Home Close cottages belonged to the Rushden Hall Estate.
A new Scout Headquarters was built behind the site. The Scouts used the ground as an area to form-up before church parades or carnival and to practise marching.
The area now covered by Orbit Tyres was used as a bus park by United Counties, before they built a new depot in Newton Road.
The Rushden Echo and Argus, 18th November, 1949
Skinner’s Hill, Rushden has changed considerable since it presented this largely rural view, and the present parking place for buses is decidedly less picturesque than were the cottages where Samuel Knight was the principal character. Some features remain, however—the trees bordering Rushden Hall, the Claridge factory (right) and the building on the extreme left.
Skinner's farm oubuildings and slaughterhouse, with the gate across the lane to the Hall. The two cottages (rear view) off the lane are part of "Home Close" where Samuel Knight once lived. see Scout Headquarters.
'During a heavy storm a number of years ago some timber lying outside the cottage was washed away by the rains and was stranded in Duck-street.'
Sketch by ALS of the cottages in Home Close
After the cottages next to Claridge's factory were demolished the ground was concreted over. It was used as a parade ground for the scouts, and a resting place for United Counties buses before their new depot was built in 1936.
