Thrapston

Thrapston is a small medieval market town engulfed in 19th- and 20th-century housing and factories. The views in this book concentrate on this mostly red brick and slate element of the town’s architectural history. This view looks north along Midland Road, its name deriving from the old railway station. The terraces and villas shown are all intact today.
An extract from from"Northamptonshire Living Memories".

This view is also from the Islip bank, but further upstream. The houses in the distance have been demolished. The reed beds along the river were once harvested for the local Loveday family, who produced baskets, horse collars, chair seats and other products. Their workshops closed in 1960.
An extract from from"Northamptonshire Living Memories".

By way of contrast, Frith’s photographer looks along De Vere Road. Pairs of 1930s semis seem to march down the hill, the view made more bleak by the brutal municipal pruning of the silver birch trees - they are now no more substantial than the street lamp or the telephone line pole.
An extract from from"Northamptonshire Living Memories".

All along the Nene valley hereabouts are flooded iron ore pits, some of which have been turned into fishing or boating lakes. There is more development here now, with a yacht club boathouse and more leisure facilities to suit modern expectations.
An extract from from"Northamptonshire Living Memories".

Here we see more late Victorian and Edwardian terraces and villas, mostly built of brick or roughcast. The road curves towards the town centre, passing the end of De Vere Road. The shop in the distance is now a bigger ‘One-Stop Shop’. At the far end are the two gabled bays of the Old Rectory.
An extract from from"Northamptonshire Living Memories".