It is a district of Northampton.
When fbb was just a wee lad (not so wee!) he could have ridden his (t)rusty velocipede or been taken in daddy's car down Rushmere Road (top to centre), crossing "the cut" and joining the Bedford Road. Turning left at the bottom, he would come to the Britannia Inn (left), see Rush Mills (right), cross the Northampton to Wellingborough railway via a level crossing, the lurch sharp left and continue along the Bedford Road.
When fbb was just a wee lad (not so wee!) he could have ridden his (t)rusty velocipede or been taken in daddy's car down Rushmere Road (top to centre), crossing "the cut" and joining the Bedford Road. Turning left at the bottom, he would come to the Britannia Inn (left), see Rush Mills (right), cross the Northampton to Wellingborough railway via a level crossing, the lurch sharp left and continue along the Bedford Road.
In the land between GREAT Houghton and HardinGSTONE you will now find Brankmills Industrial Estate.
It is almost impossible to work out what has happened to fbb's childhood cycling or being-driven experience. The green dual carriageway is the relocated A45, the green single carriage way is a diverted Bedford Road, but if we zoom in, we can just spot the remnants of past locations.
The curve of the old Bedford Road is now the white road to the left of the PH; which is the white building beyond the trees on the right in the picture below.
The diverted Bedford Road is on the left; the white van (without man) is parked on the remnants of the old Bedford Road. The Britannia Inn is still there and still trading.
It stands on the banks of a bit of the River Nene and further beyond the river bridge is a footpath that leads to where the level crossing once was.
The narrow (and gated) road which used to link the Bedford Road via "Strong Meadows" ...
... has all but disappeared. But, there it is from the Bedford Road end ...
... and here it emerges from under the bridge that carried the Northampton to Bedford branch and is subsumed into Salhouse Road, the eastern boundary of Brackmills Industrial Estate.
The Hardingstone end of this former road (named Houghton Hill) ...
... reappears on the western edge as a footpath off Caswell Road ...
It turns back from footpath and cycleway into the real back lanes of Hardingstone, called, with historic originality, Back Lane.
Historically, United Counties ran buses via Hardingstone; to Bedford via (guess what) the Bedford Road; and via Great Houghton.
Surprisingly their succesors, Stagecoach, still do - mostly.
The 41 runs hourly to Bedford but 43 is independent of Stagecoach.
The 901 is a positioning journey to get Meridian's bus to Lavendon on Sundays whence it runs four round trips as X10 to Milton Keynes.
Hardingtone has a service 7 every 30 minutes (7A on Sundays).
Service 57 was a works variant which has recently been renumbered as 7.
We will look at routes to Brackmills itself tomorrow.
Surprisingly their succesors, Stagecoach, still do - mostly.
The 41 runs hourly to Bedford but 43 is independent of Stagecoach.
Hardingtone has a service 7 every 30 minutes (7A on Sundays).
We will look at routes to Brackmills itself tomorrow.
Next Brackmills blog : Tuesday 27th June
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