date the transformation from the 1960 demolition of the Peacock Hotel, an old (17th century) coaching inn on the east I moved to Semilong in my late teens and lived on Stanley Street, then Semilong Road, and then St Pauls Road. Valentine Low, a journalist on the Times, columnists Yvonne Roberts and Matthew Engel also worked on what is known locally as "The Chron". There was a room to the left of the bar that was out of bounds to children and women! Five College meeting of women teachers at Mount Holyoke College. Fifty years on, the BBC looks back at how the announcement changed the town. Closed on holidays. Every Sunday evening we were there at the disco in the concert room, we went there until it closed in the late 80s. Each illustration features a slice of my memory and I hope to keep adding more as time goes by. This page is intended for classmates to learn of the latest plans for their upcoming 50 yr reunion Se That was in the Easter school vacation, 1960. In 1999 the venue reopened as a music venue, and became the Soundhaus. But it did have the most wonderful sprung wooden dance floor and had been a dance studio for a while, I always thought it would have been the perfect place to put on a Northern Soul night. The Semilong Working Mens club was over the road and I used to enjoy going in there too. Billing, Northamptonshire - Wikipedia The FireFly was, without doubt, a local pub with a somewhat acquired taste. Eventually closing its doors around 2013. You may spot some familiar placesand perhaps some unfortunately familiar haircuts. But happy memories. So my happy memories of the Overstone Arms was much more short lived than I remembered and most of my dating must have been done in The Lamplighter, as Dave Knibb says it changed names in 1988. But Bill Davisons The Black Cat Jazz Bar was my favorite. Youd go down the jitty that led round the back, knock the window, and be let in that way through the kitchen. The landlord at the time was called John, and a family friend, and Northampton fac,e Paul Little worked the bar some nights. Another of the pubs that I frequented as an adult. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 8,642, decreasing at the 2011 census to 8,457. I think it had a long single-story building and a larger more house like one at one end. I was born in Northampton, at the Barratt Maternity Home, which opened in 1936 when the footwear entrepreneur William Barratt gave the hospital a generous donation. The main road was Sheep Street and the trams went up there, it wasnt until they widened Broad Street and pulled down surrounding buildings and pubs that things changed to what we have now. Okay the earliest image I have found of this building was dated 1904 and shows how Regent Square looked back then. . Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). The shoe factory and his house were both eventually demolished, just another part of Northamptons modernization. But by the late 1960s and into the 1970s, this old shoe tayn with so many beautiful and distinctive buildings was changing. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. The Emporium Arcade There have always been talk that the property was haunted, some say by Harry Franklin who committed suicide there. In the 199495 English football season the company sponsored local team Northampton Town F.C. Race, Class, and Sexual Harassment in the 1970s Dave Nilsen: 0412501: 149k: A cake is presented to President John F. Kennedy aboard the USS Northampton, 13 April 1962. Take a look back at amazing photos of a thriving Northampton town centre in the 1960s and 1970s. They would get you to the door and then throw you down the steps onto the concrete below. Another of the pubs that I frequented as an adult. 62 Friars Avenue I always thought he was an old landlord but it seems Dave Knibb dug up proof he was the manager of the Shipman wholesale business and lived on the premises. (Lankester & Wells was a bottling company.) It opened in 1897, and it featured two trolleys connected by a . I took pictures of some of the old landmarks still surviving, like the one on this page. I used to DJ here on a Saturday night with my mate Dixy, Uncle Seltzers Kosmik Surgery spun plastic discs of joy for many lock-ins. On this page you will find places from my childhood and youth. See my other project Northampton Dreaming. 2-inch map I would see loads of bands play at the Soundhaus and even did DJ support there, it felt odd that two venues Id played and danced in as a kid, the Fanciers and Friendlies, were also the places I played and danced at as a young adult, even if my chosen vice was no longer cherry pop and a packet of scratchings. in 1978, I could hardly find But Bill Davisons The Black Cat Jazz Bar was my favorite. So on a Sunday morning, wed get the bus into tayn and walk down Bridge Street to Far Cotton. As children, my old man, Henry Bill Hillery who passed away 28th of June 2020, and his 8 brothers and 5 sisters would live around the corner, in a terraced council house on Merthyr Road, just yards from where the pub would stand. It was especially great to have such a store right downtown on Main Street, but it was still good when it moved to the shops on Service Center Road down off Pleasant Street. Cruiser Photo Index CA-125 / CLC-1 / CC-1 USS NORTHAMPTON - NavSource They had a small car park around the rear and I remember going up stairs into a room with a pool table and a long bar further into the building on the left hand side. I couldnt find any old photos of the pub so this illustration is dated from a photo from the 1980s but I cant image it has changed in the last 150 years. He threw me the keys and I got in the car and before I knew it I was rolling down the hill and straight over the St. Andrews Road, mounting the pavement opposite, missing all the traffic. It is situated in Bailiff Street, opposite the Vocal, behind the Mounts and used to be frequented by undercover policemen as it was behind Campbell Square. As children, my old man, and his 8 brothers and 5 sisters would live around the corner from where the pub stood. It was published by the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, river. Gold Street-Drapery junction, Northampton town centre, October 10, 1968. And as a 17 / 18 year old I would meet my friends here as it was a good place to start. Sage Hall, Smith College Northampton, MA . Award winning creative based out of Northampton, UK. Reid was also a Kate Bush fanatic and her fans could get great imports from him. Michael Green's novel Don't Print My Name Upside Down was based largely on his experiences at the Chronicle & Echo. I really don't know what the Sunnyside was up the hill and great for stumbling home and the Fox & Hounds was down the hill and on my out towards Kingsthorpe front. It is now much smaller than it used to be. The Heavy Crates vinyl junkies get togethers, especially the one where the building across the road caught fire and no one could leave the pub. It was a start of new subculture and the time for raves had begun. "It has completely changed," said Mr Lang. One of the company's most notable figures was L W Dickens, long-serving editor of The Mercury and Herald, in its heyday the 'bible' of Northamptonshire farmers. The Old Country Store 1975-76 Northampton Town F.C. season - Wikipedia machine that put corks in wine bottles. I had two older siblings, loads of cousins, and dozens of Aunties and Uncles. HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON. Other places from my past, but more as a teenager who had just starting to drink, in no particular order of preference include; The North Star in Acre Lane (a great music quiz on a Sunday); The King William IV (King Billy) in Kingsthorpe, The (Old) Fox and Hounds in Kingsthorpe, The Duke Of York in Semilong and others . The Firefly was without doubt a local pub with a somewhat acquired taste. "Executive," which appeared in his 1974 collection A Nip in the Air. Brilliant old photos of Northampton's Market Square and Newlands date Max and Di Lang moved to the newly-built Thorplands estate in 1972. I remember it as being like one of those bar fights you would see in an old western film. Northampton, town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, in the Midlands region of England. According to Dave Knibbs book Last Orders (. ) The staples of Northamptonshire's industry at the beginning of the 19th century were wool, lace, silk and shoemaking. It had other names too, some I remember are Sinatras, the short lived Hermans, which quickly changed to Macbeths, and it also became one The Cookie Club franchised venues. I remember the pool table was on the left as you look at the illustration, in the 1960s it was a gated area but by the 1980s it had been extended to hold the pool room and the toilets. How many people saw their first Fellini or Bergman film there? Northampton in the 1970s - where it all went wrong I met Dave recently and he is a jolly nice chap so please buy his book. Whilst I was doing this project my mate Richard told me about a book he had purchased by a local author which was all about lost pubs in Northampton. As a kid we would jump the turnstiles at the Wantage Road end, the Steward always let kids in for free or always let us kids in for free. Fourth stanza: That's pretty much what happened to Northampton. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our, Although I don't use cookies, WordPress and my Theme might use them to enhance your experience while using my website. Yale Photogrammar/Russell Lee. Over the years I have put a few bands on at The Lamplighter and had some great nights playing records with Dixy, and joining Big Gary and Jon for their Broken Shackle. I cant remember much about this place except my family used to drink in there and it often crops up in conversation. His oldest brother would take the divvy there on a Friday night. Northampton began to morph into the place we have now. My biggest memory of the Sportmans was one of my many uncles let me drive his Capri from outside the pub after an afternoon session there, I think we was heading to The Fire Fly. When I was a lad The Bull Hotel was still on the corner of Campbell Street and the Bird In The Hand (now called The Edge Of Town) was where my pap drank was close by. The FireFly in Dallington (also known as the Red Earl). Im guessing we were around 10 years old. A collection of his work was published in book form in 1985. ), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate premiums. Bastard brag is a variation of 3 card brag, 3 cards are dealt into the middle, 2 up and 1 is face down, the name is from the frustration players would feel when another player picks the card you wanted, and you bastard might be muttered or shouted depending on your mood and how inebriated you are. When I first starting drinking I liked going into the Overstone Arms, especially if I was on a date the booths were perfect for a liaison and quiet cosy. All rights reserved (About Us). I can also remember Uncle Colin taking me and my cousins, Darren and Simon, to the cricket at the County Ground. change that drove the material One such boozy day me and my cousin were building soapbox carts, you know the type of thing a death trap on pram wheels. I adored DJing there every Sunday afternoon, playing a 4 hour set and drinking wine while reading the Sunday papers. Mason. roads and shopping malls. I wasnt old enough to drink. Most of these folks aren't getting misty about the town when Calvin Coolidge was mayor, however. I grew up there in a council house during the 1970s. You could grab a decent, cheap, second-hand Telecaster thereor a vintage guitar costing thousands. 46 Bridge Street Northampton, Massachusetts 01060. info@historicnorthampton.org | 413-584-6011. I remember being taken there as a kid and the garden being really long, much longer than it looks now on maps. A collection of his work was published in book form in 1985. The FireFly was, without doubt, a local pub with a somewhat acquired taste. Resident Bob Ramshaw has kindly shared photos he has found of the town from 60 years ago.. Some watered-down vinegar and brown pepper, not black pepper this was England in the 1970s dont forget. The Virtual Attic If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. ), the number of floors and the height of the building, as well as construction . The back bar had soft furnishing and led out to the garden. It's the Lankester & Wells building, which stood on I continued to go to the cobblers on my own during my teens and it was a great time to be a fan. Old maps of Northamptonshire It had the barrel room and then the bar down one side.