The Story of Heyford (Extra): Church Lane 1960’s Happy Days – Maureen Wright

Happy Days

The semi-detached dormer houses in Church Lane were built by Adkins and Shaw in the late 1960’s. After our wedding in 1967, Tony and I moved into No. 4 which was bought for the princely sum of £3,295. At that time most of the occupants of these houses were like us, newlyweds or not long married with young children. The land on which the houses were built had been owned by a Mr Potter whose widow lived at No. 3. The builders had not been able to develop the rest of the field because it was too low to support a sewer which is why the houses have long gardens.

At that time, the late Dennis Clarke who lived at the old bakery in Furnace Lane had a van from which he used to come round the village selling vegetables, fruit and fresh fish. He would park up in Church Lane and firstly visit Mrs Potter who was elderly and not able to walk too well. She in turn would have a cup of tea ready for him and so they would sit and chat and chat. In the meantime, all the potential customers were either waiting patiently or not so patiently for Dennis to appear. We became used to this routine and did not wait at the van unless we too wanted a chat but would keep checking to see if Dennis had appeared. But despite the wait, it was worth it just alone for the hand sized pieces of Plaice he sold, which were delicious steamed and loved by our children. Happy days indeed.

Maureen Wright

The Story of Heyford: Childhood Memories V4C7

Before the second world war the village was only half the size that it is now, transport was very limited, and the modern leisure facilities that are so commonly available today simply didn’t exist. Therefore the young people made their own fun in whatever way they could. There are many people in the village, now in their eighties, with childhood memories from the pre war period.

Children and young people
Before the ﬁrst world war, the children went to school up the age of 13. Life was pretty busy keeping up with the chores. Mrs Dorothy Kingston of Furnace Lane remembers taking bread and jam to her father at the Brickworks when she came home from school. There was water to fetch, pigs to feed, eggs to collect, vegetables to prepare.

At thirteen, you left school and went to work. Some worked on the farms, some learned trades in their family businesses, but some worked outside the village. Bob Browning’s ﬁrst job was a Saturday job at the age of 12 for W H Smith in Weedon. He walked from Heyford to Weedon and collected papers for delivery to Litchborough and Maidford and then walked back home. The journey was done entirely on foot and took him all day.

When he left school in 1905 he went to work there full time. They gave him a bicycle and two panniers to carry the papers. His new route was from Heyford to Weedon to pick up the papers, then to Dodford, Everdon, Farthingstone, Upper Weedon, then home. He ate his packed lunch each day under one of the big Beech trees beside the road through Everdon Stubbs. There he double checked his takings.

On one occasion he arrived home and found he was one gold sovereign short. The sovereign had come from Everdon Hall where they always had several papers. His mother was desperate because he had to give his takings in the next morning but they didn’t have as much as a sovereign in the house.

So Bob cycled back to Everdon Stubbs to where he had counted the money at lunchtime, and there he found the missing sovereign. He was delighted at finding it that he carved his initials with his pocket knife into one of the trees. The four trees are still there today. All of them have dozens of initials carved into them of which some are quite new, but others could be 100 years old. Somewhere amongst them are the initials R.B.

Walking
With time to, spare, little transport, and few organised facilities, walking was common. People would walk miles without a second thought.

The children all walked to school, some coming from Upper Heyford and others from the Railway cottages, or from Stowe Hill. They mostly travelled in small groups, unaccompanied by adults. Nobody worried about safety. The school didn’t provide lunches then so they made four journeys each day, often dawdling along the Way. There were several brooks in those days, running either side of the Green and also alongside a number of the hedges. Here it was tempting to dally along the way, making boats out of whatever materials they could find in the hedgerows.

Families walked together on Sundays, often for miles up to Glassthorpe or Stowe. They sometimes ended up at one of the pubs where father would have a beer and the children a ‘spruce’ – a bottle of pop with a glass ball in it.

Cars were a rare sight in the village between the wars so groups of young people would walk up to the ‘Turnpike’ (the A5) and sit on the bank by the Stowe turn, Waiting to wave at the drivers as they passed at a rate of only one or two an hour.

The Railway children
Mrs Doris Lovell, now in her eighties, lived in the railway cottages because her father, Frank Denny was a signalman. Although there was never a station in Heyford, she recalls how the railway had a strong presence in the village. There were sidings in the brick yard, there was an active signal box, and there were four railway cottages occupied by signalmen, platelayers and their families.

In the days of steam, each locomotive had its own unique personality and they chuffed past at a more friendly speed than today’s diesels. The driver and fireman, whose faces were often familiar to the villagers, would wave as they passed by, and sometimes they would throw lumps of coal for the children to take home.

The children played in the ﬁelds alongside the railway, although there was a strict understanding that playing near the tracks was forbidden. Favourite play areas included the stream near the brickyard just the other side of the small foot tunnel under the embankment. Here you could make stepping stones, build dens, and ﬁsh for tiddlers.

The railway bridge and railway cottages in the 1930s

Photo lent by Judy Armitage

Box Pond and ‘the Humps’
Another favourite play area recalled by Doris Lovel was in the ﬁeld where the furnaces used to be. There was a pond here called ‘box pond’ because it was near the signal box. There was another pond across the road in the brickyard where deep water had formed in the claypit. Both ponds were popular play areas with much wildlife in them, including lizards and moorhens.

Also in the furnace field were four huge clinker mountains. These had been formed out of clinker waste from when the furnaces were in operation. Each seemed as high as a house. They had set solid into various shapes, Weathered through time, and were full of interesting nooks and crannies. They, were affectionately known as ‘the humps’. Cut hands and scraped knees were common.

These ‘humps’ were eventually moved when the M1 was built in the late 1950s. The field was full of hills and hollows from where the furnaces had been, and the contractor, Dowsett, was looking for somewhere to put the topsoil from the construction of the M1. So they broke up the humps, rolled them into the hollows, and covered them with topsoil. Box Pond was also filled in.

Fishing and swimming
As today, there were plenty of fish in the canal. With a line, a hen feather, a bent pin and some bait, you could catch gudgeon to take home to feed to the cat. Favourite places on the river were by one of the two bridges – either the bridge to Upper Heyford, or Coach Bridge (now only a footbridge beyond Manor Park). Jumping off Coach Bridge into the deep waters below was a regular summer game for the boys.

Many local people, now in their 70s and 80s remember swimming in the canal. On warm summer days the young people would take their swimming costumes, some sandwiches, a drink, and a pot to pick blackberries. This way they could would spend hours by the canal.

An article in the Mercury and Herald dated 25th May 1978 included an interview with Mrs George (nee Browning) in which she recalled how ‘we’d go up to the canal at Heyford Bridge. The boys would change one side and the girls the other. Then we’d have a swim or watch the boats, all drawn by horses of course, being pulled up the canal.’ Unlike the railway where it was ﬁrmly understood that the track was out of bounds, the canal was considered ‘safe’. This was in spite of the murky state of the water and the waste disposed of by the boat people. However it was a fun place to spend the day, and was the only way to learn how to swim.

Swimming in the canal

This photograph, taken in the 1920s shows a group of young people beside the canal. They went up Furnace Lane and turned left at Wharf Farm where they walked along to the next bridge. They are seen here in the field opposite the tow path. Pictured from the front are: Ivy Denny, Jack Earl, Friend, Nen Blaney, Odette Punch, Friend, Friend, and Mrs Frank Denny. The little girl to the left of the group is June Denny.

Photo lent by Doris Lovell (nee Denny)

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 4 of 4 | Chapter 7 of 8 | Pages 28 to 30

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: Cricket on the Village Green V4C5

Like most villages in England Nether Heyford sported the idyllic sight of twenty two people dressed in immaculate whites playing the age-old sport of Cricket on the Village Green.

A team game remarkably like cricket was being played in England as early as 1300 and by the 1700’s it was being played by the landed aristocracy and so became part of our culture. In the early 1890’s County Cricket was established with clubs being admitted only when the MCC judged their standard to be acceptable and the county of Northamptonshire was admitted in 1905.

The period 1890-1914 is regarded as the golden age of cricket with interest in the sport becoming widespread. Today it is not quite so popular with the young and it is not surprising that India and Pakistan have such magnificent teams as children take up cricket there as soon as they can hold a bat and at week-ends you can see teams and teams of players on any given space practising their skills -far more than even our local lads play football.

The tradition of a local cricket team still goes on in Heyford, but not on the Green. For the last few years you could see Julian Rice and his merry men playing on the well-tended sports ground by the Pavilion built ten years ago and situated just as you enter Heyford from the A45. (The Pavilion used to be the football changing rooms which were moved from the village green to the sports field). Still an idyllic sight but not the same perhaps as when cricket was played in the centre of the village.

The early years

The Cricket Club in Heyford was founded by Henry Isham Longden when he came to the village as Rector in 1897. He was, according to Joan Wake in her book ‘The life of Henry Isham Longden’, fond of cricket and apparently he had played for the Northampton Cricket Club in his curate days, so it is not surprising that he was always ready for a village cricket match. Hevford’s Bob Browning (1892-1997) recalls cricket being played on the green in the early 1900s, but these were in the days of friendlies against neighbouring villages.

There must have been a lapse of all activities during the 1914-1918 war with all able-bodied men fighting, but cricket resumed in the 1920’s. At this time the green was more uneven than it is today as it was grazed by cows. There was continual debate about whether a proper pitch could be laid. According to the rules laid down for the management of the green no digging could take place, and much argument went on about laying such a pitch. However agreement was eventually reached and a wicket turf was laid on the centre part of the green by Jack Nickolls and Tommy Kingston.

In the 1920’s the Heyford team consisted of such people as Bert Thompson, Frank Reeve, Bob Foster, Dick Foster and Ron Humphrey. They played friendlies against local villages, Farthingstone and Everdon. Before each match nets were erected along the far side of the green to protect the windows and slates of the houses nearby. And of course they all met afterwards in the clubroom of the Foresters Arms.

In the 1930’s the players included Bill Kingston, Bernard North, Charlie Copson, Jack Butcher, Dennis Clarke and Reg Collins. The main umpire for Heyford was Sonny Thompson and they played against Everdon, Pattishall, Astcote, Bugbrooke, Kislingbury and Harpole. Bill Kingston recalls that before they could play they had to make up the pitch. They had to fill in the holes, patch it, turf it and roll it because the cows had been on it all week! And according to Charlie Copson the pitch was so well prepared that it was used on Friday evenings for tennis matches.

Cricket as it appeared on the Green in the 1940’s and 1950’s

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NetherHeyford_Cricket_2

The team in the 1960’s

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Standing, left to right: Jack Draper, Peter Brodie, John Draper, Michae Ingray, Norman Fonge, Bernard North, Ron Copson, Bert Thornicroft, Ben Spokes

Kneeling, left to right: Dennis Clarke, Jim Blood, Harry Haynes, Charlie King, Reg Collins

Twenty years without a club

Then the cricket ceased. In the Sunday Telegraph a few weeks before Easter 1999, it was reported “The village Cricket Club has been forced to close after the wives and friends of the players refused to make their teas”. This, I hasten to add, was not what happened to Heyford. By the 1950’s Tommy Rolfe had left the Foresters and houses had been built alongside the green between Middle Street and the Post Office, making it difficult to protect them against damage from the balls. Also there were few young men in the village in the post war years because many were moving to town to take advantage of modern work and housing opportunities.

In the Mercury & Herald November 6th 1969 a little piece about Nether Heyford appeared. “Heyford is developing fast with an attractive diversity of new and stylish housing running in price to the five figure bracket, but in the heart of the village the scene remains much the same as half century ago – thanks to the preservation of one of the most expansive village greens in England. It is a curious fact, however, that Nether Heyford has no cricket club. It used to have one but the young people have cars these days and go where they will for their sport and pleasure”.

The club reformed

However, on the 16th June 1977 a meeting was held with Charles King asking the question “Would it be possible to raise a cricket team in the village?” and no article about cricket in Nether Heyford would be complete without a mention of Dave Jenkinson who, after this initial meeting, was elected Chairman of the newly reformed Cricket Club with Charles King, who lived in Hillside Road, becoming the Secretary.

Charles told the local paper that when they had started up again they played half-a-dozen evening games with limited overs to test out the interest. But with no pitch and little equipment and the green being used all winter for football, it was becoming very difficult to keep interest going. He reported that “we’ve had talks with a local farmer about using one of his fields, but at the moment we’re playing all our matches away from home; we book pitches on places like the Racecourse in Northampton. But the real snag about a square on the green, is that we’d need to spend £160 on safety netting along the roadside”.

Thus a new venue for cricket was being called for. Plans for playing fields were being started and fund-raising events taking place. And an apt headline appeared in the paper: “Cricketers bat on and refuse to be stumped”.

Discos at the Foresters Arms followed and on December 23rd 1977 a Christmas Supper Dance was held, music by the Neal Stanton Band, and tickets at £2.50. At this time the membership fee of the Cricket Club was £1 a head and the match fees 10p per game. More and more local people became involved with the Club and Mrs. Rosemary Haddon was elected Treasurer having the grand sum of £155.4p in the kitty.

In 1978 on the 25th May the Mercury and Herald reported some memories from Mr. Albert Garrett who was clerk to the parish council for 35 years and at that time 79 years old. “We used to play cricket on the green” he said “they’ve just started the club up again. I played until I was 60” and he laughed. “We used to break a lot of windows but this time I think they’re getting something to protect them. Even so, we always had a collection to pay for them, especially for one old chap who had his broken regularly.”

And in 1982 when Dave Tite was secretary, the Club was looking back to 1977, the year that Heyford Cricket Club was reformed and remarking on how well the club was doing since it started without money, equipment or fixtures. In March 1983 Geoff Garrett was voted Captain and Paul Horrocks was persuaded to take on the job of fund raising- a difficult but necessary job in the circumstances. They had a full fixture list and entered for the Watney Mann Cup.

All matches ‘away’

In 1984 still without proper grounds the Cricket Club flourished, meetings were held still at The Foresters Arms with Mine Hosts Alf and Marg Parker and youngsters were being recruited. At the Parish Council Annual Meeting members raised the subject of their need for practice nets in the village, perhaps on the green, and these “would not take up a great deal of room and could be used by the School and would add to the attractions of the village”. If you look at the fixture list for July 1984 you will see that not one of the matches were played at home. And amusingly on the front of the fixture list you will see the following:

REMEMBER:

It is better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

(Gayton excepted)

At the 7th AGM of the Heyford Cricket Club on Sunday, 31st March 1985, the Chairman reported sadly that there was now no prospect of home fixtures being played within the Parish Boundary but that it was to be hoped that progress on the Heyford Playing Fields project would mean a ray of hope for future seasons.

The following report in September in the Prattler went “Came second to Ryland 0/B’s in the Clenbury / Haine Shield. Lost in the final. Watney Mann Cup got through to the second round by having a bye in the preliminary round – and beating Gayton in the first round. Lost to Buqbrooke in the second round. We have started a Youth Team with the lads doing most of their own organising. They have been going for about six months and have had two fixtures against very good sides. They tied their first game against Wootton Youth and narrowly lost to Rylands Under 15’s. They have a practise net on the Green every Monday evening. The lads show a lot of promise and hopefully next season we call get them into a league through the Cricket Association. “

But it was to be some time before cricketers could enjoy the game on their home turf. An article appeared in February 1987 stating that “The Parish Council, through its Leisure and Amenities Committee, has been looking into the possibility of acquiring enough land to provide a playing field for the use of the inhabitants of both Nether and Upper Heyford. This matter was also discussed at the last Annual Parish Council meeting. A steering group has been formed to consider the matter, and the outcome of their enquiries to date is that Mr. J Spokes of Upton is prepared to sell approximately 10 acres of land, which seems to be ideally suited to a games area. The land forms part of a flat field, which is situated behind the allotments and Mrs. Smith’s field on the Upper Road.”

The team in 1980

NetherHeyford_Cricket_4

This photograph, taken on Jeremy Rice’s front lawn, shows the team as proud winners in 1980 of the Clenberry / Haine Shield.
Standing: Julian Rice, Ray Haddon, Dave Tite, Tony Charville, G Starmer, Graham Drake
Seated: Alex Kirkbride, Geoff Garrett, Geoff Sturgess, Mike Tharby

Home turf at last

In July 1988 the cricket square was making good progress “thanks to the efforts of the Grounds Committee headed by Jeremy Rice.” And in 1989 Geoff Sturgess of Hillside Crescent was very encouraged by the good turnout for the Youth Cricket Under 16’s Team as nets were now available down on the Playing Field.

In the Prattler, May 1989, the following article appeared compiled by Alex Kirkbride:

“The merry click of bat against the ball, the expectant rush, the cheering that proclaims skill of the greatest of all English games; Flutter of the flags, the branches of the trees swaying beneath the summer breeze; No sweeter music in the world is found than that upon an English cricket ground.

R Ratcliffe Ellis; Cricket Music

Yes, the dream is now a reality. Heyford Cricket Club is back at home”.

And now in 1999 Simon Legge has taken over the captaincy from Julian Rice and will lead his team in League Cricket. The village Green has seen the very last of the cricket but thanks to all the efforts of the stalwarts of the village, the cricket heritage will continue.

With grateful thanks to Barbara Haynes, Julian Rice and Dave Tite

Julie Rands-Allen

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 4 of 4 | Chapter 5 of 8 | Pages 22 to 27

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: Heyford Feast – The Visiting Fair V4C4

Heyford Feast
The fair has been coming for Heyford Feast in October for as long as anyone can remember. Heyford Feast is the anniversary of the dedication of our Parish Church and takes place on the first Sunday after the 11th October. This is also the time of year when Harvest Festival activities took place – they continue to do so today — marking Heyford as one of the churches to celebrate Harvest late in the season.

The fair and the church’s celebrations were closely linked: together they formed the greatest village occasion of the year and would last one week. In the early 1900’s, the fair families attended Evensong at the church and contributed some of their takings to the collection. Today, there is no longer a link between the church and the fair but this still remains the time of year when the fair comes to Heyford.

When the Parish Council was originally set up in the late 1890’s, it stated that no fairs could use the main part of the Green. However, by then, the fair was so much part of our tradition that this ruling was later rescinded. It was a major event to be shared by all and men employed locally were often given the Monday off work to be able to enjoy the festival to the full. Likewise, pupils at Bliss School were allowed the Monday off in order to meet the fair at Upper Heyford and walk down with it into the village.

After Heyford, the fair went on to Daventry to become the centre for the ‘Mop Fair’ – so called because it used to be a time for hiring domestic staff This was at the turn of the century when fairs were still more business and trading occasions than anything else. Workers would advertise their availability for hire by standing with mops in their hands. It was a big occasion there too, and the fair would block the main roads in the middle of Daventry.

Swing-boats and roundabouts
Bob Browning recalled the fair in the village from the early 1900’s. There were swing-boats and roundabouts with wooden horses and most rides charged 1d. All along the road from the Post Office to the schools were stalls: coconut shies, hoopla and darts. Fred Browning remembered the game of Aunt Sally in which you had three balls for one penny and had to throw them through a hole in a door to release ‘Aunt Sally’. There was no prize in succeeding, just the thrill of seeing Aunt Sally appear. Fred even commemorated the fair in verse as part of a poem called “Heyford Green”:

Remember the fairs, wooden horses and wares
would collect to the joy of us all…

By contrast to such ethereal thinking, The Foresters pub was central to the fair’s activities because of its place on the Green and it wasn’t unusual for there to be fights there.

Great anticipation
Many villagers can still recall the fair from the 1930’s and 40’s. There was great anticipation for its arrival. The children would save up money for weeks beforehand and girls sometimes knit purses to hang around their necks with the three or four pence saved for the rides. They gathered rose hips which they could sell through the school for 3d. per lb. for making rose hip syrup. They would also collect acorns from ‘accern orchard’ which they could sell as pig fodder. Some people would collect eating apples which the fair folk would buy for making toffee apples.

On the day of the fair’s arrival there was great excitement. School children – now no longer allowed out to greet it – would often hear the fair setting up on the Green across the road. This caused them enormous frustration because they were all itching to get out and see it. If the fair happened to arrive out of school hours, the children would go to meet it along what is now the A45. They would put their ears to the ground to try to pick up the vibration from the rumble of the steam engines.

The Steam Engine

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This photo, taken in the 1930’s, possibly leaving Finedon, shows George Billing’s Burnell 2625 ‘Lady Pride of England’

Photo lent by Ted Garrett

George Billing
The fair was run at that time by George Billing. He wore a bowler hat and a navy blue suit and his wife collected the money in great heavy bags full of pennies. The fair would set up near the shops and The Foresters and the main attraction was the merry-go-round. It had horses on the outside, cockerels in the middle and smaller horses on the inside. It had its own steam engine to drive it and George Billing stoked up the ﬁre to keep it going. However, sometimes the steam would give out and the children would push the merry—go—round around by hand.

The other main attractions were the big swing boats at 1d. a go. There were many battles to see who could take their boat the highest and the fair people got cross if anyone tried to swing their boat right over! There were stalls for the coconut shies, darts, roll—a—penny and skittles. The skittles were tall and white – four in a line – and the prize for knocking them all down was a packet of nuts or Players cigarettes.

The fair also made its own sticks of rock known as ‘Feast Rock’. It was humbug ﬂavour and striped brown and yellow. The rock stall made it by hand by pulling the sweet mixture out into long strings. By all accounts it was delicious!

Horses and steam
Two traction engines were operated by the fair. The larger one stood up by the Baptist Chapel and generated electricity needed for the lights. As there were still only gas lights in Heyford at the time, the electric light display on the Green was rather a novelty. Hilda Collins remembers how the steam engine would stand on its own beside the chapel, chuffing away: “There were clouds of steam and it would be spitting scalding hot water – quite dangerous really!” She also recalls the organ on the roundabout and how, as children, they would ride round and watch the different instruments ‘play’ in turn in the centre of the ride. The roundabout organ used a pianola device of perforated cards that played the music and – being limited to the number of cards the ride had – the same tunes would start up over and over again.

All the caravans were horse drawn and were set up in a row. At ﬁrst, water for the fair had to come from a private supply but then the fair people used a public tap that was set up on the Green opposite the Denny’s house. The tap was spring—loaded, i.e. it required you to hold the tap open all the time otherwise it shut itself off again. The fair’s horses were left to graze in a nearby ﬁeld or in the hollow at the far end of the Green.

When The Foresters closed at 10:30 pm each night, some men came out rather the worse for wear and would head onto the fair site. On occasion, George Masters and Herbert Clarke – both big men — came out of The Foresters and climbed up on one of the horses waving their hats and shouting “giddy-up.” Albert Garrett recalled how once, so many men came out of the pub and clambered onto the merry-go-round that it wouldn’t start. George Billing is remembered for throwing his hat on the ﬂoor and pleading with some of the men to get off.

When the fair ﬁnally closed around midnight, the last tune played on the steam organ was ‘Christians awake, salute the happy morn’ – Mrs Billing’s favourite tune. When it was all over, the children walked around looking for halfpennies and pennies that had been dropped in the grass. It wasn’t unusual to ﬁnd threepence or sixpence, which was a lot of money in those days.

The Abbotts and Thurstons
After the Second World War, the Abbots brought the fair and they continued coming for another thirty years. The fairground attractions essentially remained the same, but the Abbots introduced the dodgems. The steam engines were eventually replaced by diesel and by the 50’s, the horses were replaced by vehicles.

The fair continued to be very popular and is remembered for being very crowded during this time. Many families had relatives coming to stay with them for the duration of the fair and Heyford Feast. It was also an attraction to other villages in the locality, for although the fair moved on from Heyford to Bugbrooke for a time, the site in Bugbrooke (a ﬁeld on the outskirts) was not considered very suitable. Hilda Collins remembers how, on the Green, you could hardly see the stalls for the crowds of people around them. If the fair is quieter today, it is probably to do with easier access to the larger towns and the development of Northampton’s own autumn funfair.

While the fair was at Heyford, the fair children would attend Bliss School. This included old Mr Abbot’s daughter, Norma. In 1971, she married William Thurston from another fairground family and in the following year, the fair began coming under the Thurston name — as it still does today.

Around that time there was debate about the positioning of the fair on the Green. Its site near the shops was considered disruptive because of the noise and there were also complaints about the state of the football pitch on the Green after it had gone. For a time the Thurstons alternated year by year from one end of the Green to the other. Eventually they settled on its present location opposite the school.

Mary Warr, who wrote about the fairground family in her short history of Heyford published in 1970, had a far rosier view of the impact that the fair made on the village. She said, “For as long as we have been here (1953-70) the fair has been in the family. Older villagers have seen the fair people growing up and there is much friendship. I can only speak of my own experiences. We have nearly always had the fair opposite the school and have always known them to be friendly, considerate and peace—loving visitors. At night when the fair closes down, all is quiet and nothing happens to disturb our rest. I hope this wonderful relationship continues. Our places of worship have been visited by them and they have given generously to us on occasions.”

The fair in 1998

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Photo lent by Stephen Ferneyhough

Nowadays the fair continues to be assembled on the middle section of the Green and it is always tidy and compact. The Thurstons bring only a selection of their total fairground equipment because they do not stay many days and space on the Green is limited. They bring the Waltzer, two or three ‘children’s rides including a helter-skelter, a range of gaming machines in an amusement arcade and a variety of side stalls. The Thurstons are based in Wellingborough with a season that runs from March to November, touring all over the East Midlands and East Anglia. Then during the winter months, they do all their rebuilding and maintenance work. William Thurston’s grandson is the seventh generation in his family to work the fairgrounds.

Sarah Croutear with contributions from Hilda Collins and Ted Garrett

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 4 of 4 | Chapter 4 of 8 | Page 18 to 21

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: Lost Street Names V4C2

Census Returns

There has been a census return once every ten years from 1841 onwards. The only exception was in 1941 because of war time. The details of these census’ are made available to the public when they are 100 years old. Therefore it is currently possible to look up the details for Heyford in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891. They are held in the Public Record Office at Wootton Park.

Details from the Bryants map of 1837

NetherHeyford_BryantsMap_1837

Census returns are wonderful documents because they list the names of every occupant in the village, giving details of their ages, their occupations, where they were born, and their relationship to the head of the household (eg wife, son, servant, etc). The returns for Heyford during the second half of the nineteenth century show an abundance of agricultural labourers, brickworkers and furnace workers. They show a whole variety of crafts and trades people such as lacemakers, laundresses, beer sellers, coal merchants. bakers etc, and also those employed in domestic service at the Manor House and Rectory.

The census returns also state the address of the householder, but most of the returns for Heyford for this period give only very general descriptions such as “Heyford Village” or “The Green”. However the Census return of 1871 gives very detailed street names, many of which no longer exist. The following paragraphs takes us through the returns in the order in which they are listed. This may or may not be the same order as the route followed by the enumerator, but if we assume that it is, we can speculate about where these lost street names may have been located.

Brook Farm

NetherHeyford_BrookFarm

Watery Lane

The first four households listed by the enumerator were in Back Lane. Church Lane was at one time called Back Lane, but could the Back Lane listed here have been what is now Watery Lane? The next entries in the returns are Heyford Cottage, occupied by John Smith and Farm House occupied by George Tarry, farmer of 60 acres. Was this one of the former farm houses in Watery Lane? Perhaps Brook Farm?

Middle Street

The enumerator then seems to move through to what we now know as Middle Street because the next five entries are: the School House in Middle Lane, occupied by Thomas Stanton, schoolmaster, the Olde Sun Inn occupied by George Attwood, tailor and innkeeper; and three other houses in Middle Street. From here, he seems to have walked alongside the Green, where there were then no houses, to the Foresters Arms.

Heyford Cottage prior to 1880

NetherHeyford_HeyfordCottage1880

A view of the school site and farmhouse prior to 1880

NetherHeyford_Farmhouse&SchoolSite1880

Church Street

There are then many entries listed in the area that we now know as Church Street. This was obviously the heart of the village as there are eighty households listed in this area. It can only be speculation, but the journey seems to go right down to the Manor House, then on to the Church and Rectory, and all the way back up to the Green. The entries are as follows: The Foresters Arms, occupied by John Wright; the Primitive Methodist Chapel, the sub Post Office, occupied by William Treadwell, bricklayer, and his wife Millicent; seven houses in Billing’s Yard; seven houses in Front Street; the Manor House; ten more houses in Front Street; eleven houses in Masters Row; one house in Church Street; the Rectory; the Church; 15 more houses in Church Street, including Edward Capel, butcher; 2 houses in Robinsons Yard; one more house in Church Street; one more in Front Street; six in School House Lane; and finally seventeen in Grocers Row.

An old stone house on the site of what is now 5 Manor Walk

NetherHeyford_ManorWalk

The Green

The journey then seems to take us around round the Green. The entries are as follows: twenty-eight households listed as The Green; then Farmhouse, occupied by Thomas Starmer, farmer of 213 acres; thirteen houses in The Barracks; and four at Crabtree Corner. Where exactly were these places?

Weedon Road

Next he goes out along the Weedon Road towards Stowe Hill: two houses in Stowe Hill Lane; one called Primrose Cottage; one called Field House; two at a place called Pincham; then High House, occupied by William Thompson, boatbuilder; two at Flore Lane, both coal merchants; six at Stowe Hill; the Globe Inn, since renamed the Narrowboat; four at Stowe Hill Yard; the Anchor Inn, possibly the building across the A5 from the Narrowboat; and two more houses in Weedon Road. The enumerator seems to have walked along the A5, taking in one house at Tanborough and two at Aldermans Hill before turning back into the village down Furnace Lane.

Furnace Lane

Finally we come back into the village down Furnace Lane. There are four houses in Furnace Road, one at Heyford Wharf, one referred to as the Bricklayers Arms, occupied by John Dunkley, beer seller; and five in Wrights Yard, including George Payne, furnace keeper. Here, the enumerators journey ends.

Stephen Ferneyhough

Two views of the shop and post office as they appeared before the war

This photo lent by Judy Armitage, shows the newsagents and the group of cottages behind since demolished.

NetherHeyford_Shop_OldPostOffice_PreWar

This view shows the old Post Office, demolished in 1950s, Photo also lent by Judy Armitage

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 4 of 4 | Chapter 2 of 8 | Pages 7 to 11

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: When We Were Young (Village Lads) V4C8

Many people in the village today remember their childhood days of the 1950’s ‘60’s. The words below record some of the memories of Ken Garrett.

The School
When we were young, Heyford School had a uniform. The blazers had a school badge on the top pocket. It was a blazing torch motif as seen on the road signs for schools.

Sports days were held, as they are now, on the village green, but we also sent representatives to a county sports day which was held at the sports ﬁeld of Daventry Grammar School. Swimming lessons were also on the agenda and this meant an afternoon out on a Yorks coach to the Midsummer Meadow swimming baths, which sadly disappeared a long time ago, although the water was never that warm. A lot of people owe their swimming prowess to those days.

The headmaster at that time was Mr Woods who was quite strict, and if he found any of his class out on the streets after a certain time he would send them home saying that they needed to be at their best to do justice to their lessons the next day.

Gardening was also part of the school day and the school gardens were found in different places, ﬁrstly on the Bugbrooke Road, then in the jitty near to the new school house, and then in the garden behind the school itself.

The Fair
When we were young the fair always set up at the Furnace Lane end of the village green for Heyford Feast. The green was, to say the least, uneven at that time. It was levelled at the time the motorway was built. The dodgems were the main attraction, together with the octopus ride which was added later. The dodgem track had to be set up using large heavy wooden boxes in order that the track was level, and a series of steps up to the track side were to be found at one side. Because of this levelling process there was a big gap under one side of the track which gave us a great hiding place for our games of hide and seek or to read our comics, or dare I say it, to smoke our Woodbine cigarette which could be won on the penny slot machines.

The stallholders would often give out vouchers for free rides on the dodgems in exchange for us fetching water for them. This we did in churns similar to milk churns which were heavy, especially when filled with water obtained from the tap at the bottom of Furnace Lane. The stand where it situated is still there. And it tested our ingenuity to the limit – our home-built ‘go-carts’ were the normal solution. The landlord of the Foresters Arms, Tommy Rolfe, was also known to hand out vouchers although what the reason was, I cannot remember.

When the fair had been dismantled and moved on we would always search the ground where the various stalls had been in case there was the odd stray penny.

Fox and hounds, swimming, and scrumping
When we were young we played ‘fox and hounds’ in the evenings. This usually entailed two or three ‘foxes’ setting off to be chased after a suitable wait by the rest of the group. The boundaries for this pastime were normally the brickyard in Furnace Lane, the river on the other side of the village, ‘Lover Lane’ bridge on the Bugbrooke Road, and the canal bridge on the Weedon Road. Games like this would last for most of the evening and it was not unheard of to run across the river with water up to the knees in order to avoid capture.

We also swam in the river on warm summer days, either by the old Coach Bridge below the manor, or in what we knew as ‘the baths’ situated between the road bridge and Heygates. We did swim in the canal as well. Was it really cleaner that it is now? And this we did at White Bridge, or at Sandbanks which were to be found along the Weedon Road stretch between Swingbridge House and the road bridge.

After swimming and in season we were known to go scrumping in Bens Orchard, and if we weren’t caught we would climb the hay bales in the dutch barn that stood in the orchard and eat our ﬁll. If discovered it was every man for himself!

OH HAPPY DAYS!

Ken Garrett

The village lads

NetherHeyford_VillageLads_1950s

This photograph, taken in the early 1950’s, shows some of the village lads, including Tony Nickolls, Colin Haynes, Barry Nickolls and Brian Clements.

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 4 of 4 | Chapter 8 of 8 | Page 31 & 32

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: Life at Heyford Mill V3C8

I was one of a family of three who moved into the mill house in November 1954. My mother had been a housekeeper at East Haddon where she lived in a tied cottage with my sister and myself. Due to ill health she had to give up her job, and of course the cottage. We met some friends of ours, Betty and Bert, who lived in the mill house. They put us up, but when we had been there some weeks they moved with Bert’s job on the railway, so we took over the tenancy of the mill house.

Primitive

It was very primitive to say the least, but at last we were in rented accommodation again. For the £1 per week rent we had a unique dwelling. Having no electricity, mains water, or gas, we used oil lamps and candles for light, and a large black range to cook on, for which we had to collect wood from around the fields. The coalmen Guy and Bob West couldn’t deliver coal to the door because the track was so pot-holed. They thought it would break the axle of their truck, so they left the coal at the second field gate.

In the kitchen we had an earthenware sink. Above it was a pump which you had to ‘prime’ to get the water up from the spring below. To prime it you had to turn the metal pipe (which swivelled) upside down, pour a pint of water down, and then pull a handle, much like a beer pump, and so get your water. The wash-house was a shed opposite the kitchen across the yard. It had a large metal copper which was mounted on bricks, with a space to light a fire beneath it, and so heat the water.

But the greatest delight was the loo! It was in a shed at the far end of the house. It had a wooden seat with a bucket below, which when full had to be emptied and the contents buried in the garden! Home produced manure! When you went after dark you had to go armed with various items — a candle in a jam jar to light your way, and a thick stick and a bucket to bang on to frighten the rats out of the building before you went in! But for all that it was a most happy place to live.

Flooding

We had to go across the fields to get the shopping from Mrs Courts shop, and we bought paraffin, candles and stamps from Mrs Blaney’s store. That was when the weather was fine. When it rained the house did get ﬂooded in the hallway and the main room, but the kitchen was above water level so that wasn’t too bad. When the weather was bad we had to paddle through the mud to the large dutch barn, then past two fields to the top gate (change from wellies to shoes). Then we walked along the main road to Upper Heyford and down the lane to Nether Heyford (Lower Heyford in those days). Sometimes the lane was ﬂooded near Crow Lane so we had to paddle through freezing water.

I married from the mill in 1955 and had my eldest daughter in April 1956. The ambulance taking me to the Barratt got bogged down in mud, but managed to get me to town in time for the birth. Then in September 1956 we were given a council house in Hillside Crescent with all mod cons.

It was a hard life at the mill, but at the same time an experience that my sister and I are pleased to have shared. We were the last people to live there and it is so sad to see the dreadful state it is in now.

Wendy Blackmore

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 3 of 4 | Chapter 8 of 17 | Page 17

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: Heyford Mill V3C7

The Domesday Survey of 1086 includes a record of ‘Haiford with one mill rendering 16s.’ There has presumably always been a mill on this site since those days. The mill buildings are marked (though un-named) on Eyre’s/]effrey’s map of 1771. Bryant’s map of 1827 marks them simply as ‘mill’, but the one inch OS map of 1835 shows it speciﬁcally as ‘Heyford Mill’. There were a number of mills along this stretch of the river Nene – at Dodford, Flore, Heyford, Bugbrooke, Harpole, Kislingbury, and Upton. Sadly though, like most of the others, Heyford Mill has fallen into disuse.

The current buildings, though now derelict, consist of a millhouse, a cottage, and several barns and outbuildings. The building at right angles to the mill stream appears to be the oldest one on site and it is thought to have had an undershot waterwheel. The building on the south side of the stream is considered the most recent, and had an overshot waterwheel. There is a plague built into the front wall of the mill which states: ‘].D. — erected 1821, restored 1881’. The lower part of the buildings are of stone and probably form the original part built in 1821. The upper part which is of brick was probably added
during the 1881 restoration.

The mill in the early 1900s

NetheryHeyford_Mill_1900

This photograph, lent by David Banner, shows the mill buildings as they appeared in the early 1900s. The building on the left is the new mill with an overshot wheel. In the apex above the window is the plaque referred to in the paragraph above. The building on the other side of the bridge is the old mill with an undershot wheel. The slightly taller building in the centre is the mill house, and to its right is the stable block.

The Cosford family

From the late 1700s until the early 1900s the mill was run by the Cosford family. The militia lists of 1777 and 1798 for Upper Heyford both refer to ‘Thomas Cosford, miller, with one water mill capable of grinding 20 quarters per week’. The census returns for 1841 and 1851 show the occupants of the mill as being George Cosford, born around 1804. Also living there were his wife Sarah, their twelve children, and three servants. George Cosford died in 1867. The census return of 1871 shows the occupier as George’s son Edwin George. He was born in 1845. The Kelly’s directories of 1885 and 1914 both list ‘Edwin George Cosford of Upper Heyford’ as ‘miller using water power only’. Edwin’s son, Arthur Thomas, ran the mill with him.

The Banner family

During the ﬁrst world war, John Banner came to work for Edwin and Arthur Cosford as their miller. He later took over the rent of the mill and continued to run it with his son John. The Banner family continued to run the mill until it eventually closed in the 1960s. Around 1915 John Banner bought a bakehouse in Weedon where his other son James did the baking. They ground the grain at the mill and mixed it with other grades of ﬂour to make bread. James’ wife became known as ‘the bakers lady’ because she took the bread by cart to the villages.

After a lifetime of working in a dusty environment, John Banner developed ‘millers asthma’ and he eventually died in 1933 at the age of 63. His wife continued to live at the cottage until she died in 1943. She was the last member of the family to occupy the cottage.

Around this time, James and John bought the mill (it was originally only rented) and continued trading under the name of Banner Brothers. In addition to growing and grinding their own grain, they provided a milling service to other local farmers. Some of the farmers who came were Charlie North from Upper Heyford, and Billy Whitton, Reg Collins, and Oliver Adams from Lower Heyford. The route from Lower Heyford was along Church Street, through the Manor yard, across North field, and over Coach Bridge. This route from Lower Heyford to the mill is clearly marked on the 1834 ordnance survey map as a track, but on the modern map is shown only as a footpath.

Coach Bridge

Coach bridge was an ancient stone bridge, just wide enough to take a horse and cart across the river. However it had fallen into poor repair and was eventually dismantled in the early 1960s. Now it has been replaced by a simple concrete foot bridge behind Manor Park.

Bob Browning (1892-1997) recalled Coach Bridge with the following words which he wrote for the Prattler several years ago: ‘Take a walk down Church Street, straight on past the Manor House, across the ﬁrst meadow (I think it is called Manor Park now), and you will find a most unusually built bridge. The two sides are stone built, perpendicular, and it has a ﬂat top and very stout girders of oak with oak railings. This bridge must be centuries old and possibly was built during the Danish occupation as ‘Hei’ and ‘Forde’ are Danish words. ls this the place from which the village was first called Heiforde?’

Working life at the mill

From 1954 until 1960, the mill continued to be run by James’ sons Jim and Anslem. Jim, who provided much of the information for this article, described to me how the mill worked. The wheat or barley would arrive by horse and cart. It was carried to the top of the mill by a series of chains driven by the mill wheel, and tipped into the garners. It then ran via a spout down to the stones for grinding, and out into the tubs for the farmers to take away.

The wheel was almost certainly the one that had been there since the restoration of 1881. The cogs were made of applewood, and when they wore out, they were replaced by new ones made by a wheelwright called Les Phillips in Flore. The stones, which were of Derbyshire granite, each weighed more than a ton, and would last around twenty to thirty years. The bottom stone remained stationary, and the top one rotated. Both had grooves carved into them to allow the grain to ﬂow. Jim and Anslem both learned the trade of ‘dressing the stones’, that is carving or ‘pecking’ the grooves in such a way as
to ensure that the grain ﬂowed evenly.

The mill as it appeared in 1976

The photograph above is from a painting owned by Jim Banner. It was painted in 1976 by Harry Frost and shows the appearance of the buildings before they became derelict.

The closure

When the mill was working, the building shook with vibration. This eventually caused it to become potentially dangerous and too expensive to repair. This, together with the development of modern electrically-driven mills such as Heygates at Bugbrooke, made it necessary in 1960 for Jim and Anslem ﬁnally to close the mill. It was the last of the mills along this stretch of the Nene to close, and therefore marked the end of an era.

They applied for planning permission to convert the buildings into living accommodation, but it was refused because the area is in a ﬂood plain. When the river rises it occasionally breaks its banks, and it is not uncommon for the ground ﬂoor to become flooded with several inches of water. This really made it impractical to do anything with the buildings. Until the 1970s they were in reasonably good repair, but the damage created by vandals, together with the effects of the wind and rain, have caused them gradually to become derelict.

Stephen Ferneyhough

The Mill in 2020

TheStoryofHeyford-HeyfordMill2020_2

Photo by Tactico Photography:
www.tactico-photography.co.uk
www.houzz.co.uk

Jez Wilson

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 3 of 4 | Chapter 7 of 17 | Pages 14 to 16

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: Three Wise Men V3C16

Pictured here around 1950 are Wakeﬁeld Whitton, William Denny , and Bernard Kingston. Mr Whitton owned Brook Farm before it was demolished and replaced by the modern houses in Watery Lane and Brookside. Wakeﬁeld Way was named after him.

William Denny was of the family of builders. He built the council houses in Furnace Lane. Bernard Kingston as one of the bell ringers. All three were school governors, and they are seen here on the village green judging at one of the school events .

NetherHeyford_ThreeWiseMen_1950

Photo lent by Dorothy (nee Denny) and Bill Kingston

Extract from “The Story of Heyford” – Local book series published in the late 1990’s

Volume 3 of 4 | Chapter 16 of 17 | Page 30

Heyford’s Historical Heritage | How the books were created

Index | Covers

The Story of Heyford: The Canal Burst of 1939 V3C15

In October 1939, prolonged and heavy rainfall brought the canal level up dangerously high. A break of sixteen feet wide occurred on the Weedon bank, releasing 300 million gallons of water into an already swollen River Nene. The entire Nene valley became ﬂooded and water levels rose into the villages. There has been periodic flooding in the village from time to time, eased to some extent by the culvert inserted in the mid 1980’s. But the recent flooding during the Easter of 1998 showed us again the damage that can he done. On each occasion it was Church Street that bore the brunt of the disaster as is illustrated in these photographs, all taken in 1939.

Watery Lane

NetherHeyford_WateryLane_1939