Edgar Thomas Ayres' Story as told to George Freeston in c. 1965

(part of a transcription of questions and answers that needed to be re-written)

I was born on May 14th, 1892 and when I left school, when aged fifteen, I went to work on the W H Smith bookstall at Blisworth Station. Using boys, we used to send out to various people in the morning newspaper which had arrived by train. Then I would travel by train myself to Towcester and deliver to Easton Neston, Holcot, the Showsley cottages and the Pynus cottages (see "Pyesnest" field name) - all by walking. I started work at seven o'clock and stayed at the station stall until about six o'clock.

The main business was selling newspapers to people coming off the trains because the station was very busy in the mornings. Northampton people came in on the branch line and had to wait around for a main line train - so they had a few minutes to get a newspaper. The Stratford line carried quite a lot of people from as far away as the Broom [1] junction. There was another bookstall on the SMJ platform and that was run by Mr Bennett. I had the Wymans stall on the main line. The two of us were friendly and we walked together by the canal to and from work - he lived next to the Sun, Moon and Stars.

I didn't deliver in Blisworth itself. I earned three and six a week (17.5 pence) and that was considered a good wage in 1910. As for walking, there wasn't much traffic on the roads - just a few horse and carts and I seldom got offered a lift because the horses usually had enough to pull. It was healthy work - plenty of fresh air.

After twelve months of that I went into baking in Blisworth with Mr T Sturgess in the Stoke Road and then I went on the Post Office as a postal delivery man.

I would start at 5.45am finish at 12 and every alternate Sunday night I had to attend to the Mail Ejector on the railway bank doing a dispatch at 10.10pm with a collection from Towcester and a receive at 3.30am. That was a tough old job but I didn't mind it - the wind could blow on the bank, yes, it was a struggle at times. The mail cart came up from Towcester and I had to put the letters into some leather pouches. When mail is received from a train it might be doing 60mph and the bag is caught in the net - it never went wrong in my time!   Local mail for Blisworth came in by train from Northampton so it had already made the journey from the bank up into Northampton where it was sorted.

I took over from my father on the post. He had done it for 35 years. His uniform was some blue trousers with a red stripe, a scarlet three-quarter length coat with brass buttons and more stripes and with all that a pillbox hat with a peak and a gold band around it. That was the correct "mail messenger's" uniform.

I could get nervous on the dark nights up on the bank. Once I had a shock when I saw a body against the signal. It was just a ganger on his way home after he had been to the hotel. Well, he was 'three parts in the wind' - old Jack Kirk who lived at Fogg Cottages on the parish boundary with Courteenhall. Being the most direct way, he always walked along the line.

When on the bank I stayed in a little hut [3] with no heating, no fire. I could always walk to the station to get warm again. I would go past the hotel a see a few goings on.

As a child I went to the gardens behind the hotel a lot. We had some good parties at Bank Holidays and they put on some good shows. there was a lovely lawn for dancing and a military band. It was a celebrated gardens and many people came out from Northampton to the roller skate rink and others things. If it was a Sunday school outing that was always held on the (old) Rectory lawn. As I got older I could go up on the mail wagons to Northampton. As teenagers there were three of us together - up to town at 5 o'clock and perhaps go to a performance at the theatre at the bottom of Horsemarket [4]. Then we would come back by train at 10 o'clock (the fair was 6d!) after calling at a corner shop for a glass of ginger wine. It was a rear treat and it wasn't intoxicating. I was in a temperance society [5] and I never had a strong drink . . . .

[1]  Broom Junction was at the Stratford-on-Avon end of the line.

[3]  At first this was thought to be the hut in image 27-31 but we now know there were huts actually up on the embankment.

[4]  This might have been "The Majestic" - but at the top of Horsemarket!

[5]  Maybe the Good Templars.

Later in life Edgar (Eddie) Ayres became much involved with the church and
is pictured here presiding over his church exhibition which appears to have
some things in common with G Freeston's exhibitions (there are pages from
the GF Scrapbook in the foreground).