On Thursday 23rd July, 23 members of the group travelled to the Desborough Heritage Centre. They were met by volunteers of the centre and Wendy Schmitt, who apart from being a member of Brixworth U3A is a committee member of Desborough Civic Society. The Chairman of the Civic Society, Belinda Humphry, gave a potted history of Desborough. Like so many places the first written record is in the Domesday Book where it is referred to as Dereburg, Desburg and Deisburg only becoming Desborough at the beginning of the 18th century.
However, the discovery of a small cinerary urn, now in Northampton Museum, and other finds indicate a Bronze Age settlement, various other finds indicate Roman occupation. The most interesting finds are The Desborough Mirror (left). It is bronze and belongs to the Celtic period, 300 to 200 B.C. and is said to be the most perfect example of one. The other being the Desborough Necklace (right) which was found amongst approx. 60 graves. It is gold and garnet and due to having a cross as part of the design is thought to have belong to a high status Anglo Saxon woman who was a Christian, again this is considered to be one of the finest examples. Both are now in the British Museum but the necklace was brought back to Northants last year as part of the excellent exhibition of “A History of Northamptonshire in 100 objects”, held at the Northampton Museum. Both of these items were found due to the extensive Iron Stone quarrying that took place all around the town, although other smaller items were found with them no doubt much has been lost due to the quarrying.
Desborough was also noted for its silk weaving and worsted trades; much hardship took place when these trades dried up but then the Boot and Shoe Industry took over from 1868. There have been 29 of these factories in the town but now only one remains, Cheaney’s which makes high quality men’s shoes. The corset trade also took off with Symington’s and then the C.W.S. Corset Factory, which made a pleasant change for lady machinists. The company is now owned by Wacoal.
I then gave a short resume of two talks held at Scaldwell for the LH group, the first being about Desborough Co-operative Society, which happened to be my first meeting of Brixworth U3A. It was founded in 1863 and I am very proud that my 3rd Great Grandfather was the first Member and my 3rd Great Uncle the first President and late Grandfather was President for 20 years. The other topic was the talk given to the group by Wendy Raybould about the Worsted Industry. She mentioned that Bishop Blaize was the Patron Saint of the trade and had said that one of the three mentions of him had taken place at Rothwell and Desborough. She kindly sent me a copy of the 1788 newspaper article which was about the inquest of the death of William Crick who when walking home from the celebrations in Rothwell was found dead. The jury brought their verdict that he had died through intoxication of liquor and the severity of the weather. Obviously a very jolly celebration!!
Then Stuart Irons gave a shortened version of his film show of Victorian Desborough, there are many photos of old Desborough taken before most of the old buildings were demolished to build what is referred to as the bypass which runs through the middle of the town. He also gave demonstrations of how AI can colourise old photos but that one had to be vigilant as for example it sometimes it changed elderly people into young ones and vice versa!
At the interval tea/coffee and cakes were enjoyed, so much so that it was noticed that the recipe for the Sticky Toffee cake was sought by several members and Gillian Brunton took the time to email Chris and say the Lemon Drizzle cake was the best she ‘d had and that she had tasted quite a few. Members then looked around the large number of exhibits, some staying until 1pm and others saying that they would return and some would bring grandchildren.
Unfortunately there was not time to look at the beautiful church but a guided tour has already been planned for next year due to requests from members (26th August 2027, Chris). Wendy Schmitt
“The film show we had lasted for an hour with a break for coffee and cake. The best slice of Lemon Drizzle cake I have ever tasted, and, I have tasted a few!
Plenty of time afterwards to peruse the various rooms in the museum. It was gone 1pm when we left. Ray was still there!” Emailed by Gillian Brunton