Page 26 - Thrapston Life September 2023

The new Ambulance Hall on Church Lane was opened on 7th October 1950. Thank-you letters were sent a week later to the many people who had given “invaluable assistance which together with the unstinted efforts of their members which enabled our ambitions to be realised”. The letter was signed by H. R. Tiney, Divisional Superintendent, Ambulance Division; Dorothy Ross, Ambulance Officer, Nursing Division; Roland Slater, Honorary Treasurer, Serjeant, Ambulance and Nursing Divisions; and W. Ross, Honorary Secretary, Hon. Serjeant Ambulance Division.
In May 1963 a dance for teenage St John Ambulance Cadets was reported in the Daily Mirror and three years later, St John Ambulance took part, as they always did, in the Thrapston
Parade, shown in this photograph from the Denis Barber Archive (middle left), walking along Oundle Road past the Sack Factory which now forms part of the Clover Drive estate.
In 2014 four members (Darren Turner, Lauren Turner, Craig Wilcox and Ashley Croot) undertook the National Three Peaks Challenge raising funds, ascending Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdon in 26 hours 30 minutes.
Today, the hall is no longer in use and, along with the Bullring, the site has been put up for sale by North Northamptonshire Council.
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Eric Franklin can be contacted for comments and suggestions for future articles at: ericfranklin2@hotmail.com