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Spring Lane School and The Boroughs - Images of the last 130 Years
Northampton Castle and the Boroughs
Visit to Imperial War Museum Duxford
Spring Lane School Log Books in the Nineteenth Century
An Education at Spring Lane School, 1928
A New School - A New Start
Cloisters Pocket Park Tidy Up
Cloisters Pocket Park - Official Opening
A Trip to London
Central Area School Buildings Reborn !
The Boroughs 1831
The Boroughs 1610
The Boroughs - Celebrating the Coronation 1937
Memories of the Boroughs
Now and Then - The Boroughs
Vanished Streets of the Boroughs
The Mayorhold
The Boroughs in 1851
Multi-Cultural Event at Spring Lane School, February 26th 2005
Pubs in the Boroughs 1901
A Cache of Photographs from the 1960s
Shoemaking and the Boroughs - the First Shoe Manufactory
Caught in Time - Past Views of the Boroughs
Fun Day, the Boroughs July 22nd 2006
Fun Day Continued
"The Burrows"
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The Mayorhold
Location: Northamptonshire
The Mayorhold had an ancient history dating back to the medieval period. Even the derivation of its name is a mystery. Its early name was often written "Marehole" which would indicate it was a place where horses were sold. By the 1600s it had become "Mayorhold" and one of the earliest maps of the area clearly shows the medieval Town Hall situated at the top of Scarletwell Street. Was this an indication of land held by the Mayor of Northampton ?
A Boroughs resident remembers "On the Mayorhold there were lots of shops, Bottrill's, the confectioners and newsagents, Smith's Fish and Chips, the Coop Butchers and the Green Dragon pub opposite Perrin's Sweet Shop...it was such a busy part of town and you could get all your shopping there...it was also where all the green buses stopped for travelling out of town"
Ray Coles lived in the Boroughs for sixty years and he remembers the area well..."Next to the Old Jolly Smokers up a little alley was the New Model Doss House where the down and outs went...this was a really rough place. In the Doss House, they had cheap beds but for the really hard up they had a rail running along the side of the room and the men had to hold the rail and lean on the wall...yes, that's how they slept...standing up..."
This view of the Mayorhold in 1971 reveals the decimation of this ancient part of Northampton. The Coop grocery store, dated 1919, with its distinctively decorated frontage is due to be demolished later that year. Perrins Sweet Shop still stands on the corner of Bearward Street but not for much longer. The medieval streets, Bearward and Silver, reveal in their layout the early defences of Northampton when the Boroughs was at its heart
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