Railway
Until the boundary changed in 1987 (under the East Northamptonshire (Parishes) order 1987), a strip of the parish, one field wide, that ran from the edge of the village down to the River Nene, between the parishes of Higham Ferrers and Stanwick. Both the former Fitzwilliam Arms and the railway station were situated here by the river.
Site of the station on the 1919 estate sale plan.
It was opened as Higham Ferrers station in June 1845, being one of 12 stations on the London & Birmingham Railway's (L&BR) new 47 mile link from Blisworth (near Northampton) to Peterborough along the Nene Valley, which had received Royal Assent in 1843. The construction engineer for the line was Robert Stephenson.
The L&BR was merged into the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) in July 1846
The Station.
Image courtesy of the Irthlingborough Photographic Archive.
The station was renamed Higham Ferrers and Irthlingborough in April 1885 and finally Irthlingborough in October 1910.
LNWR became part of the London Midland & Scottish (LMS) in 1923, which in turn was nationalised into part of the British Railways (BR) in 1948.
The station closed to passenger traffic in May 1964 and freight in June 1966. BR finally closed the line to through traffic in 1972.
Last day of passenger services
Image courtesy of the Irthlingborough Photographic Archive.
Located on the site was a ramp to allow horse drawn carts to tip mineral ore from the nearby Chelveston quarries into the railway wagons for transport to the furnaces at Wellingborough.
Station Masters
Census records -
1851 Clerk John Perci Jarrett.
1861 Railway Agent John Green.
1871 Stationmaster William Hillyard.
1881 Stationmaster Richard Woodward.
1891 Stationmaster Richard Woodward.
1901 Stationmaster David Horne.
Trade directories -
1906 Stationmaster Charles S Gill.
1920 Stationmaster Fredrick T George