You may have been directed here from a new website devoted to the development of the now derelict
Sun, Moon and Stars building.  This page is part of a very large website presenting archival pictures
and historical accounts, some of which were prepared by the late Geo. Freeston of Blisworth.

 

To examine the home page of this historical website, please click here.

 

Otherwise scroll down . . .

 

 

 

 

The Sun, Moon & Stars , Blisworth, Northamptonshire, UK.

All pictures are presented at relatively low resolution.  Any interest in copies of a picture at a higher resolution (ie. clarity) should be directed through contacts given in the Blisworth "Round and About" parish council publication or using the comment form on the home page.  In some cases the pictures are not available due to copyright restrictions.  However, permission has been obtained, where possible, to include them here.  Printed below each image is the photographer's name, if known.

This building is listed - information available    The building is also the subject of a compulsory purchase order and both the county council and some villagers are engrossed in the question 'what to do with the old building' - information available

31-01 

Photographed in c. 1895, John Capell, the publican, stands by the door with light-coloured bowler and dog.  The men with pitch forks are part of Capell's threshing team - threshing was carried on as a side line in the yard behind the inn.  In earlier years John Capell was the foreman of an ironstone digging gang that operated in Blisworth - probably from 1870-1900.

The man, evidently with large moustache and two young boys, is William Ayres.

In the late 18th century, the building was extended from an earlier building purchased by John Linnett from Thomas Smith on 19 May 1797.  The fact that Smith was a freeholder lends support to the idea that the building was an inn before Linnett's time.

Footnote:   There are three cottages to the right of the inn (just visible) and four cottages behind the building.  They were built in 1891 and all are still in use.  At that time there was built a few (more?) stables somewhere behind the building.  None of the stables now survive.  The inn was owned at that time by the brewers Phipps.  The surrounding land was rented from the Duke of Grafton, hence the appearance in the Grafton Records of Phipps seeking permission to build from the Duke.

 From 1798 the inn was known as the "Half Moon".  It was designated a Manchester Odd-fellows Society Travellers Lodge in around 1842. It was No. 2645 - a meeting house where benefits for needy society members would be administered and one of a chain of inns to which a doctor could be called to alleviate ills. A sun, a moon and a ring of seven stars, along with the ubiquitous 'all seeing eye', are all part of the logo of the society displayed on the certificate for the building.  This probably explains one of the inn's name changes in Victorian times - as shown by the census enumerators (but see footnote below).  Here is shown one of the personal certificates for junior members an image of which has been kindly supplied by both Peter Sturdgess and Ron French's daughter, Linda Burrows.  The certificates of this era are signed by Wm. Collins and Frank Young.

Note the full name of the society on the certificate.

31-07  The Odd Fellows banner photographed in the Church at the time of George Freeston's 1981 "Great Exhibition.  It had hung in the south aisle for 18 years before that.  By 1999 the "fabric had died..."  George Freeston and Whitty refer to the banner as hand-painted on silk.

Further information on the Order and other "benefits" clubs can be obtained.  The link simply takes you further down this page.

Origin of the "Oddfellows" is given in an open source article which can be downloaded here. 

Footnote:   The Clerk of the Parish Council refers to this inn as "The Half Moon Inn" on numerous occasions up to at least 1915.  It is possible that the council worked from an "Award Map" c. 1812 and regarded everything on it as official*.  An August 1921 postcard from Blackpool to Miss Nell Capell is addressed: "Half Moon, Blisworth" while the sign outside the pub clearly indicates "Sun, Moon and Stars" in 1895 when her father was the publican (see 31-01 above).
*Another example is their reference to "Coneygre", a manorial name for the Stoke Road allotment field.

31-02  Taken c. 1934.  Conversion to gas lighting had taken place and the mill steam chimney had not being taken down by the Canal Company who bought the mill in 1930.  For a closer view of the sign - please click here - note that it was taken at a different time and not just an enlargement from this picture.

 

 
31-03 Taken in 1975 when the building was operated as a licensed restaurant.  The picture available here shows the interior of the building at about the same time - from a postcard.  It would be appreciated if someone could confirm the appearance as few seem to recall it . . .

The building has decayed considerably since the 1970s.  It is the subject of a compulsory order and is listed.
From a recently discovered painting by the late Derek Bell of Blisworth who died suddenly in 2002.  This was painted in about 1990 while it was shuttered and neglected.  Amusingly, Derek has ghosted in the roof pitch of the 20th century kitchen area, to the left, that was demolished one icy morning by a speeding lorry.
31-05 These two pictures show the rear of the Sun, Moon & Stars cottages from the other side of the canal.  The date is uncertain but there is no sign of the building of the Pond Bank group of houses which were begun in 1968.

Prior to the building of the cottages, in 1891 by the brewer Phipps, there was evidently a large building contiguous with the road-fronting inn which extending all the way down to the towpath.  Such building appears on the award map 1808 and on another map of uncertain origin 1809.  Perhaps in such extensive accommodation there was indeed space for many tunnel workers - as the local lore says.
31-06

Further information on the Oddfellow Order and other "benefits" clubs can be found below.

 

 

 

 

31-08   Leading the procession of the Oddfellows Society by the Cross is, on the left William Collins, and right Frank Young (brother of grocer Oliver Young).  The lad behind with the sash is Arthur Twisleton, junior officer who rises to be the last of the "Grands" before the society was folded up.  Date of this picture c. 1930s.  Other procession pictures can be found in the Occasions section.

 

 

 

 

 
31-09   Nine members of the Oddfellows c. 1950.

Left to right: back: Harry Leach, Wm Packwood, Sam Newbery, Samuel Lack, Wm Collins.  front: Fred Ratledge, Edgar Ayres, Frank Holding and Frank Young.

As explained elsewhere, the society was a benefits club but one which set out in Victorian times (c. 1842) with a very strict code expected of members.  There was a "Book of Fines" which seems to be lost but notes from it suggest a fine of 6d (about 5% of weekly income) for none attendance to meetings, others for not addressing the meeting when leaving.  Meetings were originally held with a strict etiquet for clothing and ritual - akin to a masonic meeting.

The chief purpose of the society became to make collections for a fund which may be dispensed as sick pay for workers who had piece-time employment, ie. most workers in the village.  With the coming of state pensions, legislation for workers' protection and the National Health Service, the society instead offered an investment and savings fund.

 

 

 

31-10   The society began in the rooms at the Sun, Moon and Stars but was moved to a room at the Royal Oak.  On a wall there, probably in what became known as "The Club Room" - now the skittles room, was hung this panel with a hinged cover.  The panel lists the masters of this branch of the order (probably since its inception) up to the final year before the Blisworth group was disbanded in 1974 - after over 100 years.

Actually the landlord at the Royal Oak gave the group notice to quit using the room in 1956 and from then on they met in the Baptists Lecture Hall.

 

 

 
31-11   There were at least two other orders/clubs with a similar aim to that of the Oddfellows.  This is Henry Plowman (died 1916) who was the "master" of the order of "Good Templars No. 3353" in Blisworth.  The order probably faded out c. 1900 because nothing more could be found out about it by GF in 1953 other than it too was a strict order but based upon Baptists members.  Baptist records first mention the Templars in 1879.  Junior members learnt discipline and debating skills, meeting in the Baptists Lecture Hall.  The club was strictly teetotal, unlike the Oddfellows, and it bore the full title of  "The Independent Order of Good Templars".  Presumably because people who were only very junior members could be reached by 1953, the one remaining memory was that there was an acronym IOGT which youngsters converted to "I O Granny Tuppence".

Contemporaneously with this order was the "Blisworth Benefits Club" which aimed to provide assistance for poor families esp. the unemployed.  Image number 23-01 in the occasions section is an early picture of one of their parades.