Places

Althorp Street / Delapre Street

Richard Ford is one of the earliest residents of the new houses built on Main Road. He appears in an 1861 post office directory as a Far Cotton shoemaker. Richard, who was born in Weedon Bec around 1822, seems to have moved to Far Cotton some time between 1840-1850. Richard and his wife, Elizabeth live at 1 Althorp Street until Elizabeth's death in 1889. They brought up three children in Far Cotton: William, who followed in his father's footsteps and became a shoemaker, George who became a machinist, and daughter Elizabeth, who, like her mother was a laundress.

Opposite Richard in the 1870s and 1880s is Eli James, who lives at 2 Althorp Street with his wife Jane Maria, their adult son George and granddaughter Jane Maria Hayllar. Eli is 68 years old and he is listed in an 1876 trade directory as a Far Cotton publican. Eli must be doing well, as the household also includes 18 year-old Esther Peasull, who is a live-in servant. Eli and Jane moved to Far Cotton from Bridge Street in Northampton, where he ran a butcher's shop. Eli and Jane's youngest daughter Elizabeth originally moves to Far Cotton with them and in March 1875 marries Richard Thomas Hayllar, a grocer, at Hardingstone Parish Church.  But tragedy strikes; early in 1878, around the time that little Jane Maria Hayllar is born, Elizabeth Keziah dies. Richard leaves Jane Maria with her grandparents and moves back to Newport Pagnell, where he works as an assistant grocer in his father's shop. Eli dies in 1881 and Jane in 1886, at which time, Jane Maria and her father are reunited.