An Incorrigible Habit - Rushden’s Rector Against Litter

The Rector of Rushden, the Rev. T. S. Stoney, speaks greatly in favour of the Rushden Urban District Council’s decision to purchase Rushden Hall.  He writes in the current issue of St. Mary’s Parish Magazine :-

  “It is good to hear that our Council are hoping to purchase Rushden Hall for the people.  I do rejoice in this and will very gladly pay my share of the increased rates, that tired mothers, weary workers and old folks may have a beautiful restful place so soothing to their nerves.  In this busy town with its teeming life and ceaseless whirr of machinery, what we need above all things is the rest and peace which comes from the quiet calm of nature.  We are becoming neurotic, the children are being affected and we need the healing trees, birds and flowers can give us.  This decision on the part of our ‘City Fathers’ shows them to be not only far-seeing and courageous but also men who know the real needs of to-day.  I would like to join the newspapers in pleading that we all take a pride in keeping the place when it belongs to us as much like a gentleman’s grounds as possible, and that we resolutely set our faces against the incorrigible habit of throwing about and littering nature’s beauty spots with dirty paper, etc.

  “We ought to realise too that trees have feelings and suffer when their branches are broken and their bark is cut by stones and other missiles.  I can never have a party of boys or girls even in the Rectory paddock without having to go out afterwards and pick up the dirty sticky sweet papers which have been carelessly thrown away.  There is another custom I suffer from, - owners of cars with a habit of throwing the refuse of their luncheon baskets over the wall into private gardens – I suppose in a laudable desire to keep the streets clean.

  “Now that we are going to have beautiful grounds of our own, it is up to us all to keep them as they should be kept, a beautiful and lovely spot.”