Introduction

Cyril Loake was my stepfather. He was born on June 8th 1908 and married my mother, Olive, in 1956. A few years after he retired his sister and brother-in-law suggested that he write down some of the things he remembered about the village, from when he was a child, about being in the Home Guard during the war and about his observations on life in general. To this end, at Christmas 1979 they bought him a note book and some pens so that he wouldn't have an excuse not to knuckle down and write.

Cyril wrote in his book mainly during winter afternoons when it was too wet for gardening. He illustrated the text with little doodled sketch maps. He was also an accomplished artist, drawing both the wildlife and the landscape around him. He was quite a modest man and wouldn't let my mother or I see what he was writing until he had finished it all. But he did ask me about the "bomb incident" to make sure he had remembered what happened correctly. I was the one who took the thing at arm's length, held by its fins, down to the police house!

He died on April 18th 1989. - Janice Binley

Roads and houses

YORK ROAD?

I was born at Forest Lodge (commonly called Jackdaw Lodge) in Middleton Parish. When I was a lad I used to hear my father talking about an old road or track that used to run past the lodge and join up with the old lane that went on to the Desborough/Harborough Road, crossed it, and then went on to Arthingworth or Harrington. There was very little sign of this old track that I can remember until Cottage Wood where it joined up with the old lane we called Forest Lane which joined on to the Carlton/Pipewell Road, then carried on to Desborough.

During world war two about a mile and a half of this lane was lost by the building of Desborough Airfield. I wonder if this old track could have been part of the old Jurassic Way which was supposed to have gone along the high ground near Wilbarston. The hedgerows each side of the track were quite a distance apart. Two fields on the track were called Driftfields suggesting that at some time cattle had been driven along this route to some point. Occasionally when the ground was dry gypsies used to drive their caravans across the fields where the old road used to be, past the Lodge and onto the Kettering/Uppingham Road. Quite a few of these gypsies were turned back by my father who, naturally, wasn't very pleased because they drove across the fields he farmed. We used to see many a tramp do the same thing - taking a short cut across the fields. Probably they were on their way to Oundle workhouse. The thing that always puzzled me was that the old people used to call the part of the lane from Pipewell turn to Desborough the "York" Road. Did it have some connection with a way to York at some time, or did some farmer named York live near the lane?

BEAN FIELD LAWNS

When I lived at Forest Lodge as a child our near neighbours were the Etchell family and they lived at Beanfield Lawns on the main Oakham to Kettering Road. At that time it was the main road with milestones every mile; I remember one in particular which read London 83 miles. Since those days a new road has been made and runs further to the west.

Looking at an old map you could see that the house (now known as Knight's Lodge) was surrounded by a moat which came almost to the edge of the Road. In front of the house was a large orchard with apple, pear, damson and plum trees. Beanfield Lawns was said to be a parish of its own and the smallest parish in England. The Etchell family farmed the surrounding land; Mrs Etchell (mother) was a widow, a very nice old Victorian-like lady, always dressed in black and very religious: Job and Matthew (sons) and Ann and Helen (daughters). None of the children ever married. The family came from Macclesfield to farm at the Lawns and they never lost their Cheshire dialect. It was hard for Northamptonshire people to understand what they said. Matthew and Job worked the farm, Ann helped with milking and butter and cheese making and helped Helen, who did the cooking, in the house. They kept a big herd of dairy cows and every morning big churns of milk were taken to Corby Station.

My earliest recollection of the Etchells must have been when I was about 5 years old in 1913. What sticks out in my memory is Ann clattering about in clogs on the kitchen floor; it was flagstone and what a clatter. Job and Matthew always wore breeches and leggings winter and summer alike and Ann usually wore a man's cap back to front, which I expect was her milking cap.

In the kitchen there was an enormous big range where they did their bread baking and cooking. In the winter when the range was well stoked up there was always one or two shepherd dogs and several cats stretched out in front asleep and Mrs Etchells used to be sitting in a rocking chair nearby. There was a smaller room and Ellen used to play the harmonium and sing - her favourite was "Come into the garden, Maud", but I don't think I appreciated her singing as much as the grown ups did.

Living with the Etchells was Matthew Pickford who was a relative, but later he married and went to a farm of his own. Both Etchells and our farm land was owned by the Watsons of Rockingham Castle. At that time Matthew Pickford, who was older than me, used to accompany me to school at Rockingham - a journey for me of 2! miles each way (later I had a bicycle). Matthew had 6 miles a day to walk and I think he walked that distance every day until he left school.

The Etchells were friends of my parents and I was sometimes taken there by my mother. If our visit was in the afternoon we used to stay for tea, which consisted of home baked bread and butter, home made Cheshire cheese or ham "off the wall" and sometimes home made jam. There was never cake to follow, but instead home made currant bread.

RIPLEY ROAD

The first council houses were built in 1926, twelve in all, on Rockingham Road and the beginning of Ripley Road. At that time Ripley Road was called "Approach Road" but was changed in 1949/1950 when Bancroft Road was completed, to Ripley Road. The building of these houses was contracted out to a firm of Kettering builders. In the contract they agreed to find water to supply all the houses. The story goes that he sank a well in the garden of number 2 Ripley Road but they went deeper and deeper and no signs of water. It snowed heavily so they stopped digging and filled the well up with snow. When the snow thawed there was plenty of water in the well. The inspector was sent for and passed the well. It wasn't long before the well dried out and the new tenants were left without any water. For years, until the mains water was brought into the village the tenants had to walk down to a spring that was at the cross - a journey of nearly a quarter of a mile. It was said that some of the water carriers took their buckets down and filled them up, but left them at the cross, going home without any water. At that time there were two pubs at the cross which might explain a lot.

THE OLD COACH ROAD?

In 1979 some grass fields at the top end of Cottingham Lane were going to be made arable. These fields - four in all- went down to the park and round to the Rockingham/Cottingham Road. (That's how we lost our good mushroom fields).

First of all the turf was stripped off for sale. During this turf stripping an old road was uncovered that nobody knew was there. This old road followed a very old hedge which looked like a boundary hedge for some purpose and separated the field from some allotments. This hedge was grubbed up and most of the allotment taken into the field. The road - about half a mile of it - was exposed and appeared to be well made for a farm track. Although it could have been a track to some farm buildings that have disappeared, someone said that there used to be an old cart road through to Rockingham Castle but I have my doubts that it went that far.

THE RAMBLERS - (No 2 Church Street)

This house in its time was an Inn called the King's Head. Its age is unknown and throughout the years it has undergone many changes and according to some old Cottingham people "parts of it are as old as the church". The last landlord to keep it as a pub was a man called Shaw and he seems to have got into trouble. I would say this would be in the early 1900s. The story told to me by Tom Jackson was, that a hare had been stolen from a meat safe that was hanging in the yard of a house in Middleton (the first house past Bury Close) and was later found at the King's Head by the local policeman. This together with not being able to pay for the ale he had in probably finished the King's Head and the licence was never renewed. The King's Head was supposed to have had one of the best cellars for keeping beer and spirits for miles around. The cellar is still there and in one corner there is a clear water spring.

A gentleman from Burton Latimer who is interested in old houses and an expert on the old beam systems used in old buildings, after inspecting the beams and walls came to the conclusion that it must have been built between the years of 1600-1650

There is evidence of people living on this spot years earlier, however, by pieces of pottery dug up in the yard and garden - some of these pieces are medieaval and some probably even earlier.

Large limestone slabs that can be seen in the garden near the old pig styes and also next door at No 4 (the old post office) were supposed to have come from the old Roman road that ran through the village and had been used as paving stores.

During the time the Ramblers was an Inn it was kept by a great great aunt of my wife's named Poll Binley. My wife's maiden name was Binley. This Poll Binley must have been a bit of a miser or a spendthrift (I don't know which) - the wife's mother told me that as a young girl there used to be a rhyme going around and it went something like "Old Poll Binley of Tinkotel, when all her money's gone, she'll go to Hell". In her time she never knew Poll Binley although the rhyme was still told but how the King's Head got the nickname of Ting or Tink Hotel, I don't know.

Continued in column 2...

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Tom Jackson (the mother-in-law's brother) told me that when he was very young he could just remember his father taking him down to the King's Head to watch a fight. Although he could remember his father lifting him onto his shoulders to see this fight, he couldn't remember who won. Then the ground at the back had not been divided up and was much larger and there was a crowd of people there cheering their favourite. It was a bare knuckle fight and was arranged for Cottingham Feast between a man from Wilbarston and a man from Cottingham. Tom said he had only faint recollection of this match. It was a pity he couldn't remember how many rounds it went and who won. Tom fought in the Boer War as a young man so this fight probably took place between 1880-1885.

Around the village

THE VILLAGE POUND

At Cottingham it was at the end of Blind Lane, just off the Corby Road

THE CLUMP

This was a man-made mound of earth and stone and was called the Clump. It was covered with trees and bushes and situated at the side of the Corby-Harborough (old road) road nearly opposite the Dale footpath. I never did hear anyone say as to why it was there or any history about it. It could have been the site of an old windmill. At one time there was supposed to have been three locally. One is partly standing in Millfield. There was one near Gorborough Wood; this mound could have been the site of the third. There is nothing to see now as all signs of it were destroyed by the quarrying of Limestone.

THE OLD WINDMILL

The sails of the mill were blown off during a terrific gale in 1895. This storm blew many trees down all over the county and did a lot of damage to property and was spoken of as the worst storm in living memory at that time. It was never repaired after this accident and so went out of action. It is supposed to have been mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
(Later - It was the water mill that was mentioned in the Doomsday Book not the windmill. The first windmills came in in the 14th century).

WELLS

There used to be a well on the triangular piece of grass near the old village pound at the Corby end of Blind Lane. There is a public seat there now. An old iron pump stood over it. It used to supply houses at that end of the village until such times as the mains supply was brought into the village. The pump stood for quite a while after the mains supply and must have been taken away when the seat was erected. Blue tits used to nest in it. There was another old well about 20 or 30 yards north of the bungalow in Blind Lane. We cultivated a bit of garden ground there before the bungalow was built around about 1947/48 and at that time it was covered over with rotting timber and nearly hidden with weeds. After prising apart the timber I could see it was quite a deep well with water at the bottom. I believe it had already been forgotten. During the drought years of 1976 efforts were made to find it again, but it was never found.

THE ALLOTMENT

The allotment field off the Rockingham Road has the unusual name of Momack. It has very shallow soil with limestone underneath. You could call it hungry soil. The old locals used to say it wanted "moa mack" in the old Cottingham dialect meaning "more muck" - hence the name Momack.

THE WHITE SAND

This sand was used for building purposes years ago and was called Cottingham white sand. It was obtained somewhere in the village or near vicinity. I don't know where.

THE WATER MILL

This was mentioned in the Doomsday book and was last used by a farmer - Mr Shrives. I can just remember corn being delivered to my father at Forest Lodge ground at the mill, I think it was barley for the pigs. The man that delivered it was Herbert Chambers who has just recently died. (? 1981/82) He could remember it well and remembered the spinney being planted. He spoke of the eel trap there where many large eels were caught. (There used to be an eel skin six feet long caught in an eel trap at Gretton mill. This used to be on show in one of the Gretton pubs). There are only a few stones left now to show where it stood.

Wildlife

BIRDS

There is a lot written and talked about these days of different species of birds that are fast disappearing from our lives. I'll say this is correct for they are, speaking for this area and in my lifetime. When I went to school in the evening Nightjars could be heard jarring away, particularly in Blackthorn wood which seemed a favourite place for them. Nightingales sang in most woods in the district.

What we used to call Landrail or Corncrakes (I think the proper name is Waterrail) could be seen and heard in the meadows. Many a Redstart's nest I have found in Rockingham Park. Sparrowhawks were seen flying low alongside the hedgerows; Barn Owls were common. Now in 1980 there are no Nightjars to be heard. This year one nightingale was heard in Carlton woods. Corncrakes are no longer in the meadows. Redstarts to my knowledge do not visit Rockingham Park to nest. I haven't seen a Sparrowhawk for years and you rarely see a Barn Owl.

I don't think Flycatchers are not so numerous as they used to be or Longtailed Tits. Treecreepers and Woodpeckers have got less in numbers since my young days. Where Wire Lane ends near the river at the Ashley turn, the river used to run within a few feet of the road. There was a wooden bridge over the river at this point that was a favourite spot for Kingfishers in my younger days. Since the war the course of the river has been altered and set back away from the road, so one of the favourite places for the Kingfishers disappeared. I haven 't seen any around there ever since.

SWALLOW HOLES

I don't think there are many swallow holes in Northants. The only one I know or have heard of was at the bottom of Pinas Hill on the right hand side of the Old Oakham to Kettering Road. Pinas Hill was the first hill past Beanfield Lawns going towards Kettering on the right. A sizeable brook ran along the valley from across the field into what looked like a pond and then went underground. Sometimes during a dry summer the brook dried up and all round the pond there were depressions in the earth which looked like rabbit holes which could only be seen as the water went down.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Wild orchids used to be common when I went to school. In the field that Forrest Lodge (Jackdaw Lodge) stood in there used to be three kinds of orchids - or at least three of a different colour. One was nearly white, one a pinky shade and the other was a purply red which was very dark. It was a grass field in those days, but it has been ploughed since. I expect the ploughing was the end for the poor orchids. A few grew in the centre of Cottage Wood - two varieties I think. It was a pity that I was not able to identify the orchids that grew near Forrest Lodge when I was a youngster, but it is well over sixty years ago and at that time they were just flowers to me, although I was told that they were orchids. The common name was King Fingers for all three kinds.

Soon after the first world war there was a fashion for moleskin fur coats. (This was when I lived at Jackdaw Lodge). We used to set traps to catch the moles, then skin them and dry the skins and when they were dry we posted them to a furrier in London. We were paid 2/- or 2/6d. per skin according to the size and quality. That was a good price in those days.

The story continues in ASPECTS OF COTTINGHAM Part 2: War and More ...

Added September 19th 2011

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