Fred Burbidge, Engineer, recalling two stories for G. Freeston, c. 1960s
Fred Burbidge was born in 1884, two years before being brought to Blisworth from Gayton. He, along with his brothers, set up in the village a timber felling and sawing business and a carpenters shop on an industrial scale on a site off the High Street, opposite the church. His father had a steam-engine business which commissioned traction engines, operated threshing machines and built special purpose engineering equipment.
The first story is of Henry Ploughman as told to him by the Mallard brothers, Freddie and Frank. In 1804 Henry worked on the tunnel for the canal. Having too much to drink the night before, he felt sick one Friday and left the work place to walk home down the toll road (Stoke Road). He met the horse and wagon coming up the road with the pay-day cash and flagged it down to not miss out on being paid. He and the driver passed the time of day and, when finished, he bid the driver farewell and went home to lie down. When the wagon arrived at the tunnellers the driver realised that the tailboard was hanging loose. But worse - a bag containing half-sovereigns and some silver was missing. The driver, once he realised he was in serious trouble, mentioned he had met Henry on the way up and so a party of workers wasted no time in going down to Henry's house to see if he had found the bag lying in the road. Henry said he knew nothing of the bag and invited the men to search his house - they found nothing.
A few months afterwards, Henry left the village to be never seen again. He did the right thing by the villagers though; he cleared all his debts in the village shops - in some cases paying them off with half-sovereigns. Perhaps the Grand Junction Canal company later got him a free passage to Australia!
[The second is from a tape transcription] "I managed the trees on the estates at Stoke Park and at Stowe. The Master of Kinloss, at Stowe, once asked me to cut down all the trees in the avenue but the trustees (National Trust?) heard about it and stopped us just in time.
"The Master of Kinloss had the first Morris "Oxford" that was made and he bought it off Bill Morris who promised that it would do 70 mph up the two mile long avenue. But it would only do 50 mph and so Kinloss got in touch with Bill Morris who said he would come next Tuesday and improve it. So Kinloss said, "Burbidge, Morris is coming over and I want you to be with me - we are going to try this motor to do 70 mph". Morris came with his mechanic and tried jet after jet and got it to do 75 mph. Morris said it would be better to go back one and make it just do 70 mph. Kinloss then ordered seven motors for his friends and invited Bill Morris in for a drink. When Morris said he never drank Kinloss said "well Burbidge does!" and we had bread and cheese with the drink and Morris had lemonade. Finally Morris said "I cannot stop and I have such a lot to do" - he was a wonderful man and he turned out to be Lord Nuffield*.
"There's more to Kinloss - he was an ordained parson too and he came to Blisworth on three occasions to preach. He said to me afterwards "What did they say about me, Burbidge?" "If I told you you would never speak to me again - you'd be cross with me" But he said "do be straightforward with me" and I said, "they think you are a wonderful preacher who points the way but never goes himself" Kinloss replied " They're dead right - bloody well right!" How ever he managed to preach without swearing I can't understand. I spent seven years on and off with him on the estate and he was the only gent who could . . . . [something about a napkin and a bottle of Johnny Walker on a wall but I cannot decipher it, you try and please let me know!] . . . . I've never seen anyone repeat [the trick] before.
* [Morris of course founded the Morris and Nuffield vehicle company at Cowley, Oxford. He was recognised for services to the Empire for vehicles used in WW I and for the export of whole factories, eg. to Japan]