The NeneQuirer April 2019

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NEWS, CULTURE & SPORT FOR NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, FREE AT THE POINT OF NEED

NeneQuirer

April 2019

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Issue 18

Let’s say it’s spring

Coton Manor, known for its beautiful gardens, is a great place to greet the spring. It has announced the bluebell woods are now open for viewing every day between noon and 5pm until flowering season ends.

Heartbreaking story of how poverty became lethal for Kristians

Reviewed: The Tap and Kitchen, Oundle

Winning the Foodie Battle of Britain: A year of Food and Drink to prove it

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It’s Disneyland but just around the block

Neil Burgess, organiser of The Cobblers Brick Show, surveys his Lego Disneyland model with some justified pride. You can see all Dave Ikin’s pictures from the show on our website: nenequirer.com

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CO TENTS

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STREETWISE Northampton’s Chaplain to the streets Stan Robertson talks about Kristians Olstein

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SMITHS HAMPER Your chance to win

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WHY US Our rise and fall and rise

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THE TOUR Food awards launch at Warners

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MAKING MOVIES Our first film festival

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MERSEY SOUND The things that make you think of home

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HEY JOE Let’s go loco for Gogo Loco

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NENETERTAINMENT The river that runs through us

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FOOTBALL The trust thing

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Editorial

The foodie Battle of Britain

f you’re a vegan you might be surprised to hear that in the flesh William Sitwell is a decent bloke. He’s not turning vegans on a spit and by supporting good food and drink producers he probably does more to encourage an environment in which veganism can prosper than he would get credit for.

As a media person I also take a kind of meta view about the storms that gather around the things people say.

Someone has a pop at veggies, people rally to their defence, the same old debates take place but there will be a generation of new ears and eyes who hear and make all these arguments for the first time.

They are often the most animated participants. Us older folk, who are well used to being wronger than we realised, will have to patiently listen while our mistakes are re-explained to us. That’s ok because these explainers are the new defenders of the cause, whatever the cause might be.

If humanity reaches a point when it can actually be a completely benign steward of the animal kingdom then we should not disown the truth that we got to that point partly by eating animals. By then it might be our burden of guilt to bear.

So even though I bear vegans no ill will, far from it, I still trust William Sitwell to call things as he sees them.

And now he is giving Northamptonshire a little shake by the shoulders and telling us that we are the most important food and drink county in the country.

If there was a foodie Battle of Britain then Northamptonshire would win it. His words.

Now as Northamptonshire folk, knowing he is a county lad, we might not be that

The paper used within this publication has been sourced from chain of custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.

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The Team Steve Scoles Editor

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

Hilary Scott Hackademic

nenequirer@gmail.com @nosylocaljourno 07517378173

Alex Stockton Cricket writer

nenequirer@gmail.com @alexjstockton 07517378173

surprised to hear him say this. And let’s face it, we live amid the bounty that makes the argument.

Weetabix, Carlsberg, Whitworth’s mills, British Pepper and Spice... the pubs, the restaurants, the bakeries, breweries and distilleries. We all know about some of it, some know about all of it.

Staggering amounts of the wealth in the county is generated from the food and drink industry. This county has an extraordinary reach in this sector in so many ways.

We’re not surprised to hear William talk us up but outside Northamptonshire noone is going to want to concede that this is where it’s at.

The Northamptonshire Surprise Year of Food and Drink launched with William’s speech could be a year long argument with the rest of the nation - jumped up towns that have got pies and puddings named after them trying to take us down - but it won’t hurt us because this is about honestly being who we are.

The more people that come here to find out if Northamptonshire is the source of the force for UK foodies the better it is for everyone.

Steve Scoles

Watch out for a new way of having NQ delivered to your door, details coming up in the NQ newsletter Page Eleventeen which you can sign up for via the NQ’s website nenequirer.com or look for the tab on our Facebook page @TheNeneQuirer

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Tre Ventour

Culture vulture nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

Richard Hollingum Captain of the fields

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

Mike Ingram

Historian nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

Lena Davis

Reviewing the Situation nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

Julie Teckman

Hip young gunslinger nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

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Email: nenequirer@gmail.com Printed by: CKN, 2 North Portway Close Round Spinney Northampton NN3 8RQ Tel: 01604 645555 Gary Blunt 07764 220978 gary.blunt@cknprint.co.uk

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A young casualty of lethal poverty Steve Scoles Editor

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

went to a memorial service for someone I didn’t know. It was at All Saints in the centre of Northampton on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

The restoration grandeur of Northampton’s centrepiece church is a sumptuous setting for anything. It was Charles II gift to Northampton after our own ‘great fire’ laid waste to the largely wooden town centre.

The same king who had Northampton’s castle and town walls slighted (deliberately ruined) for supporting Cromwell’s army against his father also oversaw the creation of a church at the town’s heart that would not have looked out of place in any of the great Catholic kingdoms of the day.

So much for our curmudgeonly and down to earth support for the upstart Puritan army. God’s new town centre house in Northampton ever since has had a louvred belltower, a pillared portico and fabulous plaster relief work. That’s Royalty for you always playing the long game.

It’s a stunning building - a kind of local hero challenging the idea that the only way to measure the worth of your town centre spaces is footfall. It’s where the Remembrance Service is held. It’s where Songs of Praise was filmed. It’s the roll out the red carpet church but it is also the church where the rough sleepers came in from the outside to pay their respects to Kristians Olstein.

I didn’t know him but I knew of him. He was a young homeless man who had died from health complications brought on by his life rough sleeping.

His friends from the street - more people that we know but don’t know - gathered alongside mourners from the churches, charities and also the Roman Catholic priests who had ministered last rites in hospital.

The most heartbreaking aspect of his story among many, is that he came to the UK with a guitar and a starry eyed dream to make a career in music. He was a teenager from Lithuania but he found himself a job and a flat. Things started out okay but they took a

turn for the worse when he lost them both.

Rather than asking for help he lived on the street.

You might have seen him in the door of the Nationwide sleeping on the giant teddy bear he used as a bed.

Kristians accumulated a range of health problems living rough and picked up addictions. He was admitted to hospital in pain this year. There was a blood clot. He had simply not been strong enough to cope with the physical stresses of being homeless. His charming reticence and desire not to be a burden was perhaps partly his undoing.

In the memorial service the tributes began with one from middle-aged Jeff with rosy cheeks who met Kristians on Wellingborough Road.

“He never asked for anything,” said Jeff, who would always remember his smile.

Words that were repeated by others.

There were homeless people attending the service, dotted around the pews, some awkwardly taking their turn at the front to deliver their own brief eulogies, speaking of Kristians being at peace now.

The dangers of life on the street are not as straightforward as you may think. Your priority might be escaping the cold or the random violence of pub goers who just think its funny to do what they want to you and film it on their phones. By comparison addicts and sexual predators seem like a reasonable risk to take for some kind of comfort but they all take a toll on your life expectancy.

The thing that finally gets you might be the only succour your best friend could offer - a drink, a fix, an infection.

This is how life at the very bottom has always been. The recent political fashion for hostile environments and being tough on so-called spongers has not made that much difference because you cannot value someone less if you were already treating them as worthless.

The rhetoric around welfare budget cuts is more to do with society absolving itself of responsibility for the helpless and the hopeless. They never got that much from us anyway, not in comparison to the salaries of consultants or the cost of chaotic political fantasies like Brexit.

Stan Robertson is Northampton’s Street

Chaplain and the Project Co-ordinator for 16.15, which provides breakfast in bed for the homeless and whatever else they need.

I spoke to him after the service about Kristians.

“He touched a lot of lives. He had been on our streets since the age of 19. For four years he was out here and in that time he met all these different people from different areas and he did touch a lot of lives.

“This is a rare occasion when people from so many different areas, so many different street services have come together under one roof. It is a shame that it has to be something like this that brings people together. It is a shame with the tragedy that happened to Kristians but hopefully we have got a foundation to build on with people coming together.

“When Kristians came here at 19 he didn’t have any addictions. He was just a young man from Lithuania. He had a job, he had a flat, he had a girlfriend. He was just a young man with dreams. Life took a turn for him.

He lost his documents. He lost his flat. He lost his job and he ended up on the streets.

The effect of that led to the life of addiction and poverty you have out here, which led to the blood clots which formed which eventually led to the condition that killed him.

“I’ve permanently got etched in my mind the picture I have of him sleeping in the doorway with the big teddy bear as his pillow, cuddled up to him, which showed the youngness of him. You think about that, you can’t help but smile but feel sad at the same time that it has to be the way it is. He did that with people. He would sit just over there outside the Nationwide, people would just come by and chat to him and would always smile at him.

“One of the last times I saw him out here before he went into hospital he was in immense pain. I called an ambulance for him because he was just struggling with his afflictions but he was still smiling. He was saying ‘it’s ok I’ll be out for breakfast’. You can’t help but smile at that. It was one of those things that is infectious.”

However much talk of austerity we hear, Britain is still one of the richest and cleverest countries in the world. It is shocking to discover that there have been four deaths

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Stan said: “Since January 1 this year we have had Jerica who was 38 and was found frozen and dead in a bin cupboard up in St James on New Year’s Day. There was a guy called Sean who hadn’t been homeless for about nine years but was still linked to temporary accommodation and homelessness and he died of a heart attack at a young age.

There was guy called Chris who was found in Bedford Mansions, a homeless guy from out of town but he was still over here at the time living on our streets and he was found dead from a drug overdose. Technically there have been five because we also had a young lady living on the streets who lost her baby she was carrying.

“I think we live in times where we as a society have lost the value of humanity. If we could grasp that value and believe what we are worth as human beings, as people, then we would see the value and worth in others.

That is what will change this nation, that is what will change this world.

“As long as we go around with this concept of lives without value, the guys on the street their value is their next fix, their value is their next meal, their value is what other people say that they are and speak over them and tell them that they are worthless, that they are useless, that they are never going to amount to nothing, that they are dirty and they are druggies and they are all these things that they throw at them, and that is the value that they carry of themselves. They don’t understand their value as a person.

“And then other people their value is in their car, their bank balance and their job but their value of themselves doesn’t exist and it is about understanding that each and every one of us is equally valued and equally of worth, and when we grasp that and it be-

comes a revelation that sinks in to us that’s what changes things. That’s what’s missing.

It’s not so much hard times or the substances people take, it’s value, we have no value.”

When faced with a challenge like this some people step up and some turn away.

The response to homelessness needs to be organised and co-ordinated to be effective.

I asked Stan what people should do if they want to help.

“Don’t do it alone, quite often at Christmas and times when it becomes fashionable to get involved with homelessness and poverty you get a lot of people who say I’m going to go out and feed the homeless. If you want to get involved in poverty of any kind whatsoever you have to remember than poverty is not a fashion statement, it is not the social media equivalent to a poodle in a handbag, it’s not what makes you look good.

“Get in touch with somebody that is already doing, get in touch with the Hope Centre and ask what you can do to help, get in touch with ourselves at project 16:15, get in touch with 100 Ladles who go out every Saturday night, get in touch with Street Angels who go out every Sunday night. You have got Ursula and the Angels who go out three nights a week and deal with more than just homelessness they deal with other areas of poverty too, so first thing is get in touch with someone is already doing so you can be covered by their safeguarding and their knowledge of the streets.”

There have been attempts to stop people giving money to beggars because it enables their addictions and encourages them to beg.

“In regards to money, I don’t have an answer to money, I don’t give money,” said Stan.

“The only instance I would ever use money is if I was putting someone in a room for a night or there was an immediate need on the street I could purchase for somebody.

News NQ It’s your personal choice. Yes if you give somebody money they might buy drink, or substances and once you give them that money that’s their choice. It’s like it’s my choice to go home tonight and crack open a can of beer. Someone might want to go and open a packet of fags. Addiction is addiction regardless of the substance. If you give money its that person’s choice what they spend it on so don’t give and complain about it . To give food, there is the thing about killing with kindness. There is not enough accountability and coordination with people just giving stuff out. Ask them what they need. Give them some comfort or kindness or buy them a couple of tea, they haven’t got a fridge to store the food, they can’t keep the drinks warm. Ask them but above all recognise that that person is not just a blanket, it’s a person, they have a life, they have feelings.

They didn’t come into this world with the ambition to be homeless, they had dreams and visions, they have got mothers and fathers, people that care about them and miss them. So give them the time of day, give them a smile, say hello, ask them if they’re ok, ask them if need anything, ask them if you can call somebody for them. There is so much you can do but don’t look down on them, don’t drag your children away from them like they are carrying some nasty disease, don’t despise them because any one of us could be that person, anytime.”

It was an incredibly touching service with songs from Earths Lonely Angels, Father Oliver and Father Artur from the Roman Catholic Cathedral and many people from the support agencies that work on the streets paying their respects to Kristians.

His death occured because somehow we have allowed poverty to become lethal in this wealthy, advanced country. By any sane measure of societal progress we should be very worried about that.

Your chance to win a hamper by Smiths/Sauls Celebrate spring with a hamper full of top quality local produce courtesy of Smith’s Farmshops and Sauls of Spratton.

The two local heroes have teamed up to put together a prize basket of goodies for an NQ reader who can tell us what they think Northamptonshire’s best food or drink treat is and why.

Smiths has shops at Chapel Brampton and Billing and stocks up with fresh fruit and veg and a wide range of goods created nearby.

That includes tasty offerings from Sauls of Spratton, as famous for their quality meat and great service as they are for their award winning pork pies.

When you support independent local businesses like these, not only do you get great food often sourced by the person you are talking to over the counter, but your money also goes back into employ-

ing local people and ensuring Northamptonshire has a broad palate of options when we buy our food and drink.

You can find out more about Sauls and Smiths here: www.saulsofspratton.co.uk www.smithsfarmshop.co.uk To enter the competition to win a filled hamper (the goods pictured are representative) tell us in one sentence what your favourite food and drink treat is and why.

Email your answer to nenequirer@ gmail.com with the subject line: NQ Hamper Competition.

The closing date is midday Thursday May 15.

The winner will be pictured receiving their hamper in the next edition of NQ magazine.

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Discover community the Emporium Way

Steve Scoles Editor

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

here are parts of Northampton that have a bit of their own special magic and Emporium Way is one of them.

Yes, I can see the pictures. I have not gone completely bonkers. It is a pretty brutal concrete underpass, even adorned with its FAMfest artwork.

(You should have seen it before they got to work - have a look at the picture on the right).

But this is Northampton magic we are talking about - not Disneyland.

Emporium Way is named for the much loved Victorian arcade that was lost when the Grosvenor Centre and Greyfriars Bus Station modernised the town centre.

The demolition of the bus station leaves Emporium Way revealed like a badly healed scar teaching us not to do something again.

But the FAMfest festival of art, music, food and poetry also teaches us that scars can be celebrated, even decorated.

Organisers Sherene Ingram of Caribbean caterers BoxFood and journalist Kate Stanton wanted to bring the community together.

Kate said: “We wanted to celebrate Northampton and bring people into the town centre again, perhaps it’s not as popular as it was. Also it’s a cool space, it doesnt get used

KATE Stanton who organised FAMfest with Sherene Ingram

so much since the bus station went. We’ve have music, DJs, African drummers. We wanted it to represent the community and hopefully we’ll get even better at reaching out to different aspects of the community.

“We were hoping to do one of these every couple of months, so we’ll get this one sorted out and maybe we’ll do it again.”

On a sunny Saturday a steady flow of people filtered through the vibrant art market place and the circle of food stalls and wagons at the event.

You could not help but feel the lively social atmosphere is how the marketplace should feel, just a few hundred yards away.

FAMfest is on Facebook. Hopefully there will be much more of this kind of thing on the Way.

KARDI Somerfield of Fridge Street

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The rise and fall and rise of Northampton Mike Ingram

Historian nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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oday, critics are always bemoaning the decline of Northampton, the rubbish, the new unitary councils as well as politics and the decay of the town centre etc. many with good justification. The way forward has been hotly debated. There has been a growing number of people in the town trying to make a difference and to make changes. Each and every one of them should be applauded for their efforts. However, the town is still beset with despondency and apathy. But there is hope, Northampton has suffered massive downturns many times in the past and like a phoenix has risen from the ashes (quite literally after the Great Fire of September 1675), so like so many times before, if we all work together, we can make the town great again.

The town can trace its history to before 600 AD and by 1020 was a home to kings and queens. It started to grow in importance during the reign of King Henry II and expanded eastwards. The fledgling university and its month-long international fairs not only attracted Royal buyers, but buyers and sellers from across Europe boosted the local economy. The town was given a further boost in 1202 when King John granted the town the right to buy and sell dyed cloth.

The town’s prosperity can be seen in the annual payments made to the crown which at its height in the late 1170’s was second only to London. One hundred years later, during the reign of Henry III, the burgesses were reporting they were struggling to meet the payments.

Under John’s son, King Henry III, the town expanded further, becoming the third largest town in England after London and Norwich. In 1235 the market was moved from All Saints churchyard to a piece of waste land, just to the north. This waste area became the present Market Square. By the fourteenth century the town had a national reputation for fulling and dying with 300 cloth workers. In 1311, Northampton was one of only nine towns in the country to be

given the status of a staple merchant. It also became a trading centre of national repute for horses which lasted into the seventeenth century. Much of this is reflected in street names that remain today such as Woolmonger Street, Scarletwell Street, Marefare, Mercers Row and Horsemarket.

However, all was not good and there seems to have been a major rift between the ordinary townsfolk and the ruling oligarchy.

In 1274 there were bitter complaints in court that the wealthier burgesses were escaping the burdens of citizenship such as the paying of tallages (the equivalent of council tax and rates) for the upkeep of the town, often by settling outside the borough boundaries to escape the charges. There were further complaints that they were claiming expenses for trips to London on behalf of the town which were payed for by the townsfolk, whilst the poor had to pay their own. In 1330 a presentment was made against the Bailiffs of the town for taking unlawful tolls The people of the town were ‘grievously tallaged’ and as a result, large numbers of craftsmen including the weavers, dyers and fullers, left the town. Many of their houses were left empty and in 1334 the town asked for a reduction in the fee-farm (the annual payment to the king) as houses had fallen to the ground and rents had been lost. At the same time, the town’s bailiffs also complained that they had been made beggars although this was probably not the case.

To try and staunch the decay of the town, permission for another fair was sought. A four-week fair from 2nd Monday after trinity was granted. Attempts to halt the decline seem to have failed as an ordinance from the last decade of the fourteenth century allowed the mayor and chamberlains to lease out waste places which were occupied by “thieves and other filthy persons,” and where no profits had accrued for a number of years. The Black death which arrived in 1348 only exacerbated the towns problems.

Despite the decay and the decline in trade, the town was still known as a centre for high quality clothing. However, after complaints of poor workmanship in the 1440’s, it was deemed necessary to appoint two wardens to oversee the workmanship of the towns tailors. There are frequent references to the

fullers and their tenters in the Assembly Books from 1550 to 1630. The King’s Council noted in 1577 that merchants of Norwich, London and Northampton were in the habit of buying and selling wool at Northampton, driving up the price, to the great decay of clothing in the shire. James Hart, writing in 1633, speaks of the ruins of great buildings once employed in the clothing trade.

The enrolments of apprentices on the town records show that the tailors were still the most popular industry as late as the 16th and early 17th centuries. The poll books of the elections of 1768, 1784 and 1790 show a large number of woolcombers and weavers.

James, wrote in 1857 that “A century ago, the woolstaplers of Northampton were the local magnates, the weavers of serges, tammies and shallons more numerous than the shoemakers of the present day.” In the second half of the 18th century, there was a marked revival in weaving but by this time shoemaking was firmly established.

In 1535 an act of Parliament stated that Northampton was then, and had been for a long time in great ruin and decay, and that many empty spaces existed, covered only with the remains of dilapidated houses. It was ordered that, unless the owners of these ruined houses rebuilt them within three years, anybody who chose to rebuild them could take posession.

Another massive blow to the town came with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when from 1536 to 1541, Henry VIII disbanded the monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriating their income, and disposing of their assets to fund his military campaigns in the 1540s. At the time, around a quarter of the town was occupied by religious houses.

The priories were also the biggest landlords, with St Andrews Priory owning 100 properties in the town and St James Abbey another 60 alone, out of a total of 500 or so. The number of churches were also reduced from nine to the four ancient parish churches of St. Peters, Holy Sepulchre, St. Giles and All Saints. This meant that the huge numbers of visitors to the town for religious purposes disappeared. As a consequence, the hospitals which provided accommodation for the visitors also fell into decline and eventually

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However, towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth I a new charter, which enlarged its privileges of the town, and specified several fresh fairs, perhaps marked a resurgence of the town’s prosperity based around leather.

By 1524, tanning and leatherwork was the principle trade in the town with cloth slipping to second place. A common saying in England around the end of the Tudor period was “You know when you are in a mile of Northampton by the smell of the leather and the noise of the lapstones.” In 1619 there were complaints about the nuisance caused by tanners, glovers, whittawyers (makers of fine white leather) and parchment makers washing their hides in the river and the watercourses of Cow Meadow south of the town, suggesting a flourishing leather trade.

However, it was the rise of the shoe industry over many years that changed the fortunes of the town. Responsibility for this can be attributed to a single entrepreneur - Thomas Pendleton. In 1642 he successfully secured an order from Parliament for six hundred pairs of boots and four thousand pairs of shoes for soldiers destined for Ireland. It was an abnormally large order for the time, so Pendleton had to engage twelve master shoemakers in the town to fulfil it. Northampton did not have an exclusive contract for shoes for the army and the pairs made for the New Model Army in 1645 came from London. Another army contract to supply Cromwell’s troops followed in 1648. By 1661 shoemaking was firmly established in the town. Thomas Fuller, an English churchman and historian wrote at the time in his History of the Worthies of England, “the town of Northampton may be said to stand chiefly on other men’s legs; where (if not the best) the most and cheapest boots and stockings are bought in England.” The town continued to make boots and shoes for the army. In 1689 it received an order to “clothe the feet of William III’s army in Ireland.”

If the town didn’t have enough problems, in 1566 a major fire destroyed part of the town. Between 1578 and 1638, Northampton had no less than four outbreaks of the plague, with over 600 dying in 1605 and 665 in 1638. During these times, the town ordered “…for the preventing of anie further infection within the saide towne than the saide howses (yf yt soe please God), It is ordered that all howses suspected to be infected shalbe shut up, and the persons therein kept in.” Another fire in 1668 left only six houses standing in Cotton End. Then the whole town was destroyed by fire in September 1675. In six hours, it destroyed around 700 buildings [out of 850] including All Saints church. Local people and businesses rallied together and raised £25,000 towards re-building the town centre based around the Market Square. Even Charles II donated 1,000 tons of timber from Salcey Forest for the re-building. As a consequence, a commemorative statue of the king (dressed in a Roman toga) was placed on the portico of the re-built All Saints church.

News The collapse of the wool industry and the destruction of the town by the Great Fire left many in the town poor and starving. In 1693, starving rioters seized the corn-dealer Buckby’s wagons to stop him forestalling (preventing normal trading by buying or diverting goods, or by persuading persons to raise prices). Buckby was arrested as “an oppressor of the poor and a public enemy of the whole country.” Somewhat suspiciously he hanged himself in Northampton gaol soon after. Not long after, a large crowd of women went to the Northampton market with knives, determined to get corn at fair rates. When in October and November merchants brought up large quantities of corn for “export,” The townspeople overturned their carts, threw several into the river and cut open sacks. Matters came to a head the following June. First crowds seized several loads of corn and abused the owners. A battle lasting for several hours between the crowd and towns leaders followed after the crowd broke into an inn to seize corn. Two rioters were killed and another 60 or 70 were wounded.

The town was rebuilt and in 1725, its new appearance inspired author Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe) to describe Northampton as the “handsomest and best built town in all this part of England…..finely rebuilt with brick and stone, and the streets made spacious and wide”. He also commented that the shoes of most Englishmen from poorest countrymen to his master were from Northampton, showing that the industry had not only recovered from the disaster, it was flourishing.

In the eighteenth century, possibly stimulated by vast numbers of Huguenots arriving in the county, Northampton and Northamptonshire was also famous for its hand-made “pillow” lacework, especially items made in Kettering, Middleton Cheney, Spratton, and Paulerspury. However, Northampton lace had a simple design which was easily copied

by Nottingham lace machines the following century, leading to the decline of the local industry.

In 1818 there were only 12 boot and shoe manufacturers in the town. In 1830 there were 31. By the following year, a third of the men in the town were employed as shoemakers either within the home or in small places of work. However, there was considerable resistance to mechanisation of the industry in the town leading to “anti-machine” strikes in Northampton during 1857-9. The town became perilously close to loosing its preeminent place in the industry as a letter in the Northampton Mercury dated February 1858 attests, “The manufacture of boots and shoes appears to be the staple trade of Northampton and its vicinity.

Do you wish to retain it? If so, you are driven to the alternative of having recourse to machinery. It is a notorious fact that the French and Americans are sending into this country tens of thousands of boots and shoes made by machines. They are underselling you in price, beating you in the quality. You

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are not now competing with them on equal terms. Bestir yourselves. Let machines do the work of machines; let brains and souls steer towards that higher position to which they were destined.”

It was not until 1894 when the men’s union demanded that no work should be done outside of the factory that the shoemaking industry became entirely factory based.

Northampton became progressively more specialised, employing eleven times the national average of shoemakers in 1841, rising to 17 times in 1861 and 22 times by 1871. The growth of the trade owed much to the arrival of London-based entrepreneurs taking advantage of the availability of a relatively docile pool of labour willing to undercut the wages of London shoe workers. Whist the influx of labour from surrounding areas helped to keep wages low. The population tripled from 7,020 in 1801 to 21,242 in 1841 and in 1851 72 per cent of the adult population had been born outside the town. However, this massive growth and low wages had a downside. Living conditions in the town were described as worse than some areas of London by social commentators, with over one

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third of working families living below the sustenance line. Life expectancy at birth was 36 years for males and 38 for females, which was five years below the national average.

Typhus and scrofula were endemic, TB rates were twice the national average, reflecting the cramped domestic working conditions and the dust and chemicals associated with leather-working, and child mortality at 173 per thousand in the first year of life was well above the national average of 153. So, when we remember Northampton’s shoe industry, we must not forget that it was built on the lives of all those men, women and children, living in squalid conditions, and dying incredibly young.

Another issue that was as much as a problem then as it is now is rubbish and waste.

In 1431, the town council were granted powers to compel freeholders to maintain the pavements in front of their property, out to the gutter in the centre of the road or out to 30ft of a property if on the Market Square.

In the 1460’s, the towns inhabitants were ordered not to throw “carione or stynkyng things” into the highway. In 1505 butchers were banned from throwing offal behind

their stalls or onto the pavements. It seems to have not cured the problem as in 1520, a long list of fines was recorded around the Checkers Ward (market square) and the East Ward which included blocked or putrid gutters, dung and old rushes thrown onto pavements and animal intestines discarded in the street.

Things had still not improved by the Victorian era as according to the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns 1843/5, only 700 houses in Northampton were supplied with water out of a total of around 4,200 or 16.7 per cent, In November 1862 the Improvement Commissioners reported that the water tanks of Wood Hill and Jeyes’ Jetty that supplied the water for most of the poor in the town centre were contaminated with urine. The Sanitary Committee in its first annual report in November 1856 noted that in its first year alone it had issued 860 orders relating to 692 privies, 126 drains and cesspits, 19 cases of inadequate drainage, and 19 of the build-up of filth.

In an article in a newspaper called “Good News” from November 1869 called “Northampton - Toiling and Moiling,” Richard Rowe described part of the town saying “Bearward Street, already mentioned; Harding Street; Spring Lane, with stagnant duck-weeded water at its foot; Compton Street, the very unaristocratic namesake of the local earl; Scarletwell Street, so called because its well used to be supposed to supply water peculiarly adapted for scarlet-dyeing; and Crispin Street, are the most fashionable quarters of the cordwainers’ colony, a part of the town which is almost soley peopled by shoemakers and their purveyors. Neatly built, yet squalid, unfragant, two-floored cottages; roadways splashed with slops, and littered with garbage; dirty children quarelling, grubbing in the dirt, racing, squealing, squatting on the kerbstone in rows; vixenish women and beery men, in and outside of low “publics”, are the salient features of Snobopolis...After nightfall, too, on week days its noble Market Square is disgraced by scenes of juvenile depravity quite as shameless as those which ever and anon, when police supervision has grown slack, may be witnessed after church-time in Sunday evenings in the Westminster Road and Upper Street, Islington.”

Local politics must also take their share of the blame for the decay of the town particularly during the medieval period, and even then, there seems to have been two major rival political factions. In 1326, the then mayor of Northampton Walter de Pateshull, who was also the coroner (both elected positions) was beaten and dragged out his house by his political opponents which included an ex-mayor. They declared de Pateshull unfit to be coroner and a pluralist before forcing him to renounce the coroner’s office in an open court session in the guildhall. Public opinion seems to have been on the side of de Pateshull’s attackers, for though the deed was not denied, another burgess stood pledge for five of the offenders. The follow-

April 19 13 ing year, the king appointed a commission to investigate a complaint by William Trussel that 20 men, including Pateshull and other prominent Northampton men (including other ex-mayors) had ransacked his property at Flore. In 1437, concerns that a few families had a monopoly of power, led to the introduction of an ordinance prohibiting anyone from serving as mayor twice within a period of less than seven years. These divisions within the wealthiest sections of the local community were still apparent in 1484 when to avoid election, burgesses began withdrawing their goods from the town.

Until this time, in theory, every citizen possessed a voice in the government of the town, stimulating public spirit and a sense that private interests were second to the general good of the community. For over two hundred years, mayors and burgesses were elected at St. Giles Church in the town.

However, in 1467, under Edward IV, efforts were made in Northampton to control unruly behaviour at communal assemblies, by banning non-freemen from meetings and prohibiting those who were permitted to attend from yelling out nominations. In 1489, during the reign of Henry VII, the ruling oligarchy petitioned parliament to support their vested interests. “a large number of the residents, lacking in means or social graces, as well as in gravity, judgement, wisdom or sense, who have often outnumbered in their assemblies other persons of proven gravity, judgement and sound behaviour … have through factions, confederacies, and noisy and unruly behaviour in those assemblies caused serious trouble, division, and discord amongst their number, at the time both of elections and of the assessment of lawful levies upon the community, to the subversion of good rule, government, and traditional politics, demeaning to the borough and often resulting in a serious breach of the king’s peace…”

The town council subsequently took the unprecedented step of setting out how elections would be conducted in the privacy of the old Guildhall on the corner of Wood Hill and Abington Street which was able to contain the reduced electorate in an orderly fashion. It completely destroyed the old democratic constitution of the assembly and placed the government of the town in the hands of the mayor, ex-mayors, bailiffs and ex-bailiffs, and forty-eight of the burgesses, chosen in the first instance by the mayor and ex-mayors and subsequently kept up in numbers by co-optation. This constitution continued until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. In the 1490’s this was followed by legislation setting punishments for seditious or slanderous talk against the administration, and for disobedience to mayoral orders. After this time, the town’s prosperity decayed even more rapidly and was soon little more than a small market borough with a crumbling castle to remind the inhabitants of its former glories.

In 1650, Benoni Coldwell the mayor, was so strict in his mayoralty, both to the

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inhabitants and strangers, that many gentry absented themselves from the town.

Three years later, another mayor, Henry Sprigg was described as “very much selfwilled, and made his will a law, contrary to sense or reason.”

In 1665, on the day of electing a new mayor, the outgoing mayor, Francis Pickmer refused to hand over the keys of the Guildhall. The aldermen were forced to break down the doors before electing John Friend as mayor. On Michaelmas day, “ when the new mayor should have entertained his guests, he was taken away by a warrant of the lord lieutenant, as a prisoner, to the Lord Cockayne’s, of Rushden, to put bond for nobody knowing what, but they pretended he was grown a fanatic, because he forsook Pickmer’s party.” However, Pickmer still refused to swear him in, and the aldermen had to send for Lord Manchester, who was met at Billing bridge, on the 5th of October, by at least 300 gentlemen on horseback who escorted him into the town. Even then, Pickmer refused to hand over the mace and other insignia of mayoralty, forcing Manchester to seek assistance from the King and Parliament, then assembled at Oxford.

It was only after being held in custody for 19 days, that Pickmer gave up the mace. During this period, corporation property, which had been considerable in earlier periods, was wastefully managed, and became considerably impaired. Around the same time, the important suburbs of Cotton End and St. James’ End, which had been under the government

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of the town, was passed to the county.

It was during the sixteenth century that Northamptonshire became the home of great families and the county of famous houses. The large royal possessions in the forests of the county furnished estates for the new nobility who owed their origin to Crown favour in Tudor times, and by the end of the century the large landowners of the county were the dominating influence, and the county town came more and more to think of itself as the market town for the large graziers and the centre of county government. In 1701 a gentleman tourist, Sir John Perceval, remarked on the many gentrified families living within the town and its outlying districts who were a vital “support” to the local economy, and they, rather than leading townsmen, supplied the candidates for the borough seats.

Northampton’s local elections of 1768, now called the “Spendthrift Election,” reached national notoriety as the most expensive election in eighteenth century England. Lord Spencer decided to break the hold of Lord Northampton and Lord Halifax, two members of the local aristocracy who had held a monopoly on borough politics since 1727. The election was overtly corrupt, and the partisan voting was down to outright bribery. Northampton’s and Halifax’s candidates, Rodney and Osborn won the election.

However, the returning officer was overtly partial to Lords Halifax and Northampton and although there were a large number of invalid votes, a significantly higher number

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of Spencer’s candidate, Howe’s votes were rejected. Howe petitioned Parliament to get the decision overturned. Realising, they would lose, the two elected members flipped a coin to decide who should stand down: Rodney won and retained his seat. The three candidates had spent over £100,000 (almost £9 million by today’s standards). Halifax was financially ruined and would never again participate in politics. It was not until the 1774 election a truly independent candidate, that was free from either local or party interest or aristocratic ties came forward.

But it was the squalid conditions of the mid-to-late 1800’s that saw the rise of Northampton’s radicals such as Charles Bradlaugh and popular socialist militant James Gribble.

At the time, Bradlaugh claimed he had come to Northampton, with the backing of the men of Lancashire, the men of Yorkshire, and the men of the mines with a strong desire to fight the “working man’s battle.”

There are a number of striking similarities in what has happened in the past, and what is happening today. In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Are we learning from our past? What will history say about our time in Northampton? We can see from the above, that the town has overcome adversity when we all work together. Whoever you are, wherever you are from, be proud of your town, every step you take, you are walking on over 1,000 years of nationally important history.

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Eric Whitehouse Noho Bluesman

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer

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read somewhere recently, that in order to fit into the world in which we now live, you have to be either a citizen of ‘somewhere’ or a citizen of ‘everywhere’. This sounded to me like a new slant on the old sociology comparisons... you know, local and global, town and country, highbrow and lowbrow, and so on, but it gave me food for thought and got me ruminating and navel gazing over what the hell’s going on out there. Why, in the middle of my eighth decade I should bother about such stuff I do not know, but my crazy old brain won’t let me be. It’s easy enough to work out where I stand ‘cause it’s here on terra firma’ in Northampton UK, where I have lived my entire life and intend to continue to do so.

I’m so local, I’m a walking Costcutter! Some of my musician friends are completely different, traversing the globe constantly at a bewildering rate, although some of the older ones are now quitting the race.

Life in Northampton was so different in the immediate post-war period in which I was brought up. As wartime austerity receded and the ordinary people were allowed to enjoy a new prosperity, they became consumers for the first time as ‘New Elizabethans’ who had ‘Never Had It So Good’. My dad’s motorbike had been an old ex-MOD side valve, but suddenly we had the first BSA Gold Flash in Northampton, courtesy of Percy Spokes of Henry Street. Mum pestered dad to get a sidecar to stop me riding pillion, and dad built a plywood one himself, sawing and hammering in his garden shed workshop with those hands I saw so often caked in cement and cracked and bleeding.

“You’re clever like your Mum; I pray you’ never have hands like mine!” he said. As the decade wore on, The Gold Flash was replaced by a Ford Prefect in black, as the only other colour was battleship grey, because of a phenomenal over ordering by the military which meant that there was a glut left over from the war. Later in the decade we’d got a new pastel shaded Ford Anglia which kept us

up with the Joneses. Dad, with that mischievous kindness in his eyes, bequeathed me the old Scottery-Runaround thing (A Bond Mini-Bike!) and I drove it to school on my sixteenth birthday, thus fulfilling my James Dean/Marlon Brando schoolboy fantasies.

In those days, our world was a lot smaller than today. We were ‘English’, occasionally ‘British’, Europeans were ‘foreigners’ and American servicemen were ‘yanks’. But the age of mobility was coming and cars and motorbikes heralded it. Travel was romantic and us young ‘uns wanted to see the world without being blown up or sunk! I think we inherited a wanderlust mentality which in my case expressed itself through music, bringing me to Woody Guthrie ( and later Bob Dylan), Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Jimmie Rodgers, train songs, prison ballads and all that American wide open spaces stuff. David Allen Coe said you can’t write the perfect country song without trains, prison, mama, pickup tricks, girls, and getting drunk. That’s about right! My key to freedom was a passport and a Transit van.

I learnt how to start a ‘tranny’ by jumping it, by pushing it ( including up hill), bump starting and even changing a wheel without a jack. This was the price of freedom.

But we went places, expanding the boundaries of our little world, off on the road to nowhere. One of the first adventures the Transit got involved in, through our London

agent, was taking the band to Scotland to do a tour in territory that had been covered a few years before by a band of young hopefuls called The Beatles ( The Beatles played these venues in 1961/62 with Tommy Moore on drums). It seemed like a big deal to us. The tour promoter was Albert A. Bonini, proprietor of the Two Red Shoes Ballroom, Elgin, and he and his sidekick Bill Delgado had been doing this for many years. As Bill herded us into Albert’s office, we noticed a a framed contract hanging on the wall. Albert showed it to us proudly. Albert A. Bonini in contract with Nems Enterprises, Liverpool …. Name of Group: The Beatles, Length of contract: 6 days, Band Fee: £45 ( yes, that’s right! …. For the lot!). Oh, and that was the week ‘Love Me Do’ hit number one! At this point, all similarity between my own musical career and that of The Beatles ceases. Allie and Bill done alright though ,didn’t they?

And to be fair, we saw Scotland a few times in that time, did a lot of club venues: Dounrea nuclear submarine base, Wick Town Hall ( the arsehole of Britain, according to one of its patrons), played football with The Searchers and lost at Aberdeen University, and all night drinking in the Fife coalfields.

As a citizen of Northampton, albeit one of ever advancing seniority, I find it increasingly difficult to get myself up and at it in this connection I am very lucky to have the skills and abilities of my co-conspirator The Lovely

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Back on the road but finding the joys of home

Annie who is now aiding me in an assault on the places of interest and entertainment in our ‘somewhere’ country. The plan is to visit and revisit the sites that have meaning for us. We recently visited the Randolph Hotel, Oxford, because I’ve always wanted to stay at the poshest hotel in the city I dearly love.

I also saw Ray Benson, leader of Asleep at the Wheel, whose music I have followed for nearly half a century at a pub in the town.

In a couple of weeks we’re going to stay at Stratford on Avon, also a special place (B &B, Bard, Pru & Tim, Shakespeare and Hathaway, who could ask for more? ). Hey, and guess where we went last week …… Liverpool!!!!!

The Pool has only come up in my life a few times but the point of this place depends on times and places, so it’s like this….January 1958. Me and dad are among 10,000 ( yes, that’s right 10,000) Cobblers fans going to Anfield for an FA cup game. We are on a special train decked with claret and white. I have my bobble hat and hand knitted scarf and the gas rattle which Dad bought and painted in claret and white stripes for the occasion. Now people, a gas rattle is not your average little flimsy thing, it’s a big heavy number that air raid wardens used in the war and it takes both hands for me to swing it round. It is snowing, Everton’s game with Blackburn at Goodison has been called off and the fans are heading for Anfield, ensuring a 60,000 crowd. There is

talk of people not being able to get in, but Dad’s already got us a stand ticket. There are Everton fans in The Kop cheering for the Cobblers. It is snowing, Liverpool score.

‘Ugh!’. Then a miracle! Barry Hawkins equalises and I go mad. Swinging my rattle round my head, I clout the scouser in front of me squarely ( but accidentally!) round the head, which would have felled him were he not sitting down. It took a couple of cups of tea from Dad to calm this situation down and the conciliatory words he had to employ did not come easy to my usually detached father. But it was 1 – 1. The Horror! Ben Collins, under pressure from England winger Alan Acourt, heads into his own net! I am devastated. Liverpool score again. I can’t speak. It’s all over. Heartbroken.

I carried the hurt of that defeat in my heart for 58 years, until 2010…… fast forward to a September night with the rain sheeting it down and the Cobblers due to play a League Cup match at Liverpool. Since 1958 the Cobblers have only played at Anfield once: in 1965 when they lost 5 – 0 in the First Division, and they can’t be expecting much better treatment tonight. We’re on the train, regular this time, and I am with my new girlfriend, The Lovely Annie. Only an old (66 years old, at the time) romantic like me would take his newly beloved to a Cobblers match on a rainy Tuesday night, 150 miles from home. Always been barmy! We’re

staying at the Lord Nelson which backs onto the Liverpool Hippodrome and was used by the Beatles when they played Liverpool. We got into the Anfield Road end of the ground with 5,000 Cobblers fans, a fair turnout for a Tuesday. To cut it short, we played brilliantly. 2 – 1 up, then 2 – 2 extra time, penalties and ABDUL OSMAN silenced the Kop!!!! ( a song is born!). My eldest, Kieron, was there and got a big hug. Russell Lewis, Adam Marriott and the boys from the Racecourse were there! We were soaking, so we tried to get in a Liverpool pub near the Anfield Stadium after the game. “Just hide yer scarf an ‘you’re alright”, said the bouncer. We’re in the bar when a familiar voice said “Hello Uncle”. It was Steve Garafolo, aka Stevie G. ,drummer in my Backstairs Creepers band (and also with Tom Hall, Soul Syndicate and 101 other Northampton outfits). He was with us during our epic Amsterdam residency days. Great times to speak of, over a pint of course. Steve died 3 years ago and is sorely missed. All in all, a great night and Annie helped me get together a scrapbook of paper cuttings and photos from the Liverpool press at that time.

It’s 2019 and we’re on the road again – or rather the train. We got a taxi from Lime Street to The Hard Day’s Night Hotel, John Street, just around the corner from Mathew Street ,the location of the world famous Cavern. Before you say it, YES, there is Mark and Luke Street, but, given the state of this

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April 19 place, the names should be changed to John, Paul, George and Ringo Streets. You can go on forever about the The Beatles. For someone like me, who was 19 in 1963 ,The Beatles are a fact of life. You can like them, you can hate them, you can laud them, you can vilify them, but you can’t ignore them.

They’re yours, you’re responsible for them, younger people assume you are them, older people (not many now!) think you’re hippy like them. In Beatle Land they are ubiquitous. From every bar comes ‘She Loves You, Yeh! Yeh! Yeh!’ and you realise that, without possessing a single Beatle record (except ‘Live from the Star Club’, 1961, which I got on Vinyl because I like the song the bouncer sings!) you know every one. Of the half a dozen bars that put on live music, mostly all day every day, I never heard anything but Beatles songs on Mathew Street. You would think this would become tiresome but somehow it becomes a homage to the incredible effect of this time and place on popular music. In the three days we were there, I only ever heard one song I could not identify. I asked the guitarist in the band thinking it might be a very derivative original tribute.; he replied; ‘Oh, no, it’s from a radio broadcast ‘Live at the BBC’ and it was never recorded properly. Despite all this inescapable Beatling, it’s a vibrant fun place to be at night.

The Cavern is the tourist trap that you expect, but it is also a beautifully constructed replica of the original club which was

situated next door at right angles to the current one and was reduced to rubble years ago. The point is that it evokes the spirit of the original. While we were there, there was a young couple who seemed to be sort of Hispanic who were dancing and then taking pictures which the young lady was relaying to her mother back home on her phone. This resulted in first the girl and then her mother becoming emotional about the live stream from such an iconic venue. Such is the power of the Beatles even after all these years.

I shed the odd tear myself as memories triggered by the tunes came flooding back.

The acts in the daytime were mostly solos, guys who cut their teeth in the pubs and clubs and who enjoyed the cut and thrust of the acerbic scouse sense of humour, as well as the music. I only saw one band at the Cavern and these played 100 per cent early Beatles competently and professionally with everything in the right places. I admired the authentic bass sound and when I investigated found that he was using a mid 60’s 100 watt Vox rig. Spot on !

During the daytime I and my beloved took the opportunity for a quiet drink in ‘Sergeant Peppers’, the bar on the sight of the original Cavern that advertises cheap drinks and 2 for 1 offers. This is the closest thing on Mathew Street to a real traditional pub and is therefore the obvious choice for the ‘professional’ pub drinker. We sit in an alcove ‘viewing the day’. There are maybe three of four single middle aged men in the

fresh food

Stories NQ pub drinking beer and the time is around midday on Friday. It’s two days before St. Patrick’s Day but there are several people wandering around Mathew St. In these floppy green hats that Guinness gives away.

The pro’s drift in – baseball or flat cap, puffa jacket, blue jeans and trainers, occasionally one has a paper for the horses or the crossword. They seem to come in twos – to qualify for the two for one offer. The other group is husband and wife shoppers, laden down with bags; they’ll be getting a taxi later. There’s also a smattering of girls with umbrellas in their drinks rehearsing for the real action later. These people know where they keep the food menu, which doors open and which don’t, who’s got the key to the disabled toilet ( most of them have one!) and If Jessie has a shift on Sunday. This is stuff which is known by people from somewhere and while people from everywhere have their cosmopolitanism, diversity, and world playground, the people from somewhere have home.

In our sophisticated and complex society, people can identify themselves in a variety of ways, but pride in your birthplace is still a major force in the way people see themselves. Here’s a cheer for the Scousers, Geordies, Brummies - and Northamptonians – who take pride in their geographic origin. (Here’s to the Cobblers supporters who took off their shoes and waved them at the opposition the other Saturday!). Arise people from somewhere and celebrate your difference!

GREAT BEERS

SPRINGTIME BREWERS SHINDIG

POMFRET AGAINST POVERTY

CELEBRATING THE GREAT BEERS OF

MUSIC FESTIVAL

BEER FESTIVAL

YORKSHIRE

SATURDAY 20TH APRIL To raise awareness for Musicians Against Homelessness, the Pomfret versus Poverty festival is running an event with a difference.

SPECIALLY SELECTED CAMRA AWARD WINNING BEERS

OPENS FRIDAY 3RD MAY UNTIL MONDAY 6TH MAY LIVE MUSIC FROM SATURDAY ONWARDS

Bring your tins, pillows, clean underwear, flasks, water bottles, sleeping bags or any other useful items for us to divvy out to our homeless.

live music fresh food

ALSO MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES THE JAZZ COLOSSUS - LIVE AND FREE IN THE GARDEN, I LOVE THEM, THEY ARE SO VERY GOOD, 26th MAY THE SAME FACES - IMPROVISED COMEDY LIVE IN THE BARN, TICKETED EVENT, ALWAYS FULL, LAST SATURDAY EVERY MONTH MR PHILS MARVELLOUS MUSIC QUIZ EVERY WEDNESDAY EVENING, HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING AND HAS NO PEER GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - EVERY OTHER THURSDAY - THE FIRST QUESTION IS: WHICH THURSDAY?

HOME TO COTTON END BREWERY, BEERS BREWED ON SITE BARN HIRE FOR PRIVATE EVENTS 01604 555119 FACEBOOK: THE POMFRET ARMS WEB: POMFRETARMS.CO.UK 10 COTTON END NN4 8BS INSTAGRAM: THE POMFRET

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If there was a Battle of Britain for food we would win it

Campaign aims to showcase Northamptonshire’s foodie credentials Steve Scoles Editor

“I

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

f there was a Food Battle of Britain,” said Masterchef judge William Sitwell, “Northamptonshire would win it.”

He was speaking at the launch of a huge publicity campaign for the county’s food and drink sector the Northamptonshire Surprise year of Food and Drink.

Rockingham Castle was the venue and was packed with Northamptonshire food and drink VIPs, as well as a smattering of politicians for a surprise within a surprise – more of which later.

William, now something of a brand himself for uncompromising honesty, told the audience how he came to his conclusion about his home county.

“Cornwall has its pasties, Lincolnshire has sausages and Yorkshire has rhubarb. Derbyshire boasts its Bakewell Tart, there are Melton Mowbray pies in Leicestershire and

great cheeses in Somerset, while counties like Kent and Hampshire produce wonderful wines. Across Britain we are becoming a fabulous nation of food and drink.

“But when you analyze the output of the food and drink sector in Northamptonshire – from the 3.5 billion biscuits made each year

by Weetabix to the fact that 95 per cent of British households own a product containing a herb or spice from British Pepper & Spice – not to mention hundreds of great pubs, restaurants, small producers and drinks firms in between – you can see that Northamptonshire wins the Food Battle of Britain.”

The Northamptonshire Year of Food and Drink campaign will see escalator advertising in Euston and Kings Cross, a loyalty card scheme to get discounts at local producers and a web campaign promoting local food producers and events.

It follows on from Britain’s Best Surprise campaigns for stately homes and churches in Northamptonshire.

As if tempting us to consider the potential benefits of being better known for what we do so well, the launch was also chosen for

the joint signing of a formal invitation to China’s President Xi Jinping to visit the area.

Chinese businessman Andy Wang has put several years work into developing links between Northamptonshire and China. He is keen to establish an International Enterprise Zone in China that can link up with economic hotspots in the UK. He said: “I began working with my father on this initiative a number of years ago.

When he died in 2017 he made me promise to keep working on it. I studied in the UK and have always been impressed by what the country has to offer.”

China is also promoting a Belt and Road initiative, revitalising Silk Road and maritime trade routes. Is this the future of post-Brexit international trade deals for Northamptonshire food and drink producers?

To find out more about Northamptonshire Year of Food and Drink go to www.northamptonshiresurprise.com The campaign is on Facebook at @NNBestSurprise and on Twitter @NN_BestSurprise

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The ever humble Joe Martin Joe Martin talks trash blues band GOGO LOCO and solo venture Joe B. humbled

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enowned previously as the enigmatic, hip-shakin’ frontman of punk-rock group, The Mobbs, Joe Martin, aka Joe Go Loco, has adorned a Chuck Berry stance, and formed new musical outlet, GOGO LOCO, alongside previous Mobbs drummer Glen Foster - now under the alias of Cheadle A Gogo. The pair describe their new venture as a “maraca-driven trash Rattle and Roll Blues band”, writes Rachel Thomas.

RT: I was raised on a Rhythm and Blues and a Ska diet myself. Anyone familiar with The Mobbs and now GOGO LOCO will know all of your music has an element of the blues running through it, it obviously has an influence on your writing.

JM: “I’ve always been inspired by rhythm and blues, it’s the backbone of everything I write, absolutely”.

RT: The last year has been a successful first year for GOGO LOCO, who only formed in early 2018. The duo have had international success after travelling around Europe, performing at garage rock festivals particularly, including dates in Denmark and Spain.

One looked particularly cool. The Funtastic Dracula Carnival.

JM: “It was held in Penelope Disco, on the outskirts of Benidorm, it is is one of the oldest discos there. Built in the 60’s. It’s like a proper sort of James Bond type club. It was outdoor and indoor. Very late 60’s so right on the cusp of disco in Spain, I suppose.

Including a swimming pool. There was easily over a 1000 people there. Being only two of us we were quite small fish in a very big pond”.

RT: Despite there being only two of you, you still have a rather a full sound.

JM: “It’s all done by smoke and mirrors really! We just reflect it all back. Without a bass player you have to compensate a little bit. So more rumbling on the floor tom’s, a bit more rumbling on the bass strings on the guitar and the maracas fill a hole that some other bands don’t have, as well as, that normal cymbal sound”.

RT: If need be you can even do it all yourself.

I saw you back in August of last year at The Garibaldi Hotel - if you ever end up there, I recommend the Rattler cider, look out for the snake on the pump.

JM: “I’ve tried when [Cheadle] tries to run away from me. Which hasn’t happened recently. It’s me with a kick drum on my right foot and a hi-hat on my left and a guitar”.

RT: A one man band. Like Burt from Mary Poppins. We may well see you busking on Abington Street next week! A particular musical influence of Joe’s is Bo Diddley. The iconically acclaimed Bo Diddley beat is recognised the world over. It was picked up and replicated by the likes of The Rolling Stones, with their cover of Buddy Holly’s ‘Not Fade Away’. There are distinct remnants of the Bo Diddley beat that permeate through and constitute towards GOGO LOCO’s unique, signature sound. The track ‘Go Loco’ does this particular justice.

JM: “Bo Diddley was set to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, in 1955, and was told he couldn’t play his own songs. When he got to the studio, he went in and played his song ‘Bo Diddley’. Ed Sullivan was very angry that Bo hadn’t done what he said they should do, and banned him from ever performing on the show again. But according to Bo Diddley he says in his dressing room there was a piece of paper saying, Bo Diddley and then ‘Sixteen Tons’. As he was supposed to be playing the song by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

So Bo Diddley says, he took that to mean he could play the song ‘Bo Diddley’, as well as the song ‘Sixteen Tons. The cheeky whatsit!”

RT: Chuck Berry is a favourite of mine, they were good friends - Berry obviously iconic for his particular riff, we’ve all heard ‘Johnny B Goode’. Bo and Chuck once swapped styles, so on a Chuck Berry album you have Bo’s Beat and likewise Bo did a song using Chuck’s beat. They’re a musical treat if you ever track them down. It reminds me of the anecdote when Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis were billed to perform on the same night and were arguing as to who should top

the bill. Berry won obviously and so Lewis, who was on first, set fire to the piano before Chuck could do his set, with the words “Follow that Killer!”. Check out the biopic film, Great Balls of Fire.

JM: “I’d like to set fire to a piano. Whilst my brother was playing it, just to see the look on his face”.

RT: Joe’s brother, John Martin is a pianist, he plays keys on the ‘Gogo Loco Twist’. John is also part of local Stalkers Studio, where The Keepers and most shoetown bands produce their records and rent practice rooms. I saw GOGO LOCO most recently performing with The Keepers in the intimate venue of the barn, at The Pomfret Arms. GOGO LOCO have also just performed at the Bedlam Breakout, biannual psychobilly festival, held at Roadmender on the 15th-17th March. The event showcases both local and international bands, some from the US and Germany.

Bedlam Breakout, that’s not one I’ve heard of before now.

JM: “Northampton’s longest running psychobilly festival. In fact, Northampton’s only psychobilly festival come to mention it! We opened on the Friday night. There was a load of bands there garage bands, psychobilly bands”.

RT: Joe, you are soon to be hosting your own night, the ‘Tutti Frutti Rock n Roll Club’ at The Lab. JM: “The first night is the 27th April. I’m hoping it will become a regular thing. This time round we have, The Snake Rattlers from York. They’re an amazing band, a twopiece husband and wife team. The Shakin’ Nightmares, a four piece. They’re incredible as well, a kind of dark, Joe Strummer-ish, type rockabilly thing. They’re very entertaining to see live and The Hurricanes, who we’ve performed with as The Mobbs”.

The Snake Rattlers: The duo from York, describe their music as “a hellbound voyage of death-punk, rockabilly, country, and traditional greaser rock and roll”. Their dynamic drumming,

22 April 19 reverb-drenched, double-amped guitar and bittersweet vocals combine to become rattlerock, offering a brand new take on the rockabilly genre.

The Shakin’ Nightmares: Who hail from Redcar in the Tees Valley, describe their music as “rock ‘n’ roll for the haunted soul. Dramatic, dark yet catchy songs delivered with passion - music to chase the demons from our lives in three minute bursts”.

The Hurricanes: A local band, influenced by Northern Soul and bands such as The Who and The Creation. The Hurricanes will play original material off their debut album ‘Let’s Go!’.

JM: “I’m looking forward to it because I’m booking bands I want to see on my own

night, and obviously Cheadle will help me as well”.

RT: Catch these bands whilst they are local and you have the chance. So besides Bo Diddley are there any other artists who have a definitive influence on your music?

JM: The Black Keys.

RT: My favourite album was thickfreakness, the one with the tin on the front. It was a really bluesy one. You’d like it Joe. JM: “That was the first Black Keys record I ever bought. Do you know why I bought that record? It was because Thom Yorke from Radiohead said he liked the Black Keys and I was mad into Radiohead at the time. So I walked into Virgin Megastore, as it used to be in Northampton, and I bought thickfreak-

News NQ ness. And that was my introduction to the Black Keys and I still love the Black Keys even now. Seen them live twice. I’m a big fan of Dan Auerbach”.

RT: Joe has recently released some solo material, under the name of Joe B. Humbled.

There are certainly no holes barred in Joe’s solo project, a demonstration of his vast musical knowledge and array of talent. His sound can be likened to that of another of Joe’s influences, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. Is it you playing every instrument in each track, the drums, the lot?

JM: “Yes! For the first time in a while I’m in a position where I’m able to multitrack successfully. I have an arsenal of instruments to choose from so it’s like a teenage dream come true. It’s all me sat in my room, twiddling knobs and trying to make everything sound like it was recorded in 1966!”

RT: ‘To Be True’ demonstrates the funkier side of the blues and has a very psychedelic, Doors-esque feel. With its intricate layers and depth, it is reminiscent of the velvety ambiance and vintage twang of their classic, ‘Soul Kitchen’. ‘The Straight & Narrow’ is a more upbeat track, with a catchy, rolling blues rhythm that will have you whistling along. Joe will be releasing some more tracks over the next few months. Follow Joe B. Humbled on Facebook to be sure you don’t miss any. Joe also paints. A jack of all trades and a master of many it seems.

Upcoming Gigs: 27th April: Tutti Frutti Rock and Roll Night - The Lab, Northampton 28th April: The Vauxhall Takeover Weekend - Santa Pod Raceway for NLive Radio 24th - 25th May: Surforama RnR Festival Valencia, Spain 31st May - 2nd June: Cosmic Trip Festival Bourges, France Useful Links: facebook.com/joebhumbled facebook.com/gogolocouk https://www.mixcloud.com/shoetownsounds/11th-jan-19-gogo-loco

LOOK OUT FOR THE ELEPHANT ON THE ROOF !

Lightning Bolt Drawing World Championships Boasting two judges who have been struck by lightning and possibly one major figure from the art world, a new world championships is going to be launched on the Racecourse on June 23.

The Lightning Bolt Drawing World Championships, organised by Bill Pollard, will see competitors attempt to draw the best Lightning Bolt they can with just one stick of chalk. Be at the pavilion at 2pm.

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News

April 19

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Rural

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The Nene is part of who we are

Richard Hollingum looks at how the Nenescape project is celebrating and enhancing the river that runs from Daventry to the sea

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Richard Hollingum Captain of the fields

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

he writer Richard Mabey suggests that our sense of locality, our sense of being, perhaps belonging here, is as much to do with our feeling territorial, as it is to do with the landscape and what’s on it.

Possibly I paraphrase a bit too much, but essentially, we feel we belong not just because of the external things, the open fields, the shaded woodland or the historic buildings, but also because we have a sense of ‘this is ours’.

Often this sense of locality extends only a short distance from our door but more and more we are, quite rightly, being encouraged to expand our horizons and our responsibilities that come with being territorial.

The topography is important here.

Worcestershire has its Malverns, Cumbria its Lakes and Devon its moors. Northamptonshire?

Northamptonshire is very lucky. It has a thread that runs a good length of its strange shape, a thread that pulls the territory together but also influences the area where it touches. This is of course The Nene. At this point I will say that the advantage of writing this is that it is up to the reader to pronounce the name in the way that they see fit.

The Nene, rising from a hill near Daventry, gathers itself across the lands to Northampton by which time it has already become a

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force to be reckoned with.

On it then flows, eastwards, past new housing estates, shopping destinations, reclaimed gravel pits and out of the county, into Peterborough and on to The Wash. Follow its journey and you follow the journey of the county, the people, the agriculture and the industry and all that that has led to what was, is, and will be. Bound by this common thread, the Nene valley and its tributaries give us a unique sense of place and one that is worth celebrating.

One of the organisations that is helping us to explore the Nene, its valley and surrounding area, is the Nenescape Landscape Partnership Scheme.

Ali Brand-Barker, the Interpretation and Community Engagement Officer, explains that Nenescape is a partnership of 12 organisations which work together to a shared vision, “a vision of a healthy and resilient River Nene, where the local wildlife prospers alongside agricultural and recreational activities”.

This £2.6million project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is working to explore and use the history of the landscape, its industrial, cultural and archaeological legacies.

“Through 16 projects,” Ali explains “we will use the history of the landscape to shape our future work, encourage the exploration of the Nene Valley and secure its resilience in the face of increasing pressures.”

These projects are divided in to three main themes, though of course there is much cross-over.

Listen To The Past explores all aspects of

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the historical importance of the river, across 5000 years of settlement, through creating a heritage trail to using new technologies so that todays visitors can be in touch with yesterdays.

The theme of Explore the Now looks at the very recent history of the Nene and the changing landscapes of the valley.

The third theme, Secure the Future, works with landowners, users and volunteers to provide the right skills in order to maintain the health of the river into the future so that it can continue to be enjoyed by subsequent generations.

The projects are leading to lots of good work and are helped or even led by partner organisations including the Rockingham Forest Trust, the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, and East Northamptonshire District Council.

Looking after the river itself is of course important and in the week that I write this, the chief executive of the Environment Agency says that England could run short of water within 25 years. Never has there been such a time when we have to look after our water resources.

The three-year Resilient River, run by the River Nene Regional Park (RNRP), is possibly one of its most important projects in Nenescape. The aim is to restore altered or neglected backchannels to the Nene, improving biodiversity, heritage features and the resilience of the water quality and supply. Work is taking place on 11 sites including Stanwick Lakes, Whitemills and

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Ashton Lock.

Another project directly relating to the water itself is the restoration of meadows. Under the banner of Bringing Nature Closer, work has started at Ferry Meadows, Peterborough as part of the Farming for the Future project.

Helena Darragh, Nene Valley Land Adviser at the Wild Life Trust, explains: “last summer a great deal of work was done to improve the floodplain meadows to the eastern edge of the country park. This habitat improvement work was to create and restore scrapes in the meadows to enable water to be held on the land for longer through the winter so as to encourage breeding waders and overwintering birds.”

The retention and storage of water is important and luckily the RSPB have just the kit, a rotary ditcher.

Helena explains: “This is effectively a large sharp spinning wheel which scrapes shallow dips and foot drains. It does not create deep ditches, but shallow channels which means that the field remains farmable”.

These scrapes are now filled with water and the aim is to replicate this work at a number of sites along the Nene Valley this year, including Upton Fields in Northampton. At the moment the Wild Life Trust are working with other landowners and farmers to identify spots where scrape creation would deliver great environmental benefits for bird life.

“We have also provided grant funding to two SSSI* sites” Helena continued “at Aldwincle Marsh and Bulwick Meadows, and

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to a couple of landowners to improve habitat and to prevent diffuse pollution entering the Nene. We will be working with a lot more landowners over the duration of the project to create and restore wildflower meadows and wetland habitat on farmland.”

The Nenescape projects are not just about improving the land and the water but are also about how we interact with the Nene.

Memories of living, working or playing by the Nene, how it features in our lives, and what it means to people, is being captured in 900 Voices. Part of the Peterborough Celebrates 900 anniversary, the project is a growing online archive of stories, images, music, poems and films, all relating to the river. As you explore the website you may come across an account from the annals of the Northamptonshire Natural History Society from May 1935, or a memory of ice on the river at Becket’s Park in 1947. 900 Voices also includes an ambitious digital installation created by One to One Development Trust. This is a remarkable virtual River Nene where you can explore the banks, watch paper boats float by, or even dive in and swim under water.

Yet another project comes from ScreeenNorthants. Their latest film, simply called ‘Nene’, is currently in post-production and due out in the summer. It is a story of a young boy who runs away from home to find his father, using the River Nene to make his way to Northampton. A teaser trailer is already available on YouTube.

The funding for Nenescape runs out after five years and I asked Ali what was going to

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be its legacy?

“There will be physical things such as maintenance agreements so that all the work that has been carried out will be maintained by the landowners” she says “ and we will also have trained a large number of volunteers and staff members, in conjunction with our various partners, in a variety of skills such as species identification, and research techniques.”

It is good to know that all these projects are being taken up along the length of the Nene and involves anybody and everybody with a connection. Making the Nene Valley fit for the future is about prompting the communities along the river to understand their territory, expand that sense of locality and be responsible for it. Go and visit your bit of the Nene, rejoice and get involved. *SSSI - Sites of Special Scientific Interest To find out more: Nenescape Landscape Partnership Scheme: www.nenescape.org River Nene Regional Park: www.riverneneregionalpark.org Wild Life Trust: www.wildlifebcn.org 900 Voices: 900voicesofthenene.co.uk ScreenNorthants: screennorthants.co.uk

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Food Awards launches with Warners tour Steve Scoles Editor

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

orthamptonshire’s food and drink famous gathered at Warners Distillery in Harrington for the launch of the Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards.

six years that took his business from being planned round the kitchen table to being a global leader in flavoured gins.

His mother inspired their elderflower gin when she came in with a bottle she had made herself using common or garden gin and foraged elderflowers.

They have had to hire eight more staff and are now opening another tea room.

PREVIOUS award winners stand to take a round of applause

THE audience at the awards launch

GIN samples being prepared on the Warners Distillery tour

High Sheriff of Northamptonshire James Saunders Watson addressed the VIP audience which were later treated to the Warners tour.

He had arrived in his full regalia despite the windy conditions ruffling his plumage somewhat and proceeded to praise Northamptonshire’s food and drink producers and the awards now in their 11th year.

“We told her that we are producing top quality artisan gin and she can’t go using any old gin to put elderflowers in, then we tasted it and it was really good. We decided we would do it!” Tom revealed.

Now Warners Elderflower gin is produced in a single batch when the elderflower crop is ripe, distinguishing it from other elderflower gins which are produced with syrups.

Bottles of a new rasperberry flavoured gin were shared with visitors who also had the chance to sample rhubarb gin and lemon balm gin. Warners also makes honey sweetened gin and using honey sourced from its own apiary.

In the interests of journalistic rigour I sampled some of the rhubarb gin with some ice and ginger ale, which went down very pleasantly indeed.

HIGH Sheriff James Saunders Watson talks to awards organiser Rachel Mallows MBE

The county’s great transport links, its central location and its mix of town and country living have proved to be great incubators for food and drink businesses and the room was awash with success stories large and small.

THE fields opposite the Warners Distillery are protected heritage sites and can only be used for grazing TOM Warner

Warners was the star of the show and Tom Warner delivered a potted history of the

Iona Campbell of the Waterside Mill team rooms in Ringstead spoke about the dramatic boost that winning Cafe of the Year brought her business.

William Sitwell, awards patron, was introduced with a friendly jibe from Tom Warner who asked “How are the vegans?”

“I don’t care” was the reply from William who must be wondering how long his vegan roasting will be remembered.

He spoke about the passion of the county’s producers, both large and small .

Carlsberg has been a headline sponsor of the awards since they began and spokesperson Maria O’Brien took the opportunity to unveil the new Carlsberg pilsner.

WILLIAM Sitwell

In the interests of journalistic rigour I sampled some later (at a superb buffet at the Tollemache Arms) which combined the resourcefulness of Fruitful Abundance with the cooking skills of Joe Buckley.

The new Carlsberg pilsner is flavoursome and despite me having spent some time explaining to Maria why I wasn’t really a beer drinker actually went down rather well.

For more details about the awards or taking part visit www.northamptonshirefoodanddrink.co.uk Alternatively, please email rachel@themallowscompany.com or call 01933 664437 Follow the awards on twitter: @foodawardsHQ Follow the awards on Facebook: facebook. com/foodawards

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Review

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Bill’s may be a chain but a good shopping hideout

We usually give priority on our eating out experiences in NQ to independent outlets who, like our humble selves, are battling against the bigger chaps with their deeper, corporate pockets.

But after a couple of visits to Bill’s at the new (ish) Rushden Lakes shopping complex, we felt it worth a mention.

After a soul sapping search with a pre-teen, I’ve-got-my-own-tastes-nowand-it’s-my-birthday-money kinda trip, a break was more than called for.

There are several big names now at Rushden Lakes for food and coffee, including Five Guys, Wagamama, Bewitched, Zizzi and Nando’s. And while these remain popular due to the inevitable consistency of a chain-store, we’ve found Bill’s to be quite un-chainlike. We were greeted like ladies who lunch; made to feel like we, as a two, nipping in for a late afternoon lunch, were as important as the larger tables of ‘occasion’ diners.

Kids are treated well by the menu, with three courses (£6.95) including vegetable crudities with hummus, a choice of burger, fish fingers, bangers and mash or macaroni and cheese, and a very decent puds including ice-cream (including vegan options), or dippy chocolate strawberries. Meanwhile, the grown-up menu features a sharing nibbles platter (£13.95)that makes a very ample main course for a parent sick of looking at horrible ‘80s-inspired clothes they remember wearing first time round: devilled chicken skewers, calamari, niçoise olives, toasted focaccia, smashed avocado, hummus, purple basil & pine nut pesto, red pepper tapenade and mixed seeds. A watermelon cooler and coffee brought the total up to just shy of thirty quid. HS

ABOVE: Hanger steak with watercress, left, cheese burger with home-cured bacon, Cheddar and Bourbon sauce, above, panache of greens and below, T&K Caesar salad.

OPPOSITE: The Tap and Kitchen has a striking exterior and intriguing decor

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Tap and Kitchen’s an odd modern mixture

Review: Tap and Kitchen, Oundle Wharf, Station Road, Oundle, PE8 4DE

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E needed an excuse to move further afield from the county town to discover more of Northamptonshire’s culinary hot-spots.

When the in-laws decided, well in advance of their dotage, to move to Norfolk, a suitable meeting point for lunch needed to be established, to save on excuses for not visiting more often.

A good reason then to try out the much lauded Tap and Kitchen at Oundle, about halfway-ish between them and us.

The T&K isn’t so what you’d expect in your usual riverside-gastropub - no historic thatched hostelry here - more an odd industrial-looking barn in a corner of a sports field, albeit that happens to be beside the Nene.

Inside its odder still; a big shed on levels, with flocked wallpaper and eyepopping carpet, with big wooden tables and paraphernalia on the walls that confuses: is it an old ‘50s station waiting room? Postindustrial mock-hipster? Whatever. Good loos though.

The food is what we came for - and there’s an ambitious daily menu update, so whatever we had may not be the same when you visit. But I’ll tell you anyway, y’know, as it’s a review an’ that.

The impressive menu makes a point of sourcing locally, and it does a magnificent job, giving detailed provenance on all areas of the menu.

Our party began with starters of King

Scallops with corn and mango dressing and parmesan crumb (you got about four), charred baby gem lettuce Caesar salad and local home cured ham with mulled wine peaches. So far, so much posher than garlic dough-balls.

Mains options included more conventional salad, sandwich and pizza options, but all a touch grander than your Friday night Deliveroo, where you’re less likely to find salt beef in locally-baked sourdough or fennel, balsamic beetroot and caramelised orange. The meat and fish options that tempted our party were the 10oz hanger steak, with an acidic chimmicurri pot and a pile of watercress; pork belly with blue cheese boxty (a sort of potato cake) and red cabbage; and Atlantic Coley, with cauliflower, olives, peas, broad beans and sweetcorn with herb oil. Our teens chose burgers and pizzas.

While the meat dishes went down a storm, and would have horrified any nearby vegetarians (who are very well catered for on the menu, incidentally), the fish dish did not work as well. After much cajoling, the diner finally admitted she just didn’t like it., and found it dry and tasteless.

The service up until this point hadn’t been particularly rapid, but as soon as our waiter realised something wasn’t right, he flew into action, apologised and offered a replacement. This time it was a spiced cauliflower starter with cannellini bean mash, peanut pesto and crispy shallots. They

took both dishes off the bill. Was it just the odd combination that didn’t quite work?

They dealt with it well.

The criticism I would raise is the additional £4 charge for each side-dish - you did need them and it felt a lot on top of the £19 steaks, even if they were very good hand-cut chips. The panache of buttery greens was also lovely, although I’d probably just call it a bowl.

The desserts are very good - and reasonably priced at around the six quid mark and I’d heartily recommend the lemon posset or Eton mess pots with shortbread on the side. I’d find an excuse to stop for a coffee and a repeat of those any day.

The final bill was around £35 a head before drinks. Yes, that’s a fair whack when there’s lots of you, but there is a very reasonable set menu for lunch at three courses for just £15, and a well-thought out children’s menu, (we just ended up being a bit more random with our choices). I particularly favour the attitude of whoever wrote: ‘Any unattended children will be fed Skittles and Espressos...

You can see why the Tap and Kitchen has attracted diners from further afield - yes, it’s an odd building, and no, we didn’t get to sit out by the river in the sunshine with a sample of their own-brand beer, which I’m told is a treat worth having. Maybe we’ll need to visit the in-laws more often.

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Film

FESTIVAL judges Alan Moore and Rebekah Louisa Smith and Paul Mills from Screen Northants

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First film festival is all about Cannes do spirit

Steve Scoles Editor

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

orthampton’s first film festival closed with an awards night at Royal & Derngate and a message of hope from Alan Moore.

Alan was among the judges at the festival and has just completed shooting his first feature film in Northampton.

He said: “I would say the standard is across the board incredible having just taken part in a film making exercise I have a good understanding of what it takes to get even a few minutes of film together. The standard across all of these entries has been stunning.

“This is something that Northampton needs right now. With the county in the state that it is, it is about time that we recognise the incredible creative energy that this town has always had.

“Arguably what has gotten us into our current parlous condition is a complete failure of the imagination and the only thing that can get us out of that situation is the power of the imagination. And judging by the film entries that I have seen Northamp-

ton should be okay.”

The awards night rounded off two weeks of film related events organised by Screen Northants around the theme Coming of Age. In addition to Best Northampton Film and Best Northamptonshire Film there was a category first films and a 48 hour film challenge in which entrants were challenged to create something in two days inspired by the Alan Moore quote: I don’t think any of us grew up into the world we were hoping for or expecting.

Festival judge, and director of Alan Moore’s movie The Show, Mitch Jenkins, said: “For me anyone who can be bothered to get off their arse and make a film deserves an award, it is one of the most daunting projects you can ever undertake and anyone who does it deserves an award.”

Festival Film Doctor Rebekah Louisa Smith, who specialises in movie distribution, said: “I was really impressed with the quality of the films. You never know what you are going to get with a first film festival, everything I came in to judge showed true emerging talent. This is going to keep getting bigger and bigger, especially with the support they have already got. Screen Northants I am very impressed by, I don’t know the area very well but there is a lot of

talent and creativity.”

Eighty seven films were entered for judging in the festival, including 16 for the 48 hour film making challenge.

To find out how you can be a part of film making in Northamptonshire go to www. screennorthants.co.uk Northampton Best Film Winner: Ioyln, producer Joseph Tapp lives in Northampton Coming of Age Best Film Winner: My Friend Frank, Joel Caborn wrote and directed it while at Northampton University Runner up: Prey, Giant Dwarf a Northampton based company Northamptonshire Best Film winners: Hangover Food, director Ross McGowan grew up in the county Keeping K’iche, director Ashley Williams grew up in Northamptonshire Runner up: Troubled Waters, director/ writer Gemma Norton is based in the county 48 Hour Film Challenge Connor Maclean won with a charming tale of two stuffed penguins holidaying in Northampton

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JEREMY Wooding

Karin Johnstone

Boff de cinéma nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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shimmering lake surrounded by mountains, fresh air palpable. A small red rucksack catches my eye in the corner of a field. It’s my corporate screensaver but something about the rucksack resonates with me.

It reminds me of Kerouac’s description in the Dharma Bums, when he buys his travelling bag and checks out all the little pockets and straps deciding what will go where. It’s

the time before setting off, leaving behind the mundane, the known, the familiar.

The notion of the road trip Kerouac style is hitching a lift or hopping on the back of a cargo train hiding under tarpaulin, heading to nowhere in particular. It’s about self-discovery, connecting to others.

The idea of the road trip is one of those things, like doughnuts or burgers that the Americans have claimed and romanticised in literature and film as their own. It helps if you have empty roads that go on for miles through barren landscapes but there is no reason why British film shouldn’t do road trips. Two Northampton School for Boys alumni have done just that with their latest

film, Burning Men. Last month, writer Neil Spencer and writer director Jeremy Wooding, visited the Northampton Filmhouse along with producer Fiona Graham to show the film with a Q & A after.

The film’s protagonists, musicians Ray and Don are evicted from their London flat showing us glimpses of a Camden type subculture.

Penniless and hoping to sell their record collection they steal a rare vinyl pressing of a metal band, which may have weird satanic qualities if you listen to it. The idea is that they sell the record to get to Memphis. They pick up Susie, played by Elinor Crawley, along the way and she adds a gentle romantic interest for Ray.

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The psychedlic road movie that started at NSB Karin Johnstone reflects on a British film from two Northampton school friends

They never reach Memphis but in a clapped-out Volvo, we experience the surreal quality of Great Yarmouth arcade lights.

Then on to the council estates of Hull, finally arriving at the eerie landscape of the Holy Isle, where all three characters experience the resonances of the landscape, seeing marauding Vikings. The film has all the characteristics of a well-crafted road movie but in a context that we get. The soundtrack, key to road movies, works with jangling guitar music, primarily written by Justin Adams, but also features The Clash and recitals of William Blake.

Director and writer Jeremy Wooding was proud that the film is unique in telling the

story through point of view shots from the characters.

This means that we experience the strange apparitions that Ray sees, through his eyes, the burning men. You do feel like you have been on a mystical journey of the British Isles and it works since all three characters are engaging.

The film is fresh and authentic and I was surprised at the end to see that the director and writer were not young film students, since they captured the rawness of film and youth culture.

They referenced their favourite Indie movies, Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider and Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise.

Alan Moore in the audience asked if there is something about Northampton School for Boys alumni that draws them towards sex, drugs, and Satanism. Wooding admitted that yes, sex and drugs but not Satanism, with Melinda Gebbie in the audience adding … not yet. This film may well take on Cult film status, in the same way Donnie Darko evolved into a Cult film.

My own road trips tend to involve trains, bicycles or my feet, since I don’t drive and have watched too many Luther episodes to hitch a lift. Filmmakers and writers, let’s have more British road movies like this telling our own stories through our own journeys and landscapes.

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Books

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Revenge is such a sweet story Lena Davis has been a music producer, writer and Personal Manager; a photographer and journalist and, over thirty years ago, got together with Caroline Scattergood to create the Caring & Sharing Trust to bring music, hope and love into the lives of people with learning disabilities and their families from throughout Northamptonshire.

headache and

Lena Davis

Caring Sharing Trust nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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or those of us who enjoy a good psychological thriller, the superb “Sticks and Stones” (Jo Jakeman published by Harvill Secker £12.99) is one of the best. My guess is it won’t be long before it’s snapped up for television serialisation. They have probably put Suranne Jones on standby!

Jo Jakeman, the author, should give heart to amateur writers everywhere. Moving from amateur to professional is notoriously difficult for any writer, so it’s uplifting to hear she won the Friday Night Live 2016 competition at the York Festival of Writing with this very book.

After working for many years in the City of London, she has now moved to Derbyshire, complete with husband, twin boys and now a burgeoning reputation as a writer of quality.

Not only is it a jolly good read but it will also have you thinking about how far you might go for revenge. This book is all about how it might affect your psyche. I heartily recommend it to you all.

And now, for something completely different!

Edward Elgar Publishing produce lots of books for university studies.

I am lost in admiration of those students who manage to plough their way through the densely printed pages to find some nuggets of interest. I have devoted myself to reading two of their volumes on subjects

that interest me.

“How to Keep Your Research Project on Track” and “Financing Nonprofits and Other Social Enterprises” which cost £24.95 each.

They are both wrapped in attractive covers and there the benefits end – for me at least. I challenge you to find any books with paragraphs as long.

They might be full of juicy and fascinating information but it is virtually impossible to find the will to dig out anything other than a

crossed eyes! Yale University in America has a well-established publishing arm and the results published included firstclass and user friendly layouts.

They realise that students today can access immediate info on social media and printed info needs to be pertinent, concise and well presented. At the very least, Edward Elgar Publishing, hire someone who knows about paragraphs!

NQ

Culture

April 19

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Good Music From The Bad Side Of Town.

King Genius Records Looking for the baby Cheeses,

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Not to scale, our sofa is much bigger.

P - Hex Quantum Funkanics WARNING THIS MATERIAL CANNOT BE UNHEARD

The Sweariest CD to come out of Northampton AVAILABLE NOW FROM

facebook.com/leshasslescorp Available soon from

kinggeniusrecords.com

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April 19

Cycling

NQ

‘Some of my earliest and happiest memories are of the long rides I used to do with my Dad and now, when I’m not pushing weights in the gym or running at high speed towards a tackle bag, I find being on two wheels a great way to unwind away from the pressures of the rugby field.’

Piers Francis

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Cycling

April 19

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Piers promises to saddle-up for Cynthia S

aints star Piers Francis has poured praise on those pedallers who ignored the rain and turned out in force last autumn for the county’s favourite annual bike ride, Cycle4Cynthia, as he helped launch the event for 2019, exclaims Anna Murby!

The centre, who is a passionate cyclist himself, was on hand at Franklin’s Gardens (Tuesday 2nd April) to pay tribute to the hundreds of riders who, despite the miserable weather at Althorp last September, took to two wheels and whose remarkable efforts have added a further, impressive £65,000 to the coffers of Northamptonshire’s Cynthia Spencer Hospice.

Among them was Jessica Pilkington, who led a team of 17 cyclists in memory of her son Harry Chadwick, who was just nineteen when he passed away last March.

Having been given the opportunity to meet others with cancer as a patient at the day hospice for the year before he died, Harry’s last days were spent at home and it was in enabling that move to familiar surroundings for which Jessica says she couldn’t thank Cynthia Spencer and its Hospice at Home Team enough: “My sister had lived out her final days at the hospice, where we all experienced the wonderful care of the entire staff, but that Harry was able to die at home, surrounded by his family, was an incredible gift” explained Jessica.

“So although last year’s ride was only six months afterwards, we knew we just had to ride as we wanted to show our immense gratitude in the best possible way - by raising money and ensuring that others have access to such amazing support should they sadly ever need it” she said.

Indeed, Team Harry’s generous donation of £2600 – taking the total raised in the fifteen-year history of the event to almost £600k - ultimately saw Piers award Jessica and the team with the Chairman’s Cup, a trophy which is given to someone whose special efforts represent the ‘spirit of the ride’.

Piers also presented the other 2018 trophies, including that for most money raised by an individual, which went to Gary Denton for collecting over £500, to the biggest team, won again by Shirefit East Northants with 52 riders, and for the best fancy dress, which went to friends Lynsey Brecani and Karen

Eke, who were again sporting the colourful tutus, socks and outsize sunglasses which had brought grins to their fellow riders’ faces at last year’s ride.

Meanwhile the award for the corporate team raising the most money went for the second year running to Northampton firm Piroto Labelling, whose 40 cyclists raised more than £7,000, taking their two-year total to more than £22k. They were riding in memory of their colleague Laura Silk who passed away at Cynthia Spencer in 2017.

As well as the trophy presentations, guests also watched a video of highlights from last year’s ride and a second demonstrating the impact of the Hospice’s Wellbeing service, which allows patients and their families to achieve the best possible quality of life and live as actively as possible until they die.

The launch also provided an opportunity for the Hospice’s fundraising manager, John Helm, to thank the event’s continuing sponsors, including leading commercial law, EMW Law LLP, who are headline sponsors for the second time, as well as timber merchants and countrywear specialists, Linnell Bros Ltd, and lettings and sales agent, Chelton Brown: “The generous support from our sponsors covers much of the ride’s costs which means that the money raised by the riders can go directly towards funding our vital care” explained John.

“Cycle4Cynthia is our biggest fundraiser in the year and £64,807.67 is a fantastic

total, especially when you consider how the weather tried to interfere, so we’re incredibly grateful to everyone for their support and would encourage anyone with two wheels to take part this September and help make it the best ride yet!” he added.

Indeed those were sentiments echoed by Piers, who concluded the launch by commending all of those who took part in 2018, as well as the sponsors, marshals and volunteers who helped make that fifteenth ride such a success and urged everyone to sign up for this year’s event: “Tonight’s launch has been both emotional and inspirational and I applaud all those who have helped raise such an amazing figure to enable the Hospice to continue its outstanding work” said Piers.

“The only thing that’s going to stop me from riding this September is if we have a fixture that day but, otherwise, I shall be there to show my commitment to this most remarkable of charities and I hope there will be many hundreds more who will sign up and join me!” he enthused.

Cycle4Cynthia 2019 will take place on Sunday 22nd September at Holdenby House by kind permission of James and Karen Lowther, with 5, 25 and 50 mile routes on offer.

For more information, including registering for the ride or for details of corporate sponsorship opportunities, please call the Hospice on 01604 21094 or email fundraising@cynthiaspencer.co.uk

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April 19

James Grayson was named the Premiership Cup Breakthrough Player of the Season and also won Man of the Match in the final at Franklin’s Gardens

Sport

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Sport

April 19

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Teimana Harrison returned to action at Number Eight in the final after an injury lay-off with hamstring problems. He scored Saints’ first try in the final.

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April 19

Ahsee Tuala played on the wing for Saints and scored a try. He is often picked out by his team-mates as one of the most skillful players at the club.

Sport

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Sport

April 19

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The Premiership Cup was devised to give a chance for academy players to shine and Lewis Ludlam is a homegrown talent who has made a big impact

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April 19

Tom Wood, one of Saints senior players, scored a try in the final and praised the home fans for their vocal support: “We really heard them�.

Sport

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Sport

April 19

Cobus Reinach replaced Alex Mitchell towards the end of the game. Here he tackles former Saints Academy player Rotimi Segun

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April 19

Cobblers

NQ

Follow @NQNTFC on Twitter for tweets from the terraces about Northampton Town

Take back the town Tom Reed

Cobblers Correspondent nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 07517378173

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he Cobblers Supporters’ Trust held a successful public meeting in March to discuss community ownership of Northampton Town FC. The meeting, held at the Park Inn, was attended by upwards of a hundred people and was the most significant fans’ meeting since the Exeter Rooms of the 1990’s when the Trust was first formed.

The meeting was Chaired by Trust Chair Andy Roberts and featured a panel consisting of Ashley Brown from Supporters Direct, who was a Director at Portsmouth FC in their period of community ownership. Nick Hawker and Elaine Davis came up from Exeter City Trust, the Grecians being a fan-owned club higher in the league than Town and with a thriving academy and having recently completed a new stand. Finally, Roy Crutchley, Director of Phipps brewery completed the lineup with the historic Northampton business throwing their support behind the concept of community ownership.

An interested audience heard the success of community ownership at Portsmouth

from Ashley Brown who talked of the challenges and benefits of fans having a stake in their team. The Pompey Trust took over at Fratton Park via investment from fans and 10 individuals who each put in a minimum of 50k.

Recently, Portsmouth Trust sold their stake to ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner after receiving a club changing bid. All the investors in their community venture got their money back and Northampton would be in a similar position to trade the club on from community ownership should a massive show of investment come in.

The meeting was opened with a message of support from Accrington Stanley Chairman And Holt, with well-run Stanley propelled to League 1 on a small budget.

Holt asserted that clubs do not need single backers to thrive and that the Trust’s community ownership project was an interesting proposition.

The Cobblers Supporters’ Trust is looking mainly at a hybrid model of community ownership that mixes private and public investment from individuals, business and supporters. Along with the meeting, the Trust presented its innovative Project: Proud To Be which introduced the idea of an Infrastructure Foundation to improve

the physical infrastructure of the club along with plans for the Cobblers to join with the Saints and the Northants Crickets and other town sports to form a sporting club as are popular on the continent. The idea would be to have various sports clubs united under one banner but retaining their individuality and some joined up thinking on sports provision in the town.

The meeting was a success from the Trust’s perspective with various opinions raised in a Q+A as to the future of the Cobblers and sport in Northampton. Following the meeting a troubling set of club financial statements were released pertaining to a “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.

At the time of writing there has still been no public go ahead towards the completion of the Sixfields East Stand between Northampton Borough Council and Northampton Town FC. The Supporters’ Trust believe that Community Ownership can be a viable option for the Cobblers and in fact they may well be ahead of the game on that front with multiple Football League teams up for sale and several in financial strife. It now falls on the Trust to present some concrete plans that can truly take the club forwards.

NQ

April 19

Sport

nenequirer@gmail.com

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