Roger Hasdell, Mick Butler, and Lynda Payton (Friends of The Canal Museum) talk about the history and success of Stoke Bruerne at War… pictures by Dave Ikin Over the last 10 years, the annual Village at War weekend staged at the canalside village of Stoke Bruerne has established itself as one [...]

John Richardson talks about where Northampton Music Festival came from and what its organisers hope to achieve as planning gets underway for next year’s event… Northampton Music Festival was initiated ten years ago by a group of local businessmen who joined forces with the University of [...]

Chris Harris shares his Diary of a Stand Up and his mission to bring the funny to Northampton… Trying to tie together Darwin jokes, playing the ukulele, and the genetic abnormalities that affect the taste of coriander into a one-hour comedy show was possibly the biggest challenge of my comedy [...]

Barney Felce tells the story of The Pomfret Arm’s journey from abandoned shell to thriving Northampton pub (and it’s not a hipster bar)… Back in 2013 my brother Matthew and I stood in the garden of The Pomfret or “The End” as it was in its last incarnation.  We had been [...]

Emily Shears asks whether Detroit should have stuck rigidly to reporting events or is it starting a debate that needs to happen? As a film enthusiast, it’s hard, in 2017, to find a film that isn’t rife with superheroes, unnecessarily remade or ridiculously predictable, or so I find. But once in [...]

Countryman Richard Hollingum considers autumn… Prologue The thing about Autumn is that it is easy to recognise when it starts. There is a sort of prelude that accompanies the rapid shortening of the days, when the mornings are a bit sharper and you can start to watch the sunrise without [...]

Broadcaster Helen Blaby talks about the ways she has confronted anxiety… As I write this, it’s just gone 3 in the morning and I just can’t shut my brain off. You probably have similar times, times when you just can’t silence your inner voices. It doesn’t matter how tired you are, how [...]

The. Best. Stage. Fight. Ever. Period. Maybe that sounds a bit over the top but know this: there is a stage fight in Rules for Living (at the Royal & Derngate, Northampton until the end of the month) that is at least good enough to make me go over the top. By the time it comes, though, the [...]

Northampton Borough Council is discussing a new policy on dealing with air quality issues in the town centre, here Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson Martin Sawyer gives his reaction and concerns… The Borough Council has finally conceded to establish an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) around [...]

Tre Ventour is a young film fan but says his generation is missing out on the pleasures of older movies… “And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge” [...]

Reviewing the Situation with Lena Davis Lena has been a music producer, writer and Personal Manager; a photographer and journalist and, over thirty years ago, got together with Caroline Scattergood to create the Caring & Sharing Trust to bring music, hope and love into the lives of people with [...]

Stephanie Steward describes what inspired her to complete her first half marathon in Northampton last weekend… The 21st February was when my half marathon journey began. I work as an Events Fundraiser for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association and our staff conference that day is one I [...]

Keith Busfield describes an annual bike ride that takes in all 12 sites of all the Queen Eleanor crosses including Northampton… August Bank Holiday weekend was a scorcher. Cyclists taking part in the 9th Queen Eleanor Cycle Ride raising money for a London homeless person’s charity, The [...]

It took a while for us to get to The Smokepit in Northampton, which opened in 2015. The building had been so many things before, including the Blue Plate Diner and briefly Chilli’s Indian Buffet. On our first visit we’d come as an extended family for a birthday lunch, where we’d all gone for [...]

Hilary Scott looks at the offer of free childcare provision for pre-schoolers and asks how effective it will be… There was a point, many years ago, when I earned ten pounds a month less than I paid in childcare. It sounds madness to have effectively worked for less than free, but it was the [...]