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January 1976
Mrs Audrey Perkins of Wymington Road, Rushden, was awarded an MBE for her WRVS work.
Nene Valley Mobile Homes Ltd closed. The 85,000 sq.ft. of buildings on the 5 acre site on Wellingborough Road was put up for sale for £600,000.
Fire Station Sub-Officer Cecil Evans hung up his helmet for the last time at the end of a 28 year career spent mostly at Rushden.
The pantomime, Red Riding Hood, was a great success. It cost £3,500 to stage.
A power failure turned a routine night out in a pub into a roaring success. The landlord of the King Edward, Queen Street, ushered the 35 regulars from the bar to the lounge, got out an old paraffin lamp and lit candles. One customer, Mr Arthur Nunnerly, made straight for the piano and played for two hours. The makeshift entertainment by candlelight proved so popular that customers had to be turned away.
February 1976
The ladies of Rushden St.Crispin Townswomen’s Guild were given a film show by Rushden & District Amateur Cine Club. Twelve films, including one of the 1974 Rushden Carnival, were shown. The winner of the ‘Chubbiest Baby’ competition was Mrs Joy Case.
The shoe factory of Charles Horrell Ltd of Rushden, employing more than 80 workers, was put up for sale after the receiver had been called in. 5,000 boots and shoes were sorted into pairs for sale in the factory shop. The receiver hoped that cash would be raised to clear the £250,000 debts.
A breakdown in the sewage disposal equipment at Rushden Girls’ Comprehensive School gave about 900 girls an unscheduled holiday. Engineers came from Birmingham to repair the equipment. Only Fifth Year girls and staff were at the school and were having to use toilets hundreds of yards away in Spencer Park.
Rushden Lions presented a hoist to the town’s Medical Centre at a special ceremony in Rushden Hall.
March 1976
Parking problems were predicted with the building of a new school in Victoria Road – a cul-de-sac. The 320 place school would only have parking spaces for six cars.
The search for a site for a new swimming pool for Rushden continued despite a clamp-down on public spending. Sites at the Girls’ Comprehensive School and at Spencer Park had been ruled out.
Thirty Rushden shopkeepers joined a crime-busting scheme to beat thefts. A hot line system enabled them to alert each other of suspects.
April 1976
Patients, colleagues and friends paid tribute to four retiring hospital stalwarts. The four, including two doctors, had between them clocked up more than 100 years at the same hospital. The ceremony was at Rushden Hospital where they said farewell to Dr George Gerrard, Mrs Mary Perry, Mrs Audrey Allen and Dr Elliott Fisher.
It was suggested that Rushden Library had outgrown its premises and might have to be replaced. Book issues had increased to 265,000 in the previous two years.
Father John Harris, Parish Priest of St.Peter’s Catholic Church for over 10 years, was presented with a pair of vases after conducting his last service. A major part of his work in Rushden had been taken up raising £50,000 to restore and extend the church, the hall, the priest’s house and the sacristy.
May 1976
The Fire Chief at Rushden Fire Station accused the United Counties bus company of vandalism of 13 trees. He and his colleagues were furious that the mature horse chestnut trees at the nearby bus depot had been chopped down.
Local fire crews, including those from the station in Rushden, pushed a four‑seater scooter from Higham Ferrers to Market Harborough to raise money for widows and orphans.
A fire occurred at the premises of F. & R.Windsor opposite the Fire Station in Newton Road. Machinery valued between £8,000 and £9,000 was destroyed.
Advertisements for car sales included a new Simca 1100 LE 5-door Parakeet at Hamblin’s, Rectory Road, for £1,781, and a new Fiat 126 for £1,130 at Palace Motors in Alfred Street.
Water pressure was reduced by Anglian Water Authority in a bid to save precious supplies.
It was reported that dwindling audiences were forcing Rushden’s only cinema to turn to bingo to help boost its income. From July, the Ritz would stage five bingo sessions each week and show films on three nights. It was planned to retain matinee shows and the Children’s Saturday Club.
June 1976
A plaque commemorating author H.E.Bates was unveiled in the main hall of Newton Road School where he spent three years as a pupil from May 1913 to August 1916.
Five hundred people who petitioned Rushden Council to roof the open‑air swimming pool would have a long wait for financial restraints on spending were lifted.
Rushden Carnival Queen for 1976 was 18 year old Janet Davies who worked as an animal technician at Unilever. In her spare time she enjoyed cooking, making wine and dancing.
Assistant shop manager Paul Dear was praying for cool weather because, if Rushden continued sizzling in tropical temperatures, he faced the prospect of sweltering inside a gorilla suit at Rushden carnival.
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July 1976
A scheme was started to provide homes for 50 pensioners in Rushden. Foundations and footings had been completed in the first phase of the Council development at Southfield, Rushden. The four blocks of two and three storey flats and ten bungalows were built by Clayton Builders (Leicester) Ltd of Market Harborough.
A young couple refused emergency accommodation offered by the Council at 89 Duck Street, Rushden. They claimed that it was damp, a hole three feet by two feet in the living room, and in the bedroom the immersion heater stood uncovered in one corner.
Unlike most people who work in the same industry for 50 years, printer Eric Godfrey could boast that his job had hardly changed. Traditional printing processes – typesetting, leather book-binding, machine minding and paper cutting had been an everyday routine for Eric who retired from Frank Eady Press, Denmark Road, Rushden. He started in the trade with printers Walter Knight.
At Rushden there had been an increase of 36 people out of work. The unemployed total stood at 461 – 346 men and boys, and 115 women and girls.
A new sports hall was likely to open without any furniture in its social area unless the go-ahead was given for a licensed bar. A drinks licence application for Rushden Sports Hall, in the grounds of the Boys’ Comprehensive School, was rejected by Wellingborough Magistrates. When that fell through, a brewery pulled out of a deal to supply furniture and fittings.
August 1976
The new telephone exchange building in Victoria Road, Rushden, was completed in 1974, and Post Office engineers were working to have it equipped ready for operation in 1978–1979. Initially the exchange would have 3,600 lines, but with a maximum capacity of 23,000. It would eventually replace the old exchange nearby.
Litter-picking youngsters planned a clean up of Rushden’s High Street, Washbrook Road and Wellingborough Road. About 20 members of Rushden St.Peter’s Catholic Youth Club held a sponsored search for rubbish. Money raised went to the Mother Teresa’s Charity Fund.
It was reported that water rationing would shortly start in Northamptonshire. It was planned that September 6th would see rota time cuts and there would be standpipes in the streets on October 11th.
Traders in Rushden reported a booming trade in almost anything that could be used to store water. The Manager of Ellis & Everard said his branch was selling six times as many water barrels as usual and ten times as many buckets. Store owner Mr Peter Crisp said his firm was doing a tremendous trade in buckets, water butts and carriers. One Rushden Store – West End Wallpapers – had already run out of water carriers.
An aircraft which plunged in flames to destruction and burned itself twelve feet deep was brought to the surface – over 30 years after the fatal crash. It had crashed into a field belonging to Rushden farmer George Wilmott, just off the Bedford Road on March 18, 1944.
September 1976
The ‘Evening Telegraph’ was on strike from 25th August until 3rd September.
A Rushden man was one of the first two people in Northamptonshire prosecuted by the Anglian Water Authority for using hoses during water restrictions. Magistrates ruled he was not breaking the drought laws as he had pumped the water from a water butt.
Sister Florence Lewis, who took charge at Rushden’s Memorial Hospital when it opened, retired after 26 years.
Three possible sites for Rushden’s third comprehensive school were considered – Wymington Road, Manning Street and Newton Road. Wymington Road was regarded as the most feasible as the other two sites were undulating.
Council Chief Executive, Mr Derek Adnitt, reported that urinals in Rushden and Higham Ferrers had had flushing arrangements adjusted to conserve water. There was no imminent prospect of toilets closing.
Shoe workers walked out of their factory and went to a nearby marquee to help celebrate their boss’s 100th birthday. Mr Walter Tarry, co‑founder of the Rushden firm of Tecnic Shoe Company Ltd, still popped into the factory next to his Bedford Road home. He had worked in the shoe industry for 87 years, establishing Tecnic Shoes in the factory at Harborough Road, Rushden, in 1915. His partners were Mr Sidney Fox, whose son Ron worked at Fox Shoes Ltd; Mr Fred Hawkes, who later started a local engineering firm; and Mr Horace Wright, the only other founder still alive.
October 1976
Plans to increase the population of Rushden by 7% would lead to even more sewerage on the town’s streets. The town’s sewerage works was so overloaded that even the first 50 of a planned 600 home development in south Rushden would make a bad situation worse. Anglian Water Authority’s schemes costing more than £1,600,000 would begin in 1977 to alleviate the town’s serious flooding and sewerage treatment problems, but would not be completed until 1979.
Trevor Smith, of Boundary Avenue, Rushden, claimed a record breaking mushroom. It was 42 inches round and weighed two and a half pounds. He found it whilst out mushrooming at Melchbourne.
Part of the former medieval hunting park at Rushden was scheduled as an ancient monument by the Department of the Environment. It covered the area of land surrounded by the moat at Higham Park, off Avenue Road. The hunting lodge and a small settlement originally stood on the site when the park was used to provide food and timber for Higham Castle. In 1974 the 17th Century Higham Park farmhouses were included in the statutory list of buildings of special architectural or historical interest.
Following two successful test meetings, the Historical Transport Society was inaugurated at Rushden’s Rose & Crown pub.
November 1976
Mixed marriages were the theme of a three‑day run of Kenneth Horne’s comedy “Fools Rush In”, presented by Rushden Players at the Athletic Club.
Mr Pete Thomas, of Robinson Road, Rushden, was one of the original complainants about a black deposit and fresh water shrimps found in tap water. Investigations showed that the black deposit was caused by manganese deposited in the mains from a water source at Wollaston which had since been closed down. The animal life was Asellus – a small fresh water crustacean. Anglian Water Authority hoped to cure the manganese problem by scraping, relining and renewing water mains in Rushden during the following two years.
Patients at a day hospital joined staff in celebrating the unit’s first anniversary. Rushden Day Hospital opened in 1975 and after one year was dealing with 73 patients a week.
Rushden gardeners were encouraged to take their wheelbarrows to James Brothers’ Circus in Spencer Park where there was a two and a half tons of surplus manure produced by the two elephants – Sugar and Banbara.
December 1976
More than 150 members and friends of Rushden District Caledonian Society celebrated St.Andrew’s Day. The Society held its annual dinner and ball at Rushden Windmill Club. Dancing included old tyme and modern to Douglas Day and his orchestra.
70 ‘Evening Telegraph’ journalists were still on strike. The price of the paper was reduced to 2p and it consisted entirely of advertisements except for the front page and sport on the back.
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