Special Occasions Part II , Blisworth, Northamptonshire, UK.

All pictures are presented at relatively low resolution.   Printed below each image is the photographer's name, if known.

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23-16  This group of pictures cover the Wild and Woolly races in Fisher Close, Blisworth.  The course of the race crosses through Fisher Brook five times and over the culverted stream once.  Various dates represented here.  By 2000 the field was not available and the race was then held in fields near to Blisworth Arm.  Having no stream tended to discourage Blisworthians who had become used to expecting a muddy romp for over 50 years.

Events were promoted by the Northampton Motor Cycle Club, the earliest being in 1925.  The original course was three miles and two laps for a race was enough!  The character of the event was recognisable; cows were up to their stomachs in mud, cycles ceased as damp mud coated the magnetos, one cycle caught fire!  Bill Freeston finished fourth and earned a bronze medal.

The event was not set on boxing day until 1929 and has been held then every year except the war years.

The 1988 programme, or rather part of it, can be downloaded here as a PDF file (0.7 MB)

 

23-17  The rider in the picture above is thought to be Pip Robinson.  This rider is Peter Griffith and the year would be 1965 give or take one..

 
23-18  No. 2 following through is Mick  Berril senior.  The names in these first three pictures were provided by Peter Griffith.
23-19  John Burbidge.
23-21

It is better to leap right over such melee - as in the next picture.
23-22


A scene from the 2010 Wild and Woolly held in a field near Blisworth Arm.  It may be
the last in Blisworth Parish as the field is not available for any event 2011 onwards.
23-23

A Peasants Ball at the Hotel, 1948.  The names of the ladies and the sheep are lost!
23-24  This picture and the next show guides, scouts, brownies and cubs en-route to and from attending the Harvest Festival in the Baptist Chapel on the last Sunday of September.  Date c. 1980.
23-25
23-26  And here they are for the Harvest Festival service at the church on the first Sunday of October emerging from the top of Church Lane.
In most parades there would be a representation from the Women's Institute.  The actually celebration is obscure but no doubt justifies Mrs. Ratledge's Victorian dress and pantaloons.  The lady with the banner, shown below, was Mrs. C. Newcombe.

THE BLISWORTH BANNER

This is the Women's Institute Banner that was made in the 1930s - it honours the basic historic feature which first enhanced the village.

A better shot was taken in the Stoke Bruerne Museum shop. No one knows how this treasure from Blisworth got into the hands of the Museum . . .
23-26a   A float for the 1955 May Festival procession waiting under the Elm Tree.  There are the following names in rows.  The front row consists of four girls, two with headbands.  The other has five children with the second from the left, or from the rear, being a boy.
23-28  May Festival float.
23-29

The May Festival often included floats aimed to make a collection for specific causes - here for the Northampton General Hospital.
23-31  And here for the Primary School.  The village May festival gave way in 2001 to a School Fete organised by F.O.B.S.
23-35   Part of a procession at 1973 May Festival with a flowers theme.
23-36   The flowers theme was freely interpreted - this group were called "Bill, Ben and the Little Weed".
23-34   In 1995 there was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of VE Day at the Football Club.  There were representatives of the Armed Forces and a feast was laid on for the generation in the village that, in one way or another, participated in those years.  There are no prizes for guessing who lent the Union Jack!

 

 

Part III