Rushden

History

The name Rushden derives from the Old English riscendenu meaning 'rushy valley'. Rushden's growth has resulted from a number of industries, including lacemaking and farming, and especially shoemaking and associated trades. In the mid-1900s there were well over 100 boot and shoe factories in Rushden but today there are only four shoemaking companies left in Rushden. The novelist and short story writer H. E. Bates, who grew up in Rushden, based many of his stories, notably "Love for Lydia", in Rushden, changing its name to Evensford. He recorded the past beauties of the surrounding countryside as he remembered it from the 1910s through to the 1940s, before much was destroyed by developments. He also gives childhood Iglimpses of vanished ways of life of many countryfolk, such as in the short stories, "The Watercress Girl", "The Mower", "The Cowslip Field", and "Great Uncle Crow". He often mentions the leather factories and bootmaking of "Evensford" (Rushden), and how the air in the town was often permeated with the smell of leather and its processing agents. One of the most renowned is Sanders and Sanders, who make boots for the British Army and several other defence departments throughout the world. Some of the redundant factories have been converted into flats, and MPs support for government help has been limited. Today, as with many towns in England, industry in the town is varied, and mostly situated in an out-of-town industrial estate. As with the industry, town centre shopping in Rushden has changed considerably although there are still many shops. Rushden has the oldest toy shop in the county. In 1893 a short branch line railway opened linking Rushden and Higham Ferrers with the Midland Main Line. The line was closed in 1959 and dismantled. In 1991 the trackbed…