"It's such a friendly village." That's what the people who were born there or have come to live there or retire there, say of Helmdon.

It is a village where much of the older building is of local stone, a fine freestone named after Helmdon. It was once in great demand and went to the making of a number of churches throughout the district.

The village has many new houses and the population has grown considerably in the last year, Hinton's Close and Shortland's Close having been built and the number of houses in Station Road much increased.

Helmdon has a playing field reserved for the youngsters and its two cricket teams and football team play on another ground.

There is a good "Reading Room" with a main hall, committee room, kitchen, etc., which serves admirably as a village hall.

It is used for public meetings, exhibitions are staged there, and local organizations which use it include the Women's Institute, Scouts, Cubs and Brownies.

The Working Men's Association uses it as a headquarters and a clinic is held there once a month.

Redecorated

Voluntary workers have recently redecorated the kitchen and held an auction on October 11th to raise money for tiling the floor and repainting the exterior of the hall. When a similar effort was run two years ago £100 was raised and this year hope runs to a higher figure. Of the work on the kitchen, I was told "a wonderful job, all done by voluntary labour."
Appropriately, the Reading Room is in local stone and it was given by Mr C Fairbrother, whose family owned the now closed quarries, in memory of his parents.
Helmdon has lost its rail services, that was regretted but one which the village was happy to lose was the flooding which once used to pour down the main street. But some years ago, the member for Helmdon, the late Captain GWM Lees, fought a magnificent battle on Brackley Rural Council and the flooding was cured.
Today Helmdon's RDC member is Mr Alan Watson, managing director of Watson's and Sons, a building firm which started by his grandfather Mark Watson, 65 years ago, and carried on by his father Mr Harry Watson, who retired some 18 months ago. Mr Alan Watson has been a member of the parish council for nine years and before that clerk for six.
Helmdon won no cricket trophies this year but had a good season. The soccer club revived for the 1969 season, has made a good start in Division III of the North Bucks League.

Never Busier

The Rector, the Rev Frank Thompson was a chaplain to the Forces, served in the Middle East, Malta and Italy and following "demob" served for a couple of years as curate at Dallington, Northampton, before moving first to Rutland (1948) and Ryhall (1957).
His wife, Mrs Eileen Thompson, says of the rector. "He has never been busier than he is today." The extent of the living is a clue to that. The Rev. Frank Thompson is rector of Helmdon with Stuchbury and Radstone and Greatworth.
At Radstone an interesting "recovery" job is in progress at the ancient church of St Lawrence, one of the oldest in the district. The over-heavy roof of the nave is being removed and will be replaced with lighter material……………………...

A contribution to the community which Mrs Thompson herself plans, a parishioner told me, is presentation of a Nativity play , in the church at Christmas.
Sunday morning communicants average 30 and have run as high as 40; there is a good Mothers' Union; their recent garden fete raised £270; there is a very good choir and a "marvellous" team of bellringers.
That last owes much to Mr "Bill" Chester, described to me as a "wonderful character, very reserved, retired but still works hard, choirman, bellringer and a marvellous workman in the church."

Young Ringers

Mr Chester has done good work in training young bellringers - girls as well as boys - and there the church has a good team of youngsters. Feminine help in Helmdon's "co-ed" training in the belfry has come from Mrs Edith Shellard, another keen church worker.
As an "off-shoot" of church bellringing, a team of handbell ringers tours the neighbourhood at Christmas raising money for good causes.
Helmdon residents who have given the church excellent service in the past include Mr N Watson of Ivy Cottage, who was treasurer of the Parochial Church Council for 15 years and has just retired, and Mrs Holloway of Church Road, who served 15 years.

………………….gallery which was formerly in the west end of the church was removed and as organ chamber and vestry built on the north side of the chancel.
From another source I learned that in 1956 the church was saved from the ravages of the deathwatch beetle when the Rev JJ Rowbury found a piece of worm-eaten wood, lying at the base of a pillar. The damage was found to be "serious but discovered in time."
The Rev and Mrs Frank Thompson have two married daughters and two single and three grandchildren. The married daughters are Mrs Pauline Burman, of Newbury, and Mrs Jane Pickering, of Sheffield.
Miss Helen Thompson who went to the Punjab as theatre sister in a missionary hospital, is now on a six month course at University College Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London. She has done and is still doing a lot of lecturing for the VSO. Miss Sarah Thompson is in London training to become a dental nurse.
Helmdon's interest in matters of education is shown by its support for a branch of the Workers Educational Association. The group, usually between 20 and 25 strong, meets at the Rectory, where shortly members will begin this season's study of Victorian and Edwardian England.

11th Century

In the porch of the Rectory is the famous Helmdon mantel.
It is the mantelpiece which originally belonged to the old Rectory house and is reputed to date from the 11th century.
In the churchyard is a remarkable yew tree, nearly eight yards round the trunk. Some claim it is the oldest yew in England dating from pre-Christian times. That last, of course, means before the country as a whole had become Christian.

Call for footpath

While many villages have been ready to forget allotments once they have been taken for housing, Helmdon men approached the parish council with a request for new allotments. These were secured and only six years later paid for.
Current matters of concern in the village are the call for a footpath by the old railway bridge, for the benefit of the elderly and children, and provision of some sort of bus shelter in the village.
The Womens's Institute have written to Brackley Rural Council on both these issues.

Northampton Chronicle and Echo? Date almost certainly January or February 1969.