Rushden Tour-Church End

Rushden Tour Church End (Click on image for larger picture)

Southern Green	Treacle Lane	Mill End

We start our tour of the village at Little Thatches. One of the first houses you come to when entering Rushden. It is situated on the left hand side of the road opposite Treacle Lane.

	Little Thatches
Little Thatches is typical of many of the houses in Rushden being a weather boarded, timber framed house dating from the early 17th century. The shutters were to keep the cattle from putting their horns through the windows when being driven to market. Originally it and the surrounding houses were all part of the same complex. The late gravedigger, Tommy Chapman remembered when there was a barn at the back of the house where a large drum probably dating from the Crimea or earlier was kept. The boys of the village would beat this around the village on New Year's Day and collect money from the villagers. He also remembered selling the two old ladies who lived here sparrows at 6d a time to make sparrow pie!

The romantically named Windmill Cottage is in fact named after a 1930's type metal generator windmill, though there must have been a flour mill at some time in the village to give Mill End its name.

	The Old Post Office
The Old Post Office (to be renamed the Old Consignia!!) is a late Victorian building. It ceased to function as a business in the 1970's. The shop was entered by a door in the middle at the front with a brass bell above it and a step down. It sold a little bit of everything! Richard Jones, who now lives in New Zealand, tells us "The Old Post Office was called "Berea Cottage" when I lived there with my mother and sister and with my Uncle Albert Stubbs who was Postman in the village before Ernie Wyatt started in 1950ish. He was married to Ethel from the Row Green "Williamson's".

	8, Church End
The house after the Old Post Office on the village tour is 8, Church End and was formerly the Rose and Crown Public House. It dates from the sixteenth century and is believed to be the house where Adolphus Meetkerke, Dutch Ambassador to Elizabeth I, lived when he first came to Rushden, before he built Julians. Part of the house dates from the eighteenth century, as a date etched on a brick in the inglenook testifies. It is under this part that the cellar is situated, so we can assume that it was from this time that it served the village as a pub until the early Twentieth Century. (Tommy Chapman remembered getting beer there for his father.)



	The Village Green
The Village Green is under the stewardship of the Trustees of the Green. It is here that Rushden holds its annual fete. In Summer, Village Hall events, such as yoga and the WI, spill over onto its grass. A bench at its top gives views along Bennet's Lane and next to the bench we have managed to keep our original, red, phone box. The flag pole is occasionally replaced by a maypole. The flagpole is used to fly the flag of St George on 23rd April and the Union Jack at appropriate times of the year. At its base, in November, individual poppies and crosses are placed by villagers in memory of family members.

St Mary's Church with view from the door in the 1940's
Rushden Church continues to serve as a centre of the village community. Although not very large, it is very welcoming. Inside the Church can be seen a statue of the Virgin Mary sculpted by Percy Portsmouth, who also sculpted his wife's tombstone which can be seen in the graveyard. In the field behind the church, can be seen the house platform to the original mediaeval manor house.






Church End Cottage, Phil Warner's old house with photo of Phil Warner in 1944 (with thanks to Clive Semple)


	Rushden Walks
Rushden is surrounded by farmland, mainly arable. There are several enjoyable walks through fields and woodlands. Deer are frequently seen, woodpeckers can be heard tapping at hollow trees and owls nest near Friar's Wood.


Youngloves Cottage

Garden in Rushden

Southern Green	Treacle Lane	Mill End