My family connection with Rushden goes back to the 19^th century and the families of the Eytes and the Browns. My Great Grandfather Frederick Eyte moved to Rushden from Earls Barton and became the landlord of The Feathers Inn in the High Street in the 1880's. He lived there until his death in 1903. During this time he was the proprietor of the horse bus running between Rushden and the stations at Irchester and Irthlingborough.

The horses that pulled the municipal fire engine were also stabled in the yard of The Feathers. Upon his death the family moved to Bedford with the exception of the following, where his wife died in 1926.

Rushden Cemetery  Grave B 660/1

In loving memory of dear father and mother. Elizabeth EYTE who passed away Oct 2nd 1926 aged 77 years. Frederick EYTE who passed away Aug 27th 1903 aged 52 years. "At rest".

Annie Rogers, his step-daughter, married Albert Simmons and lived in Higham Ferrers. Florence married Fred Tassell and lived in Rushden until his death in 1903, and she later moved to Bedford and lived with her mother.

Maud, married George Frederick Brown, lived in Duck Street, Rushden (she was my Grandmother). My Great Grandfather, Thomas Brown, a clicker, was born in Wellingborough and moved to Rushden on his marriage to Winifred Christina Bollard, the daughter of Samuel Bollard, a thatcher, of Rushden. They lived in Duck Street before becoming proprietors of a grocers shop at 30, Church Street.

In 1895 their eldest son, George Frederick Brown, known as Fred, started a business with financial assistance from his uncle Albert Franklin, with his father, Thomas, as a partner. Father left the partnership in 1896 and George Frederick became bankrupt in 1898. He married Maud Eyte in 1902 and started up in business again, I think mainly as a sub­contractor to bigger firms. They had three children, the eldest being my father, George Cecil Brown. Maud died in 1907 and George Frederick went bankrupt again this time mainly because the firm he was doing work for, a Mr. George, also went bankrupt. Subsequently Albert Franklin paid for his passage to Australia. My father and his brother moved to their grandmother Eyte in Bedford whilst their sister Audrey Phyllis remained in Higham Ferrers as the ward of Albert Franklin and his wife Sarah.

Another son of Thomas, Robert Roland Brown, remained in Rushden and became a Leather Factor, taking the premises of the grocers shop as his place of business. His sister Ella worked for him as his secretary. Robert, known as Rol, married in 1915 and lived in Wellingborough Road and then Glassbrook Road until his death in 1965 and his wife’s in 1976.

The connection to Albert Franklin, the builder of the Royal Theatre, and a large area of Rushden comes through his wife who was the half sister of Winifred Christian Bollard. He was known to the family as Uncle Albert, who was born in Stony Stratford and started career in Duck Street before moving to Grove Road, Higham Ferrers. On the death of his niece Maud Brown he became the guardian of my Aunt, Miss Audrey Phyllis Brown, who lived with them until the death of Albert and his wife Sarah. She then lived with her grandmother Brown and Aunt Ella in Rushden until marrying Spencer Franklin a distant relative of Albert.