Public Services

Wymington was fortunate in having competent clerks and an energetic, forward-looking council to promote its interests. From the earliest meetings Acts were adopted which were of benefit to the village. Street lighting, water supply, a fire brigade and the engagement of a night-soil were among the first matters discussed.

Lighting

A special meeting of parochial electors was called on October 25th 1895.

“Mr. T. Dickerson thereupon moved the following resolution, viz. that the provisions of the Lighting and Watching Act of 1833 be adopted for the Parish of Wymington.”

The act was adopted by fifteen votes, and oil lighting was installed. Twelve lamp standards were erected and the lamps lit for he first time on November 12th 1895. Under the Act the Council also had powers to fix lamp brackets to private houses and did so in several cases. One owner was threatened with prosecution for repeatedly removing the bracket from his cottage.

Tenders were invited for the office of lamplighter and caretaker, and two were received.

Alfred Dickerson @ 4/9d per week.

Walter Wooding @ 4/8d per week.

Resolved that Walter Wooding be appointed to the post with the remuneration stated in his application. It was unanimously resolved that he be instructed to put out the lights at 9.30 each night with the exception of Saturday when they should remain alight until 10 o’clock.

This was amended at the next meeting to 10 o’clock each week night and 9 o’clock on Sundays. The lamps in use from October to April, when the lamplighter was paid an extra 5/6d to take down, clean and store them in a hut in Church Lane. The oil was also stored there; it cost 6d a gallon in 1895. The hut and contents were insured at £50. In October 1897 it was resolved at a Council meeting that:

“…a reward of 5/- be offered to any person giving such information as will lead to the conviction of any person of persons wilfully throwing stones of otherwise committing wilful damage to the lamps.”

By 1900 the lamplighter’s wages had risen to 1/1d each night, with an extra 3½d a night for the two lamps erected on the new estate of Little Wymington.

On March 27th 1906, the Lighting Committee reported:

“The Lamplighting for the season of 1905-6 concluded tonight. There have been 1682 lights at a total cost for lighting and extinguishing of £8.1.11½d.”

At the next meeting in July:

“Mr. Pendred produced a sample lamp of the Petrolite Company, and he explained the working in a satisfactory way.”

The councillors were very enthusiastic about this new lamp whose brilliance “had to be seen to be believed” and several of them were bought. Anglo-American petrol spirit was used in these lamps and cost 1/3d a gallon. Royal Daylight Oil for the old lamps cost 7d a gallon, rising to 8d by the end of 1906.

The Rushden and Higham Ferrers Gas Company had been approached in 1903 for lighting the village, but they refused as they did not think there would be enough private consumers to warrant the expense. A canvas was taken of residents four years later, and twenty-four householders agreed to have gas installed for lighting only, seven for cooking only, and seven for both lighting and cooking. The Parish Council needed twenty three lights for the village, the church would have twelve and the chapel wanted seven. The Gas Company then agreed to supply the village, and by August 1910 the streets were lit by gas, costing 2/10d each cubic foot. At a meeting the previous April, a council member reported that the Parish Council of Riseley, a village near Bedford, was adopting the Lighting and Watching Act, and it was decided to offer the old oil lamps to them. By that time Wymington, although the smaller village, had enjoyed street lighting for nearly fifteen years.

The Gas Company now employed the lamplighter at a wage of 10/- a week. He lit, extinguished and cleaned the lamps and maintained the standards. These was a curious clause in the Gas Company’s contract:

“The lamps to be lighted for nine nights short of each month which time should be regulated by the rising of the moon and that the lamps should not be lit for the said nine nights commencing when the moon was seven days old.”

There were three occasions when the village was without street lighting. It was off throughout both world wars and during the coal strike of 1920. Lighting was restricted during the coal strike of 1926:

“The Gas Company could only supply gas to 5 lamps on week nights and a further one on Sunday nights opposite the church. The reason was the continued coal strike.”

A request for electricity supply was made to the Rushden Electric Light Company in March 1933, but the service was not brought to the village until three years later. Many residents refused to have it installed as they had only recently obtained gas lighting. The street lights were gradually changed from gas to electricity, starting with Rushden Road. In February 1954 the village was lit entirely by electricity, and the Parish council then requested the Gas Company to remove its remaining standards. In 1966 a new 6” gas main had to be laid to Wymington as the new flats had gas central heating and council houses had gas cookers. The village was converted to natural gas during 1969. At peak times in winter, the estimated consumption is about 30,000 cubic feet daily. Now the village is lit all the year round by electricity, but in the summer months, only alternate lamps are alight. The cost is about £300 yearly.

Sewage and Refuse Disposal

After street lighting, the council turned its attention to the question of sewage disposal. There was no system of scavenging in Wymington before 1895, but on August 13th of that year, householders were informed that a sludge cart would be available for their use on payment of a small fee. The District Council had written to the Parish Council stating it was their intention to point a local Parochial Committee under the Public Health Act of 1875 to deal with the matter. An inspector would serve notices to abate, on the worst cases of nuisances.

Mr. W. W. Smith of Rushden later of Poplars Farm, Wymington, secured the scavenging contract, but it was not carried out in a wholly satisfactory manner. The parish clerk wrote to him on April 23rd 1902:

“I am requested to draw your attention to the careless manner in which your man performed his duties….on Thursday last. I understand he was the worse for drink when he started his round, and that as a consequence thereof, two out of three pails belonging to the yards….were not emptied at all and that the one which was emptied was spilled all over the yard. Complaints have also been made as to the noise made by the night cart, the wheels require greasing badly.”

In 1908 householders ceased payment of scavenging charges themselves and the account was sent to the Rural Council for settlement.

6th Nov 1908 Accounts.

W. W. Smith. Night Scavenging up to and including 30th July 1908
26 nights at 5/- £6.10.0d

By 1910 Wymington not only had a sewage collection but a monthly collection of ashes and other household refuse, carried out by Mr. T. Desborough from the New Inn. He was instructed as follows:

“That you remove the night soil every week upon Thursday night commencing at 10 o’clock each night….. That you remove the ashes and all other household refuse once in every month…The cart, lamps, pails and a pair of yokes are at the present time in the yard of Mr. Smith from where you will have the same.”

The yokes still survive. Mr. Desborough was paid £14 a year for night scavenging and 3/- a month for household refuse collection. Eighteen years after Wymington instituted a sewage collection, Podington requested the hire of the Wymington cart at a cost of 1/- a week. A minor sewage disposal had been adopted by Wymington as early as 1904 with more houses being connected gradually. In 1920 the Parish Council enquired of the Rural Council if these old working could cope if more houses were to be built in the village.

“Mr. Pendred (chairman) informed the meeting that when the works were constructed, the Engineer, Mr. York, had informed him that they would be large enough to deal with a population of 5,000.”

A very optimistic estimate indeed, but of course, the enormous increase in the volume of sewage could not have been foreseen. Few houses in the village had a fixed bath, many had no flush toilet, and washing machines using gallons of water at a time were unheard of. The works were enlarged in 1925 but forty years later when the population had risen to about 770, they could not cope. An agreement had been entered into with the Rushden Urban Council in 1962 whereby the Wymington works were by-passed, and the sewage pumped direct to Rushden Sewage Works. The population is now approaching 1000, and there are repeated complaints about sewage finding its way into the brook and out of manholes in rainy weather. The present pumping system seems again completely inadequate.

The Brook

The brook mentioned above has been a source of complaint for over seventy years. Requests to the County Council (The Highway Authority) for its cleaning where it runs through the village have been repeated at intervals up to the last Parish Meeting in March 1970. But it is not in such an objectionable state as when the Parish council clerk wrote to the county council on June 23rd 1899.

“…With regard to the brook. I can only say that it is the main sewer of the village and consequently in a most foul and filthy condition. The smells arising therefrom are of such vile nature they can be noticed at the extreme end of the village…..No alteration can be expected whilst W.C.’s are allowed to be connected with the storm drain emptying into the brook. The predominant feeling in the parish is that if anyone else other than Mr. Peet had attempted to place their W.C.s on the Water Carriage system arrangements, they would have long since been disconnected…..he holds the position of Rural and Parish Councillor and it would seem he is given more latitude than he should otherwise be allowed.”

The brook has now been partly fenced and partly culverted, but in 1947 a small boy nearly lost his life when he slipped into it and was carried through a culverted part. Complete culverting is still refused.

The Fire Brigade

The newly elected Parish council discussed the formation of a brigade at their first meeting.

“Proposed by the chairman, seconded by T. Dickerson, that Mr. Goosey be requested to act as Captain of the Fire Brigade, to be responsible for apparatus and enrol members…

Proposed by T. Dickerson and seconded by T. Latham that Messrs. Merryweather’s tender be accepted for fire hose and apparatus be accepted but that 3 lengths of 100 feet be supplied instead of 2 lengths of 150 feet. Carried unanimously.”

This leather hose was copper studded along its length and fitted with a brass nozzle. It was subject of some controversy as years after delivery, the council was threatened with legal proceedings over non-payment, but the matter must have been resolved somehow, although there is no record of payment. Parts of the hose survived for over seventy years, and only recently the remnants of leather with valuable copper and brass attached were sent to a scrap collection being made by Wymington School to raise funds for heating their newly erected swimming pool.

No fire engine was ever bought for Wymington, but both Rushden and Wellingborough were approached about the use of theirs, although it was later decided that the steam fire engine at Wellingborough was too far away to be of any use. However, in 1898:

“The Clerk drew the attention of the Council to the above legislation of 1898 as being applicable to Parish Councils.”

These acts were the Libraries Offences Act, the Post Office Guarantee Act and the Parish Fire Engines Act.

Fire Engines Act 1898

The Council took this Act into their consideration…..and the clerk was instructed to apply to Rushden Urban Council for terms upon which they would be willing to place their Fire Engine and Brigade at the disposal of this parish.”

Rushden replied on February 1st 1899, that their brigade was voluntary so they were unable to enter into a formal contract, but would be available if not otherwise engaged. A formal agreement was made with Rushden in 1914, and that brigade still attends fires in the parish. The rural council scheme whereby the Bedford Brigade would attend fires in the north of the county was eventually dropped, as it would have entailed a rise in rates, and was not satisfactory owing to the distance involved. The Wymington Brigade, inactive for many years, was finally disbanded in 1944.

Water Supply

Wymington has always had a plentiful water supply, even before the Rushden Water Board built its works in the village. Most people had wells or pumps, fed by the springs which rise in many places in or near the parish. There was also a public pump in the High Street.

The Board of Guardians for the Wellingborough Union, acting as the Sanitary Authority for the parish, entered into an agreement with the Rushden Water Board on February 8th 1894 for a bulk supply to Wymington. The Water Board had bored several wells in the greensand rock seam to the west of the village and built waterworks and engineers’ houses near them. The agreement stated that water collected here should be pumped to a small reservoir on the Rushden Road near the boundary and supplied to the village at 7½d a thousand gallons. When the Parish Council was formed it took over this agreement from the Board of Guardians. Many of the houses were connected to the mains supply, and in addition, eight standpipes with taps were put up at convenient places for other householders. These original taps were replace in 1936 by the R.D.C. with distinctive lion’s head pattern taps which can still be seen in the village; two of them were in regular use until 1964. These taps were Podington’s sole water supply for many years after Wymington had a mains supply.

On July 5th 1922, a special meeting of the Parish council was called. An advertisement had appeared in the previous night’s issue of the Rushden Echo, which rescinded without notice the Water Board’s agreement to supply water at the old rate. A new agreement was proposed raising the charge to 1/1½d a thousand gallons. The councils strongly objected to this and contacted the Rural Council, the County Council, and the Ministry of Health, who all supported the objection.

In 1934 the County Council brought out what they described as a ‘blanket scheme’ for the whole county.

“A special Parish Meeting was held in the schoolroom on Monday the 15th October at 8 o’clock pm. Mr. J. W. Reynolds was in the chair and there was a large attendance of Parishioners. The chairman explained the meeting had been called for the purpose of considering the comprehensive scheme of water supply adopted by the B.R.D.C.”

The initial cost of the scheme would be £153,700 with an estimated £15,932 annually. Wymington’s rates would rise by 6½d in the pound for no extra benefit. Mr. Graham, clerk to the County Council, pointed out that Wymington was fortunate in having had cheap water for so long, but could not expect relief as a separate parish. If Wymington wanted to be progressive, it must pay, and regard itself as one of the other villages. The irony was that Wymington was already far more progressive than neighbouring villages which lacked not only a water supply, but many other amenities which Wymington had enjoyed for so long. A deputation led by Mr. J. W. Reynolds met the County Council and Rural Council officials dealing with the scheme. He was in an admirable position to negotiate as he was chairman of the Parish Council, a Rural Councillor and the area County Councillor, among other things. He requested that public lighting, sewerage and refuse collection charges should be transferred to the general rate from the time of operation of the new water scheme. At the time, these services were paid for by a special rate raised in the parish. The general rate was very low in rural areas owing to the lack of amenities in the North Bedfordshire villages, so the resultant saving by this transfer almost offset the increased water rate in Wymington.

In 1940 the waterworks were closed down and the house was later sold. The village was supplied then from a main laid from Sywell, the Northamptonshire reservoir. Water was pumped to a water tower on the Bedford Road, and then to the Wymington reservoir. The village pump erected in 1895 was removed in 1926 as it was very little used ‘except by itinerant traders, tramps and gipsies.’ The piece of ground in the High Street where the pump had stood was known as the ‘chatter’ or ‘Chater’ and was the supposed site of the Manor Court of Wymington, dated 1666. Written in Latin on vellum, it ordered persons using the well to keep it in good order, but no map or document could be found establishing ownership. The Parish council claimed the land.

The Chatter

A small fair often visited Wymington during the feast week in November. It was always held on the Chatter, and on October 31st 1930, a Mr. Smith, owner of ‘swings, roundabouts and various stalls’ wrote to the Parish Council requesting permission to stand again on his usual pitch, but this was not granted without discussion.

“…During the discussion it was pointed out that a certain amount of trouble was caused to Parishioners last year through this man not making proper arrangements for stabling his horses during the time he was in the village.’

Permission was granted, and the village enjoyed its usual fair. He came each year until 1933, when all his attractions – swings, hoop-la, roundabouts and darts cost 2d a go. He gave good prizes – china, vases, glass bowls, attractively dressed dolls and big Teddy bears were the usual ones. The next and last time the fair visited Wymington was in 1939, it was only small and was held in the stackyard of Brook Farm. There were swingboats, a sweet stall and a crockery stall, called the Pot Cart, from the times when men drove to the Staffordshire potteries to buy cheap wares which they sold as they drove home. This fair aroused little interest in the village, unlike the one held almost a hundred years previously, which was so popular that a newspaper article at the time estimated five extra policemen would be needed to control the crowds. This was the time when the Midland Railway was constructing its main line from Leicester to London, via Bedford. It ran through the south of the parish and the navvies descended on the village on Saturday nights with somewhat disastrous results.

Although the Chatter had been claimed by the Parish Council, it had never been registered as belonging to it. May people regarded it as common land, and they challenged the right of the council to prohibit car parking there. The advice of the National Association of Parish Councils was sought and this body directed the Parish Councils to exercise powers under Section 7 of the Open Spaces Act of 1906 and to assume control of the ground. The Chatter was then declared a limited car park and was registered under the Land Registration Act of 1936 so ownership was established without doubt.

Another registration Act, the Registration of Common Land and Village Greens Act or 1965, stated that land not registered, or rights over it not registered by January 2nd 1970, would automatically cease to be common land. The registration was in two parts, the first ending in June 1968; any land registered after that would cost £5, and after that would cost £5 and after January 1970, it was lost. A small area of land in the north-west of the village, known as ‘the Stonepits’ was regarded by many people as common land. The Award Map of 1811 shows it in private ownership, but villagers had been allowed to fetch stone there for making and mending roads from time immemorial. By 1968 the Stonepits were shown on the deeds of Poplars Farm as belonging to it, but they had long since been disused. There was no access to it apart from over farm land, and the pits themselves had been filled in, levelled and ploughed over. Without consulting the Parish Council, the clerk had registered the old Stonepits as common land and they no longer existed. After protest by Mr. Smith of Poplars Farm, the Council relinquished all claim, but it was too late to withdraw the actual registration. There the matter stands.

Charities

Two charities were lost to the village. The Charity Commissioners’ Report of 1815-35 stated that £5 bequeathed to the poor of Wymington by William Pickering had been long lost, as was another, more ancient one, ‘The Poor Money’. In 1884, a Bedford man, Mr. F.A.Blaydes, tried to trace the Pickering charity, and was able to inspect the Bishop’s Transcript for the period, and found out the following:

“William Pickering, who gave the sum of £5 to the use of the poor of this parish of Wymington to be imployed at the discretion of the minister and churchwardens, was buried upon the 12th day of the month of August Anno Domini 1615.”

He was unable to trace the actual will, the Charity Commissioners had no more information about it.

The Parish Council became interested in the charities and on June 9th 1896:

“It was resolved….that the clerk be instructed to write to the Charity Commissioners and ascertain what charities are in existence for the Parish and of what they consist.”

The Commissioners replied on July 4th 1896, stating two charities remained, Joseph Bentham’s and William Goosey’s. The Rev. Joseph Bentham had been a former curate at Wymington, and by Deed Poll dated June 20th 1665, had left a rent charge of 10/- for bread, or money to the value to be distributed to the poor of Wymington ‘on the Wednesday next previous to the 29th May each year’ at the discretion of the churchwardens and rector. William Goosey of Manor Farm had left £83.10.0d in Consols yielding an income of £2.0.8d to be given to poor people of the parish who were not in receipt of poor relief. Again at the discretion of the church.

As was usual at one time, the church was of paramount importance in the village. By the end of the nineteenth century, there was a strong and growing Non-conformist element in the parish. This was reflected in several spheres, notably the school and the Parish Council. The custody of the Award was a subject of contention between the two factions and so was the distribution of the charities. In May 1907, the Parish council requested that the charities should be placed under the control of a popularly elected body instead of the church, and the Charity Commissioners granted this after enquiring if they had been distributed irrespective of the recipient’s religious beliefs, and being assured that this had been so. Every May, nine men were given a shilling and two were given sixpence from Bentham’s charity, and every Christmas forty men had a shilling and one had eight pence from Goosey’s charity. In 1909 women were included for the first time.

‘The Chairman informed the Meeting that a departure had been made from the usual custom in disbursing the charity and that poor and deserving women had been included during the past year.’

Although the sums of money involved were low, there was occasional criticism of its distribution. At a meeting in 1915:

‘Mr. Stratton expressed the view that owing to the abundance of work in the shoe trade, it would have been better to have given a larger proportion to those engaged in other work, such as farm and general labourers.’

The abundance of work in the shoe trade was, of course, owing to the war. The Council replied the distribution was fairly made. At the Annual Parish Meeting of 1936 it was requested that names of recipients should no longer be called out, and this was agreed. In 1950 the charities amalgamated, with fewer people benefiting from larger amounts, but two years later the agent for the Bentham charity refused to pay this 10/- and a dispute dragged on with him for five years. After the Council had produced proof that the ‘eight-yard land’ (about thirty acres) still existed at Overstone, and that the agent still let the field, the charity Commissioners took legal action. The Attorney General heard the case but decided it was a difficult point of law and advised no further action and the rent must be considered lost. Payments of the other charity are still made at Christmas, when about thirteen people receive about 3/3d.

A charity from which Wymington failed to benefit was one provided by Andrew Carnegie, the steel industrialist who gave away millions of pounds for the institution of public libraries. Rushden had been provided with one from the Carnegie Trust, and the Rushden Argus, one of the two weeklies, also had a lending library. It was open to anyone who cared to join at a cost of 2d a volume for ten days. However, Wymington Parish Council decided to approach Mr. Carnegie, as it was considered rather a hardship for people to have to walk into the town for books or to read the daily newspapers. Mr. Carnegie’s secretary replied that he would consider a reading room to be more suitable, but this view was rejected by the Council, and the clerk wrote on July 4th 1907.

‘I laid your letter of the 24th ult. Before the Parish Council and need hardly say they regret that apparently Mr. Carnegie cannot see his way to keeping them with a Free Library. May I point out that Wymington has an entirely working class population who are not able to keep a reading room going and that the provisions of the Free Library Act would not apply to a mere reading room.’

The Public Libraries Act of 1902 could be adopted in any parish upon a majority vote from the Parish Meeting, a special rate would then have been sanctioned for the expenses of a library. A rate could not be levied for just a reading room. It was not until 1936 that Wymington had a branch of the County Library, and today the County Library van visits the village fortnightly; library expenses are paid from the general rates by the Rural Council.

Post Office

Apart from the library, Wymington people also had to walk into Rushden for Post Office facilities. There was collection and delivery of letters previous to the Post Office Guarantee Act of 1898, but immediately this came into force,

‘ A copy of the Act of Parliament was submitted….it was resolved that application be made to the Post Master General for the provision of a Post and Money Order Office….’

A licence was granted and the first Post Office for the village opened on March 15th 1898, in one of the old houses in the high Street. The office was located at several different houses over the next fifty years, including the old one in Church Lane, described above. By 1924, apart from stamps and postal orders, pensions were payable in the village, but no licences have ever been sold, and the Savings Bank was not operated until 1946. When Mrs. Whittington, the sub-postmistress, gave up there were no applications for the position, owing a Parish Councillor said ‘to the meagre remuneration’. The Post Office was transferred to the Co-operative shop, where facilities are rather cramped. Licences which at one time could be bought by Wymington people at Rushden Post Offices, now, for reasons of administration must be bought at Podington.

The Parish Council asked for a public telephone box in February 1919, when a private house in the village was connected, but it was refused unless a guarantee of £16 a year for seven years was given. Later a successful application was made and a box installed at the corner of Church Lane and Rushden Road. It is a constant target for vandalism and is frequently out of use through the coin box being damaged or removed. At the last Parish Meeting in March 1970, a parishioner requested that the box should be moved to the High Street where it would be more prominent, or that the patrolling ‘Panda Car’ police should visit the village more often.

There is no resident policeman in Wymington. The Parish Council first requested a Constable to be stationed in the village in 1897, but it was not until August 12th 1921 that the first policeman took up residence, in lodgings. The police house was built in 1928 and vacated in 1967, like so many other police houses. Police matters for the north of the county are dealt with from Bedford, but this is not considered by the Parish Council to be a satisfactory method. Previously, the area headquarters and court house were at Sharnbrook, but that too closed three years ago.

Public Transport

A matter in which the Parish council had no success at all, was their application for a railway station. A carrier, Mrs. Rebecca Perkins, operated from Wymington to surrounding districts in 1870, but this was the only form of transport available. The main line passed through the parish, about half-way between Wymington and Podington, and in 1894 the two villages combined in a petition to the Midland Railway Company. Their request was supported by both the County and Rural Councils. A joint deputation attended St. Pancras Station and met Mr. Twiner, the general manager who promised the matter his careful attention. It occupied him for two years as in 1896 he rejected the request saying the heavy capital outlay was not warranted by the villages’ requirements. Then a local farmer promised to give the land for a station if the company would reconsider its decision and another landowner planted a line of sycamore trees through his field to shelter travellers walking to the station (the trees still stand) but these and subsequent requests were refused. This main line, like so many others was planned to connect London with a provincial city, and intermediate traffic was of secondary importance. Edmund Denison, chief promoter of the Great Northern Line summed up the attitude of the railway companies in a speech at Peterborough in 1844.

‘Our main object is to shorten the distance between London and Yorkshire. If a line through Peterborough is best for the general public, Peterborough shall have it, but if not, it shall pass outside the town.’

This apparent indifference to the needs of small towns and villages explains many of the outcries in local papers of the time regarding poor and badly situated stations and inconveniently timed trains. There was probably at least an element of truth in the criticisms. But Wymington needed no branch line, and there was good access to the main line where it crossed the Podington Road, so fresh efforts were made. During the First World War a considerable acreage on the village farms had been turned over to flax growing under the direction of the Admiralty, and a station would have facilitated the despatch of the flax crop instead of it having to be sent by road. At a Parish council Meeting in 1919

‘It was resolved that Mr. Abbott see Col. Orlebar with a view to getting the co-operation of the Admiralty who are dealing with the flax industry in the district with view to getting a station in the village.’

This attempt was as unsuccessful as the last one in March 1924 on behalf of schoolchildren who had gained scholarships to Bedford Schools. The nearest station to Wymington now is at Bedford, since the Rushden branch line was closed to passenger traffic in 1960 and to goods traffic this year. It seems hard to understand why this still busy branch line could not have been retained for good traffic. All the Rushden coal merchants had their yards alongside the railway, now they are being cleared and closed. All fuel deliveries to Rushden and the surrounding villages are made by road from Wellingborough.

The Wellingborough Bus Company ran a service from that town to Rushden, so in 1914 the Parish Council wrote to the directors pointing out that about two hundred Wymington people worked then in Rushden, and a bus service would be well patronised. The manager replied Wymington was not large enough to support a service, but in any case nothing could be done until after the war, but it was not until 1927 that the first workmen’s buses ran between the two places. They not only conveyed workers morning and evening but at dinnertime as well and the bus continued on to Podington, enabling workers from that village to go home for a midday meal, something they had never been previously able to do. The service rapidly extended and by 1938 there were twelve buses each way daily, with extra late ones on Saturdays and Sundays.

As car ownership increased in the 1950s the number of bus passengers declined noticeably and the service was curtailed. Now buses are few apart from the workmen’s and the last one from Rushden on weekdays runs at 5.30pm. There is one late one on Saturday evenings. After much pressing from the Parish Council, the bus company agreed to divert a service through the village to Bedford, as they previously ran direct from Rushden. Schoolchildren are now picked up in the village and taken to Bedford and one afternoon bus diverts through the village on its way back. Otherwise, travellers can walk the mile and half to the village from the main road or carry on to Rushden.

Other Public Affairs

Apart from more mundane parish affairs the Parish Council organised most of the public celebrations in the village, starting with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

‘It was resolved to call a meeting of the parishioners for Saturday next to consider the question and mode of celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. June 8th 1897’

There was a public tea and evening social, paid for by a collection in the village. Five years later:

‘Coronation. It was resolved that notices be issued calling a Parish Meeting on the 28th inst. For the purpose of taking the views or feeling of the parish as to the most suitable way of commemorating the King’s Coronation. April 15th 1902.’

There was again a collection and Lady Wantage, who was at that time responsible for paying the Bentham charity, sent a guinea. A Mr. Paine of Corby who owned land in the parish, gave permission for bushes in his field to be taken from there and carted to a suitable place for a celebration bonfire. There was a tea and games for young people, and an evening dinner and entertainment for older ones. About eighty adults attended each of these meetings called to discuss the celebrations. A rather different spirit from that now in evidence in the village regarding public affairs.

Instead of by public subscription, the Silver Jubilee of King George V and the coronation of George VI were paid for from the rates, but the celebrations followed much the same pattern as the previous events, except that all schoolchildren were given a souvenir mug. At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II the children were presented with silver-plated inscribed spoons. What made this most memorable for many people was that two or three families in the village had television sets, and their houses were crammed to capacity with friends and relatives watching the historic occasion.

The ending of the two world wars was celebrated in very different ways. In the summer of 1919, a public tea was given in the great barn of Manor Farm, (the older schoolgirls helped by making the tea bags) and the school had an extra week’s holiday. The balance of the money collected was used to buy a Bath chair for the use of anyone in need in the parish. It was the latest model, brown wickerwork, large and with an iron steering handle. It came to a glorious end. After becoming redundant, it was stored for years in the old lamp-house in Church Lane, because the Parish council had years previously taken control of it from the Celebration Committee, and then had managed it for the newly formed Hospital Week Committee. Just prior to the new housing development the hut and contents were sold and cleared. The chair was almost shaken to pieces during hilarious and hectic rides by children around the village. Disapproval was expressed by people who had remembered the chair in its more dignified days, but it ended its days as a seat for Guy Fawkes on a bonfire; the wheels and handle went with the old fire hose to the school scrap collection.

The second war ended with only quiet celebration in Wymington. The Council decided not to levy any special rate for a public tea, so a thanksgiving service in church and chapel were the only outward celebration. It was felt by many people that something should be done to commemorate those men of the parish who had lost their lives in the war. A stone memorial inscribed with the names of men killed in the first war had been erected in the churchyard after a faculty had been obtained from the Bishop of St. Albans, in 1933. Many non-conformists in the village had objected to the siting of the memorial, saying it should have been on neutral ground, some suggested the ‘Chatter’ (some still do). Former British Legion members have suggested that the memorial should be moved, but when the Memorial Hall was erected, it contained an inscribed board bearing the names of the dead of both wars.

War-time Measures

Apart from celebrations, the Parish council was responsible for various matters connected with the wars. During the first one, the council bought seed potatoes cheaply from the Bedfordshire War Agricultural Committee, and all available allotment ground was given over to them. A Rat and Sparrow Club was formed after a circular had been received from the Ministry of Agriculture relating to their destruction. Rats and sparrows were shot, nests and eggs were destroyed in spring, and there were prizes for competitions. The club disbanded in June 1919, but when the county ran a campaign against rats the same year, the club re-formed and co-operated prior to the second war, precautionary measures were taken in the village as early as September 1937. White bands were painted round all the lampposts and an Air Raid Warden was appointed. By March 1941 the village had fourteen wardens, thirteen First Aid personnel and twenty four Fire Watchers with two stirrup pumps. “A very satisfactory position.” Wymington was a reception area for evacuees and the Parish Council organised, with the W.V.S., their billets.

“It was also agreed that the clerk should be expected to act as Clerk to the Invasion Committee.”

Two dumps for the collection of non-ferrous metals were arranged in the village, iron railings had gone earlier. The Parish council attempted to get the distribution and renewal of ration books from Rushden, but Bedford remained the centre for Wymington. The hut at the rear of the White Horse was designated as a mortuary. It is a rather shattering reminder of post-war international relationships to read the request made by the Rural Council in January 1951 that a mortuary should again be made available ‘in case of heavy bombardment’. This was the time of the ‘cold war’ which culminated in the building of the Berlin Wall in 1962.