EAW008860 ENGLAND (1947). The town centre, Northampton, from the south-west, 1947

Salvation Army Citadel

Horsemarket Primitive Methodist Chapel

King Street Independent Chapel (closed)

St Catherine

John Clare School

Lady’s Lane

Northampton Racecourse: former racecourse, now park. My photo is similar shot taken 2014, but taken from WSW rather than SW, and from a position further to the N. The 1947 shot shows an encampment on the site. Apparently not military, so perhaps Boy Scouts? Racing ceased in 1904, owing a high number of accidents, which included fatalities, caused by the sharp turns on the track. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Racecourse,_Northampton and http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw028098?search=northampton&ref=79

The Ridings. This area is now a car park. I understood it once to have been a communal area for the riding of horses, but there is not a space large enough shown here.

Co-op Department Store and Arcade

Town Hall

Emporium Arcade

Military Road Primary School

Market Square

Drill Hall

Louise Road. The houses backed onto the Racecourse (park), hence a good place to bring up children!

Police Station

Fire station

Municipal Swimming Pool and slipper baths. The latter a source of fascination and curiosity for local schoolchildren. The swimming pool had a little tick shop which sold "dog biscuits" to hungry swimmers. Think they must have been sea biscuits.

St. Mary's Junior and Infants School (catholic) in The Mounts. It backed onto Notre Dame High School. Children who passed the "11+" examination could then take the entrance examination with a view to attending the latter. The Notre Dame nuns used to collect up the fallen apples and pears from the trees in the "Convent Garden", cut off the bad bits, and bring the good fruit in a basket for the children. The school had a good reputation, and dedicated staff. Worst thing about it was the crates of empty milk bottles in the entrance, which stank of sour milk. Free school milk was a legacy of a deprived post-war Britain, meant to protect the needs of children. Though no longer a necessity, it was compulsory drinking for pupils. In those days nobody liked to challenge the "Authorities", even if it meant pupils being sick (the sour milk stench had far-reaching effects!). It was closed and demolished around the same time as Notre Dame High School, i.e. 1975.

Notre Dame High School (parent association: Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur). The Northampton School was established in 1852 after a merger of two Orders. The Sisters of Jesus who had been resident in Northampton since 1845 were in danger of closure as four of their Sisters had died in a typhus epidemic and so it was suggested that they join the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. In the 19th and early 20th centuries Northampton had a very small Catholic community, so the school had a large number of non-Catholic students. In 1870 a new building was erected dominating the eastern end of Abington Street in the town centre. There were additions to the school buildings in 1938 and in 1950 a Domestic Science and Biology block was built. By 1970 the building was obviously unsuitable for the needs of a modern Comprehensive school and its future became doubtful. The school closed in 1975 and the building was demolished. Existing pupils transferred to the Thomas Becket Comprehensive School. See: http://www.bfndn.org/Northampton.htm The "pin" is on the exquisite chapel, which along with some ancient trees, beautiful gardens, were simply flattened when bulldozers moved in on a Sunday morning. To the shame of the local Council, the main school building, a prominent and elegant structure on Abindgdon Street, likewise received no preferential treatment, and what should have been a lovingly preserved Listed Building was simply razed to ground to make way for a modern shopping centre.