Church End

Church End.

Windmill House. There was a deep well here used by villagers up to the 1930s. The water was brought up with the help of an iron fantail windmill. The house was owned by the Perrys in the 1940s. The meadow opposite the bus shelter was known as Perry's Backside. In the 1930s the village greens were unkempt and still owned by the Cavendish Land Co. A V Perry was instrumental in having the greens given to the village but conveyance had to include the Lordship of the Manor so this was conveyed to a Trust. Since then the Lordship of the Manor and the Village Greens have been vested in the Trustees - 3 local people who are appointed not elected. At present there are two - Mrs Jean Chalk and Captain Jeremy James.

Rose and Crown (now number 8). One of the oldest houses in the village used to be a pub which closed in the 1920s.

1990. Mr and Mrs Hornsey, Tony and Mary Glaze with Rachel, Sarah and Oliver, the fourth generation to live at number 8.

1956 - Mary Lorenzi, Tony Glaze and Great Gran. Mary Lorenzi, a dancer, married Peter Glaze, of television Crackerjack fame, in 1939 and had Tony and his sister Paddy. She then married Mario Lorenzi in 1946. The house was Mario's wedding present to her. Great Gran (Mrs Mabel C.C. Smith) moved in in 1962 and died in 1977 age 105.

Mario Lorenzi was a famous jazz harpist in the 1930s.

Concerts were organised by Mrs Lorenzi in the Village Hall. Henry Wyatt, the Hammonds from Wood Farm, Keith Driver, Ed Bygraves and George Hills all took part.

1930s: Old Thatches (now Little Thatches) showing road repairs after laying of water mains for the first time. Before this water was brought from the wells and springs in the village. Little Thatches was owned by the Spender Sisters who also owned Dearman's. After Walter Dearman's death, they lived in Dearman's in the summer and Little Thatches in the winter. One of the sisters was editor of Country Life in the 1940s and also a suffragette. They were related to the poet Stephen Spender.

Church Cottages (now Rose and Spring Cottages).

Maria Lawman at Old Thatches. Maria's daughter-in-law Ellen ran the Rose and Crown pub. Later Lawmans (including her granddaughter Elsie) lived at No 2 Treacle Lane as do Maria's great great great grandchildren, Jenny Weeden's children, Christopher and Victoria.

Molly Weeden from Sandon, Maria's great granddaughter, Bob her great great grandson and Victoria and Christopher.

Blarney Hollow. There was a thatched barn/stable from which the horse watched the children going to school. Blarney Hollow was named by Mr Chalmers whose wife was Irish and who was head of an Orange Grove in Barcelona. A parrot used to sit on a perch by the gate.

Maypole dancing, children of Rushden 1984.

Church End Cottage. Pre 1920s the Chapman family lived here with fourteen children. Two of the children used to sleep at the shop (now Barberry Cottage). Mrs Metcalfe of Julians added an extension to the cottage as the family increased. The late Tommy Chapman, formerly a village trustee, was one of the youngest.

Tommy Chapman from Hillside on Church Green, 1987. His granddaughter, Sue Bradbury, and great grandchildren still live in the village.

The Home Guard Second World War. Harry Phillips (centre) with Nichols (an architect from Bachelors), Ron and Phil Warner, Tommy Chapman and Bald (from Wallington).

1980 Rushden W.I. winning first prize for their stall at Kings Waldenbury with Jean Chalk and Marigold Yates (former Vicar's wife).

Herts & Beds Express 24/7/69
Thatched cottages and a paradise of roses:
Elected Lords-of-the-Manor helped them win hamlet prize.

1969. Rushden wins the Best Kept Hamlet competition with the late Geoffrey Chalk who did so much for both the church and the village. He planted the Lime Trees alongside the car park which were given for this award.

Mrs A Philips, secretary of the Village Committee. Mrs Philips lived at Reflections, Southern Green which was then 2 bungalows.

Summer 1988. Rushden wins Best Kept Hamlet Award again. David Hodge and Jean Chalk with dignitaries.

Orchard House 1974. Built in 1954. Gardens landscaped by the Gavin Jones Nursery, Letchworth.

Treacle Lane/Alley

The lane at the top of Holly Lane (corruption of Hollow Lane) used to be called Church Farm Lane. It possibly became known as Treacle Lane either because it was so muddy or because of the sweet shop at No 1 (Treacle Cottage) which was run by the Lawmans and closed in the late 1920s. Later known as Hill View. The council houses were built in 1922. Mr Rainbow farmed at the top of the lane after World War Two and the bungalow Rainbow End was built in 1955.

Risden Cottage, Treacle Lane, 1930s.

Treacle Lane Nos 4 and 5. Ernie Wyatt late 1930s.

Jim Wyatt outside No. 5. The water pump was used until the water pipes were laid and then a standpipe was put in its place. The pump handle had to be turned 105 times to get the bucket of water up. There were two buckets inside and the spout for the water at the front.

No. 4 Treacle Lane 1952. Ernie Wyatt. Harriet's Cottage (now Honey Pot) owned by Miss Shepherd. She did not want water laid on and so the standpipe was put in for her water.

Ernie used to brighten everybody's day. He'd lean his bicycle against the wall, make a small ceremony of untying his bundle of letters, selecting pairs and depositing them in the porch. If you weren't about he'd pat any cat that happened to be around and then depart. If you were visible, however distantly, his "Go' mornin'" would roll like benevolent thunder around the yard; and however anxious or bitter your thoughts, a shaft of sunlight would strike across them.

Ernie's life story never emerged as a whole. He'd always be ready for two minutes gossip - rarely more - in the course of which he'd remembered how he ran away to the circus, and cherished the steam engines of the travelling fairs, and he'd recollect the little market towns throughout Britain where the roundabouts had had their one night stands. But for as long as the now-floating population of the village can remember he's lived in the council houses, with his wife and seven children, who've all now grown into respectable maturity.

The post round took him half a morning, with frequent shortcuts over little used field paths. The only times he was ever upset was when local farmers thoughtlessly rutted them with tractor wheels so that he had to carry his bicycle; and the only time he was furious was when the hunt churned up the public footpath that saved him a three-mile detour.

For the rest of the day he was an agricultural contractor in constant demand. His tackle was no great shakes when he bought it from the Cambridge collective machinery sales; but he nursed it into effectiveness and kept it running sweetly with the little red oil can from which, like his steel-rimmed glasses and his cap, he can have been parted only with difficulty even when he went to bed.

Once a year he'd take his car, which also ran sweetly, despite its age, on a week's holiday which was spent either revisiting the fair stands of his youth or exploring some new wonder that took his fancy, like the Severn Bridge. At the end of it he'd return contentedly to his post round, and his "bit o' baling for Mr Jones over at Bursetts", and making the second-cut hay some old lady had given him from an empty pony paddock, and cutting up on his tractor sawbench the fallen timber that he'd seen and begged during his morning's work for Her Majesty's Postmaster General.

Ernie's retired now, and taking it easier. When he finally goes under the sod his epitaph could be that Her Majesty's PMG never had a more faithful servant, nor the village a better friend. His swan song was at the village supper where he was given a barometer. Ernie lumbered to his feet, rheumatically, smiled his slow chuckling smile, and said "Thank 'ee. 'Er reminds me o' when old Mrs Nash were ill. The doctor had forgot his thermometer, so he took 'er barometer off the wall and popped it down the bed beside her." The smile broadened and the chuckle deepened. "Do you know, when he pulled that old barometer out o' the bed again, guess what it read - 'wet an' windy'!"