Eric Fowell was a carpenter by trade. He witnessed the demise of so many buildings in the course of his work, and realised how much was being lost.

Eric at home in 2003

It seemed only natural to Eric that he should start preserving and promoting its past.

As a founder member and former chairman of Rushden and District History Society he personally produced or helped compile numerous pictorial publications about the town.

His vast collection of old photographs and memorabilia was also used in exhibitions at Rushden Heritage Centre and he had many photographs converted to slides and gave regular film shows to organisations throughout the district.

He said "The seeds of my interest in local history were sown in my childhood" and the interest never left him.

In 1937 he had watched workmen taking down and rebuilding the old Feathers Inn and demolishing High Street shops.

Eric began collecting old postcards in the 1950s, picking them up for pence at local fairs or on holiday. He helped found the Northamptonshire Postcard Club in 1975 and was founder member and long time chairman of Rushden Collectors' Circle.

The first local cards acquired were from Knuston Hall, where he did a lot of work. Then he began to collect old adverts, and ephemera from shoe factories.

Eric with one of his own books in Rushden Hall

He became so knowledgeable, and saw the need to share that by publishing books. He gathered a team who produced a best-selling pictorial history book of Rushden for the town's Rotary Club in 1979. The same team produced a similar book on Higham Ferrers in 1984.

In 1993 he published the first of three successful volumes of old Rushden pictures under his own name.

Mr Fowell is a former chairman of Rushden Amenities Society founded in the 1970s to fight council plans to demolish historic Rushden Hall. He also co-founded Rushden and District History Society in 1991 with fellow town historian and author Eric Jenkins.

As a millennium project for the History Society, Eric provided most of the pictures for a successful book A Thousand Years of Rushden, researched by a group of 22 members. Most of the research was done in Rushden library and the ET archives in the cellar.

The first 2,000 copies sold rapidly and printed another 1,000 copies the following year. Copies have been dispatched to former residents all over the world."

Over the next twenty years Eric continued to compile books on a variety of subjects including "We Serve The World", The Pageant, and Will Abbott to mention a few.

A few of the books Eric produced

Note: Eric was born at 61 Hayway on 13th October 1928, before
moving to 101 Spencer Road after marrying Jean in 1955.