Rushden Research Group: James Drabble

Research by Stuart Drabble, 2001 - 2018

James Drabble

James Drabble 1908 - 1954

The founder and inspirational head of the Drabble contracting businesses was James Drabble, a Yorkshireman, born in 1908 into a coal mining community. Educated in Wombwell near Barnsley, his early employments were at Wombwell Main Colliery and with a local building contractor called Swift. Together, they undertook subcontract works for Henry Boot & Sons of Sheffield and found success.

During the 1919–1939 inter-war period, Henry Boot built over 80,000 houses, including 50,000 for local authorities, 9,000 for rent (through subsidiary companies) with the balance for sale to the private sector. James became familiar with the business models which drove these profitable enterprises, and took note of them.

When James’ work for Henry Boot took him to Kent, he went into business on his own account. In 1930, aged 22 years, he married Margaret Mary Hadaway in her home-town of Sittingbourne. They lived briefly at Bromley, Kent, where their eldest child was born, before moving to Earls Barton, near Rushden, Northants, a district on the verge of major expansion. They established themselves there as developers, builders and haulage contractors, trading as Messrs M.M. Drabble.

In 1929 the historic Rushden Hall estate and 362 acres of land had been sold by auction, in 47 lots, most of it ripe for housing development. James Drabble enjoyed the patronage of the new owner of Rushden Park, Mr Morris Wheeler J.P., of Bexley, Kent. In September 1931, M.M. Drabble obtained planning consent to construct their first four houses on his land on Wymington Road. Wheeler then released land progressively for housing as estate roads were completed. In December 1931, a second child was born at Earls Barton, after which James’ parents, Charles and Lucy Drabble, moved from Wombwell to Rushden, to help their son and his young family, bringing with them James’ younger brother Charles, then 13 years old. Young Charles completed his education at Wellingborough Grammar School, before joining his brother’s firm, initially as a carpenter.

Morris Wheeler, research by Stuart Drabble

Morris Wheeler was a wealthy draper and property developer from Bexley, Kent. In 1923 he purchased Franks Hall in Kirby, Kent. He died in 1962 but his widow lived there until her death in 1977. Wheeler was a prominent local politician, being Chairman of Bexley UDC in 1928-29. During his year of office he donated a handsome set of gates to the 250 acre Danson Park, between Welling and Bexleyheath, ever since known as the Morris Wheeler Gates. The Council had acquired the Danson estate in 1924, part for community use and part for road construction and housing. Wheeler seems to have adopted this model at Rushden.

Having purchased the bulk of the Rushden Hall Estate (not those few lots sold at auction) in 1929, Wheeler sold the Hall itself and its immediate surrounding park (marked brown on plan) to Rushden UDC for community use in 1930 for £5,000, retaining for himself all the surrounding estate and farm lands. These he developed successively over the next 30 years for housing, by setting down roads and selling off individual plots to local builders or individuals.

Morris Wheeler and James Drabble were personal friends, with Wheeler being something of a patron to James’ fledgling contracting business. It is possible the couple met in Kent and that Wheeler was the catalyst for James’ move to Northamptonshire in 1930. Whenever Wheeler was in the neighbourhood, he would visit James and his family.

James Drabble’s first planning application was dated August 1931, for four houses on the existing Wymington Road. Eighty-six houses were then built in that area before Morris Wheeler built his first estate road - St Margaret’s Avenue - in 1933, after which James began building in that area. Further road building followed in subsequent years.

1939 Advert
Northants Evening Telegraph

The business prospered. By 1938, Messrs M.M. Drabble had constructed 289 houses and bungalows on Wheeler’s land along St Margaret’s Avenue, Hall Avenue and Wymington Road. A new company was formed that year, M.M. Drabble Ltd, the Directors being James Drabble, (Managing Director), his brother Charles Drabble (Builders’ Manager) and Mr Ralph Lyne (Builder’s Clerk).

By then, James and Margaret were living at the Gables, Bedford Road, Rushden, where their third child was born (1934). Their parents and Charles, then 20 years old, were living in one of the new houses on Wymington Road. James was also Director of Drabble Investments Ltd, which helped potential home owners purchase property from his construction company.

The family moved again in 1937 to Kettering but private house development ceased in 1940. James served in the R.A.F. until discharged on health grounds; Charles married Nesta Wright (1940) and enlisted with the Royal Engineers. After the end of WW2 business resumed and the firm became active in the post-war building booms of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Eight hundred houses were built in Bletchley alone between 1947 and 1953, managed by Charles Drabble, who moved to Bletchley with his family.

Charles Drabble

In 1948, the business was re-branded as Drabble Construction Company Ltd. and by 1954 had branches in Wellingborough, Rushden, Bletchley, Kettering, Aylesbury and Wendover.

To Stanwick

James Drabble became a well-known celebrity and enjoyed a privileged lifestyle.

After the end of WW2 he purchased the country residence of Hill House at Stanwick, near Raunds, with gardens, stables, 2 cottages and a paddock. He gave his children an expensive education, ran a string of five race-horses and drove several cars, including a Rolls Royce, plated R1.

He was a keen sportsman, President of the local Arsenal F.C. Supporters Club and one of the few honorary life-members of Yorkshire Cricket Club. He was a one-time President of Rushden & District Query Motor Club, a member of the Rushden & District Golf Club and active in the Rushden Lodge of Freemasons, and the Royal Antedeluvian Order of Buffaloes.

James and Margaret in the garden 1952


Hill House

Northampton Mercury - Friday 02 July 1948

COOK Required: for plain cooking, 5 in family, school holidays, modern kitchen, farm produce, own private quarters. Apply Mrs James Drabble, Hill House, Stanwick.

Bedfordshire Times & Independent, 20th August 1948 transcribed by Stuart Drabble

CHAUFFEUR wanted: Able to maintain a Rolls Royce car; Knowledge of routes to usual racecourses helpful; If married, wife to fill situation as House-keeper, with Estate Cottage; or private quarters if single man; would board with various times off and outings. Letter to James Drabble, Hill House, Stanwick, Northants.

Tragically, James Drabble died on March 5th. 1954 aged only 45 years, following a car accident on the Great North Road near Grantham. At the time of the accident he was returning home from Scarborough, where he had purchased a house for his family to enjoy holidays there. [funeral at Stanwick]

James was fatally injured in a car accident on the Great North Road near Grantham;

South Yorkshire Times, 20 March 1954 (extract only)

… … … The accident occurred at 5.30pm and Mr Drabble died less than 24 hours later in Grantham Hospital. … … At the time of the accident Mr Drabble was returning to Wellingborough from Scarborough, where he had bought a house on the South Side so that it would be available for himself and has family if they wanted to go there. … … …

Mr Drabble was born at 195 Hough Lane, Wombwell, a son of Mr Charles Drabble, whose widow, Mrs Lucy Drabble now lives at Rushden, Northamptonshire. He attended King’s Road and John Street Schools, Wombwell, and his first job was in the pattern shop at Wombwell Main Colliery. Later he took work with Mr Swift, a Wombwell building contractor, and when still a young man, went into the building trade on his own account in Kent. His wife was from Sittingbourne.

From that point he never looked back and eventually the firm of Drabble Construction Co. Ltd became one of the biggest building undertakings in the South. Mr Drabble built factories, industrial plants and many thousands of houses, and had hundreds of men on his payroll. He constructed at least 5 complete estates in the Home Counties and, not long ago, was photographed with important parliamentary figures on completing the 1,00th house in Bletchley. His brother, Mr Charles Drabble, of Bletchley, Bucks, became Managing Director and Mr James Drabble’s son, Jim (22) has been taken into the firm.

Mr Drabble was always passionately fond of sport and, despite extensive business commitments, managed at one time to own and run a string of five race horses. Among these were Bawbeeand Moulan. His horses ran all over the country, but mostly in the South.

“His great love was horses” his mother told a “Times” reporter “and if it was possible at all, he would find time to see them run.” He was also a member of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and missed no opportunity of seeing his favourite team play, particularly if they happened to be in the South.

Although Wombwell contributed nothing to his material success, Mr Drabble had a great love for his native town and was never happier than when he was among his old friends. He had an extremely generous disposition and the sight of one of his cars – he used to run a Rolls Royce – was a signal for a friendly foregathering. It is not forgotten that, in a period of acute distress before the outbreak of World War II, he sent a hamper containing 80 pairs of new shoes for children, to King’s Road School. He never failed to respond to an appeal for a good cause. Said his mother “When I returned South from a stay at Wombwell, I had to tell him all the news.” During the war Mr Drabble joined the R.A.F. but was discharged on Health Grounds. … … … He was a member of a Rushden Lodge of Freemasons. The news of his untimely death was received with great sadness by friends and acquaintances in Wombwell.

Charles Drabble then became Managing Director of Drabble Construction Co. Ltd and the business continued. James’ son, Jimmy Drabble (22), had recently re-joined the firm after completing National Service, and he became a Director, together with his mother. The company diversified and among contracts in the late 1950s were several large factories and facilities for the Air Ministry, at RAF Henlow, RAF Brampton (Huntingdon) and elsewhere. At one time, Drabble Construction Co. Ltd employed approx. 1,000 tradesmen and labourers, often in ‘gangs’ on a piece-work basis, transporting many of them to and from work in a fleet of twenty buses.

Sadly, tensions arose within the new Board of Directors and in the early 1960s, Charles Drabble resigned from Drabble Construction Co. Ltd and set up his own company, Charles Drabble Ltd in Bletchley, taking several key staff with him, effectively opening up in competition with Drabble Construction Ltd. That firm prospered for approximately ten years, expanding with acquisitions, including Simpson Plant-Hire Ltd, Sinfield Joinery Works, Lanhall Ltd and a small architectural practice. A re-structuring of the group in 1966 established Charles Drabble (Holdings) Ltd, as a holding-company for the group.

Charles Drabble enjoyed an expensive lifestyle, in common with his brother James, but not on such a grand scale. He bought The Mount, a property in Simpson, near Bletchley and later, a cottage at Sea Palling in Norfolk and a riverside chalet on the Norfolk Broads at Potter Higham. He educated his two sons privately. He was a keen golfer, with membership at Aspley Guise & Woburn Sands (Capt. 1965) and at Gorleston in Norfolk. He was also an active and generous Mason.

When the Milton Keynes Development Corporation was established in 1967 to provide a new city, centred around Bletchley, Charles Drabble’s businesses were well placed to take advantage of the new construction opportunities. A new company, Milton Keynes Builders Ltd was formed jointly by Charles Drabble (Holdings) Ltd and Robert Marriott Ltd of Rushden. That new company secured the first large-scale building contract of the new city of Milton Keynes. The £7M contract was awarded by the Greater London Council (GLC) acting as agents for the Bletchley Urban Council and was for the construction of 2,000 houses over a five-year period, on a 257 acre site at Water Eaton, Bletchley.

Charles Drabble subsequently sold his interests in his group of companies and retired to Northampton in the early 1970s, with Charles Drabble Ltd continuing to trade in Parsons Road, Rushden (1973). His other, one-time business of Drabble Construction Co. Ltd also continued to trade, under the direction of his nephew, Jimmy Drabble and James’ widow, Margaret Drabble, until that company, too, was dissolved in the 1970s and Jimmy Drabble became Chairman of Derngate Securities in Northampton. Charles Drabble died in May 1991 at Northampton, leaving his widow, two sons and four grandchildren.

Margaret Drabble, the original M.M. Drabble, died in 2004, aged 92 years, leaving one son, two daughters and nine grand-children, bringing to a close the 40 year history of Building and Civil Engineering achievements by the Drabble family.

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