The Village
These are images of the village during the last 130 years or so, from a variety of sources. Currently available information about each image is given underneath. Any further details would be gratefully received and the item updated. Please feel free to submit any similar photos or sketches which you may have. Click on any image to see a larger version and use your computer’s scroll bars to move around it.
Photo: Unknown.
House now known as “The Retreat”, Park Lane. Possibly from about 1875.
The man seated next to the window is probably Isaac Wootton.
Sketch of Dial House Farm, Magpie Road, by Ernest Beach, dated 1890.
The Charity School, now the Village Shop, from the field to the west of Stockwell Lane.
A sketch by Ernest Beach dated 1890.
Photo: Unknown.
1890s (?) The former village shop and Queen’s House.
Photo: Unknown.
Early 1900s. The former village shop.
Photo: Unknown.
Cottage, since demolished, standing in front of the former Methodist Chapel, Manor Road.
Possibly early 1900s.
Photo: Unknown (courtesy Roger Cherry).
The windmill in about 1902.
Photo: Unknown.
Stockwell Lane in 1906.
Photo: Unknown.
Stuchbury Hall Farm 1906. Thomas and Ethel Tims pose with their children
baby Tom, Mildred and Maie.
Photo: Unknown.
Manor Road (also known as Great Street) from a picture postcard of around 1910(?)
Eagle House, Helmdon Road. Early 1900s?
Photo: Unknown.
Yew Tree House, Manor Road, thatch being replaced with slates in about 1910.
Photo: Unknown.
Sulgrave Manor in about 1910 when it was still a simple farmhouse.
Photograph from about 1914 taken in Church Street, showing the former Blacksmith’s forge and what seems to be a charabanc outing.
This photograph of the church from Castle Hill was taken before 1924 when the thatched cottages to the left of the picture were demolished to make way for an extension to the churchyard. The approximate position of these cottages is shown on this map:
The photograph is a clearer version of one which is already in the archives. It is interesting to zoom in on the old cottages, as follows……
….and also to have a closer look at two gravestones, since removed, on which something of the inscriptions can be seen.
Photographs courtesy Jim Oakley.
Photo: Unknown.
Helmdon Road, possibly in the 1920s.
Photo: Unknown.
Former cottage at the bottom of the hill, Helmdon Road, taken in the direction of Helmdon.
Possibly in the 1920s.
Photo: Unknown.
View of church before 1924, showing the old thatched cottages immediately
to the north which were removed that year
Photo: Unknown.
From left to right: The Thatched House, Manor Cottage and Kiln Farmhouse. Possibly 1920s. The notice board outside Kiln Farmhouse would suggest that the Manor tea shop was located there at that time.
Photo: Unknown.
Manor Cottage, then the Manor House Tea Rooms, from a postcard of the 1920s or 1930s.
Photo: Unknown.
The Thatched House, from a postcard of the 1920s or 1930s, also a Tea Room
at some time during that period.
Another fine picture of the village in former days sent in by Jim Oakley, this time the Thatched House, Manor Cottage and Kiln Farm in 1927.
Photo: Unknown.
Church Cottage, Church Street, then a shop and the Village Post Office. 1920s or 1930s.
(Courtesy Roger Cherry).
Player’s Cigarette Card. 1930. Dial House.
See next image for reverse.
(Courtesy Roger Cherry).
Player’s Cigarette Card. 1930. Dial House. Reverse side.
Photo: Unknown.
Aerial photograph from the early 1930s. Across the road from the Manor can be seen a then recently completed bungalow. The presence of this new building within the Manor view so offended the then management that it was moved and re-erected in its present position as the last house on the left leaving the village along the Moreton Road (ironically still known as Manor View)
Photo: Unknown (Courtesy Donald Taylor)
The Mill Pond in the 1930s
Photo: Unknown (Courtesy Donald Taylor)
Kiln Farm, Manor Road, newly thatched in the 1930s.
Photo: Unknown.
A further aerial photograph from the 1930s, showing the then new bungalow and the Manor.
The still well used footpath running across Madam’s Close can be seen, together with
faint traces of the cricket pitch which had been used in the 1920s.
Photo: Unknown.
Terrace of cottages in Manor Road known as
“Spring Gardens” , since partially demolished.
Cyril Branson astride the motor cycle.
Late 1920s or early 1930s.
Photo: Unknown (courtesy Carol Pirie).
Spinners’ Cottages c1945. Sandy Munro getting water from
the pump. The alcove which once housed the pump can
still be seen. Note straw around pump to keep it from
freezing (only source of water for the street).
Photo: Unknown (courtesy Gascoigne family).
George Gascoigne, the last blacksmith in Sulgrave, shoeing a horse outside the Forge,
Church Street. Early 1950s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
View northwards from the top of the church. c1952. Wootton Brothers’ builders’ yard between the telephone exchange and the Village Shop.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Bungalow in Helmdon Road, built in 1950 and demolished in 2004, on the site now occupied by “Wykham”. Photo from c1951.
Mill Farm and Mill Pond in the 1950s (the Pond mostly covered in reeds).
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Cottage at the foot of the hill in Helmdon Road, later demolished. c1951.
Note the many elm trees.
Photo: Unknown (courtesy Roger Cherry).
The Vicarage, Church Hall and Dial House Farm in the 1960s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Manor Road in the early 1960s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Another photograph of Manor Road in the early 1960s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Rectory Farm and the Wool House in Little Street. Molly Wootton with dog Patch. 1964.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Church of St James, just before the reconstruction of the top of the tower in 1968.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Bulging stonework at the top of the tower
– the reason for reconstruction in 1968.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
The Church immediately after the tower restoration in 1968.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
The Old Forge and the then Post Office in Church Street. 1970s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Manor Road in the 1970s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
The Star Inn, Manor Road. 1970s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Bungalow near the Stocks, later converted to the house now known as Castle Cottage.. 1970s.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Further view of bungalow near the Stocks, later converted to the house now known as
Castle Cottage. 1970s. Note the magnificent elm tree behind the bungalow
and the sycamore on Castle Hill.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Castle Hill at the time of the archaeological excavations in the 1970s,
which subsequently led to the sycamore tree being felled.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
1970s. The former Methodist Chapel in Manor Road. Parish Councillors discuss a
planning application to convert it into a house.
Photo: Catherine Wootton.
Church Street in the late 1970s. Note the ever-present Beetle!
Photo: Colin Wootton.
The Thatched House, Manor Road (then an hotel) in 1978.
Catherine Wootton and “Ballygeorge”.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Spinners Cottages in 1981.
Photo: Colin Wootton.
Helmdon Road in 1981.
Photo: Unknown (courtesy Roger Cherry).
Dial House newly re-thatched in 1990.