Work begins on the roof Photo by Alan Pinnell

So much has changed down the Station Road and Midland Road end of Rushden over the years; we lost the Jaques and Clarks shoe factory towering on the corner of Midland Road and Station road, and surprisingly Totectors the safety boot and shoe firm went too, (formerly Wilkins and Denton).

The garage of Cyril Freeman closed, St John's ambulance moved home, and the much loved open air Swimming Pool, and the mortuary facility housed beneath it disappeared.

One of the former road sweepers back in the 1980's would leave his equipment in there overnight.

And the kids used to rather cruelly call him "Harry horse muck", and this would lead to an exchange of colourful language in the streets, and he would give chase to vent his anger on the cheeky cherubs, his real name was Vernon by the way, (not Harry).

The closure of Hunt's the Printers next door to the demolition site at the end of 2015 was another eye opener.

As far back as the early 1970's rumours abounded about the future of the Rushden Ambulance Station, at the time we were told that "all was well".

So some forty plus years later we see the reality, and the ambulance station that had served us so well, for so long, has now been flattened.

the inside walls	the site almost cleared

The demolition was carried out by TCB Plant services, and with the tall block of flats being built next door to the old ambulance station, the old site looks so small.

the digger	the tangled steelwork

For a very definitive low down on local ambulance and activity "Alan Pinnell" has given us the benefit of his wealth of local knowledge, which can be seen on other pages here.