SPOTLIGHT
Woadfolk
In the parish registers are various references to woad labourers, woad cabins, woad folks, woad gatherers and wadders. All these relate to those men and women employed in growing and processing of the woad plant for it’s rich blue dye. Entries appear from the late...
Queen Victoria’s Coronation (County Celebrations)
Queen Victoria’s Coronation was held on Thursday 28 June 1838. The following is taken from reports in the Northampton Mercury and show the various celebrations that were held. It would seem that Roast Beef and Plum Pudding featured on almost all of the menus!...
Murder at East Haddon
As you enter East Haddon Cemetery you will find, standing alone in the corner, a solitary headstone with the following inscription: “Erected by friends and sympathizers to the memory of Annie Pritchard aged 31 years whose remains were found in this parish August 6...
John Marlow of Wood Hill, Northampton (Part 2)
THE LIFE OF JOHN MARLOW OF WOOD HILL,NORTHAMPTON – PART TWOWritten in 1899 for the Northampton Daily Chronicle Old Poppet, the scavenger, a diminutive man with very bow legs but he was very strong in the arms. He used to water the streets with a large can and then...
John Marlow of Wood Hill, Northampton (Part 1)
THE LIFE OF JOHN MARLOW OF WOOD HILL,NORTHAMPTON – PART ONEWritten in 1899 for the Northampton Daily Chronicle John Marlow writes: ‘When I was a boy there stood on Wood Hill the old town Weighing Machine, which was in a dry, covered shed and always under lock and key....
It was cheaper to send them to Canada than to pay them poor relief
Although there was some voluntary emigration to Canada in the 1830s and 1840s, many of those who went were forced to or assisted by the Parish or local property owners who paid the costs involved. This article focuses on South Northamptonshire but could just as easily...
Spotlight on Wills & Inventories
A will is a document that details how a person’s real estate is to be disposed of after his death, whereas the testament part concerns personal property. An executor(s) was appointed by the deceased and pre-1858 they had to apply to the Ecclesiastical courts for...
Mr Bryan’s Drinking Fountain
In the 1880s Kettering’s population was growing fast, from 11,093 in 1881 to 22,000 in 1891 due to the shoe trade taking off. and a large number of terraced houses were being erected in the north of the town for the workers. In 1887 Mr John Bryan, a local factory...
Northampton – Home Of The First Water Driven Cotton Mill
Not everyone knows that the first true cotton-mill was actually in Northampton. Mechanised cotton spinning began in 1738 when a Frenchman called Lewis Paul, working in Birmingham with the assistance of another engineer called John Wyatt invented and patented a machine...
The Early Years of Northampton Hospital
As 2020 is the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and with our thoughts and support very much with the fantastic work of the NHS at this moment in time, it seemed appropriate to make our first post a look back at the early years of Northampton Infirmary. ...