Page 20 - Jigsaw January 2021

Glance at the past........................................................................................
Commemorating Thrapston Eric Franklin shares his gravy boat?
Over the nearly 40 years we have lived in Thrapston, I have amassed many items of local interest ranging from postcards and pictures to old posters, maps, crested china, military medals awarded to local men, sports badges and medals, railway items and
many diverse others, most of which have been displayed at local exhibitions. I use
the postcards and photographs to illustrate these “Glances”; ones not being in my collection are always credited appropriately. This article is to give just a flavour of some of the collectable “Thrapstonalia”, as I call it, which is out there.
This small gravy boat was rescued from the White Hart Hotel when demolished in the 1960’s and donated with other items from the pub by David Bletsoe. This hotel was sited on the corner of Chancery Lane and High Street and was linked to Midland Road Station.
During the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, souvenirs bought during a day out became very collectable and there were very few homes in the country which didn’t have at least one example of crested china. Thrapston used the Washington Arms crest from the Parish Church and I
now have in the region of 90 different models produced by a number of potteries and finished and sold locally. Shown is a candlestick produced by W H Goss Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent.
A major local football competition post World War 1 was for the Thrapston Hospital Cup, which is now looked after by the Thrapston Sports Association. The first picture shows a solid silver winners medal awarded in 1935. The badge next to it is a post-Second World War members badge from Thrapston Cycling Club, donated by David Richardson.
I also have such diverse items as
a candle-lit coach lamp produced by Barnett, Thrapston to illuminate a Victorian horse-drawn carriage; a winners’ plaque presented by the Thrapston & District Fat Stock Show to H. R. Strangwood in 1952; an original 1695 Robert Morden hand- coloured map of Northamptonshire; and
a copy of the London Gazette newspaper announcing the opening of the Northampton to Peterborough railway line, complete with engravings of many of the stations, dated 1845. I also recently acquired the track
plan shown for the junction between the Northampton-Peterborough line and the Islip Iron Companies siding from Islip Furnaces
at the point where the Midland Railway from Kettering crossed the Northampton line.
War medals, especially those awarded to men killed during the 1st World War, are
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