The Rookery

A Memory of Irthlingborough.

The parade of shops situated on the right was once the site of a large house called The Rookery, we lived at the Rookery from 1956 -1962. This adjoined the old Procea Products factory where my father worked for many years as a lorry driver/mechanic. Procea was famous for making slimming bread. The Rookery was owned by Procea and split into 3 houses, (we lived in the centre house), Jack Thomsons (manager at Procea) had some of the rooms and the Brailsford (dentist) family had the house closest to the factory. Sadly The Rookery was pulled down in the mid-60's. The house was grand with large windows and very high ceilings. Today The Rookery would have been a listed building and saved for future generations to enjoy. The 60's have a lot to answer for in building terms, the shops which now occupy the old Rookery site do nothing for the high street except perhaps making a little more room as the Rookery was situated nearer to the road, even in this late 60's photograph most of the shops remain empty.
The shop with the street blind open was Russell's butcher shop, I remember one of the fridge motors catching fire one night. The building next to Russell's was the cinema.  My sisters bedroom was situated on the high street front, she would sometimes go to bed early only to get up again when she heard people waiting to enter the cinema. She would put a long coat on and shoes, cross the road, watch the film (in fact 2 films in those days) and return across the street once the show was over! The cinema closed in the mid-60's, 80% of the sloping floor was removed and it became The Civic Hall and used for wedding receptions, meetings etc. For a short time a local man tried to re-vamp the cinema showing films like 'Gunfight at the OK Coral' this was short lived and the the Civic Hall continued in its mundane role. The hall decor was stuck in the 60's for many years with its bright yellows and matt greys. The projector holes at the far end of the hall were never covered or hidden and would always be a reminder of its former glory.  During functions at the hall the bar was always situated on the remaining sloping floor so one had the impression of being 'half cut' after a couple of pints as you made your way back to the flat part of the hall!! The Civic Hall was finally demolished this year (2007).
The 3 storey building next to the old cinema was a hardware shop selling everything from nails to bathrooms. The Co-Operative shop was built during the late 50's-early 60's. I remember the old shop with its wooden drawers from floor to ceiling containing god knows how many shirts etc.  I think the manager's name was Frank Richardson. The Co-Op sold almost everything in those days, today Tesco now own the Co-Operative building. Farther down the left hand side of the street was Roe's fish shop and the bank. Irthlingborough High Street is now a very busy place with car parking at a premium.  During the 50's (like so many other towns) there were just a few cars and it was common to see Procea's lorries parked outside the factory in the High Street, in those days of no yellow lines it wasn't a problem. I recall parking restrictions coming into force, it started with parking being alternated from one side to the other by way of road signs which would be manually changed by way of a long pole. Signs around the town sprang up during the time of TB stating 'The children do not spit' these signs appeared on lamp posts. Policemen could regularly be heard at night patrolling the High Street, trying the doors of each shop as they passed! Today one wouldn't be able to hear such noises with our background sounds even if the Police had the time to execute such time consuming checks. This was a time of pub lock-ins, drinking had to stop by 10.30PM with 10 minutes drinking up time, I heard stories of pub customers sitting in a darkened Royal Oak (better known locally as the Drum & Monkey) keeping quiet until Bert Island (the local bobby) moved on to his next target! I wasn't born until 1952 but even I took part in one of these 'lock-ins' so it continued way into the era of this photograph.