Page 16 - Jigsaw Feb 2021

Glance at the past.......................................................................................
A place to meet? Eric Franklin delves into the Literary Institute...
The first mention I have found of an Institute in Thrapston is on 27th June 1876 when a report was printed about the Literary Institute beginning
a process of enlargement
of their premises in Hortons
Lane. As a temporary
measure whilst the work
was completed, they met in
a room at the new Market.
By 1887 joint meetings
were held with the debating
Society at the Temperance
Hall in Bridge Street. Also,
on 14th December1876, the Mechanics Institute in town
held an entertainment to raise funds.
The Thrapston Institute for men, shown here on a postcard postmarked 1909, was opened in the afternoon of Saturday 17th November 1906 by Mr. Rennie Wilkinson (shown above on an election postcard dated 1910) who was the founding father of the building, having subscribed £200 towards the total cost of £340. Sited on land owned by the Baptist Church at 35 Huntingdon Road, it contained three rooms for reading, games and billiards. Responsibility for running the premises was transferred from the chapel to managers nominated by
them with popular elections to take place a year later, the chapel retaining three places on the management committee. On the opening day many men enrolled paying a subscription of 2s a quarter. The rooms were open each weeknight as well as Wednesday (which was half-day closing for local shops) and Saturday afternoons.
During the Great War many members enlisted. The Evening Telegraph on 26th January 1916 named 23 members who had joined up, a further six enlisting by the end of July. A Roll of Honour was commissioned naming all combatants and was probably placed in the building. Regrettably, this has
been lost and was, in-all- likelihood, thrown away when the building was sold to developers in about 1990.
As well as billiards the Institute also had a football team playing in local leagues which, as late as the mid 1950’s, entered the Northants Junior Cup.
The building was used
for other purposes than the original aims; 1924 saw the ninth very popular annual Flower Show, open only to members, which brought 140 entries.
In 1936 the secretary was a local warehouseman for a seed merchants store, Arthur Lenton who lived at 21 Halford Street.
When World War 2 began, men at
military bases in the area were offered free membership of the Institute, which proved very popular. In 1942 wider fame was achieved when the national press reported that the snooker world champion, Joe Davis, had given assembled members a memorable exhibition of billiards, snooker and trick shots. However, before he could start his demonstration, one of the members had to spend the afternoon ironing the beige cloth as it was so wet, probably due to lack of heating.
After the Institute closed it became a furniture store for Pink and Jones, a local removals company. During the winter months it was heated by radiators fuelled by a coke fired boiler which was looked after by Bernard Newman until 1962 when David Houghton, who has kindly given me many details, took over for the next two years.
When we moved to town in 1982, the building remained but in a very dilapidated condition. The final picture is one I took of the site in 1992, the building having been demolished. The Baptists sold the land,
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