Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley?
We’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in fields of gold – Sting
Welford is a quiet village on the border of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire in the English East Midlands. In many ways it still speaks to the rural idyll of maids cycling to church, cricket on the green, mists on the meadow, warm beer. Certainly a couple of weeks here away from the daily grind has been good for the soul, if not the body.
This morning the sun shone and the breeze was light as I jogged along the Welford arm of the Grand Union Canal – this extension to Welford was re-opened in 1969. The canals of course have long since outlived their original industrial past. Instead they now teem with barges inhabited by quiet folk content to pass their days doing very little. I could easily fit into that world.
Welford Basin – captainahabswaterytales.blogspot.com
The rolling fields are quiet, the harvest is in though this summer the farmers could have waited a few weeks more. The landscape is lush green where the pastures lie, and shades of brown, yellow and gold where the fields have been ploughed ahead of the next planting. Everywhere there are rights of way, bridle paths, permitted access and the folk that live around here respect the land in return.
Naseby Monument – english-heritage.org.uk
To the east is the village of Naseby. Here in 1645 was the decisive battle of the Civil War when Cromwell’s Model Army defeated the Royalists. You can read the interpretation boards and gaze over much the same landscape as Sir Thomas Fairfax and Prince Rupert of the Rhine did 370 years ago.
The village itself has two pubs, one at either end of the High Street. Down by the canal The Wharf is well-appointed and popular with villagers and visitors alike. Decent pub food and a nice selection of Real Ale. The Wharf is a cut above The Elizabethan at the top of the hill and I guess many of its patrons wouldn’t darken its doorstep. But The Elizabethan is a proper country bar with a pool table, dartboard and – again crucially – well-kept Real Ale. The locals follow rugby more than soccer, with top teams Northampton and Leicester being equidistant. And here they know their music and the jukebox can be loud with guitar heroes. In both establishments dogs are welcomed and you like them or lump them. Tucked away at the side is a Chinese takeaway which does a steady trade. Altogether a great spot.
The Wharf Inn – geograph.co.uk
Belying its outward appearance Welford is a hive of activity. There is inevitably an action group, August’s hot topic being speeding through the village. There are clubs and associations for everything – the church choir is in trouble through lack of numbers but the cricket team have started up again. The Gardening Club has a full programme of events and there is a Harvest Lunch at the Community Centre.
Crime reported recently – a man bitten by a dog, and petrol being siphoned from vehicles on the nearby A14.
But, if one excludes the Chinese takeaway, I don’t think I saw a non-white person in the whole of my time here.
So, is this the real England or have I just been living in a sort of ‘Vicar of Dibley’ set for a while? More to come on this.
Back On The Rock 
Church choirs — especially in rural places — are in trouble through lack of numbers. They’ve been declining ever since Sunday trading was allowed. Also, all the older members are falling by the wayside; the 25-40 age group are too busy making ends meet so Sunday is often catch-up-with-jobs day; and children have other things to do, such as sport or computer games. That being said, our church choir has 25 regular members, including 5 children, so I suppose it’s not doing too badly. It even sings evensong every week still, although the choir often outnumbers the congregation.
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Hey Sarah, do you have bell ringers? I forgot to mention that in the post. All four churches in the diocese have bells and the same ringers go to each once a week.
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Sounds like you happened upon a little piece of olde England and enjoyed your time there.
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Hi RH, indeed I think so. And nice to try out canal running, about the only terrain we don’t have in Jersey.
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Oh Roy, now this is truly sense of place. Obviously you’ve been consorting with the locals rather a lot to glean all this info – even the crime stats!
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Thank you Jean! I’ve done a little consorting in the pubs all right! However all the lowdown comes from the Welford Bugle which, I imagine, is feverishly produced in someone’s front room with the aid of a flying squad of residents tasked with picking up the gossip 🙂
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That first ! speaks volumes!
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This sounds a lovely, old fashioned place – and even before I got to the end of your post I was thinking Dibley! It would be nice to think this is still the real England but I fear that these places are becoming few and far between.
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Hi Jenny, you’re correct I think. The rural idyll is a bit of an illusion. Places such as Welford are kept intact, and the idyll maintained, by those with private means. You won’t find labourers, artisans or farm workers living in the High Street. Nor will you see horses or farm vehicles going to and fro. But, illusion or not, it’s a lovely little spot.
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This sounds like my kind of place, Roy! We have one main street in our town but it has four pubs (I think this harks back to the old days when sugar cane was cut by hand so the town needed many watering holes). I’d probably be part of the ‘action group’ to stop the speeders because I just love a cause 😀
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Hello Dianne. You’d love it here! I can well imagine you volunteering for everything and crossing swords with others in the pubs on many crucial issues such as bell-ringing hours 🙂 Welford used to have loads of bars but that bedrock of English social life is crumbling, sadly.
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How I enjoyed this beautiful trip down memory lane to the gorgeous little villages that are all across England. Even after 30 + years I miss the Saturday country expeditions to Essex and Suffolk villages with their duck ponds and local pubs and cricket greens and bowling clubs . And don’t the English do their canals so ŵell? Thanks for the trip…pleased that the village is alive and well!
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Yes SV, it’s quite surprising that, despite the flight of population to the cities there are still lovely, well-kept places that are a pleasure to visit. In reality of course the way of life is financed by a good percentage of well-to-do retirees who wish to keep the country idyll alive. You don’t find farm workers in the High Street or horse and carts clogging up the traffic 🙂 But we should be thankful that there are still such places to visit and be made very welcome.
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What a beautiful place, Roy! Thanks for taking us along and for sharing your lovely photographs.
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Yes Jill, I imagine that my American friends would find that Welford is a genuine slice of Olde England – you would love it.
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You paint a vivid picture of this sleepy little hamlet, Roy. I don’t know that I would last in such a locale for two whole weeks (if the staring didn’t get to me first, the lack of urban amenities would for sure), but one week would be a relaxing getaway, I’m sure.
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Well Janna I was on home ground – sort of – and I didn’t get any sense of ‘watch out there’s a stranger in town.’ Everyone was pleasant and didn’t want to know my business. BUT I guess that I wouldn’t be so relaxed moseying into a random bar in the Bronx. I guess there would be plenty of stares! As to urban amenities one thing I missed was a good selection of fresh fruit and veg. The nearest towns aren’t more than 20-30 minutes drive away though.
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Sounds like a lovely place for a break Roy, your descriptions were so vivid I could feel it. We’ve just been to North Yorkshire, passing through a number of similar-seeming villages, but when you look closely, so many of the houses are holiday homes it would be interesting to know if there really is any kind of community. Of course, I’ve always been a town girl, so I’ve never had first hand experience of living in ‘olde england’.
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Thanks Andrea. Certainly I got a sense of community in Welford – the people I met (the pub community!) but also the many common causes that are supported by the villagers.
Of course the ‘community’ will have changed drastically in nature in the last 100 years. Then you would have had farm workers, tradesmen, artisans, canal labourers, grave diggers, domestics etc. all providing services for both local businesses but also for the landed classes who provided much of the wealth.
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Roy sounds like a wonderful place to visit, no violence, just peace and quiet. Although the diverse mix of cultures you see in London creates a rich and colourful world that left me spellbound. I would sit and watch life go by in amazement. As I am older now, maybe the quiet village would be nice too.
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Thanks Kath. Yes there are plenty of people wishing to slip into a quiet rural setting and, in the process, almost defying the modernisation of the world. No harm at all in that. I’ll be posting a contrasting picture shortly which you might relate to.
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