Memories are made of this

Gerry West

I was born in Aldershot Army Barracks and came to Finedon when peace was declared. We were going through the Suez Canal from India on a ship called Cape Town Castle when Churchill declared that war was over. My brother and sister were old enough to work but there was no work there. For three months we lived in Barnabas Street with my dad’s sister and we came here in 1949.Mum and dad brought number 10 Regent Street and then later no 8. Dad was a Captain in the Punjab Regiment. Once we were settled in he went back to India and then Australia.

Mum worked at Nutt's factory in the finishing room. My brother worked for Fred Hawke's refrigeration people in Rushden and whilst there worked alongside Geoff Addington from Hayden Avenue.

At school I had long plaits and because I came from India the kids thought I was Indian and they tied my plaits to the flagpole. They also tied my plaits to Dr Spencer’s front door. I recall that when I was a child I used to think that Church Street was lovely. When I finished at the Junior School I went to the top school. I remember Mr Sutton and him taking snuff. Then there was Mr Jefferies who we called Pop Jefferies. He was a really musical man who lived in part of the vicarage. He would select pupils to sing at the Pork Pie Church in Wellingborough. I left school at fifteen and then went to work at Timpson’s shoe shop in Wellingborough. I later took a part time job at the Lyric cinema in Wellingborough as an usherette.

I had four children who are all grown up and now have eight grand children. I was in the church choir with Shirley Boswell the Principal boy in pantomime and sang there for about five years.

I then went to Finedon Independent Wesleyan Chapel and joined their bible class when Zena Drage was there; another fine lady gone.

I can remember when I was new in Finedon getting off the bus at Nutts factory and walking down Laws Lane and asking where Regent Street was. Eileen Williams told me where it was.
On the corner, near where the Health Centre is in Regent Street, there was a shop owned by Mr Streather. He sold second-hand books, then it changed to Mrs Stone and it was a second hand shop which sold everything. Then there was a shop, which sold men’s clothes etc, and Edith Partridge did the alterations.

I remember going to Watt’s cinema and seeing Flash Gordon. Glad Blunt sold tickets and she kicked me out when a tub of my ice cream landed on her head. Down the picture palace yard there used to be a little firm called McFarland & Carmen-as kids we used to hide in the big wicker baskets another trick we did at the pictures was to sit right at the back leaving the exit door open at half time to let in the kids who couldn’t afford to pay.
Next to there was Harry Shelton the butcher and then further down on the left was Mr Streather where you could take a jug to get beer. There used to be red cobbles on the floor it was a clean place and it always smelt nice. Where Dennis Burnett the antique man lives in Regent Street used to be a big thatched cottage and it was then a farm where Bob Donald’s lived we used to go scrumping there.

I recall Dr Bell, Dr Padget, and Dr James in Wellingborough Road. I worked for the Post Office on and off for fifty years. My references when I was eighteen were Tom Neil and John Stow.
I used to deliver up Thrapston Road as well as Furnace Lane. I am sad to have seen big changes over the years with good solid houses being pulled down like Parker’s Terrace where Freddy Marlow the postman used to live. After Mollies closed down we lost so much.

Now Dr Spencer’s house

This was built in 1712 by Sir Gilbert Dolben and was thatched. Its purpose was to provide a basic education and boarding to girls from poor families; they were taught spinning, sewing, knitting and lacemaking. Over the years it has been a girl’s school as well as an infant’s school the infants closing in 1931 and the girls school in 1962 when girls and boys moved to the Mulso School on Wellingborough Road.

June Wesley
I have lived in Finedon for sixty two years and was born in Well Street. There were three girls and three boys in my family.
I left school when I was fifteen and went to work at Gammidges as a shoe machinist.
I am concerned now about the problem with drugs and also break-ins and also bothered about vandalism; I think that this could be due to boredom.
I am pleased to say that I still feel safe in Finedon and also feel free to do as I please at night.
I think that there are not enough shoe shops or clothes shops and too many antique shops and really not enough to do at night.
It would also be a good idea if we had something like Neighbour- hood -Watch round here

Finedon Dolben Mid 50s L-R Eddie kilner Jack Stevenson Bert Childs Reg Fairey Wink Sharman Margaret Remmington Geof Cunnington Joe Bonham Reg Craw Mrs Fairey Peter Jackson Joan Haines ? Arthur Remmington landlord .