Personalities, Part IV , Blisworth, Northamptonshire, UK.

All pictures are presented at relatively low resolution.   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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24-54   Alfred and Mrs Pike, Postmasters

 

24-55   Ena Davies showing a prize cow at Blakesley Farm Show, date       .

 

24-56   John Faulkner, date       .
24-57   John Collins b.1830 d.1912, gamekeeper and father of two generations of Waterways carpenters in Stoke Bruerne.
24-58   Date 1967 when Buttmead was about to be created here.  The two boys at the back are probably the Leroy brothers who lived at Thackstone House in Stoke Road.  The others are a puzzle at present except for the boy on the left - thought to be a young Meath-Baker from the "Old Rectory".
24-59   A group of members of the "Oddfellows", date unknown.
24-60   A mischievous Peter Newcombe!
24-61   Peter Newcombe as a teenager busy painting by the canal side.  He became a very successful professional artist, his career is reviewed here.
24-62   The last of the Plowmans in the village, On the left, date around 1950 and on the right, date around 1967.  This is Sarah who lived in one of the thirds that made up George Freeston house.  She was a tenant and was eventually persuaded to take a council house.  She worked as a maid at Blisworth House for the Clinch's.
24-63   Four seniors of the village in 1976.  Left to Right:  Mr Jeffs, Paddy Freshwater? , Bill Carroll, Jack Curtis. 
24-64   A lady know as "Tripey" Mallard.  She was wife of William Mallard, ironstone labourer, and they lived next to the blacksmith's on The Cross.  She sold tripe from her cottage.
24-65   The Youngs in 1972.
 

 

 

 

24-66  The Monk family.  Bessie, Harry, Martha, Mr Monk (father), Emma.  Front, Katie, Ted, Alfred, Mrs Monk (mother, nee Plowman), Charles and Johnny.

Father worked at Hunsbury Hill furnaces to which he would walk.  He would handle 10 tons of pig iron into wagons at 6d. per hour.  Johnny worked for Wiggins, coal merchants.  He assisted unloading from canal boats 30 tons of coal onto the wharf for 2/6d.

 

 

 

 

 

24-67   Stuart Woolacott - was born at Clyde Cote (now Church House) son of Mr W. F. A. Woolacott who was the batman of Colonel Clinch - see below.  He was a keen photographer, there being a few of his pictures on this website, and was interested in archaeology, helping George Freeston from time to time - see Hill Railway entry for 1956.

 

 

 

 

 

 

24-68   W. F. A. Woolacott - batman to Colonel Clinch in the 3rd Hussars.  The inset shows the silver horse collar badge for the regiment.  When Colonel Clinch retired from the army in 1920 and bought Blisworth House from the Duke of Grafton he persuaded Woolacott to live in Blisworth and continue to be his help.

 

 

 

Pictures by courtesy of Elizabeth Wiig nee Woolacott.

 

 

 

 

 

George Trusler was a limestone railway flag man in c. 1907 when he was a teenager.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Jim Henshaw, born c1845.  Blind but an ace accordian player at the Arm.  If he gathered any cash at the Navigation the Poor Relief Fund (controlled at the vestry meetings) would be stopped.

 

 

 

 

John and Sarah Griffith 1916.  John was a cattle dealer established in Cliff Hill Farm, from 1907 (between children born in Northampton in 1905 and Blisworth in 1909) to around1930 when the farm was taken over by Mr. Bonsor. (NB: Sarah Ann Griffith is recorded as living in one of the four Mount Pleasant houses in 1936, presumed to be widowed)  Their family includes Mary and Earnest represented below and, possibly among others, a Leonard who became a doctor in British Columbia, Canada and retells some cattle herding stories.

 

 

Mary and Earnest Griffith, brother and sister (parents represented above), pictures taken around 1918.  Mary was married to Sid Cherry, Sam (Derek) Cherry's uncle, and was in charge of Cherry Diaries after Cecil (Sid's brother) had died.  We came across one of her milk bottles a short while back under quite unusual circumstances.

Earnest also became a cattle and sheep dealer and set up in a bungalow near the station.  He was organiser of the Blisworth Horse Shows in the 1950s.  He had four sons.  Two went into cattle dealing and two into motorcar retailing.

 

 

 

School athlete Josephine Curtis*, with her trophies, pictured about 1929.  Her children, Shirley and Terry (Chad) Chapman, pictured about 1939.

Terry, with the beret, married and brought up a family in Connegar Leys.  His children are in the next picture below.

* Head-teacher's logbook for June 3, 1929, "The school has won the Fitzroy Challenge Shield with 122 pts.  Josephine Curtis won the cup for Hurdles and also the Long Jump cup.  Frank Allen retained the cup from last year for Junior Boys".  The shield was provided by the Fitzroy's - direct descendents from the Duke of Grafton who sold his estate in 1919, and so liberated the village to free-hold.

The children of Terry Chapman, above.

Dawn Silva, nee Chapman, with her brother Nicky.  This was taken by Walter Alexander in about 1964 - "Look at the birdie", then blink after the flash tray went off.

All of these children, of course, went to the Blisworth School.