Articles Online

A sample of articles either distributed internally within the society or already published. Printed copies may be available from the society where indicated.
Shown here in reverse chronological order.

On Yer Bikes

An account of the careers of two Irthlingborough cyclists who competed at the highest level: Ralph Horne & Leonard Parsons.
Roy York, August 2020
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Early Years of the Salvation Army.

Roy York describes the history of the Salvation Army, its development in Northamptonshire and his own personal memories of being a member in his youth.
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The Life and Times of Jim Horner

Jim Horner made these notes of his memories for the Historical Society in 1994.
Subsequently they have been turned into a video for use by the society.
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The Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of waterloo was filmed in 1913 at Irthlingborough and was one of the biggest films of its day. It was made by an American named Charles Weston and he chose the location because the real Duke of Wellington, on visiting the area commented that the countryside resembled the battlefield at Waterloo.
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Greetings Spanning 225 Years

The society Newsletter of April 2015 included a detailed account of making contact with the family of John Woolston, who emigrated to America from Irthlingborough in 1775.
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Web Archives

This current web site was rebuilt in August 2020 to take advantage of newer tools and techniques. Many articles from the previous version have been retained here for reference and for your enjoyment.

Laundry Staff

The alphabetical list of Laundry Employees is pasted directly from our old web site. If it needs updating, please tell us and we’ll rebuild it.
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Newsletter March 2017

The newsletters of past years are superseded by the “blogs” or “posts” on our web site or our Facebook pages.
The newsletter from March 2017 contained so much fascinating information about chapels, churches and the Salvation Army in Irthlingborough that we have kept it here.
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Battle of Waterloo (archive version)

The Society has written several accounts of the making of the film “the Battle of Waterloo” in 1913. Click this heading for the version from our old web site. There is another account referenced a few paragraphs above.
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War Memorial

In tribute to the men from Irthlingborough who gave their lives in the First World War.
– A table of what our researches have revealed, click this heading.
– The book “In Memoriam” which is on permanent display in St Peters Church. with another copy available for reference in Irthlingborough Library.
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Shoe Words

The Irthlingborough Historical Society published a book entitled ‘Clicking to Closing’ about the history of the Express shoe factory in Irthlingborough.
As a sequel to this, we have found numerous kind contributors who have allowed us to build a collection of words and expressions used in the shoe industry in Northamptonshire and in particular, those terms that were commonly in use around the factories in Irthlingborough and the surrounding towns.
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Lime Street

Before houses were built on the allotments at Lime Street, the area was surveyed and excavated for its archaeological features. These include part of an Iron Age farm, Saxon pits and ditches, and a mediaeval stone building.
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Pocket Park

The Irthlingborough Pocket Park once covered an area much of which which has now been included in the Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows nature reserve after Hanson abandoned their gravel pits, plus one field area not destroyed by gravel extraction and iron ore mining. An archaeological survey of this field turned up traces of everything from Iron Age settlement to Roman roads.
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Almshouses

There are six Louisa Lilley alms houses in Irthlingborough and fourteen more in Wellingborough, all built in the early 1930’s.
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April 2015

The society’s newsletter from April 2015 included snippets of local news plus a longer account of an association with a family in America. It deserves to be included here for your entertainment.
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Shorts

Short, or sometimes just lonely, articles, extract and snippets which have been collected and treasured, for sharing.
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