January 1911

The Park Road Baptist Church on one evening was filled to capacity, chairs having to be placed in the aisles.

Rushden Council held a special committee meeting to discuss securing new industries for the town.

The offices of the Rushden Argus and the Evening Telegraph moved to 93 High Street, Rushden, one of the shops erected on the site of the “The Cottage”.

Satisfactory progress was being made to provide a bandstand in the Council Field, Rushden.

February 1911

Rushden Allotment and Small Holders Society had now grown to some 600 members with over 200 acres of land under cultivation.

Much interest was aroused in Rushden by the arrival of a steam fire engine for the Fire Brigade.  The engine was a second-hand one purchased from Northampton.  This would replace the old manual one.

Rushden Athletic Club, which was built 13 years ago, opened a new extension.

A jumble sale was held with a view to reducing the debt on the BWTA Hall.

Benjamin Scroxton, shoe hand of Rushden, was charged with stealing 4 lb of brass rivets and 2 lb of tacks, to the value of 3s.6d and a further charge of stealing 2 lb of brass rivets and 2 lb of tacks, valued at 2 shillings, was fined 15 shillings in each case.

Agreement was reached between the Higham Ferrers and Rushden Water Board and the Parishes of Wollaston and Irchester, by which the latter became customers.

It was recommended to the County committee to purchase a piece of land in Newton Road, as it would soon be necessary to make extensions to the carpentry at Newton Road School.

March 1911

Three hundred years ago Mr Robert Pemberton, who at the time resided at Rushden Hall, was elected Lord Mayor of London.  His father is represented by a monument at the east end of Rushden Parish Church having died two years previously.

At a court held at Rushden Police Station before Mr J.Claridge, John Burgess, a tramp who was charged with begging in the town on the previous day, was sent to prison for seven days.

The annual meeting of the local division of the St.John Ambulance Brigade was held for the first time in their new headquarters.

At a meeting of the Council attention was called to the serious annoyance and danger caused by the incessant playing of the game of Tip Cat in the street.  It was resolved to make recommendations to the Police with a view to prosecutions against the offenders.

At what period did Rushden commence to be a boot and shoe manufacturing centre?   Mr J.E.Smith discovered that a shoemaker named John Margyt dwelt in Russeheden in the year 1575, this was in the 17th year of Queen Elizabeth and was 336 years ago.

April 1911

William Smart, butcher, of Rushden, was summoned for using a spring balance for trade at Colmworth, that was not stamped.  The balances were forfeited.

Thomas Pendred of Rushden, was fined 6 shillings and 4 shillings costs at Wellingborough Police Court for being drunk and disorderly.

Plans submitted by Mr A.Franklin were before Rushden Council for an Electric Theatre to be built opposite the Victoria Hotel.  The plans were passed.

May 1911

A town meeting was held at Rushden to consider suggestions for the Coronation of King George V festivities.  It was suggested that the festivities should take place in the South End Park.  Mr John Claridge CC was elected chairman of the committee.

Three Rushden boys were summoned for playing Tip‑Cat in the public street, to the annoyance of passengers, at Rushden.  The defendants pleaded guilty and were fined two shillings and six pence each.

It was reported that rowdy gangs of youths and girls were standing in bunches on the pavement in Rushden causing members of the public to walk in the road if they were to proceed unmolested.

The Rushden, Higham Ferrers, Raunds and Irthlingborough Branch of the Boot and Shoe Operatives’ Union discussed Lloyd George’s Bill for insurance against invalidity and unemployment.  It was considered to be a very bold scheme and would be very complicated and difficult to properly administer.

Harry Bollard, a boy of 12, saved a girl Edna George aged 3, daughter of Mr and Mrs George, 35 Roberts Street, from a pond in Mr White’s field off the Newton Road, Rushden, when she slipped in.  He fetched a clothes line prop and pulled her out.

June 1911

Celebrations for Coronation Day began with a peal of bells at 6.00am.  Mr George Skinner, 94, had lived under six monarchs and could recollect when Rushden’s population was only about 1,000.

Members of Rushden Town Cricket Club were practising at the Town Ground when Eric Tompkins, who was batting, hit the ball into a large ash tree near the pavilion, where it lodged in the tree about 30 or 40 feet from the ground.  A boy named Charles Clark climbed up the tree and out on to the branch where the ball was lodged, but before he could get within reach of it, the bough began to crack ominously, and Clark came down, resulting in his death.

Two tramps, a man and a woman, were singing lustily in Rushden streets “Nearer my God to Thee” and were rewarded by a grateful public with a harvest of coppers.  In the evening both man and woman fell down dead drunk in Station Road.

July 1911

The working hours in the Rushden district for boot operatives were reduced 54 to 52½ hours per week.

Never before had so many people been about at 4.00am to catch a glimpse of the great air race from Brooklands to Edinburgh.

August 1911

The Rushden branch of the Boot and Shoe Union presented W.M.Copson with a silver medal and a silver watch for his bravery in saving a shopmate’s life from the river.  At the presentation it was said that a swimming bath would be a great acquisition for the town.

September 1911

48 school boys went on strike at Alfred Street School demanding ‘no cane’ and another half day’s holiday a week.  All were back at school the next day though some had difficulty sitting comfortably.

Mr Thurston’s Feast returned but no longer sited in Franklin’s Field.  It had moved to Marriott’s Field.

October 1911

At a Rushden Council meeting the provision of providing a swimming baths for Rushden was again discussed.  It was suggested that the rates should not rise above 5 shillings.  It was also suggested that if baths could not be provided, perhaps better facilities could be made available down at the river.

November 1911

Letter to the editor of the Rushden Echo:- Dear Sir, I should like to say a few words re public baths, I quite agree with your “voter’s” letter in last weeks’ issue.  I myself cannot see why we want public baths in Rushden.  I have not got a bath in my home, but I can always have a refreshing bath in the wash tin as “voter” explains, and I quite think if the working class want a bath, this is the way they will have to have it, therefore I can’t see how baths would pay in Rushden.  If there were baths in Rushden there might be a craze for a month or two, then they would be left on the rate payer.  I remain yours truly, Common Sense.

A Suffragettes’ meeting held in the Public Hall at Rushden supported a motion calling for votes for women householders in 1912.

Frederick Caswell of Rushden was summonsed for riding a bicycle on the footway and was fined 10 shillings and costs.

At a Rushden Council meeting it was recommended that a bicycle should be provided for the Council foreman, and to authorize the surveyor to purchase one from the Lightstrung Cycle Company for £6.10s., subject to it being guaranteed for 12 months.

Rushden Council set up a special committee to look into the question of providing a recreation ground for Rushden.  Mr Spencer proposed that a recreation ground be provided, either by hiring land, or by the actual purchase of a piece of ground.

The Rushden Echo pressed for a new Cottage Hospital for Rushden.

December 1911

Rushden Council submitted the improvement scheme at the junction of Newton Road and High Street to the County Council for their approval.  The scheme was to take down the building in Newton Road known as Clerk’s House, to remove the bank in front of the Vestry Hall and widen the whole of Newton Road leading into the High Street, to line in with the Council Buildings and the Free Library.  The improvement would then be continued from the Vestry Hall to the Wheatsheaf Hotel.