At a meeting of the Rushden District Education Committee, reported in the Rushden Echo dated 1 May 1925, it was stated that the attendance officer, Mr. A. Mantle, was very unwell and unable to attend. The attendance figures showed that the percentage rate for all the schools, except Newton Road, was just over 80%. Newton Road was 79.1%. Attendance had been seriously affected by epidemic sickness, chiefly mumps and influenza.
Mr. Perkins reported that the number of students attending the Evening Continuation School had increased to 365.
The wage for teachers was being reduced under the Burnham scale and this was explained by the Clerk. Instead of increments being £12 and £15 they would be £9 and £12 and would take three years longer to obtain. Teachers now getting salaries higher than they would be under the new agreement would not suffer deductions, but would have to wait longer for their next increment. (The Burnham committee was responsible for setting teachers’ pay in the United Kingdom.)
The Rushden Echo dated 8 May 1925 carried this advert for the Northampton Town and County Benefit Building Society
This money box is from our collection
In the evening of 2 May excitement was caused in Wellingborough Road when a large motor charabanc was seen to be travelling in an erratic manner. It came out of Windmill Road and turned towards the Oakley but swerved to the other side of the road where it narrowly missed a lamp-post at the top of Pemberton Street. It mounted the pavement, crashed into the low wall and iron railings, and the front wheels went down into the flower garden which was about two feet below the level of the pavement. The charabanc was taking a team of cribbage players home to Monks Park Working Men’s Club, Northampton, from the Windmill Club in Glassbrook Road, Rushden. P.S. Lawrence and a constable were soon on the scene, and the driver was taken to the Rushden Police Station. Later he was charged with being drunk whilst in charge of a motor vehicle. He appeared at Wellingborough Petty Sessions later in the week, but his solicitors asked for an adjournment, and this was granted.
Wellingborough Road looking towards where the accident happened
The top of Pemberton Street
At the Council Meeting in May it was reported that the District Valuer considered the price of the land in Graveley Street to be excessive, and advised the committee not to go ahead with that. He would recommend the Irchester Road site if the vendor would make some slight reduction in the price which he did to 3s. per yard which was considered reasonable.
It was decided to proceed with the building of 13 houses on Irchester Road and 22 on the Oval Road site and to allot them to the following builders at the prices quoted :
13 houses Irchester-road, Mr. R. Marriott, £7,432.
16 houses Oval-road, Mr. Packwood, £7,432
6 houses Oval-road, Mr. Sanders, £2,700.
The houses in Irchester Road
At the same meeting it was reported that an application had been received from Mr. C. Smith, of the Spencer Park Tea Rooms, for permission to serve refreshments in the Park as the previous year. The council agreed to this providing Mr. Smith paid £10 for the sole right.
It was also decided that the ground immediately surrounding the children’s swings, etc., should be concreted where it was not already done.
The question of the provision of a cover for the bandstand was considered and deferred for the present.
Swings in Spencer Park
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this Mr. Newberry, having given notice at the last meeting, asked that the Clerk be instructed to write to the Post Office authorities requesting that a sub post office be provided in the south end of Rushden. He said there were factories, old-age pensioners, and a population of about 4,000 without any facilities whatsoever. Mr. Tarry seconded, and it was carried unanimously.
The tennis courts and bowling greens in Spencer Park were opened for the summer and the tennis courts were fully booked for the opening night with the bowling greens being well used. Games were played in the Factory Shield Competition with the following results: John Cave and Sons “B” Team 17, Tecnic “A” 6; Knight and Lawrence “A” 15, Selwood’s “A” 10; Coxton 17, F. Knight 8.
The Factory League Shield
Later in the month a United Counties bus conductor, a man named Green from Kettering, was injured. The bus was leaving the top of Station Road heading towards Higham Ferrers and as the conductor was collecting the fares on the upper deck he gave the usual warning “mind the bridge.” However, he forgot to heed his own warning and was struck on the head receiving a painful injury. The driver, Mr. B. Thornton, on getting the “stop” signal, pulled up, and the conductor was given the necessary attention.
High Street showing the bridge across the road
May in 1925 had been hot and sunny but was brought to an end by a terrific storm of hail and thunder. During the height of the storm two houses in Glassbrook Road, Nos. 143 and 141 occupied by Mr. and Mrs. E. Hinks and Mr. and Mrs. F. Ayres, were struck by lightning, and slates were knocked off the roof. The skittles-room of the Rushden Athletic Club was flooded when water got into the skittle alley, which is below ground level, and other minor damage was done. Tiles were stripped of the roof of the home of Mr. B. Coe, a partner in the firm of Messrs. Green and Coe, but no further damage was done.
The Athletic Club on the right of the picture
On Monday 25 May, four armoured cars came through Rushden travelling north, and as they were left in the North end of High Street for some time during the evening, large numbers of people stopped to examine them. The cars were some advance on the armoured cars used in the early days of WWI.
The north end of High Street