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Maidford
Maidford maps
Historic maps of Maidford and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Maidford maps
Maidford photos
We have no photos of Maidford, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Woodford Halse| Weedon| Lower Weedon| Newnham| Road Weedon| Towcester| Byfield| Staverton
Maidford area books
Displaying 1 of 8 books about Maidford and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Maidford
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Northamptonshire memories
Early Years at Farthingstone
I was born in 1950 and lived in Farthingstone until I was 3. There are many things I will never forget. My first haircut, with me sat on a wooden box at the bottom of someone's garden. "All things bright and beautiful" at the village church. Walking in the Joy Mead with family or friends. Looking over the garden wall at the cows in the farmyard and most of all how much I loved this peaceful, quiet village.
Blakesley Manor
I have a picture somewhere of Blakesley Manor, which was demolished in about 1967 and replaced with a housing estate!!! My dad thought that he should have inherited it, but he found out that it was left to his grandparents (who were ordinary people, in service) with extensive repairs needed plus death duties, thus it went into chancery. I always remember the shock and sense of unfairness I felt, when I found out that it had been knocked down, when I had been staring at it only a year or so before.
Chris R
6th Northwood Scouts go Hostelling
I remember staying at the youth hostel in Greens Norton with the patrol leaders of the 6th Northwood Scout Group. I was an ASL (Assistant Scout Leader) with the troop for several years and as I had always loved going to the YHA hostels I suggested a couple of days' cycling for the older boys. Maybe the other leaders knew more than me as none of them volunteered to come with me! So I finished up leading a party of half a dozen 15-year olds with their bikes. Money was tight - I think there was an economic recession at the time - so we availed ourselves of Kellogg's cornflake packet coupons which could be redeemed for free railway tickets. And so we obtained a handful of train tickets for the boys and their bikes for the 30th and 31st March. We took a train northwards, I can't remember just where now, and then practised our navigation with the local Ordnance Survey maps to get ourselves to the little YHA hostel... Read more
When I Was A Boy Living in Badby
As a boy I used to cycle or walk through Badby Woods (then lovely-now wrecked) into Fawsley Park and fish all day in two of the Lakes. The Hall was deralict in those days and supposedly haunted by the "White Lady". Later the Hall was taken over by a Timber Company. Nobody bothered us kids fishing. I joined the RAF in 1955 and when I returned to the area 30 years later Fawsley Hall was a Hotel, Fawsley Park is now Private property and fishing the Lakes costs a fortune. Badby is now a Rich mans dorma village with no shops (used to have 3), no Pubs (used to have 2) and no character (used to have loads). All the family's who lived there when I did have all but gone. Progress ?????
Early Years
My early memories of Woodford, were being taken by bus, from Byfield Primary School, to the Moravian church, in Parsons Street, for the polio injection, also of going to the cinema, which was opposite the Post Office, to see the Big Country.
Some of my relatives, worked on the railway, I spent a lot of happy times, watching the comings and goings, to the sheds, watching the Master Cutler and the Yorkshireman, the two high speed mainline trains, at that time.
Childhood
My father was the village policeman until 1958 and we lived in the Police House which doubled as a Police Station (there was a counter for public use at the front of the house). We left for Corby in 1958 when I was 6.
My memories are of the blacksmith's forge (opposite the secondary school), Nobby Brown's dairy (next to the railway station), the picture house, Northrop's butcher's shop, the Fleur De Lys pub (landlady Jean Shrimpton), black topped bread from the bakery, the Fox and Hounds pub, bus journeys on a Bedford OB bus, Saturday shopping trips to Banbury on the train, cricket at Preston Capes and the village primary school.
Other names I can recall are John Kingston (dairy farmer), Francis Cross (farmer from Preston Capes), Len Summers (or Somers), Dennis Raines (who drove railway shunters), John Moore (the vicar) and Les Northrop (the butcher).
To School From Manor Road
Each day my journey either was via the cinder track (there was the old reservoir running alongside and the iron railway bridge stood in those days, the railway was still operating I think or in the stages of being dismantled) or we walked over a somewhat ricketty wooden bridge at the bottom of Castle Hill, there were a few hens scratting round just before the bridge. The hill was so steep when you were a kid, and doubtless when you are an OAP. At the top was the electricity shop and the post office and we went round to the school, the old cinema being used for indoor dancing and lunch. Testa's garage with the hairdresses just along and Northrop the butcher was next door. Going home via the shops down Station Road, Nobby Brown the greengrocers, Mace (run by the Edwards family, my mum worked there for a while), Wickens, the Co op across the road, Faulkners shoes, Le Bonne Marche, Sargeants butchers, Bank, unknown corner shop with net curtains, Lancasters,... Read more
