left to
your imagination, but standing on a lower branch are two
legs wearing white stockings and polished shoes complete with brass
buckles .
Seen around the base of the oak are a couple of mounted round
heads and foot soldiers searching for the King.
As history tells us that Charles escaped, his searchers
could’nt have looked up for those white stockinged legs.
They are pictured as an example of ‘artist’s licence’. It
is a splendid sign and worth a look.
When illuminated it shows much better.
Go steady and enjoy your Christmas.
With all good wishes for the New Year.
GEORGE FREESTON Mar/Apr
1995 [83] Gossip Time To
date we have had very little true winter weather except for the one
flush of snow, without which I should feel robbed of one of my
seasonable delights, especially when the sun shines.
The mild autumn assisted the growth of the winter grown wheat
which has clothed the fields with lush greenery.
In fact one or two folk thought that the grass covered fields had
staged a come back. If that
were so we should expect to see the dairy herds grazing peacefully,
followed by their gentle and unhurried walk to their village farms for
milking. Animal farms meant
regular daily attention, the
feeding, the milking, the cleaning out of the cattle stalls etc. I will take you back to 1871 when a census was taken of the
number of men and boys employed on the land at Blisworth. 1871 Hill
Farm on the Gayton Road consisted of 590 acres, employing 15 men and 6
boys. That same farm now
around 1,000 acres is managed by Colin Wakelin (Whacker) and his two
dedicated sons. They have
extended the 590 acres which is all under plough.
No cattle, not even a dog, cat, cow, hen, goose, or pig.
He said that he had just returned from the bank.
‘With money’ I asked. ‘No’
Colin said ‘the money is in the barns filled with wheat from the last
harvest, and no demonstrators on the doorstep’ ! ! ! On
to Home Farm in 1871 which had its Farm House and buildings in Stoke
Road. The farmhouse etc.
were all bull-dozed away to make the entrance from Stoke Road to
Buttmead and all off-shoot new estate roads which are named after the
field names of the former farm lands.
Home Farm was a dairy farm and the cows knew their way home at
milking time, through the village at that, cowpats were part of the
daily round. Home Farm was
not large as such but it employed 9 men and 2 boys.
Some of the milk was sold from the farm dairy.
Village folk, mainly children took a can or jug.
Mrs. Carter the farmer’s wife wore gloves when handling the
pennies proffered for the milk purchased. Tunnel
Hill Farm was a great favourite. It
contained animals in plenty. There
was a bridleway, a footpath or two, and Fisher Brook, the name Fisher is
a corruption of the name Fish Weir, into which the waters of the brook
overflowed at the water mill which was at the bottom of Mill Lane and
where the water mill was located. So
from the ‘Fish Pond’ and the ‘Weir’ we get the local folk name
of ‘Fisherweir’ or ‘Fisherbrook’.
Pond Bank now occupies all the aforesaid locations:-
Time marches on. GEORGE FREESTON May/Jun 1995 [84] Gossip Time Blisworth at War Sorting through my
papers recently I came across the following note:- ‘
A red letter day in the memory of Blisworth folk was the return of
Captain Elmhurst of Blisworth House from the Boer War. He
was met at Blisworth Station by a crowd of villagers. They unharnessed the horse at the Station from the gig sent
to meet him and insisted on drawing it home.
Others marched in front as an improvised band playing tin cans,
whistles, in fact anything to make a noise.
The procession halted at the ‘Cross’ and the Captain who was
deeply moved by his welcome made a speech of thanks.’ The
area now the Royal Oak car park was known to all as ‘The Cross’
seemingly because of the Cross Roads of Chapel Lane and Stoke Road,
crossing the High Street. Now
a brief note from the last war. The
Home Guard, Wardens, and Fire Watchers were quickly assembled at the
beginning of the war. An
early report dated August 20th 1940 states ‘Unexploded bomb
fell in Courteenhall Road opposite to the School.
The time 1.30a.m. breaking electric cables, discovered by workmen
at 6.30a.m.’ The hole in
which the bomb lay unexploded was guarded by the Home Guard but they
were dismissed and replaced by a military guard and police.
A party of Royal Engineers came to remove the bomb.
18 R.A.F. experts arrived. All
homes nearby except Mount Pleasant were evacuated. Wardens visited every house in the parish telling people to
leave windows and doors open. Wardens
and Home Guard built a wall of sandbags around the hole up to 8ft.
Towcester fire engine arrived.
The hose was taken to Candle Bridge.
All households were ordered to place a bucket of water in front
of their houses with stirrup pumps at the ready. Sunday
, August 25th, 5a.m. Wardens
stand by. Bomb removed,
taken up to the quarries east of the village and blown up at 9.30a.m. Throughout
August and September bombs fell all around.
50 incendiary bombs fell in the fields on Towcester Hill.
Burning Coventry could plainly be seen (November).
The railway line attracted many bombs. On
November 9th a Blenheim bomber crashed and burst into flames
behind Courteenhall Council houses.
The crew were carried on stretchers by local wardens.
Towcester ambulance arrived in 13 minutes and they were then
taken to Northampton General Hospital within 30 mins. of the crash. Oh
! ! P.S. It was said that
two on duty firewardens sitting on the village elm tree corner nearby
did’nt hear a thing. A
real Dad’s Army incident. The
list of names of Blisworth residents who served in the forces can be
seen in St John the Baptist Church, Blisworth. G.F. Jul/Aug 1995 [85] Gossip Time Early
in June I was surprised to see eleven swifts in close flight over the
village. Since then I have
only spotted one. Sadly
too, I have not seen a martin or swallow, and perhaps I am getting deaf
for I did not hear my old friend the cuckoo.
Is it the cold month, prevailing winds, or the loss of nesting
places which is keeping them away.
Until fairly recently Stoke Road buildings annually accommodated
3 or 4 pairs of swifts, again is it that wired thatch and new gable ends
have robbed them of their nesting places. But
for all the cold northern winds of June the village turn out for the
memorable V.E. Day and May Day events wants some beating, thanks to the
organisers and workers on both days. ‘ What’s next ?’ I
happened to turn up the local accounts for the Coronation in May 1937.
The High Street was decorated overall.
A tea for all children in the School Hall.
Sports were held. The
church bells rang forth. Milk
for the public tea came from the Home Farm (which was later demolished
for Buttmead etc.), and some from Cherry’s dairy at the bottom of
Courteenhall Road. Oh
! the cost of milk was 1/8d. The
bread came from Mr. Sturgess’ bakehouse in the
High Street. The 60
2lb loaves consumed, cost £1/2/6d.
40lbs of cake £2/8/9d.
The sliced pressed beef came from the Stoke Road British Bacon
Co., 45lbs for £3/0/0d.
Arthur Longland the Stoke Road butcher provided the sliced ham
for £8/5/9d.
Mrs. Abbot’s general shop in Stoke Road provided 6 lbs of
butter, 8lbs of Sugar and 4lbs of tea, all for the sum of £1/2/6d. with £1/0/½d.
discount. Youngs General
Stores (now Mr. Mistry’s) provided 5½lb
tea, 15lb of butter, 6 tins of salmon, sugar, 5 bottles of sauce, cheese
and pickles. Mr. Alexander
loaned plants at £1. The school caretaker was
paid the noble sum of 15/-. Mr.
Phillips newsagents shop provided ‘Story Books’ for prizes.
The money raised went towards the cost of a new carved notice
board for the parish. £10/10/0d. for fixing and for the carving £3/15/0d.
There is a Northampton Brewery account which reads ‘The Clerk
to the Blisworth Parish Council’, Beer supplied £1/18/4d.
Over
the two days special services were held in the Parish Church and the
Baptist Chapel. Two
hundred mugs at 4d. each from Lawleys of Northampton were handed out to
the children. Mr. Faulkner
at the Post Office provided prizes to the value of 3/10/0d.
Freeston’s garage provided the fire works at a cost of £5/5/0d.
Mr. H. Monk was in charge of the portable hot water copper as
well as maintaining regular boiling water for the tea pots. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1995
Missing Nov/Dec 1995
No contribution from George Jan/Feb 1996 [86] Gossip Time This
months R&A refers to my good fortune in having numerous nieces and
nephews, the children of my 4 older brothers and their wives.
On joining the Royal Air Force I became the happy recipient of a
flow of letters keeping me informed of ‘Blisworth at War’.
I in turn constantly wrote to them vice versa. On
finally coming home I found that most of the letter exchanges had been
placed in an old shoe box. Quite
recently the box has surfaced again, its contents all there.
I therefore consider it fitting to release some excerpts from
these memorable documents. ‘Dear Uncle
George, Quite
a lot of things have been happening since I wrote to you last, firstly
we have had the local ‘Salute the Soldier Week’ which I may say was
quite a success. It was
opened by the Colonel of the Northamptonshire Regmt. complete with band
in Thorpe’s Field. Pausing
frequently to let aircraft pass overhead, the Colonel made the opening
speech and said quite a bit until he gave in to a formation of Forts. After they had passed over and silence or comparative silence
reigned again, the Rev. G. Lunn made a vote of thanks which was seconded
by Mr J O E Cole dressed in R O C uniform.
Then the organiser Mr E Griffith rose to make the final speech.
He described his feelings at seeing an officer of his old Regmt.
again etc., and wound up by calling for three cheers, and then being so
inspired by seeing his old Regmt again called for one for the ladies,
which the band responded to with energy. Then the band played ‘God Save the King’ to work of its
feelings at seeing Mr E Griffith again and the Salute
the soldier week was formerly opened.
Then followed a Fete with many attractions.. An inspection of the
Home Guard by the Colonel was also included.
The following week incorporated Films:
School Sports which were not held because of rain, Whist Drive,
Concert and demonstrations by the Home Guard.
The concert was not bad culminating in ‘Wild doings at the Wind
Mill by Mrs Paler. The Home Guard
demonstration was very comic as it was held in the School Yard which is
ashfelt. The H.G. wore hob
nailed boots and foud it very hard to stand up.
Uncle Frank won the sten gun competition. Sheila has got to
take the entrance exam to our school soon, so we are hoping she will
pass. Three heavy lorries
and a trailer crashed outside the cinema at Towcester yesterday and
knocked the side of a house in. Also
an aeroplane dropped some bombs there by accident but they did not
explode. The other day we
had our first ‘Doodlbug’ but it landed in a field at Creaton and did
not do much damage. Well I must close
now – Love from Robin N.B.
Thorpe’s field is now the School Playing Field. GEORGE FREESTON Mar/Apr 1996 [87] Gossip Time You
name it – its been labelled ‘The Mill’, ‘The Co-operative Flour
Mill, Westleys, ‘Westley Brothers and Clark, ‘a Bonded Wine Bottling
Wine Warehouse’, A World wide reception centre for Herbs’ -
processing and drying the same, and of great importance a ‘Buffer
storage warehouse for tinned foods’, held as a war time emergency.
Canal boats were able to draw alongside the transport ships at
London Docks, and the Mill became a vast store of tinned sardines,
salmon etc. This store was
a wartime emergency operation, thousands of assorted tinned fish were
housed in the Mill. There
was a keen ckeck up but there was a growing list of shortages by the
time the canal boats got to Blisworth. During
the recent icy and snowy conditions I was reminded of an incident c.1940
when we had a similar freeze up and snow.
The Mill was packed high with tinned food, and the canal was
frozen up. At that same
time the boys from Tiffield Reformatory School had a certain freedom,
and a Sunday afternoon would bring them to Blisworth canal etc.
The boys in looking over the bridge wall next to the Mill saw a
frozen canal, and the low windows of the Mill.
It was tempting, they crossed the canal and were able to force an
entry into the Mill. And
what did they see ? A
mountain of tinned food ! ! The
temptation was too much, so they pocketed as much loot as possible and
commenced their walk homewards. Snow
drifts on road and path became a dumping ground of the
boys loot. Pockets
could only hold a couple of sardine tins, so one by one as they walked
up the Towcester Road the tins were ‘plonked’ in the drifts, and so
the precious tins of salmon and sardines lay until the thaw set in.
Yard by yard food tins appeared, so did the villagers.
Never had we had it so good ! ! Of
historic note the Westley family had operated the Wind Mill which stood
at the eastern end of the present track to the football field.
Joseph Westley’s business eye in accordance with local laws of
that time, was able to exchange the Windmill Site for the wharfage site
on which he built the new Mill in 1799, and as we see it still. Most
of the villagers refer to the Mill as the Pepper and Spice Mill for it
was taken over, and herbs from the Middle East and afar came in
quantity. They were dried,
sorted, and prepared for such as the ‘herbal’ packers at local
supermarkets. At times when
the wind was favourable the herbage aroma spread throughout the village.
I don’t remember anyone protesting about that. The
bulk carriers brought in the wines.
Some of the tankers were decorated overall by paintings of their
place of origin, and the shields of the owners.
As the tankers were emptied and the contents bottled there was a
small amount of drainage. It
wasn’t wasted ! ! Over
the recent years farmer Colin Wakelin has grown parsley which was
processed at the Mill. That
provide a refreshing ‘waft’ aroma. So
now we await eagerly the restoration and completion of the splendid
edifice, which operation has commenced. One cannot escape from the great ‘brick pile’.
It is all part of Blisworth. GEORGE FREESTON May/June 1996
No contribution from George July/Aug 1996 [88] Gossip Time According
to my reckoning this R&A issue is my 110th contribution,
but local history stories are unending. So off we go again, not over the moon, but over Blisworth
hill southwards. The rising
land is topped by a geological plain at 438 ft. above sea level. Blisworth Hill became a problem to the canal builders.
It was even suggested that a lockage system would be possible,
but the construction of the tunnel was the answer.
Before the tunnel was built boats coming from the north were
waylaid at Blisworth, similarly boats from London were held up at Stoke
Bruerne. To enable the
cargoes to reach their north or south destinations, a road was
constructed overland roughly following the line of the tunnel below, but
the wear and tear caused problems.
Wm. Jessop the consulting engineer, advised the
company to lay down a ‘cast iron’ railway. This was approved and set into motion, but not before the
Duke of Grafton had questioned every angle of the project. Cranes were erected at both ends of the tunnel under
construction. Goods were
loaded on to the iron railway, and this method was successful until the
tunnel was opened in 1805. The
overland road was a Toll Road. The
toll keepers house was near to what is now Blisworth Hill Farm (Mr. D.
Taylor). As money was
involved the toll keeper was vulnerable.
From a newspaper of the time the following report is found:- ‘Thomas
Moore was charged with having in the night, feloniously assaulted James
Murphy, keeper of the toll gate belonging to the Grand Union Canal Co.
in the parish of Blisworth with an interest to murder him.
The said Moore was apprehended and tried at the next assizes.’ A
brief Grafton record mentions ‘Two loads of stubble straw was supplied
to the Tunnel Toll House £1/12/0d.
and is dated March 1809 which could be the date of building the Toll
House. It was demolished
some 30 years ago. It
is claimed that Blisworth Hill Railway was the first in the county. GEORGE FREESTON P.S.
Over the past weeks I have seen only one Swift.
But on Sunday evening at 6pm I watched up to 40/50 swifts flying
around the beech trees near the Church.
It was a sight never to be forgotten. Sep/Oct 1996 [88] Gossip Time That
was a Summer that was. I’ve so loved being outdoors, that time has stopped by, and
I nearly forgot to pen these R&A notes. On looking back: January
was a dry period with just over one an inch of rain. February likewise did help the garden with just over 2ins. of
rain. March, April, and May
were considered dry months too with an average of 1¼
ins. of rain during each of those three months.
June was a dry month with 15mm of rainfall.
Things improved weatherwise for July provided 27mm.
Better still in August when lawns began to grow again there was a
rainfall of 35mm. As
a general observation the cornfields look good.
I don’t see wild oats or poppies.
The recent heavy rainfall has come just right for the maize crop,
which will be the last to be reaped, in general where
grown oats and barley have already been harvested. The
rainfall is recorded by Duncan Wakelin who together with his father and
brother control their farmland with computer precision.
Even the corn grains are recorded in a countdown when sown. Of
interest Hares seem to be the prominent
wild animal. There are no
guns on Hill Farm. No farm
animals either. Both
machine and operators ‘enjoy’ the use of a daily shower/bath, or
hose down at the end of the day. Its
almost frighteningly hygienic. One
of the most spoken words on former farms was ‘Muck’, it was
everywhere. At Gayton Hill
farm it’s a lost word. G.F. Nov/Dec 1996 [89] Gossip
Time There
is a description of a village in the Northampton Mercury of July 11th,
1872, which reads as follows:- ‘Blisworth,
irregular, straggling, and covering a considerable area, is a pleasant
and picturesque village, picturesque and pleasant in its irregularity.
Gardens and trees intervene between the houses; huge elder trees,
roses in masses, brilliant tiger lilies, profuse wall-flowers, delight
the eye and fill the air with odour.
Blisworth seems to have a special enjoyment in flowers.
On the Stoke Bruerne turn Mr. Westley makes the entrance of his
steam mills perfectly dazzling with geraniums and petunias, and other
brilliant plants.’ Opening note re: the
above. Mr. Westley’s
steam mill house adjoined the present day village hall.
His house when demolished left the uninteresting wall space on
the north side of the hall. It
is a blot on the village ‘street ‘scape, but don’t let it spoil
your Christmas. With
reference to the description of the village in 1863 the reporter if he
came back today would find the High Street much the same.
Some of the cottages still have their small frontage spaces for
flowers, and where possible hanging baskets which with love, care, and
water have made remarkable displays of colour, and look like continuing
until the first hard frost comes. The
new areas of the village with their open fronted gardens have been, and
still are a joy to the beholder. Inspite
of the lack of rain the dedicated gardeners have produced splendid
crops, both floral and veg., as witnessed in the recent show. The
elders still put up their fight for survival, as witnessed in Stoke Road
and other village spaces, they are born fighters, but in return they
throughout the years have been invaluable for their culinary and wine
contributions. Their
berries which appear in profusion provide many a meal for starlings in
season, with adverse results in many a staining of the items hanging on
the garden line on washdays. Maybe
plant breeders will produce a colourless elderberry. For
the record, rainfall figures as supplied by modern farmer Duncan Wakelin
of Gayton Hill Farm are. August,
2 ins. September was half
the usual amount. For the
year to date 12 ins., which is half the usual annual rainfall of 24 ins.
The
pleasant run of weather has helped the farmer and gardener to gather in
their crops dry and clean. Already the hedges are in a state of tidiness and trim,
likewise the fields. So
the seasons come and go. Snow will be the next topic, and on that note I’ll say
‘Happy Christmas’ and get the seed catalogue out ! ! GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1997 [90] Gossip Time During
the past weeks much of the topic of ‘we’ locals gossip has been
related to the closure of the wide gated entrance on the west side of
Bridge 51, locally referred to as ‘Mill Bridge’ owing to its
nearness to the former Westley Flour Mill opposite, built in 1879.
Also of interest are the voluminous earth works within the gated
area, most of the space being an important canal side wharf stemming
from 1793. With relation to
the former well used footpath leading into the ‘Park Slopes’ all is
not lost for a new alternative access foot path has been provided from
an opening in the Mill Bridge wall from which steps have been
constructed down to the ‘Old Wharf’.
The new path, well fenced, turns southward alongside the canal
edge until the familiar and welcoming entrance fence and gate is reached
leading as we all know to the north end of the canal tunnel. The
new owner of the former ‘Wharf’ which included the part track bed of
the pre-tunnel horse drawn railway intends to build a domestic dwelling
for his own occupation on what was an intensive organised ‘Canal Side
Wharf’, the success of which was that its immediate proximity was to
the new turnpike length established from Cotton End, Northampton to
Weston on the Green, Oxon. It
is a rich industrial archaeological area built upon the new network of
canals and turnpike roads throughout the county, followed by the new and
exciting arrival of Stephenson’s c.1838 railway which upheaved the
east and north side of Blisworth parish.
By current newspaper
stories Blisworth ‘aint’ seen nothing yet ! ! GEORGE FREESTON Mar/Apr 1997 Gossip Time Greetings
to ‘one and all and a ‘Happy New Year’.
I hope to carry on with my jottings which have reached the 144th
issue of R&A. I do
agree with the chairman’s
appeal for new subscribers. I’ll
step down anytime if space is not available (but not for long ! !)
However we are still on the current developments of what was once
the Coal and Stone Wharfage next to canal bridge no.51, and what we old
villagers call Mill bridge owing to its proximity to the Westley built
flour mill, which occupies a former wharfage. The
once open space suddenly became what
we would call ‘Big’ development, the canal had arrived by 1796 from
the north. Merchandise came
in large boat loads. Wharfage
space would have been equal to our modern car parks, and big store
sites. Large quantities of
coal arrived, all hand loaded and unloaded, no excavators or tipper
trucks then. There must be
a few village stalwarts who remember, as I do, the wharf in question
displaying stacks of coal. The
last coal merchants to operate from the wharf were the Pinfold Brothers
who toiled hard by unloading the boats lump by lump stacking it on to
the wharf. Then as needed a
measured amount of the coal was put into strong sacks or bags, placed on
the flat topped horse drawn vehicle and then hauled away and delivered
to house owners in the area. From
the first instance the output of the ‘Potteries’ came by canal;
pots, pans, pudding basins etc. Large
amounts of block salt, and also paraffin for household lighting and
cooking by the thousands of
gallons, came to Youngs Stores (Now occupied by Mr. Mistry.
My thanks to Bob Young for this information).
Large quantities of Leicestershire granite also came to the
wharf, this too arrived in large lumps and all was handled by hand. Local
people obtained work on the wharfs although it was not consistent.
One local man, Thomas Tee was the Royal Oak publican, he owned
and operated a horse and two wheel farm cart.
He when needed would collect the stone from the wharf and deposit
it at points on the turnpike where men sat and broke up the large stones
into small ones which were then used to infill the pot holes in the
stone and earth surfaces. Tar
or tarmac came later to be used for road surfaces, and even that demands
constant pot hole fillers. True
to developer pattern the canal wharfage named the the victualling house
widely known as the Grafton Arms, or Duke’s Arms, in tribute to the
landowner the Duke of Grafton who was quickly cashing in on the
developments around the new canal which for much of its Northamptonshire
length ran through his estate.. The
Grafton Arms was delicensed last century and became a private dwelling
named Grafton House. GEORGE FREESTON Jul/Aug 1997 May/Jun 1997 Sep/Oct 1997 [91] Gossip Time For
this current entry I wish you to take a look at the previous issue which
shows a delightful sketch of 1857 including cattle being driven over the
canal bridge no.5. Ahead is
a fine building already an established ‘Coaching Inn’ much used by
canal traders especially those on the nearby wharf and travellers on the
Stamford-Oxford turnpike. The
Inn was named ‘The Dukes Arms’ or’ The Grafton Arms’.
The Duke of Grafton was the land owner.
The sketch is dated 1857 by which time both road and canal users
were feeling the loss of trade through the great London and Birmingham
railway nearby. Seemingly
as trade lessened the local corn-miller, Joseph Westley saw the
opportunity to buy the former ‘Dukes Inn’ as his private dwelling,
when it was renamed ‘Grafton House’. The
Blisworth wharf keeper known as ‘Wharfinger’ lived in a cottage on
the wharf on the south side of the bridge.
The sketch plainly shows it in position, and beyond it one sees
the lower part of the Towcester Road winding into position for the
bridge approach. Around the
1860’s the Northampton County Council wishing to make a better
approach purchased part of the wharf keeper’s garden and demolished
the wharf keeper’s house. Additions
were built into the bridge alignment.
The wharf keeper’s family consisted of a Thomas Goode, his
wife, and daughter Mary. A
regular visiter to the wharf, or was it to the Grafton Arms was a young
village carpenter named William John Whitlock.
On such trips he wooed and married the wharf keeper’s daughter,
Mary. Housing was a problem
for the village had not fully recovered from the serious fire of 1798.
Two twinned cottages were under construction in Stoke Road and it
is reputed that the young newly weds, William and Mary were given
priority of tenure. From
then and on to today the Whitlock name has been linked with the part of
the present Stoke Road property now number 12.
Many of the village ‘elders’ remember with gladness the late
W. J. Whitlock, carpenter, undertaker, sexton in excelsis, and the Royal
Oak village story teller. At the time of his death I was then secretary to the
parochial church council. On
the 16th October 1966 the meeting was interrupted by a
messenger reporting the death of William John Whitlock age 93 years.
Long will he be remembered.
The information written by me was told to me by the said late
William John. He kept me
alive and others by his village ’Wit’.
The delightful Grafton Cottage is in Whitlock hands still.
Long may it remain so. GEORGE FREESTON Nov/Dec 1997 [92] Gossip Time Oh
dear ! ! It seems all go,
the Blisworth elders used to say ‘if it ‘aint one thing its
t’other. So be it.
I wish to comment briefly on the recent experimental three day
exhibition in our Parish Church at which the ancient records and
documents were put on show. I
think it was the first time ever for such a display. The
oldest book consisting of bound parchment pages was first used on 6th
January 1598 terminating in 1733/4 as written by the rector Robertus
Howkins. It
was compulsory for rectors to record all births, baptisms, and burials
within their parishes. In
other words he recorded the ‘ins and outs’ of life.
Of late more and more families are searching out their ‘family
trees’ hence the Church documents are being eagerly sought.
Many churches have now handed their valuable records over to the
Record Offices where they are kept in perfect condition.
One wit added the following in support, ‘of safe keeping, that
which moth and dust do corrupt and thieves break through and steal’. The
exhibition was visited by our local school children who maybe were more interested
in the ‘bogey’ holes, as children have always described the odd
architectural ‘nooks’ and ‘crannies’. I
hope that some seeds of interest were recorded. To All of You ‘A
Very Happy Christmas and New Year’. GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1998 [93] Gossip Time I
start on a topical note i.e. we are still without a rector, the final
news is that we (that is Blisworth) is to join up with Stoke Bruerne,
Grafton Regis, and Alderton. Their
conststituent parishes remain as before, and in the Diocese of
Peterborough, but they will no longer have individual rectors.
Their former rectories will be held for diocesan purposes, and
for the future patronage
arrangements for the new benefice. The
parsonage house for the new benefice will be that at Blisworth.
In time the new rector at Blisworth will serve the new grouping. At
the time of writing the Blisworth rectory remains empty since the former
rector the rev H. Bunker resigned in March 1997 after 34 years as rector
of Blisworth. The rectory
is undergoing extensive renovations, the garden as well.
The boundary wall adjoining the canal tow path is being re-built. Over
the past 770 years records show that we, as a parish have ‘gone it
alone’ but the old order changeth. Other nearby churches have already undergone such unifying.
In the previous R&A I mentioned that our ancient church
records from 1598 have now been copied (thanks to Jonathan Bunker and
his word processor). I hold
copies which for general convenience can be examined at ‘Plowmans’
no.31 Stoke Road, by arrangement. If
searchers locate their family members, a contribution will be requested
for church funds. So
– I’ve said it before – I’ll say it again – ‘Hope You All
Had A Good Christmas and Best Wishes For the New Year’. GEORGE FREESTON Mar/Apr 1998 [94] Gossip Time In
this issue of R&A I will attempt to add to my local history stories. Between
WWI & WWII the country was invaded in a small way by foreigners who
eked out a living by touring the countryside offering various forms of
entertainment. There was a
barrel organ, usually with a monkey, jugglers, peep shows, performing
dogs, and very rarely, a dancing bear.
The late Mrs. Whitlock told me the following story.
It relates of a brown bear and its bedtime story.
The venue for this last dancing bear was the Sun, Moon and Stars.
The bear was accommodated in a stable and the bear keeper enjoyed
a bed in the pub. Real
luxury for both man and beast. All
seemingly went well until the bear was disturbed and then it did all it
could to wreck the stable. This
alarmed the folk nearby, but the bear keeper calmly asked for a bucket
of water with a quart of beer added.
The troubled animal drank the lot non stop and then settled down
on the straw. Seemingly the
keeper had forgotten to give the bear its night cap ! ! P.S. I notice that
there is a money appeal for saving European captive bears who are
cruelly chained and taught to dance on hot embers as a tourist
attraction. GEORGE FREESTON May/Jun 1998 [95] Gossip Time I
was nearly forgetting my R&A contribution for during the overlooking
period without a rector, I have been involved in church affairs.
I undertook the Hon. Secretary’s duties before the last world
war, followed by a brief break during my national service.
After the war I again took on those former duties. I
was born in 1911 and from the time of my christening I knowingly or
unknowingly became acquainted with a follow up of seven rectors; the
reverend H. Bunker being the last to date.
I now await the appointment of an eighth rector to serve during
the rest of my lifetime. We
have a complete list of village rectors from the year 1226, a remarkable
continuity. To maintain the
fabric of the church we sadly and all too often have to bring in money
matters. In
penning last meetings, I have attempted to bring along some church
humour. During my time there was plenty.
A village congregation without a laugh would have been
intolerable. We
go forth now to a new era by uniting with the local parishes of Stoke
Bruerne with Shutlanger, Grafton Regis, and Alderton.
We are not quite alone with this pattern for it is occurring
throughout the country, like it or not.
It would have been unheard of not so many years ago.
So ‘Press on we will’ GEORGE FREESTON Jul/Aug 1998
[96] Gossip Time Mr.
Joseph Westley was born at Blisworth the son of a village baker.
An Anne Westley held freehold to a windmill on the high ground on
what is now the playing field. At
some time that windmill site was exchanged for a canal wharfside site on
which Joseph Westley built his splendid mill in1879. Joseph
forged ahead within the milling world and also became the life blood of
the Baptist movement in Blisworth.
His handsome redbrick chapel still proudly stands but lacking the
congregations of his days, the men folk of which were logically mostly
his employees. It is said
that Joseph took stock of the congregation and if one of his millers was
absent the offender had to give a good reply when at work the next
morning. It was a sad day
for many Blisworth men when the Westley flour producing mill closed
down. Joseph Westley died on January
9th 1897 and is buried under a pink
monumental slab at the west end of
the chapel. It
carries the wording
Joseph Westley J.P:C.C.
and
Deacon of the
chapel for 28 years.
Topical note: Feb 12th 1897 ‘Blisworth:
The premises of Messrs Westley Bros. were partially
flooded, much damage being done. Here it was found
necessary to remove the horses, etc.
The road from the Mill to Gayton was almost Impassable.
The stable yard and stables were
below the north side of Grafton House. GEORGE FREESTON Sep/Oct 1998
[97] Gossip Time In
penning the village history through the issues of R&A I realise that
by now the greater number of residents are relative newcomers, hence the
problem of making my story interesting, and also to arouse their
curiosity in looking around whenever they are perambulating the village
and making them feel at home. I
therefore wonder how many of you can remember, or even make a guess
where this panoramic layout of buildings were ? The
loan survivor is the present village hall, formerly a Church controlled
school founded way back in 1485 by the then resident family of Hereward
Wake. At
a later date the Blisworth Parish became part of the vast Wakefield
Estate of 7,935 acres covering 15 local villages of which Blisworth was
one. Over the years small
plots reclaimed their pre-Wake indentities.
The Church school, which had a frontage on the Stoke Road, had
grounds running eastwards to approximately alongside the present school
in Courteenhall Road and this kept its identity. In
1686 a report was called for by the Bishop of Peterborough on the
condition of the school and masters dwelling, which seemingly were in
need of repair. The school
had a close, or playground to the rear of about 3 roads in size.
This was overgrown with ash trees and abandoned. At
an early time an Anne Westley held a windmill free of the Estate and she
produced flour which was baked in a small bakery in Stoke Road near to
the school. Alongside the
school on the north side was a slither of ground which Mr. Joseph
Westley purchased from the school authorities, on which he squeezed a
revolutionary three story slated house.
On the north wall he and his wife Mary proudly placed a date
stone.
Lots more to follow Nov/Dec 1998
[98] Gossip Time This
striking photo for this months R&A must still be in the minds of
many village elders as a memory picture The
darkened properties on the left are numbers 58, 60, and 62 High Street,
next to the Sun,Moon,and Stars Pub. Never
built for human beings, the fine structure on the right was built for
the occupation of the rector’s six hunters and one carriage horse.
These were looked after by one stud and two ordinary grooms.
circa.1841. Times
changed and by 1914 horses were phased out of Blisworth rectory.
The new rector the rev. William Wingfield Colley M.A. rode
vigourously round on a new modern cycle with an oil filled chain cover.
He huffed and puffed as he toured the village.
It was bound to happen, his wife bought and drove the rector
around in a car. They had
two daughters, who were governess tutored.
I still communicate with them. We
kept ferrets to keep us supplied with rabbit pies.
These odd animals fascinated the rector’s young daughters.
Not knowing all things one daughter asked ‘do they lay eggs ? I cannot remember the answer given. ! ! Happy Christmas to
one and all. GEORGE FREESTON Jan/Feb 1999
[99]
Fronting Grafton Villas
circa 1911 Left to right: Arthur
Robinson (groom), Mrs. Jeaffreson in trap, boy unknown in trap. In
the previous R&A I made mention of the horse and trap giving way to
the motor car. I haven’t
a record of the total means of transport used by village Doctors, but I
herewith show a vehicle and ‘transport power’ used by a well
remembered village Doctor, Doctor Dudley Jeaffreson LRCP Edin, LRFPS and
medical officer for Blisworth district comprising Blisworth,
Collingtree, Gayton, Milton etc. It
was a large area for visiting hence the horse and trap.
But what a miserable job for horse and groom. Mrs.
J. Jeaffreson was the wife of the new Doctor Dudley Jeaffreson who came
to Blisworth circa 1910/11. The above ‘outfit’ was the means of transport to the
villages round Blisworth. Arthur
Robinson the groom was a Blisworth man.
The Jeaffresons lived in the north side of Grafton Villa. At a later date they extended the dining room with windows on
three sides to give extra light to what had been a dull room facing the
railway embankment. Previous
Doctors had lived in the south side twin villa. Railway
lengthmen identified the bridge as ‘Doctors Bridge’.
I, the writer of this was Dr. Jeaffresons first baby at Blisworth
on 19th of November 1911.
Note made 3rd of July 1989, ‘I should have been a
jockey’. (NB THE doctor
before Jeaffreson was Doctor Richardson; we will meet him next time.) GEORGE FREESTON [ We do not have the
follow up to this. A
missing copy may account for it. R.F.] Mar/Apr 1999
No contribution from George May/Jun 1999
Missing copy Jul/Aug 1999
No contribution from George Sep/Oct 1999
No contribution from George Nov/Dec 1999
No contribution from George Jan/Feb 2000
[100]
GOSSIP TIME
The County Bus It started like a ‘Charabang’
Seats open to the
sky, A cover
then was needed To keep us warm and dry. A steel
crank was needed To make
the bus to go, Soon they
made self starters The crank
would kick below. Two by
two they seat us, Strangers
or friends besides, In silence or friendly chatter, On short
or longer rides. Landscapes
spread before us Witnessed
through the glass, In many
varied aspects So many
miles we pass. The
driver and conductor, Have
their allotted task, To
guarantee safe journey, The end
is where we ask. There are
many means of travel, But the
bus is made for all, Be it
morning , noon or evening, Its
always at our call. To
wish you all a very peaceful and Happy New Year. GEORGE
FREESTON
Mar/Apr 2000
[101] May/Jun 2000
No entry from George Jul/Aug 2000
No entry from George Sep/Oct 2000 [102] Village History
Notes Each
time I pass the cemetery since its tidy up, my memory switches back to
its past usage. Times and
practice have certainly changed since the opening of the Crematorium. For
much of my life-time it was the custom to bury using elaborate,
handsome, solid wooden coffins. Elm
and oak planks being used in the hopes of lasting ‘for ever’.
Which brings me to my current story. Over
many of the past years Blisworth had two undertakers.
Both lived in Stoke Road premises. One being our late village
character, William Whitlock, who was a man of many jobs from undertaking
to general carpentry. Also, as a fill in, he was church sexton, ringer, and clock
winder, which afforded him the name ‘clocky’.
In relation to his many jobs for the church and his attendance at
all church functions, he himself said:-
‘I married them, christened them, and buried them’. The
standard of work with coffin making was high.
Seasoned, thick planked wood was used in either oak or elm, often
taking a week to complete. It was planed and polished equal to best furniture.
As most village deaths occurred at home, upstairs, great
difficulty arose in installing and removing the coffin.
All the old village cottages had a very restricted stairs making
it impossible to use them. In which case, and in general practice, the cottage bedroom
window had to be removed to gain space for the removal or installing of
the coffin. I
appreciate that this recording is of a delicate nature but I have added
a full account of a funeral expense carried out by my father – it’s
almost unbelievable ! GEORGE FREESTON Up
to the entry of January/February 1999 George
died early in 2002. It
is hoped that this collection of his contributions to
‘Round and About’ the village magazine of Blisworth the place he so loved will serve as a remembrance of him and that he who preserved so much of Blisworth’s past will
be in his turn remembered too. Robin Freeston One of George’s many Nephews and Neices.
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