January 1945

The leader of the first Northants party of Air Raid Wardens to help London during the flying bomb blitz, Mr Francis George (Frank) Deane of Rushden, was listed as a recipient of the British Empire Medal.  He was Rushden’s popular Chief Warden.

Rushden’s month of all‑night street lighting began for the benefit of workers who had to turn out early each morning.  The light of more than two hundred lamps, some gas and some electric, greeted the early birds in the morning.  Alternate lamps were used in this scheme and the others went out at 11 o’clock each night.

Funds were available in Rushden for the provision of local or “home” hospital premises.  The hospital was to be limited, at least at the onset, to nursing duties, and the dependence on Northampton Hospital would continue undiminished.

150 children sat down to tea in the Queen Street Schools on the occasion of the annual Independent Wesleyan Sunday School Party.  Tea was arranged by Miss F.L.Clipson.  Ice cream was served.

Trapped in the back bedroom of a burning cottage, an American soldier died from asphyxiation at Rushden, while his civilian friends escaped by jumping from the front bedroom window.  The tragedy took place at 10 Orchard Place.  The 24 year old victim was Pte Donald M.Green.

A Rushden Boot firm, Green & Co, of 13 Newton Road, was fined £200 for acquiring leather without licence (£100 on each of two charges).

Dr G.B.Lord of Rushden House Sanatorium announced that Northamptonshire’s venture into mass radiography for the early detection of tuberculosis would begin at Rushden in April.

Sheila Hoxall, 16 Kings Road, Rushden, collected ten shillings in “ship” halfpennies and handed it to the “Parcels Fund”.

February 1945

Scholars at Rushden Newton Road School had an afternoon off because water caused by the sudden thaw was seeping through the roof and splashing into the hall and classrooms.

Taking the view that it was the time to get ready for the end of the war, Rushden Temperance Band elected General and Programme Committees at its Annual Meeting.  For the last few years, the Band had managed without committees.  Twelve members were serving in the Forces and none had lost his life.

In order to build teams comparable with those of the past, it was reported that when the War was over the Rushden Town Football Club would have to start from scratch.  Rushden Town did not have a pre-war nucleus to resurrect.

Rushden was susceptible to the amours of St.Valentine as never before.  The trade was an early one, but mainly confined to Americans, girls and young women.  “This year’s Valentines”, said a leading Rushden stationer, “were in the style of the pre‑war sixpenny birthday cards, but with a lot of soppy words.  In the old days we had them in boxes.  Now they are single and cost about 1s.6d.

March 1945

Higham Ferrers and Rushden Firm, John White Ltd set an Empire record by making over 8,000,000 pairs of service footwear during the war.  John White left Messrs Horrell in 1918 and began to make boots in a little workshop at the back of his house in Crabb Street.

The first meeting of Rushden & District Pig Club was held.  There were about twenty people present.

A lovely dressed doll with a package of other beautiful doll’s attire has been received by a twelve year old girl who was paralysed down the right side as a result of the bombing of Alfred Street School in 1940.  The doll came from America and was forwarded through the Ministry of Pensions.

A final layout plan for proposed temporary houses off Park Road and Pyghtles Terrace, Rushden, was exhibited for approval.  The plan showed one line of houses at an angle of approximately thirty degrees to the boundary in a ‘saw‑edge’ fashion.

The British Restaurant at Rushden was reclassified as an industrial canteen as 80% of its customers were industrial workers, and the meat ration for each person per meal was increased a pennyworth to three-halfpence worth

April 1945

Mr John White asked the people of Rushden to look on their part in the project for a Rushden Home Hospital as a personal sacrifice to show their appreciation of what was being done by the men who were winning the battles for them.

The public were reminded that in the event of cessation of hostilities on the Continent, the Ministers’ Fellowship had arranged that Thanksgiving Services will be held in all churches at 7.30pm on that day.  There would also be a United Service in the Ritz Cinema at 7.30pm on the Sunday following.

Demands for severe action against people who had torn down fencing and made a track into Hall Grounds were raised at a meeting of Rushden Urban Council.  The Park staff had reported the incident but did not know who the culprits were.

Mr B.H.Toms, a director of Messrs John White Ltd, was the first to be X-rayed, in the Lime Street canteen, at the start of the Mass-Radiography Campaign in Northamptonshire.

The Park Road Methodist Church held a supper party for the 40th Anniversary of the present Chapel.  Mr John Dickens, one of the original members, cut the large pink and white iced cake, on which “40th Anniversary” was inscribed.

On the eve of victory in Europe, several Rushden and Higham Ferrers war prisoners, most of them well and in high spirits, returned from Germany with remarkable stories to tell.

May 1945

Following the German surrender, a victory atmosphere developed rapidly at Rushden.  The High Street was bright with flags, streamers and window decorations.

At a meeting of Rushden UC, members who wanted new industries in the town said that boot factories would hold their own if they were made more attractive.

A letter was received from ‘Two Evacuees’ thanking the kindly folk of Rushden.  “You accepted us.  How beautifully you dispensed your hospitality.”

A letter from Alice U.Muxlow thanked all members of the Rest Centre staff, Housewives’ Service and Emergency Feeding teams who had trained and ‘stood by’ faithfully for five years and whose service was now happily concluded.

June 1945

The CWS factory presented an amazing picture of production being carried on by the middle-aged and elderly.  85% of the male employees were over 40 and scarcely a handful was under 18.  Men over 65 remained at their machines and benches because they knew they were helping their country as never before.  Their heavy brown tropical (jungle) boots were still much in evidence.

Distribution of ration books for Rushden and Newton Bromswold began at the Ministry of Food Office in Church Street, Rushden.

The new pharmacy shop of the Rushden Co‑op Society was opened at 74 High Street.

Massed in front of bandstand in Hall Park, Civil Defenders received well‑deserved thanks for their work under bombing and through the weary nights of waiting.

At a meeting at the Masonic Hall, a resolution received a practically unanimous vote – “That the town of Rushden raise, as a war memorial, the sum of £20,000 to be equally divided between the Northampton General Hospital Extension Fund and a fund for the provision of a Rushden Home Hospital”.  The most likely building in the town for conversion into a hospital was Mr G.H.Claridge’s house in Hayway.  It had large rooms and windows of the right type and was well situated.  The sum verbally suggested for the purchase of the house and grounds was £5,000.

Battery Sergeant Major L.J.Fennell thanked Rushden and the British Legion “for all you have done for us”, on behalf of the repatriated war prisoners, at the British Legion Hall.

Several evacuee mothers and families in Rushden expressed their wish to stay in Rushden, even if homes could be found for them in London.

Fifty-one evacuees from Rushden met at the Masonic Hall to start on their homeward journey in coaches.  When they left there were tears with the handshaking.  Rushden had found home for approximately 5,400 evacuees at the peak of the evacuation.

July 1945

Chief Petty Officer Peggy Halton WRNS of the “Old Rectory” Rushden won the British Empire Medal.  CPO Halton was the only daughter of Mrs A.Bailey and the widow of Pilot Officer Derek Halton RAF, who lost his life in the Battle of Britain.  She had been in the service for over four years and worked in the Pay Office of the Marines.

Factory sirens and hooters, particularly in the early morning, were condemned by Rushden UC.  They were a source of annoyance and a nuisance to residents.

Rushden was now officially in a state of peace.  The Council decided to dispose of the black‑out frames used at the Council Buildings and Library.

A 14 years old, London evacuee, was the Flower Queen at the annual children’s garden party at St.Peter’s Church.  She was crowned by Councillor Mrs O.A.H.Muxlow.

A tall electric lamp standard outside Birch’s Garage at Rushden was pushed over to a drunken angle when the back of an American truck struck it while reversing.

Crisis point was reached at Rushden House Sanatorium.  Northants’ principal centre for the healing of TB was threatened with closure of some of its wards because there was no‑one to look after them.  The nursing staff had been maintained but the domestic branch was dwindling away.  The Matron, Miss H.Williams, relied largely on the service of Irish girls, and domestics were no longer coming over from Ireland.  There were 75 patients in the Sanatorium.

George S.Lindgren, Labour, won the Wellingborough seat in the General Election with a majority of 5,990.

Members of Rushden Intermediate School Swimming Team were the winners of the Butlin Cup at Rothwell Public Baths, with a time of 1 min 23.4 secs.  Betty Myers, Betty Marriott, Freda Clarke and Pat O’Shea were in the Team.

August 1945

Orders had been given for the biggest educational reshuffle that Rushden had known for about twenty years.  Every school in the town was involved, except the infants’ departments.

The Stationmaster, Mr W.Malloney, reported that bookings for holiday rail travel from Rushden were heavy, but not up to pre‑war standard.  Chief bookings were to Blackpool and the South Coast.

Rushden had at least one holiday attraction – ice‑cream.  A brief heatwave made a day of ice‑cream queues and dips at the swimming bath.  Spencer Park was busy.

The announcement at midnight of Japan’s abrupt collapse led to a day of spontaneous celebrations, the first VJ Day.  Many factory workers, having failed to hear the news, got to the factories before the truth dawned on them.

Best-dressed Street at Rushden, Spencer Road, also led the way in Victory Parties.  It was one of many streets which held well-organised celebrations.  After a procession to Spencer Park, Mr A.J.George put on a cinema show of local and comic films, the screen hanging on a factory wall.

A blood donor session, the first ever in the town, was carried out at Rushden’s British Legion Hall.  Blood was taken from 191 donors.

The Rev W.G.B.Snell, in a Thanksgiving Sunday address at St.Peter’s, Rushden, referred to the atomic bomb.  His first reaction was sheer horror that the mind of man could invent such annihilating force.

September 1945

Rushden’s largest munitions factory, occupied for nearly four years in the production of radar equipment, closed down, releasing five hundred workers, most of them women.  They had been making condensers for Messrs Dubiliers Ltd.  The factory in Glassbrook Road was required by its former occupants, Messrs Walter Sargent & Co., boot manufacturers.

One of Rushden’s VE Day babies, only child of Lieutenant Corporal and Mrs Sanders of 118 Newton Road, was christened Jean Victoria at St.Mary’s Church.

Mr G.Rose, of 21 Alfred Street, Rushden, unearthed an octagonal medallion bearing an embossed airship and an inscription which included “Des Zeppelin II AM 31 Jul 1909”.

The St.Cecilia Singers of Rushden met an enthusiastic audience at Stevington, Beds.  The concert had as its highlight the choir’s first performance of “The Campbells are Coming”.

October 1945

More than a hundred boys and girls from Rushden helped the local farmers with the potato harvest.  They went off every morning in merry loads on farm wagons drawn by noisy tractors.  The days were spent in potato picking on fields near the town.

All who saw the UCL game at Rushden Town Ground were delighted with the plucky manner in which Rushden’s team of triers pulled off its first victory.  They beat Northampton Colts by 4 – 3.

Trade Council members decided that Rushden should have a larger supply of fish, after discussing it at their meeting.

A large company was present at the furniture sale at Mr G.H.Claridge’s House in Hayway, with Mr T.D.E.Pendered as auctioneer.

November 1945

Members of Rushden’s Youth Movement met at the Co‑operative Hall to discuss their winter programme.

The annual choir festival at Rushden Park Road Baptist Church returned to its old status as a two‑day event.

The first prefabricated bungalows to be erected on the fifty‑home site in Park Road, Rushden, arrived on a lorry.  They were made by Messrs Uni‑Seco Structures Ltd and constructed on the Seco System, which was regarded as permanent from the point of durability.  Eight men soon got to work on the first set of parts.

December 1945

Toys were definitely more plentiful and of a slightly better quality but shopkeepers thought that they would sell out of these well in advance of Christmas.  The Rushden Industrial Co‑operative Society had a plentiful supply of toys, especially those made of metal.

It was reported to the RUC that Rushden was to have a secondary school for about 360 boys.  It would be on the Tennyson Road site and would serve Rushden, Higham Ferrers and Newton Bromswold.

Laurence Olivier’s presentation of “Henry V” was the Christmas holiday week attraction at the Ritz Cinema – colour playing a big part in the film.  [‘Technicolor’ according to the advertisement.]

The Hallé Orchestra played at the Windmill Hall, Rushden, exclusively for workers.  Rushden found an audience of 1,000 for the town’s first Symphony Concert and there were 700 disappointed applicants for tickets.