Developments in the High Street after 1798

 

The Great Fire of Blisworth in 1798 destroyed at least two buildings divided into dwellings and various barns in the High Street between what is now number 23 and a farmhouse building which later became the Post Office (in its second village location c1900) on the corner with the Stoke Road. Although that corner farmhouse was rebuilt and the building across the road (Crieff House) was repaired minus one wing, the other damaged buildings were neglected for many years.  There are maps of the south side of the High Street in the article on the Great Fire.  In the Grafton survey of 1839, part of the area was still described as being in ruins. In 1845 an application was made to the Council for Education to erect a Church of England school extension on a site behind a barn next to number 23. Provision was to be made to share the cesspool facilities with number 23!  The Church of England school, in the Stoke Road, that was tardily rebuilt in 1815, after the 1798 fire, was presumably becoming crowded and the extension would have probably been for the infants. The land belonged to the 5th Duke of Grafton.  He was in his first year as Duke and presumably the villagers had no previous experience of his views.  Unfortunately the Duke was fanatical about church-going and aspects of religious education and wrote his objections to the proposed management of the school in that one person, the Rev. William Barry, should share responsibility for the education of the children with all ratepayers in the village. The Duke's objection was unacceptable to the council who therefore refused the financial grant to build the school extension. So the Duke withdrew his offer of land.

Because of the railway, the 1850’s saw much expansion in the village. The Stoke Road school was eventually enlarged in 1861, probably with a second storey to present the familiar elevation, which came nearer to the road with a large gable window.  The building would be recognisable as our Village Hall.  The village also saw much building by the Grafton Estate in the 1860’s in the form of "Grafton-style" cottages for villagers.  A cluster of three cottages were built in the High Street, numbers 27, 29 and 31, at the Church Lane turn and two of these have been recently refurbished.  The style was very popular with the Duchess and can be found in many villages within the old estate.  Eventually, on the site next to number 23, a new house was built which incorporated, at its western end, the village Post Office, in its first location. By the way, the house was subsequently divided into two parts and later recombined.  When all the house numbers were allocated in 1952 it was assigned number 21 but the house now stands, again divided, as numbers 21 and 21a.  Further up the High St was to be the site of a new brick built shop with outbuildings.  In this instance the Duke sold the land in 1866 to the Northampton Progressionist Society (a forerunner of the Northampton “Co-op”).  The shop was set well back and given brick wings extending to the road edge to provide 'off-road parking' for delivery horse and carts. This is evident in archive postcards we have. The Progressionists offered a grocery and general store but unfortunately the business enterprise fractured and folded in 1871 due to arguments over suspected corruption and the shop was then sold to Walter Young, son of a farmer from Roade. The Young family continued with the general store business until 1983 when the Hensons took over and built an extension to the shop to house the present Post Office.

As village population continued to rise, by 1874 the school eventually obtained another extension. It was built on the opposite side of the Stoke Road in the form of a single-storey building that is now number 6. The extension was definitely for infants that time and was put through without difficulty - by then, they were dealing with the 6th Duke! As education moved to pastures new in 1913, the Stoke Road school was closed and the infant school was used as a working man’s institute - known as "The Stute” between the wars.  By 1946 it had been used by army cadets and was in a sad state.  It was subsequently sold by the parish council, having been a gift from the church at some time, to a member of the Freeston family.  The money raised eventually found its way into the project to convert the Stoke Road school into a new village hall.

There was still a gap between Young’s shop and the shop, now a private dwelling, on the Stoke Road corner. Some of this space was used to accommodate a mail sorting office that was located in Blisworth because of mail deliveries at the railway embankment. The remainder was part of Walter Chester’s wheelwright yard later to accommodate Edwin Freeston’s motor garage business. That gap still seems to remain and presents a somewhat "unfinished" and disowned look from the street.