Great Doddington

Heritage Group
Email gdheritage2010@yahoo.co.uk
Website:www.greatdoddingtonheritagegroup.wordpress.com

Great Doddington Heritage Group Newsletter

Issue 42

March 2021
Hello,
Well here we are, a year on from the start of the Covid pandemic. It has been a very
different year for many of us; and hopefully we can look forward to resuming many of
our former activities in the near future, including Heritage Group events. The annual
photographic exhibition is pencilled in for 25 and 26th September. We are still to
recognise our 10th anniversary (which will be 10 plus 1 now) but an occasion still worth
celebrating. Perhaps we will have some meetings before then particularly if they are
open air visits. One possibility for this would seem to be Chester Farm-see later.
Some of our members have been able to join us for talks on Zoom. We have had two so
far, sharing the events and costs with Great Doddington WI. We hope that this larger
audience might also serve as a recruitment opportunity for us!
I do encourage those of you who have not tried a Zoom talk yet to do so. In February I
represented the Group at the Zoom meeting of the Northamptonshire Heritage Forum. It
was interesting to hear from many of the 60 attendees (representing museums, places
of interest such as historical gardens, and heritage groups such as ourselves,) about
their experiences of keeping in touch with members and providing events by Zoom
during this period. They were overwhelmingly positive to the extent that some groups
were reporting increased membership and reaching a wider geographical area. A
number of groups also said that when normal life resumes they would continue to
include Zoom events. The joys of a comfy armchair and warm slippers whilst you
received your dose of history seemed to go down well with many. Perhaps we might
consider this in future years for the winter months when we tend not to meet.
This edition of the newsletter reports on the two Zoom talks we have had. We have
some evocative contributions on the theme of Make Do and Mend to compliment the
report on the Ration to Fashion talk.
There is also a report on Chester House Estate following a presentation given to the
Northamptonshire Heritage Forum meeting.
The Heritage Group has continued with work where this has been possible. Barbara
and Andrea have been particularly active -more from Barbara below on current projects.
 Just a reminder that we are not taking fees for this year as we have had to cancel/
postpone so much in the last 12 months. Hopefully we will be able to hold an AGM to
conclude 2020 formally in the near future.
We hope you enjoy the newsletter.

Jenny Ludlow Co Chair

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CURRENT PROJECTS
We are very pleased to say that the Listed Building plaques are
beginning to be installed on the buildings where the owners have
agreed to have them. A Village Trail leaflet is being prepared which will
include all the Listed Buildings as well as others of interest in the village
and hopefully will make for an interesting and informative walk.
Perhaps it would make the current daily exercise interesting to “spot the
plaque”.

Some of the houses

are set back from
the road and not
easily spotted but
we would ask that
you respect the
owners’ privacy and
do not intrude on
their land. Perhaps
the best one to look
at closely is at The
Stag’s Head.

Manor Farmhouse

The first proof of Book 4 of our Photographic book series is now ready to check through
and it is hoped that this will be released at our Annual exhibition which, if allowed, will go
ahead in September.

We are continuing to post photographs on our FACEBOOK page and in the display
cabinet outside the village stores which are changed every two or three weeks.
FACEBOOK members are increasing rapidly since Lockdown, and as well as current
villagers a lot of former residents from far and wide are sharing their childhood memories
with former neighbours and classmates.

Barbara Tomkins Co-Chair

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THE IMPACT OF SHORTAGES IN WW2 AND THE 1950S
There were many claims of “I was too young” to be able to share experiences of wartime
austerity that ran also into the 1950s. Sheila Benfield wrote

“I remember when the jam jar was empty we used to dice a slice of bread wipe it round
the jar to get out the last soupçon of jam. We took it in turns to do this.”

That does bring back memories of literally not wasting a drop or a smear of anything.
Toothpaste and other tubes were cut open and scraped too.

Andrea maintains she is too young to remember the war but

she does remember the sweet rationing in the 1950s.
Personally I had no such problem as my mother and aunt
ran the corner shop. I remember overhearing them
discussing selling up. As a rational child I reacted by
thinking I’d better make the best of the occasion whilst I
could, and went to the shop window and helped myself to a
handful of sweets. I was no older that three but clearly a
forward thinker even then. More reminiscences after this
report.

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FROM RATION TO FASHION

On the evening of Wednesday 10th February we welcomed Patricia Heed to give a talk on
“From Ration to Fashion” discussing how people in the Second World War and indeed the
post war years coped with rationing and shortages. The meeting was shared with Great
Doddington W.I., a venture to deliver reasonable audience numbers and to contain costs.
Patricia started by giving some context to the start
of the war, including how from day one, the
German navy intercepted ships bringing supplies
to the UK. It was interesting to hear how one ship
that made it through carried nothing but red
lipsticks. Apparently Hitler disliked lipstick, and so
the red lips became a symbol of defiance.

As goods became in short supply it was a matter of

ingenuity as to what could be managed. Anything
that was not rationed was seized upon. One
example was white sheeting. Some of this ended
up being dyed pink (with cochineal) or blue (with
the little blue whitener wash bags) and made into
babies’ romper suits.

Most men and some women had uniforms. They

were encouraged to wear these at all times. Both
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men and women would attend dances in them. Women were urged to make their own
outfits from the suits of the men in the family. After all, at the end of the war the men would
have changed shape and would be supplied with a new demob suit.

The centre spreads of newspapers contained sewing patterns to assist, and indeed many
ladies suits and dresses emerged from the suits of male family members. Skirts were A
line shape, as pencil skirts would inhibit the dash to the air raid shelters. Down in the
shelters people became experts in knitting in the dark. People exchanged colours of wool
and fair isle knitwear was born.

Panels of parachute silk with the tiniest of blemishes were set aside for wedding dresses.
Most dresses would serve 10 brides with each one altering the dress slightly to
personalise it.

The Government had printed tens of thousands of maps of Europe onto silk as it was light
and compressed easily. These maps would be sown into the uniforms of personnel being
dropped in Europe. The requirement for the maps was vastly overestimated leading to the
silk being available to women to make underwear. Just think of all those ladies sporting the
countries of Europe about their person.

To raise morale of women in the factories a warehouse full of patterned material was
issued for making the v neck wrap over overalls (still prominent in the 50s and beyond-just
re watch old Coronation Street episodes). The piece cut to form the V then provided a
head scarf, just what was needed to keep all that long hair out of the machinery.

And so the examples kept coming. For those ladies in families not fortunate enough to be
hosting American service men in their homes, men who often brought gifts of silk
stockings, it was eyeliner seams drawn up the legs, already nicely tinted with gravy
browning.

The talk provoked many memories of how families had made do, and was enjoyed by all.

Whilst Zoom is not the ideal medium it did provide an opportunity to successfully run the
first of our talks from the 2021 programme.

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And some further recollections….

Colin Abbot
As a child in the 1950s I did not realise that a material called silk existed as the only
reference I heard was to 'parachute silk'.
The speaker mentioned material saving using 'false' pleats. The variation I can remember
is a method of making turn-ups on men's trousers which my mother referred to as 'PTU
new way'. She had learned this technique while working at The Ideal during the war. For a
traditional turn-up the material comes down the leg to the bottom of the trouser leg, rises
1.5 inches to form the turn-up, back down to the bottom of the trouser leg and finally up the
inside of the trouser leg where it was stitched. For a 'PTU new way' turn-up the material
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comes down the trouser leg to about 1 inch above the theoretical bottom of the trouser leg,
rises 0.5 inches to form the top of the turn-up, back down to the bottom of the trouser leg
and finally up the inside of the trouser leg where it was stitched. This saved about 2 inches
of material on each leg - not much but it all added up. My mother needed to use the
technique to obtain some material to mend a pair of my trousers.
As many women in the village had worked at the Ideal, there were still experienced
machinists within the village. This was used for organised outwork making women's
blouses and tops as late as the 1960s. The cut out material, cotton and buttons were
delivered to Mrs Weed in Earls Barton Road. I used to collect the bundle from Mrs Weed
and return the completed garments. I do not know which company the garments were
made for. The pay was low varying from 1sh 3d to 2sh 6d per garment but it could be done
within the home. The higher amount was for an unlined woman's blazer and was very rare.
Most garments only paid the lower amount. My mother began the work using her 1930s
cabinet Singer sewing machine operated using a treadle. It was later upgraded with an
electric motor with the treadle connected to a switch / speed controller for the electric
motor.

Neil Wooler
Being born in 1940 I don't really remember the War, but I do well remember the bleak
years of austerity that followed. The grown-ups sometimes said it was almost as bad as
the war itself. When the euphoria of victory had worn off, so too had the sense of everyone
pulling together, and morale began to sag. Rationing and shortages dragged on; the
country was stone broke, and everything that made life fun was, they said, going for
export. Matters became even worse in the terrible winter of 1947, when the nation's coal
stocks froze solid on the ground and in railway wagons, with power cuts for industry and
cold, black hearths at home.
All our clothes had to be worn and worn (not that that mattered to a small boy much!) My
mother would unpick the frayed collars of my grey school shirts and turn them for another
lease of life. Socks were darned again and again, so too the elbows of jumpers – the
wooden darning mushroom led a busy life. Shoes went for re-soling and heeling –
remember Philips Stick-a-Soles?
Worn sheets and towels would be cut in half and then sewn back, the good ends together
in the middle, before finally ending up as rags – for collection, not destruction. It all left my
mother very little leisure time.
The Monday wash (which seemed to take all day) was even more of a chore in those days
before detergents. We put all the slippery ends of soap bars into a little wire cage that
clipped shut, and swirled it round in the hot water to bring up the suds – this worked quite
well at home in Yorkshire, but wouldn't be so good here in Northamptonshire with its very
hard water!
While the washing hung overhead on the kitchen airer, Mother would be working wonders
with meagre food rations and leftovers. She made a delicious macaroni cheese without
cheese (or precious little): fry some onions before making the roux, use half milk and half
stock (or Oxo) for the liquid, and season very well.....
Instead of bacon and eggs she would give me bacon and 'frizettes' – just flour, baking
powder, chopped onion and seasoning, mixed with a little water and fried in the bacon fat –
yummy! I loved these well into adulthood, and probably still would.
Meat remained strictly rationed for years, while chicken was very expensive and
considered a real luxury. Even when available, it would likely as not be a tough old fowl so
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Mother would first boil it with onions and carrots before finishing it off with half an hour's
roasting in a hot oven. This tenderised the old bird well, while yielding a good pot of rich (if
rather strong-smelling) chicken stock.

The wartime Dig for Victory campaign had encouraged my parents to grow vegetables in
our Yorkshire garden, which was on a north-facing slope and shaded by tall trees. The veg
did not flourish. Cauliflowers produced masses of leaves but very small heads, which
immediately bolted and attracted insects. But we had to eat this disgusting stuff; put me off
greens for years......

Toys, impossible to buy in

the war years, only slowly
began to re-appear. So we
'war babies' grew up
making our own from odds
and ends. Any little boys
remember 'tanks' – made
from a cotton reel, a piece
of candle, a stout rubber
band and a couple of
matchsticks?

The old adage says 'The past is another country'. Indeed so, and one that maybe puts our
present troubles into better perspective. Knowing nothing else, we were happy enough –
but I wouldn't want to go there again.
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THE FIRST NORTHAMPTON POLICE FORCE

On the evening of 10th March the Heritage Group and Great Doddington WI enjoyed a joint
event, a presentation about the First Northampton Police Force. The talk was given by
Alex Wood whose interest to research this topic arose after he discovered that an ancestor
had himself been in the first force.

The very first

police force was
really the Hue
and Cry. If
anything
happened in a
town a gang of
men would get
together and
chase the
offender from county to county until caught. All able bodied men were expected to join the
Hue and Cry.

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This was followed by the Watch which oversaw the town when it was dark. The UK’s first
police force was in Glasgow; the next in London, replacing the Bow Street Runners.

There was seen to be a need for a police force as there was a fear of the violent working
class and the mob. One only had to look at the Tolpuddle Martyrs. In Northampton there
was a fear of working class radical shoemakers.

At this time Northampton was still contained within the city walls though population was
rising sharply and it was getting crowded, all factors that led to the need for a police force.
It was an Act of Parliament in 1835 that facilitated Borough Councils in organising a police
force. Few did, but Northampton took the opportunity.

Northampton started
its force in 1836.
There were 12 day
and 12 night
constables, with some
supernumeraries and
specials added later.
The night constables
had uniforms though
the day constables
had only arm bands
initially. The night
constables wore tall
hats, like top hats.
The idea was that
they should not look
like military helmets;
and they had the
added advantage of
being a small stool on which a constable might stand to peer over a wall.

The original police force was reputed to be full of bad characters, foolish men who could
be violent and drunk. Rules for running the force were made up as it went along. It was
decided for example that no single men, or men who weren’t householders, should be
recruited. The night constables were the main jobs with longer hours; though the rates of
pay for both day and night jobs were not sufficient to live on. Being a policeman had to be
supplemented financially, and for some it was just a bit of extra income. Constables were
paid by the hour, quarterly, and in arrears. Lots of the constables were shoemakers
working from home who could decide on their own working hours. In many ways the
working class that was so feared was the very pool from which the police were recruited.

In 1836 it was straight forward if you wanted to find a policeman. All of their names and
addresses were posted widely round the town.

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Policemen drinking were a real problem. Between 1836 and 1848 there were 52
disciplinary cases against the police, 20 of which were for drink.

There was a huge step forward in 1848 when Alderman E.H.Barwell took over the running
of the force. The day and night constables were merged into a 24-hour policing service
and more structure in the organisation was introduced with superintendents appointed.
There were 4 day beats and 11 night beats clearly indicating where the problems lay.
Every street was patrolled every hour, day and night. This reformed constabulary served
the city well.

Alex scattered amusing anecdotes throughout the talk, accounts of incidents involving the
actual characters in the force. The evening was both informative and enjoyable.

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CHESTER HOUSE ESTATE
I was fortunate to see a presentation on the Chester House Estate in February given by
Jack Pishhorn, the Business Manager. I was bowled over, and I’m not easily bowled!
Whilst I was aware of the Chester House project I had no idea of the scale of what is being
developed and offered, which will have very wide appeal.
The 84 acre estate will open to the public in July 2021; with the official bells and whistles
opening on the 23rd October 2021 in time for half term.

The vision for the project is to connect the people of Northamptonshire with their 10,000
year story. The site is an unexcavated Roman town but also has a post mediaeval history
with buildings of that era on site. The dig is progressing under the leadership of the
University of Leicester.

Engagement of the community is at the heart of this project and it also aims to boost
tourism. You won’t just have the option of driving to the site (free parking); there will also
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be access by waterway with a mooring and canoe port; and after the two bridges on the
river have been reopened, access for cyclists and walkers will be possible from this
direction.
It’ll be free entry so you can pop in any time you are passing. As the site will include a
restaurant/ café as well as a shop it’ll be popular as a drop in meeting place. There will be
a children’s natural playground too. There will be conference facilities there; and also
rooms for hire. The first wedding is booked for this summer, weddings being a key part of
the commercial sustainability plan. And don’t worry about driving home after a drink or two
with your evening meal - bed and breakfast is available.
To keep visitors coming, there will be an events programme throughout the year,
everything from re-enactments, lambing, to craft fairs. There will be a small number of
artisan shops, open all the time, in the shopping yard selling local produce and run by local
people. There’s even rumour of woodfire pizzas outside.
There will be a huge volunteer programme ranging from helping with the digs, gardening,
sorting the archive, to serving in the café or shop.
There will be a large indoor interpretation centre, again free to enter. Of great significance
however will be the Archaeological Archive Repository for all of Northants. Only York and
London have a similar facility. This will bring together far flung archives for the County,
many of which are currently stored in unsuitable conditions. (If you want to volunteer with
repacking the archives, don’t mind the mouse droppings!) There will be much checking,
repacking and cataloguing to accomplish in creating this Resource Centre. Already 20,000
items have been
identified spread
across 60 locations
in the County. This
dispersal means
that the items are
very underused for
research or display.
The creation of this
archive will increase
public access and
research. It will be
available to the
public not just the
academics. There’s
a sense that until
the work really gets
going on the new Resource Centre it’s not known what is in various collections.
To find out more browse https://chesterhouseestate.org and click on History in the Making,
a short documentary film outlining all of these exciting developments and opportunities. Its
well worth watching; and if you are looking for a new volunteering interest you need look
no further.
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C0MMEMORATIVE BENCHES
Our thanks to the Great Doddington Parish Council for the placement in the village of two
benches commemorating V.E. day The benches have been funded from the Parish
Council precept. They are to be found by the bus stops on the Ridge and the old village
square. They are a valued contribution to the recognition and celebration of our heritage.

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PROGRAMME 2021
We will be flexible with the programme for the remainder of 2021. Whilst there are
indicative dates for the easing of restrictions it will also be for members to decide what
they feel comfortable doing. We are likely to offer further Zoom talks and hopefully we will
be able to undertake some outdoor visits. The photographic exhibition will be a highlight if
this can run.
Please keep an eye out for emails and other notices of what’s coming.
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Next Zoom Talk by Dan Allen "Women who joined the Army as Men"

Wednesday April 14th 7:30pm Zoom Invitations will be sent nearer the time.
Dan Allen has been interested in Victorian military history since he was a teenager.
His first piece of military research came about when he wondered who was the “Lord
Napier” after whom his local pub was named. Some weeks later he had a working
knowledge of the life of Field Marshal Lord Napier, the Abyssinian War of 1868 and a
fascination for Victorian military history that has never left him.

He is Treasurer of the Victorian Military Society, has contributed a number of articles to the
Society’s journal on various military and naval topics and also gives talks on behalf of the
Society. He recently edited the Boer War diary of a private in the Northamptonshire
Regiment for publication.

His talk "Women who joined the Army as Men" looks at a number of remarkable women
who, for various reasons, disguised themselves as men and joined the British Army. Most
saw action and, in some cases, were wounded. One became the first female Chelsea
Pensioner".
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