A hotbed of Liberalism in Northampton

Northampton's history doesn't get the attention it deserves, says Mike Ingram, plugging his book in an interview with Northants Live. 

The building he talks about in particular is the working men's club in St Giles' Street. That's the club we saw John Rogers and Iain Sinclair discuss in a video recently. The one I used to play chess for in the national club knock-out cup.

Ingram says the club was established in 1863 to provide evening classes and was intended  to be "a diversion from public houses".

It was the idea of the Rev Robson from St Giles' Church in Northampton, and he secured a donation from George Whyte-Melville to help fund it. Whyte-Melville was the author of numerous sporting novels, one from 1861 entitled Market Harborough.

There is a pub named after him at Boughton, a village near Northampton, and the club he helped finance was still known to members as "The Whyte-Melville" in the days when I pushed a pawn there.

The club lost some of its early high-mindedness, and alcohol was sold from 1869. At the same time the management of the premises was handed over to the members' committee.

Ingram told Northants Live:

"Numbers shot up and [it] was soon boasting a number of societies (at least one still survives) and a debating club. 

"By 1893 it was regarded as a hotbed of Liberalism."

There's a moral there about the importance of self-government (and alcohol).

I agree with Mike Ingram that Northampton deserves more attention from the historians. His book Northampton: 5,000 Years of History is on Amazon.