Extract from diary notes of Ebenezer Knight:
“New Room” - Corner stone laid by the Bishop of Peterborough 1870 October 11th. This would be Bishop Magee who made a speech at the ‘New Room’, (which became the ‘National School’) at the re-opening of the Parish Church after the Great Restoration on Tuesday, February 2nd, 1875. A beautiful day, when the Bishop said that Rushden was the blackest spot in the Diocese before Canon Barker came.