St Crispin Townswomens Guild — The History

The object of a Townswomen's Guild is to advance the education of women, irrespective of race, creed and party so as to enable them to make the best contribution toward the common good, and to enjoy themselves in friendship at the same time. There are two Guilds in Rushden at present, one of which is St. Crispin Townswomen's Guild which is part of the Nene Valley Federation of Guilds. St. Crispin's came into existence in 1948 at a meeting in a classroom at Alfred Street School, and it began to hold regular meetings in 1949. There were about 100 members to begin with and a long waiting list. Because of this, in 1949 the Guild members decided to separate and thus the Central Guild was formed. The first President of the St. Crispin's Guild was Councillor Mrs. Muxlow, with Dr.Pickard as Vice-president. Right from the beginning there were several different activity groups within the Guild. There was a Handicraft group, Drama group and a Civics group for local information and education. They had a choir and even an Old Tyme Dancing group which I understand was held in an Alfred Street schoolroom. Over the years most of these groups have faded out due to age and health problems, but the Civics Group has now become the Social Studies Group and is still very popular.

Until recently the Guild meetings have been held in the Community Room of the local Salvation Army. Many Guilds are able to raise a great deal of money for various charities but as St Crispin Guild meets in the Salvation Army room we are unable to hold raffles etc. there, so have had to find other means, such as faith teas, and sales of harvest goods to raise money to assist the needy.

Over the years the T.G. members have enjoyed so many interesting outings and holidays, actually as far as Russia, usually organised by Joy Case. During latter years most of the holidays have been in the British Isles and have still been organised by Joy Case, but so many ladies have memories of happy times in Paris, in Italy and Spain, in fact so many places in Europe have been visited by St. Crispin T.G. members over the years.

The most important meeting of the T.G. year is the annual National Council Meeting, often held in June in the Royal Albert Hall, London, when our Patron the Princess Royal is present. Each Guild is represented and hundreds of ladies gather to discuss and vote on national problems. Each Guild Federation has its own banner and each year one fortunate lady finds she is honoured to carry the banner for her own area. It is a very awe-inspiring sight to see all the different areas of the United Kingdom represented and the ladies from each Federation stand to acknowledge their presence when their own banner is called.

Unfortunately at the beginning of this year St. Crispin's Guild was obliged to close but the spirit of friendship and fellowship of many of the ladies has remained and will continue for a long time.

Note added at end:- "At the beginning of 2004 St. Crispin's Guild was obliged to close but the spirit of Friendship and fellowship of many of the ladies has remained and will continue for a long time."

This was stated at the time of the Townswomen's Guild's closure and as a result, the "St. Crispin Ladies" group has been formed. Many of the members are ex-Townswomen, and with extra ladies having joined us we hope that the spirit of TG will continue in our town for many years.

It all started in 1928 - when the Kensington Ladies got together, amongst them were Emily Davies, founder of Girton College, Elizabeth Anderson, first woman doctor to qualify, Sophia Jez-Blake, medical education for women and those famous headmistresses Miss Buss and Miss Beale.

From this small group of dedicated women, Townswomens Guilds were born.

The first Guild was started in Hayward Heath, Sussex and at this date Guild members number over 80,000 coming from 1,600 Guilds formed in the United Kingdom.

It was evident that Townswomen were passionately interested in music. In 1937 the Carnegie Trust made a grant of £500 per year to cover music making activities. Music schools were organised for solo-piano, violin, conducting, singing and the forming of choirs and other instruments.

The forming of Guild Choirs grew, and the subject of music was high on every Guild agenda. In the Nene Valley Federation, 20 choirs were formed. Music schools were arranged at many schools and colleges, and due to the high standard of achievement, Music Festivals were introduced and have been carried out in succession over the years.

On many occasions Sir Hugh Allen would bring his orchestra from Oxford every year, standing by, trying to help his friend Sir Hubert Parry (composer of Jerusalem) who had come to conduct his own work The Lotus Eaters. This was the beginning of a long association with the festivals; Sir Hugh was succeeded by Sir Adrian Boult.

In 1953 16 choirs took part in the Music Festival. In 1955 18 choirs participated making over 300 voices. On this occasion the well-known Soprano (Isabel Bailie) and Professor of Singing at the Cornell University in New York came to the Nene Valley to judge.

In 1971 a Musical Festival named 'Spring Song' was arranged to be held at Knuston Hall. Eleven Guild Choirs worked hard to get the 'Cantata' ready and 15 Guilds took part in the sequence. The evening was under the direction of Mr Malcolm Tyler, County Music Adviser. Both Rushden Guilds took part.

The last Music Festival was held at the Saxon Hall in Raunds. Over 250 members took part singing with the Nene Valley Federation Choir and assisted by the Northampton Guild Choir, two years ago.

Rushden Guilds
Rushden Central Guild was formed in 1948 with over 160 applicants. St Crispin Guild was formed one year later, making the Townswomen Guilds one of the largest womens groups to be formed in Rushden.

President of Nene Valley Federation: Ivy H Gould

Mr C Jones conducted our choir on many occasions and in 1950 there were 25 members in the choir.

The choir participated in all the festivals and gained a place in the Oundle Music Festival 1952.

Central Choir also gained 5th place in the Northamptonshire Eisteddford in 1952.

‘Zebra’ crossing for diversion?
Should there be a pedestrian crossing on Rushden’s new traffic diversion route along Rectory Road?

This question was asked at the “Any Questions” meeting held by Rushden St. Crispin’s Townswomen’s Guild at the Alfred Street School on Monday, Mrs. A. Muxlow presided.

Mr. W. J. A. Peck, who is chairman of the Northamptonshire Road Safety Committee, said that as the diversion has just come into operation and was still in the experimental stages, the authorities had not yet decided which the best place for such a crossing was. It was bad policy to have too many pedestrian crossings too close together because motorists then tended to ignore them.

One-Way?
Another question was whether one-way traffic only should be allowed in High Street.

Mr. Peck said it depended upon whether you were a shopkeeper, a motorist or lived in High Street. He thought that one-way traffic in High Street was not essential if north-bound traffic was sent down Skinners Hill and south-bound traffic took the new diversion, so that there was one-way traffic on Church Parade but not actually in High Street.

In this way only local traffic that particularly wanted to go into High Street would turn up Church Street to get there.

Other members of the panel were Mr. H. W. Ellis, public health officer and sanitary inspector to Rushden Urban District Council, Mrs. P. Newnes, branch officer of the British Red Cross Society, Kettering, and Mr. E. Mabbutt, industrial safety officer of British Timken Ltd., Duston.

On the subject of frozen food and whether it will oust the position of fresh food in years to come, Mrs. Newnes said that it probably would, because with improved methods the food values in the frozen food would equal those of fresh foods.

Mr. Mabbutt said that a foods for years was being opened up.

Mr. Peck offered the view that the high prices restricted the expansion of the frozen food trade.

The provision of a sufficient number of litter baskets in Rushden was discussed, and Mr. Ellis said that instructions had been given by the health committee for surveys to be carried out to find the points at which there was the greatest need, and for litter baskets to be put there. Further education in this matter was still needed to prevent the leaving of litter.

The meeting ended with the sale of harvest produce which members had contributed and £3 15s was raised.