PIG, PUBS, and PEOPLE : INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
East Haddon village in Northamptonshire lies just under eight miles from Northampton, off the main A428 road between Northampton and Rugby. It is very close to Althorp Park, home of Earl Spencer, and burial place of his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales.
The village was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1085 as “Eddone”, possibly meaning “heather-covered hill”. It has been primarily a farming community over the centuries, but there were a number of other professions carried out in the village, and at the beginning of the twentieth century, many people both lived and worked in the village. However, much has changed, and even the village Post Office and shop has now gone. Nevertheless, the village is still a thriving community, with many traditions which are still practised. The school remains a focus of village activities, as does the Village Hall, where many functions take place, including an annual village play, concentrating on aspects of the village’s history.
The oldest building in the village is the Church, parts of which date from the 12th century, but it was mostly rebuilt in the 14th. The thatched pump, in use until the 1920s, was built in 1550, and there is a house – Wisteria Cottage – whose date-stone registers 1655 A.D. However, it seems that other dwellings, such as Well House, are considerably older. Many of the buildings were built with local stone, some of which may have come from the demolished palace at Holdenby – Holdenby House is a fraction of the size of the original palace. Many of the present-day cottages are constructed of cob.
A prominent family in the late 18th and 19th century was the Sawbridges, who were large landowners and village benefactors. The Hall was built in 1790 by Henry Sawbridge, and in 1865 the family provided land for the village fire station. Althorp railway station, which was until it closed in 1962 East Haddon’s local station, was built on land sold to the railway company by the Sawbridges. Capt. E.H.B. Sawbridge used to provide a New Year’s Gift of 6d to each child at the school, a practice last recorded in 1917. Capt. Sawbridge is recorded as being “Lord of the Manor” in Kelly’s Directory of Northamptonshire 1894, a title retained by the family even after their estates had been sold in 1919. The Sawbridges had actually left the village in 1907, prompted by an outbreak if diphtheria. Mrs. Sawbridge, an American, is thought not to have liked the village, and so they decided to live on one of their other estates. They were unable to sell their property in the village until1919 for legal reasons, but when they did, East Haddon ceased to be an estate village, and the farms and cottages passed into private hands.
There are other families taking part in village life today that have been represented in East Haddon for many years, and this book records the activities of some of them. Until relatively recently, people did not move around so much from one area of the country to another, and some of the surnames of people living in the village today would have been found there centuries ago. But of course, there were many newcomers to the village in the last hundred years, who were welcomed into the community and who took an active part in village events.
East Haddon remains a friendly and close community, as revealed by some of the anecdotes and lengthier stories presented in the following pages. These reminiscences are a fascinating insight into village life in the 20th century, and how it has changed so much in such a comparatively short time. It was intended to let the villagers speak for themselves, and in many cases their words have been quoted verbatim. Inevitably, people remember things in different ways, and where possible everybody’s viewpoint on a particular event or issue has been mentioned. Also included are a number of photographs, then and now, relating to the people and events mentioned. I hope you enjoy it!
David Price