Rushden Research Group: Amenities brief history of Rushden

From the sheet designed by Bill Lanning in 1978

The Amenities Society
A Brief History of Rushden

Design by Bill Lanning in 1978

Designed by Bill Lanning in 1978

The text - left to right, top to bottom:-
Founded & named by the Anglo Saxons: Risdene - The Valley of Rushes Risscheden Rissendene Ressendene Rysshedene Rushdowne	Extensive potteries found in the Boundary Avenue area shows continuous occupation of the area from at least Roman Times. During the Black Death of 1349 more than half of the population died. A fire of 17771 destroyed most of the village. Through all of its life, Rushden was overshadowed by Higham Ferrers, until the coming of the Industrial Revolution & the railway in 1898. By 1893 the population was 7,442 but in 1911 it had reached 12,354. Its life blood was boots & shoes. The great John White firm began here & the town boasted its own technical institute for the craft.	Thomas Britton, born 14 January 1644. This remarkable native of Rushden who came to be known as the 'Musical Coalman', in 1678 began the first ever series of public concerts in Britain. Each Thursday evening for 36 years the musical and social elite found their way through his coal-store to the converted loft above. Here the finest musicians of the age gave concerts. The great Handel himself polayed on Britton's own organ. He had one of the finest collections of instruments in the country. And his collection of books formed the basis of the Harleian Library, Oxford. An outstanding achievement for a man who earnt his living crying "Small coals for sale".
Rushden Hall : a Jacobean building on an earlier shell & much altered in the Victorian period. The original is said to have been built by John of Gaunt in 14C. His son became Henry IV, 1399 & through him the Queen is the Lady of the Manor.
A town crier & character always ended with the words : "N doorn't say ol' Buck ent tol yer?"	Rushden has long had a fine musical tradition of national repute. At one period it had 9 barss or silver bands & the great St. Cecilia Choir. 300 years after Britton, Rushden's Dick Bradshaw, who pioneered 'Music at Higham' is now chorus master of San Francisco Opera - one of the world's finest. He began his musical career under one of the musical Lawrences - Ron - Headmaster of Alfred Street School.	By God's Grace we were so evenly paired As that in sexes evenly we shared We had eight children to augment our joys For her fower daughters and for me fower boys. Tomb inscription of Sir Robert Pemberton 1608, Usher to Queen Elizabeth I.
Among the more than 424 names on the War Memorial - erected 1922 - to the men killed in World War I - an unusaully large total for so small a town - is that of Lt. Col. Bernard William Vann of the Sherwood Foresters. Already holder of the Military Cross, he gained the Victoria Cross on 29 September 1918. Four days later he was killed leading an attack at Marricourt on the Western Front, France.	Air Ada "Cheer up, me gal e sez. It woont be lung afewwa ya start ya Mothers Meetin Outins e sez. Galivantin awl uvva the plairce e sez." Air Ada & the long-suffering, silent Mawwud were the brain children of Reg. Norman of the Evening Telegraph.	The Parish Church of St. Mary The 164 foot crocketed spire is one of the finest in Northamptonshire: a county noted for spires. Of 13C foundation, the church possesses a rare & finely worked strainer arch, a four-stage tower & flying buttresses. It has one of the few medieval windows in the county. It shows William Peverial, companion of the Conqueror, & Rushden's first Norman Lord. The Register dates from 1559. The Parsh of St. Peter was formed in 1913 to serve the growing population.

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