Notes for Within Living Memory

Notes For Within Living Memory

Ann Smith

Recollections from Villagers, including Mrs Holloway, Noreen White and Alan Watson

The earliest memories of Helmdon came from Mrs Holloway, aged 91 years. She remembers her husband’s grandfather telling her about the Dame school, which existed in the village before the present school was built in 1872. The Dame school stood in the place now occupied by the war memorial. It cost a penny a week to go to the school and as Mrs Humphrey had six daughters she could only afford to send the girls; her son had to stay at home and help do the work. He never went to school and couldn’t read or write. When the Dame school was knocked down the site was used to break up stones to go on the road.

The School

Miss Barnes seems to be the head teacher remembered by most people. She was head from 1918 to 1947. People remembered how red her face and neck went when she used the cane. They remember George Turnham pulling his hand away so her cane knocked over the ink well. Subsequent generations of children remembered the big ink stain on teacher’s desk. Miss Barnes told Mrs Holloway that during the War she wanted a vegetable garden at school to teach the children gardening. When she requested a plot of land for this purpose from school governor Sidney Bartlett he said that gardening was nothing to do with school – “let their dads larn ‘em”.

The Reading Room

Helmdon doesn’t possess a village hall, only a Reading Room. This was given to the village by the Fairbrothers in 1887. It was for the men to use and this rule has never officially been altered. The better-off people donated newspapers and weeklies and it was open every day of the year, except for Christmas Day, Good Friday and unofficially, the Thursday of Banbury Fair. At first the “gentry” used to sit at one end and the working men at the other. This room was left under the jurisdiction of the rector and churchwardens and was not endowed. Monday evening is still the Working Men’s Club night, when they hold their billiards matches.

During the War the evacuees came and brought their own teacher. The children boarded with village families and the teacher lived at Falcutt.

Every year the children had a party given by Mrs Lees of Falcutt House. There was a Christmas tree and every child had a present and an orange.

When the hunt met in the village the children had time off from school to go and watch. Canon Bartlett, with his dog Bingo, used to pay the occasional visit to check the register and Mr Viccars was the school attendance officer who kept an eye on the truants.

Helmdon is famous for its buses.

Sammy Walters started the coach business. First he had a fish cart and later a fruit and vegetable cart drawn by a horse with one eye. He used to scrub the cart out and put in wooden seats to take people out for the day. He later progressed to a motor bus. It was a 30 seater but during the war so many people used to cram on it to go to Northampton or the cinema at Towcester that Fred Holloway, the conductor, used to stand on the steps and hold the rails by the door to stop people falling off. Fred used to take people’s shopping lists to Northampton and do their shopping for them.

The Poutryman.

Mary Turnham’s grandfather had the first commercial van in Helmdon from Henry Oliver’s, Mercers Row, Northampton. He used this van for his egg, butter and poultry business. Norman Osborne, who worked at Oliver’s, stayed at Helmdon to teach Hedley Owen to drive the van. She remembers Christmases between 1920 and 1939. This was a busy time for her grandparents, Arthur and Edith Humphrey. Poultry was bought from surrounding farms and kept in barns. Her grandfather also bought prize-wining birds from the local shows. During the Christmas period of about three weeks they employed many local people to help with plucking and drawing the birds and Will Duncombe did the killing. The feathers were put in sacks to be sent to Wisbech on the train. Mary and her grandfather were usually weighing and labelling the birds before taking them down into the cool cellar or the front room which was cold. Many of the birds went to the shoe factories and clubs in Northampton as well as to shops and hotels. Mary usually delivered local birds on her bicycle. When the work was finished they all had port and mince pies in the kitchen and the hand bell ringers would come and play.

Self-Help.

Many older Helmdon people remember the Benefit Society. It was registered on 5th July 1884 and dissolved at the outbreak of the First World War. The object of the society was “to raise funds by entrance fees, subscriptions, fines and donations and interest on capital, for the relief of members, and for the funeral expenses of the wife of a member.” Once a year, a club dinner or Feast Day was held “but no portion of the expenses was to come out of the Society’s funds”.

Mrs Holloway remembers that the Whit Friday Feast Day was the highlight of the year. The men paraded through the village, each carrying a stave about eight feet long. The band was playing ahead of them, but it never played while they were walking over the bridge. They all went to church but the children had to stay outside as the church was always full of men.

The Nibble and Clink

Helmdon was a village with two railway stations. The bottom LMS station opened in 1871 and closed in 1951. This was known as the “Nibble and Clink” line. The top Great Central and later LNER station opened in 1899 and closed in 1963. The viaduct on this line, which is now a great local landmark, was built before the embankment was built. Alan Watson’s grandfather told him that all the village boys used to laugh because they didn’t think a train could possibly get up to it. They didn’t realise that the soil from the cuttings would be used to make an embankment so that the track would run across the valley.

Canon Bartlett was a well-remembered rector from 1919 to 1936. He started the choral society, which at first was only for male voices but later became a mixed choir. This choir won many county competitions.

The WI

In February 1821 Canon Bartlett and his sisters called a meeting to discuss forming a WI. When Mrs Holloway was asked to join she wasn’t interested but was told in no uncertain terms that it was her duty to become a member. The first meeting was held in March 1921 and the subscription was 2 shillings.

April was the highlight meeting. A neighbouring WI was invited and Miss Barnes would close school early and take the children to entertain members. On one occasion the county president came and on several occasions, Mrs Barker, the county secretary, travelled by train from Moulton to Northampton to Helmdon. She was met by Mrs Lees’ chauffeur, had lunch at Falcutt, and after the meeting, returned by train in the evening.

During the war, meetings were held in the afternoon because of lighting up. A work party was held once a week, mainly doing knitting. A canning day was held at Falcutt because the laundry had running water. Members supplied fruit and the Ministry supplied sugar. Members were allowed to buy two cans each. Once the labels got mixed up and Mrs Duncombe got a wrongly labelled can. Jam making sessions were held at Stone House. Helmdon was allocated 1cwt of sugar. The jam was made for the Ministry of Food.

A Local Story

Mrs White produced a newspaper cutting from the early 1920s. Her father – Lewis Ayres – and George Turnham were charged with poaching rabbits on the Helmdon to Syresham road. They were each fined £2, which was a very large sum of money in those days. Lewis told his daughter that times were very hard and they had to catch rabbits to eat and also to sell to get a bit of extra money. He had a duck which he used to put in a drain under the road. The duck quacked and frightened the rabbits out of the other end of the drain where they were trapped.

The War

Alan Watson remembers the morning during the war when he was just going to school. There was a terrible noise as a Flying Fortress plane came down at Astwell. Bombs were also dropped by the viaduct. There was a searchlight along Wappenham Road and also one at Falcutt.

Nurse Walters was a village character remembered by many people. She started as district nurse in 1922 and retired in the 1950s. She was married to Sammy Walters. She used to go round the villages in her pony and trap. When the evacuees came in the war, Nurse Walters knew what accommodation was available in every house. She wouldn’t accept the excuse that you didn’t have any room. During the war she was ill and a relief nurse came. As all the signposts had been taken down in case the Germans invaded, Mrs Holloway had to go with the new nurse to show her the way round the villages.

Helmdon seems to have been a happy village. People remembered the wartime dances and socials held in the Bell hut. They remembered the time when the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) rode in the Grafton Point to Point, which was held between Helmdon and Weston. Unfortunately the Prince fell off jumping the brook.

The Stone Quarry and the Church

The stone quarry was working in the early years of the century. One could hear the blasting all over the village. Helmdon stone was very famous in the past and as well as being used locally, was used in such well known buildings as Stowe and Easton Neston. There is a medieval stained glass panel in Helmdon church depicting the stone mason William Campiun. It is of exceptional interest, as it is one of the very few English medieval windows to depict an artisan with the tools of his trade. The only other examples are in York Minster and St George’s Chapel, Windsor. The inscription shows that Campiun worked on the fabric of Helmdon church. The name Campin remained in Helmdon through the centuries until Harry Campin died just over 20 years ago. He used to kill the pigs and was also a great shot. He decoyed pigeons over a live decoy and the live pigeon would duck when the gun fired.

Mrs Holloway’s grandfather, who died in 1930, aged 83, said that when he was a boy he could remember the church had a gallery. Before the organ was installed a minstrel played the bass viola to accompany the hymns. In later years the present organ was pumped by Mr Sheppard, who was blind. He used to walk across the field footpath from the chapel to the church. Mrs Gascoigne, the blacksmith’s wife, played the organ.

Helmdon was a self-sufficient village in the first half of the (twentieth) century. All the villagers had their vegetable gardens or allotments,. They all had a pig in a sty up the garden which Harry Campin used to kill each year. There was a baker in Church Street and one of the earliest remembered was Mr Adams, who moved from Helmdon to Northampton in the 1920s and started the famous Adams Bakery. On Sundays the villagers used to take their Yorkshire puddings and joints to be cooked in the bread ovens. There was a butchers shop, village shop, polish maker, carrier, blacksmith, wheelwright, tailor, bus, post office, farmers, 4 pubs and also the mill at Astwell.

Helmdon appears to have been a happy, well-organised village and was the envy of the neighbouring villages because it had the two railway stations.

Ann Smith (Notes taken for Northamptonshire Within Living Memory, 1992 see article 34)