News from the Wellingborough front line: Reform candidate finds lots of support in the wrong constituency

At lunchtime today Ben Habib, the Reform candidate in the Wellingborough by-election, tweeted a short video to tell us how well polling day was going for him.

He commented in particular on the number of cars that tooted at his campaign bus as they passed.

Perhaps those cars were trying to tell him something? Because Habib was campaigning in Irthlingborough, which is in the Corby constituency.

I think you have to be logged into Twitter to see an embedded tweet these days, so I've put Habib's tweet at the bottom of this post rather than the top. I hope at least some of you will see it. 

That's Irthlingborough's impressive church above - thanks to Kate Cronin for this story.

Fantastic morning on the campaign trail.

Big chance to send a message to Westminster today, by voting for change — @benhabib6 !

Polling stations are open until 10pm 🕙 🗳️#BackBenHabib 🇬🇧 @reformparty_uk pic.twitter.com/bxwphdCEGU

— Ben Habib for Wellingborough (@BackBrexitBen) February 15, 2024

The two bridges over the Nene at Irthlingborough in 1946

You may remember that I was taken with the two bridges over the Nene at Irthlingborough last summer.

The Britain From Above site (which allows bloggers to use its images for free) has a nice shot of both bridges taken in 1946.

In the foreground you can see the medieval bridge and further back the impressive concrete viaduct that had opened 10 years before.

The tannery which stands beside them has long vanished.

The bridges at Irtlhingborough from the Nene

Remember how taken I was with the bridges over the Nene at Irthlingborough? The concrete viaduct from the 1930s and its little medieval companion.

Well, whether you remember it or not, I can assure you I was.

This video shows the bridges from the point of view of a boat on the river. We are in the company of a grumpy skipper who wrongly believes the medieval bridge is "just for show".

It must have been here that my mother and late stepfather, in their cruising days, once had to wait several days for the Nene to go down before they could get under the smaller bridge.

The last days of Kettering Town's Rockingham Road ground

Before the heyday of Rushden & Diamonds the great football hope of the Northamptonshire boot-and-shoe country was Kettering Town.

Twice in the 1990s they finished runners up in the Conference. If I recall correctly, both times they were well clear at Christmas and looked set for promotion to the Football League.

Since they were relegated at the end of the 2000-1 season the club's story has been one of footballing and financial decline. It was not helped by its appointment of Paul Gascoigne as manager in 2005. He lasted 39 days before being sacked.

Kettering Town's home in its glory days was Rockingham Road, which was within walking distance of the centre of the town.

In 2011 they moved to Nene Park, previously the home of Rushden & Diamonds. The following year they had to leave Irtlingborough to play in Corby, and today they play at a ground in Burton Latimer.

The local council has long had its eye on the Rockingham Road ground as a site for housing, and the bulldozers are due to move in before the end of the year.

So today I went there to see what remains.

The remains of Irthlingborough station

In Irthlingborough we have seen the church tower that may also have been an inland lighthouse, the sparse remains of the Nene Park stadium where Rushden & Diamonds once flourished and the two bridges across the river.

Take the older of those two bridges and you will come to the site of Irthlingborough station. It stood on the line from Northampton to Peterborough, which often appears on lists of lines that should never have been closed.

Certainly, both settlements are rapidly expanding, but to get from one to the other by rail involves a circuitous route taking in towns like Nuneaton and Melton Mowbray.

There is not a great deal to see at the station site today - the most substantial remains must be of something like a cattle dock and not the old passenger platforms.

But I was delighted to find there were still rails in the road where the level crossing used to be.

Disused Stations has photos of Irthlingborough station both in its prime and in picturesque decay.

After the station, the landscape is given over to edgeland occupations like car breaking and keeping fierce dogs, so that was the end of Irthlingborough.

The two bridges across the Nene at Irthlingborough

Today the A6 crosses the Nene, its meadows and backwaters, on a concrete viaduct. It must have been quite something when it opened in 1936.

Before then traffic had to negotiate a narrow medieval bridge. A Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Northamptonshire says

A 1920s attempt to widen the bridge and its approaches was abandoned half-way through when it was found that the entire bridge was on the move seawards!

It looks as though a recent strike by a vehicle has sent some of the stonework in that direction.

To Irthlingborough lighthouse

Pevsner says St Peter's, Irthlingborough, is:

A quite remarkable sight, lying as it does between the village and the river. The church is large and at first seems quite incongruous. What appears to be incongruous is however the survival of not only the church, but also the very tall and dominant tower to the W of the church which belonged to the college founded by the widow of John Pyel, a mercer of London, in 1388.

This tower (which had to be reconstructed at the end of the 19th century) is called the 'lantern tower' and many books will tell you that it was used as a beacon to guide travellers crossing the valley of the Nene.

I have to record that I cannot find an authoritative source for that tale, but it ought to be true.*

Crossing the Nene at Irthlingborough will feature here another day, but for now just enjoy the tower and its position commanding the river.

* Equally, Lord Bonkers has suggested to me that 'Irthlingborough' may be a corruption of 'Earthlingborough', showing that neighbouring settlements were once occupied by aliens.

Nene Park, where Rushden & Diamonds played

Rushden & Diamonds was formed in 1992 by a merger between two non-league team from Northamptonshire, Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds.

The merger was promoted by Max Griggs, owner of the Doc Marten shoe brand, who funded the new club.

The new club was remarkably successful. It rose through the non-league divisions and were promoted to Division 3 of the Football League (as its lowest division was then called) in 2001. Two years later they won it.

After that they began to struggle, particularly after Griggs handed the club to its supporters. They were soon out of the Football League and were wound up in 2011.

I was at the site of Rushden & Diamonds' ground, Nene Park, today.

Once they brought Leeds United and Sheffield United here in the third round of the FA Cup and staged under 21 and non-league internationals.

Even after Rushden & Diamonds folded, Kettering Town (a club with its own problems) played here for a while, and there was even talk of Coventry City being based here.

But Nene Park was demolished earlier this year. A Northamptonshire Telegraph report said:

"The building is in a dangerous condition and is unsafe. 

"The stadium represents a major fire risk. 

"The site is derelict and subject to wanton damage."

It is not known what will become of the site - nothing has happened at Leicester City's old Filbert Street ground - but at least that was nice use of "wanton".

And for the time being the blackberries growing there are very good.

Ukip candidate calls public meeting... in the wrong constituency

In recent years Northamptonshire's Conservative MPs have been drawn chiefly from the fruitcake wing of that party, which presents something of a challenge to Ukip.

How do they find a fruitcake who is even fruitier?

Easy. Step forward Jonathan Munday, the Ukip candidate for Wellingborough.

Dr Munday, who is a GP, has already came to wider notice last month after accusing a Twitter user of contributing nothing to the NHS except piles and STDs.

Now he has called a public meeting at a school in Irthlingborough and accused the Conservative and Labour candidates for Wellingborough of cowardice for declining to take part.

But their reluctance to attend may have something to do with the fact that Irthlingborough is in the Corby constituency.

On a similar note, David Burrows, the Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, has been spotted canvassing for support in neighbouring Edmonton.