Just Miscellaneous, Part I , Blisworth, Northamptonshire, UK.

All pictures are presented at relatively low resolution.  Any interest in copies of a picture at a higher resolution (ie. clarity) should be directed through contacts given in the Blisworth "Round and About" parish council publication or using the comment form on the home page.  In some cases the pictures are not available due to copyright restrictions.  However, permission has been obtained, where possible, to include them here.  Printed below each image is the photographer's name, if known.

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22-01

Lard tins from the bacon factory being put to good use for a wedding!

22-03  

Part of a Psalm painted in a corner of a main room in Elm Tree House opposite the school.  In the early part of the 20th century it was the house of Frank Young, Oliver Young's brother (not his son Frank).  More recently the house was occupied by the late George Clarke - a "real village character".  The Psalm is number 143, v. 10 - "Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God: let thy good spirit lead me into righteousness".  Though not specially significant for Baptists, the prayer is associated with those in a predicament or under stress.  The style has been dated c. 1650 and the script may well have been put there by a dissident of Baptist faith.

22-05  In the 1950's and 1960's the strong growing land behind the garage on the Northampton Road (now a car sales centre) was let to a Dutch couple who grew flowers.  The caravans in the background are for hire or sale and formed the beginning of the caravan sales business also on the Northampton Road.  The fields were eventually developed into the JBJ Industrial Estate and the meat processing factory, the bacon factory, that once stood in the Stoke Road..

Picture kindly provided by Charles Holding

22-06

These are 1950's milk bottle tops for Cherry Dairies which was located at Elm Tree Corner.  They are cardboard and have a push out central section for a straw.

22-07

In the narrow field which became the Gayton Marina (located in Blisworth Parish!)  The digging is for puddling clay for canal repairs in 1965.  It is tempting to think that this pit and the one which became known as Gayton Tip were clay pits or brickworks at the time of the building of the canal.  However, puzzlingly, neither are recorded on any 19th century map whether by GJC, Ordnance Survey or Grafton Survey.  In 1919 the Grand Union Canal Company bought the land from the Duke of Grafton.  The reason was not specified in a letter of recommendation from Thomas Millner to the head office but, being a stones throw from Millner's own house, the land probably suggested itself fit for some development or other.  It became a narrow boat Marina in the 1970s whilst other parts of the strip were used as a canal-based petrol depot in the 1930's.

22-12  Quite early on, part of the clay-pits were flooded with water from the nearby canal (being the arm to Northampton).  By 1980 the area had been developed into a marina for narrow and pleasure boats.

Footnote:   More examples of canal boat decoration are being collected.

A stone sleeper for the Blisworth Hill railway.  It is still in position but covered now by earth.

22-14   A building contractor's truck at one of the sandpits at Milton Malzor.  Date is probably c. 1920.

Ellis Everard Ltd was absorbed by Travis Perkins but its depot can still be found near Lumbertubs Lane in Northampton.

Is that a mascot hanging in the windscreen?

Picture kindly provided by the Bodsworth family

22-15   A capsized canal boat belonging to the Blisworth and Northampton milling firm, Westley Bros and Clark Ltd.  Date is c. 1910.  The location may well not be Blisworth Parish.  There are at least two photographs of this company's boats capsized and it seems they were keen to load very generously to minimise costs.

Part II