To some degree rugby operates in its own reality of outrageous expectations. Little guys bring down big guys. Un-kickable objects get booted through impossible gaps at unlikely angles. Players go forwards but the ball goes backwards. The team that got spanked last week will do the spanking this week.
It’s the ‘reaction’ game. A team takes a shock result (like Bristol rugbying the bejesus out of us in the previous round) and takes it forward as motivation for the next week. Phrases like ‘setting the record straight’ and ‘putting things right’ get used and it works a ridiculous amount of the time.
If you play a team the week after they got a surprise monstering you will find out something about who they really are. And Saints were very determined to tell that story at home against Bath.
Northampton Saints
Bath Rugby
Tackles Made
110
118
Tackles Missed
11
24
Tackle Success
90.91%
83.1%
Player of the Match was Saints Hooker Robbie Smith who spearheaded an all round awesome performance from the pack with two tries of his own. His lineout throwing was on point and he was busy around the pitch, putting in ten tackles.
Newly and spectacularly blond Juarno Augustus consistently skittled his way through to Bath’s defenders in Gold Mode while Scott-Young showed a sixth sense for collecting Smith’s lineout throws and also put in a shift as the home side’s top tackler.
Saints top performing players were all doing more than one thing very right, such as Fin Smith, who not only made the most metres for the home side but also slotted all six of his conversions and contributed 11 tackles.
In the midst of all this Bath still managed four tries of their own with three conversions and must be wondering what it takes to get a win with Tom de Glanville and Tom Dunn putting in noteworthy performances for the visitors.
Northampton Saints
Bath Rugby
Most Metres
Fin Smith 64
Tom de Glanville 67
Most Carries
Juarno Augustus 12 Fraser Dingwall 12
Tom de Glanville 15
Most Tackles
Angus Scott-Young 14
Tom Dunn 15
Saints have London Irish, Saracens and Newcastle to come with Irish and Newcastle both being away games. So far this season Saints have won at home and lost away to all our opponents apart from our derby spouses Leicester where we lost at home and won away. It sounds more like a genie’s curse than a win/loss record. You shall score the most tries but you shall also concede the most…
Nothing has been achieved yet but it feels good to be in the mix at this stage of the season with a team that blends stars with homegrown talent and entertains so much. Rugby is about taking what is dished out to you and giving more back and Saints certainly did that against Bath on Friday night. Pictures by Dave Ikin
Stripped back history play brings Shakepeare’s Globe and Headlong to Northampton stage
Like this pared back, stark adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, the audience was much reduced on Wednesday’s Press Night, due to heavy snowfall.
But those of us who made it were tucked warmly into the Royal, watching the 20-something, newly-anointed King, bruised by his dying father’s distain, wreak havoc across France after being ‘dissed’ – if you will – by the delivery of a tennis ball.
Enraged by Charles VI of France’s apparent slight and determined to become a warrior king and claim France as his birth right, as his dead father had done, Henry invades, and begins a bloody campaign that culminates in the battle of Agincourt. (Read up on your history if you didn’t do Henry V at school, as it gets pretty complicated, with references to English subjugation of the Welsh, who ultimately provided the 500 longbow archers who laid waste to the French bogged down in the muddy battle.)
Georgia Frost in Henry V. Credit Ant Robling
This lauded production, a collaboration between Shakespeare’s Globe, Headlong and Royal & Derngate, started its creative life at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, essentially the indoors bit of the Globe, which seemed to use chandeliers and candlelight to give the production a switch from light to dark. On the Royal stage, the set is starker, with rows of green chairs facing each other to indicate the French and English, and a ruched green curtain drop alternating with an impressive and effective distressed mirrored backdrop. In Northampton, the chandeliers looked more like suspended light-sabres, which didn’t have quite the same effect.
Oliver Johnstone as Henry V . Photos by Ant Robling
The company of ten actors share all the parts, and while this is a very ‘male’ play (and on International Women’s Day I did feel a bit exhausted by the angry, entitled violence of it all), the mixed gender cast do a sterling job of keeping the dialogue comprehensible.
However, the adaptation has them in quite possibly the worst collection of ill-fitting chino trousers I’ve ever seen outside Twickenham on a match day.
OK, so there’s no cliched armour, swords or period frocks, but the contemporary clothing just made it more confusing to keep up with the character switches – apart from shrugging off the odd shirt to reveal white ‘wife-beater’ vests during the fighty bits.
Oliver Johnstone and Dharmesh Patel in Henry V. Credit Ant Robling (5)
Strong among the performances were Georgia Frost (Nym/Rambures/Williams) who brought a fizz of energy to every scene, James Cooney’s subtle side-eyeing which could be detected even several rows back, Joshua Griffin’s frustrated and almost controlled Fluellen and Jon Furlong’s impressive pre-interval death (no spoilers). Emotional performances from Helen Lymbery (Henry IV/Uncle Exeter) and Oliver Johnstone as the titular King must be exhausting.
Oliver Johnstone as Henry and Joséphine Callies as Katherine/Boy. Credit Ant Robling (1)
It’s a lot of story to cram into a couple of hours, and I kind of missed the context of the Pistol/Bardolph/Nym spoils of war link. And I’d have like to have lingered a little longer over the forced marriage/courtly love scene, where the teenaged Princess Katherine (of Valois, she’s buried in Westminster Abbey btw, and would go on to produce the Tudor line) is offloaded by her parents to the King who just slaughtered their citizens.
I’d be surprised if the schools haven’t snapped up the matinees because this production is a total shoo-in for an English or drama essay in future studies, especially with the sharp (and I meant total switcheroo) final scene, which slams us into a present-day immigrant citizenship exam. The roar of laughter from the audience confirmed the direct hit, although Shakespeare purists may not agree.
Henry V runs at Royal & Derngate until Saturday March 18, box office 01604 624811
The performances on Wed 15 March 7.30pmwill be Audio Described and will be preceded by a pre-show Touch Tour. All patrons attending the tour should meet at the Box Office at 6.30pm, where a member of staff will then take them into the auditorium. Please email boxoffice@royalandderngate.co.uk to book the Touch Tour.
The performance on Thu 16 March 7.30pm will be performed with integrated British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation
Northampton Saints 41-34 Gloucester Rugby * Pics by Dave Ikin
The Netflix cameras are currently circling over rugby union in the hope of emulating the success of their Formula One fly on the wall hit Drive to Survive and this Gloucester game might have been ideal subject matter.
It’s not a bad idea at all. Drive to Survive has helped me understand how the human element integrates with the technicalities of motorsport as the engineers of south Northamptonshire pit their skills against each other around the world every year.
That mix of explanation and story telling could really open up rugby which has its own context of arcane laws, conventions and objectives to unpick as well as a surprisingly diverse range of participants despite a reputation as a ‘posh’ sport.
The main problem seems to be finding a name for the series that is both meaningful but also carries the reduplicated rhyming structure of Drive to Survive. For instance: Pass to Surpass? What? Tackle to… no. Ruck to… definitely no. Lucky Rucky? Ok send the cameras away.
Sometimes it can be quite tricky to pin down what rugby is really about. Saints home victory over Gloucester is a great example. Watching the game it felt like it all came down to that period around the hour mark when Alex Moon, Sam Graham and Tommy Freeman all crossed the whitewash within eight minutes of each other.
Saints now have a reputation with the punditry as a team that likes to play and run. On a surface level that kind of explains the game: a tight first half arm wrestle with both sides on ten at half-time until the Saints flying circus took off in the second half.
But the best try wasn’t in that little haul. It was Fraser Dingwall on 68 minutes, finishing off a zigzagging cascade of passes that began with Salakaia-Loto snaffling a rebounding ball, sending it to Hutchinson who found Graham who found Braley who found Dingwall who found the whitewash.
A scorcher from @SaintsRugby 🤩@FraserDingwall_ finishes off a brilliant score to add yet another sensational try to the hosts' lead 👏
That try was pure Saints DNA. Opportunity + skill + belief = points. It might be our try of the season. However in the following 14 minutes before the game ended Gloucester managed to score three more times themselves, resulting in a tally of six tries each. So in that Netflix kinda way, it’s not the full story of this episode.
This wasn’t a BT Sport game so we didn’t have Ben Kay or Austin Healey in the commentary box to tell us who the Player of the Match was but individually James Ramm had a really strong game. His breaks ate up metres and he also provided the wow kick of the contest launching a spectacular 50-22 shot that put Gloucester back on the defensive.
(This is the rule that rewards the attacking team with a lineout if they kick the ball from their own half into the opposition’s 22 metre zone and it bounces once before going into touch. You can just imagine Netflix cutting to a rugby pundit to explain what’s going on.)
At a glance
Northampton Saints
Gloucester Rugby
Most Carries
Sam Graham 16
Ruan Ackermann 12
Most Metres
James Ramm 107
Santiago Carreras 60
Most Tackles
Alex Moon 13 Angus Scott-Young 13
Ruan Ackermann 12
Stats from Premiership Rugby
If you are looking for stories in the game there is also one which gives us a salutary lesson about statistics. Former Saintsman Jamal Ford-Robinson came on for Gloucester around the hour mark. He made five metres, executed one tackle and carried the ball three times – two of which were the tries he scored against his old side in the final minutes.
The points difference between the teams came down to the fact that James Grayson nailed more conversions than his opposite number Santiago Carreras and also slotted a penalty.
You can watch your team do a lot of impressive, courageous, inspiring things in rugby without seeing them score but eventually someone has to bank actual points and Grayson, who has not had many chances lately, put in a really composed performance at fly-half.
Great day @SaintsRugby 5 points in the bag and loads to get better at. But today was really about @SaintsFdation thank you to everyone who donated their hard earned money! Really means a lot to the club and the foundation 👏🏼🤝🏼 #COYS
Grayson is one of those Saints who has the burden/honour of having a famous Saint father who played in the same position, England fly-half Paul Grayson. I can imagine the collective sigh from people who already know that and who also know that comparison is unfair and not really meaningful. But let’s be honest. Netflix would lap that up. Paul and James giving each other a sheepish hello as they take their seats next to each other on a minimalist interview set. I can picture it.
I guess it is up to rugby how much it can bear to share (hmmm…) with the Netflix documentary makers but that naming problem is not going to go away. The sport is in a perilous position in the islands that invented it. The Welsh RFU is in all sorts of bother and the collapse of Worcester and Wasps proves that there are no names too big to fail.
The game really does need something that reveals its fascinating stories to new audiences so the game can grow and the balance sheets can start to make sense. Otherwise the name of the show will be Try to Survive.
Historic campus making way for housing after the main campus moved to Waterside in 2018
It’s difficult to count the number of students who must have passed through the doors of Avenue Campus in Northampton, now under demolition to make way for a housing estate.
From its official opening by the late Queen’s mother and father, the then Duke and Duchess of York in 1937, Avenue Campus in St George’s Avenue has had several names and purposes relating to education. From the purpose-built Northampton Technical College in 1924 through incarnations including the Central College of Technology, Northampton School of Art, Nene College, University College Northampton and eventually University of Northampton. Eight decades of students and staff have worked and studied on the site (and no, it was never a mental hospital as the rumours had it.)
Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and the Queen Mother
According to the University archives, On March 11, 1867, a free public lecture on Science and Art was held by the Museum Committee in the town hall (maybe the Guildhall, which had just been built in the same year?) It was so popular evening classes in painting and drawing started in October.
Art evening classes continued and expanded, closely linked to science classes, until in 1894 the Northampton and County Modern and Technical School was established.
The (ugly) central Maidwell building was reception, with the library above and classrooms below – Image StJaBe via wikimedia commons
In 1907 the evening class organisation became the Northampton and County Technical and Art School, with the Art School functioning separately. A further name change occurred the following year, to Northampton and County Technical School and School of Art.
One source states that the Northampton School of Art was re-designated the Northampton School of Arts and Crafts in 1917, but there are no documents in the archive from this date. However, two documents contained in the archive dated 1934 and 1937 use this form of name for the Northampton Art School.
The School of Art continued to grow, working in overcrowded rented accommodation, until new purpose-built premises were opened in 1937 next to the Technical College on St George’s Avenue.
In 1954, the Central College of Further Education was established, to include both the School of Art and the College of Technology. The School of Art appears to have continued to function as a separate college. It is likely that relevant papers were destroyed by a fire in a County Council records store.
The former staff parking entrance next to Newton building (now Bosworth College). At the back is Malcolm Arnold prep school on the site of the former Trinity Upper School swimming pool
In 1972 the School became known as the College of Art and 1975 saw the establishment of a college of higher education, Nene College. The Northampton colleges of Education and Technology along with the School of Art were amalgamated to form this new higher education college.
The Walgrave and Isham buildings, along with the old SU, have been demolished. MB5, my old classroom, is just about still standing at the bottom on the right
After many years as a journalist, I joined the university as a part-time lecturer on the journalism degree in 2009 and quite liked the building. My former classroom/newsroom was called MB5, later renamed the Matthew Engel room, down the hill opposite the rather useful cashpoint at the base of the Bassett Lowke halls of residence. It had a beautiful parquet floor and students in Year 1 could pretty much roll out of bed and into my lectures, but often still managed to be late. Many times the fire alarm would go off and see students having to stand on the Racecourse in their pajamas at all times of the day, waiting to be allowed back to bed. The radio studio on the same floor was named after Jo Whiley.
The old MB5 newsroomClive Lewis MP came to visit, having worked with me in the Chron days at Upper Mounts
I have plenty of good memories of the place, but also of the people. My first mentors were the now retired Richard Hollingum and Ted Sullivan. Avenue had plenty of great guest speakers, from Chris Mason, now BBC political editor, to the late Faye Weldon and comedian Stewart Lee.
The offices for staff were up the stairs, but due to the layout of the building, on a steep slope, they were really on the ground floor. I shared an office with the journalism and media staff, and it was a welcome hideaway where we could support each other, get marking done in peace and swear loudly when necessary.
One area, tucked away behind a large weeping fig, disposed of by the authorities in the move to the new campus, was a small sofa and this became ‘Hilary’s crying corner,’ not for me, but for students, when the pressures of academia all got a bit too much. We were lucky to have our own space and students – although they may not felt so at the time, had a brilliant location for studying – even the day I sent them out to report on a solar eclipse with paper plates.
Our media and journalism office during the clear-out before the move in 2018
Despite its whiff of furniture polish, mixed with multitude different cheap perfumes and body odour, I liked the place. Navigating it often felt like going in circles, due to its multilevel design on the only hill in the area. It had brass handrails and tiled walls in the old sections, some of which will stay – with the two ‘end’ buildings saved from destruction due to their listed building status, along with the old caretakers’ house/security building, Quinton Lodge.
It’s the second building I’ve worked in that I’ve watched be demolished, as the old Chronicle & Echo Building at Upper Mounts is now an Aldi…
It was Saints biggest ever Premiership points comeback but there are Sale fans today who are shrugging their shoulders, stroking their beards and grumbling about red cards, yellow cards and penalty tries.
Sale and England centre Manu Tuilagi was shown red in the 13th minute for throwing a fending forearm into the throat of Tommy Freeman and now that the dust has settled there are some who would say that was the key moment of the encounter.
It was an exuberant offence rather than malicious and was notable for the way both Manu and Saints players went out of their way to reassure each other no offence was meant and none was taken.
From that point Sale unleashed a first half performance of such smart energy and ferocity that it ended 7-24 in favour of the visitors despite the absence of Manu watching disconsolately from the touchline. For him a red means some kind of ban, which means his Six Nations chances with England are compromised and at the age of 31 who knows what that means for his international career.
The truth is, that extra man advantage after a sending off does not work as it might in soccer where the extra space can be exploited almost immediately. Sale’s powerful forwards ensured it took all Saints manpower to stop their charges or get the ball back from our own attempts to smash through their iron defensive wall.
Yes there was a vulnerability there waiting to be found but Sale did very well at making sure that quick clean ball Saints needed to take advantage just wasn’t coming.
And if cards were an issue for Sale in this game, injuries were the issue for Saints. One minute after the loss of Tuilagi for instance, Saints captain George Furbank hobbled off the field with a leg injury depriving the home side of not only the first choice fullback but also the emergency cover at 10. Sale notched up two yellow cards in the second half and were reduced to 13 men at one point but after injuries to Fin Smith and Tom James, Saints found themselves with Rory Hutchinson at fly-half and Callum Braley at scrum-half. Mike Tyson used to say that everyone has got a plan until they get punched in the face.
While Sale had to back their physicality under the pressure of reduced manpower, Saints had to back their talent pool to ensure that their replacements brought the attacking threat required to overhaul the enormous Sharks lead. It worked.
Dave Ribbans was awarded Player of the Match by commentator Austin Healey who had been revving himself up to hand it to Tom Curry just minutes before the final whistle. That was how close this contest was.
The list of Saints notables is long: a superb shift from Dingwall; Collins smelling space like a Shark smells blood; Proctor, Ramm and Freeman making yards against the tide; Hutchinson and James for being beloved by the god of kicking; Braley for expecting the unexpected like only someone who has played 9 for Italy can.
Most…
Saints
Sharks
Carries
Augustus 16
Carpenter 16
Metres
Freeman 69
Carpenter 148
Tackles
Moon 13
Ashman/Curry 15
Figures from Premiership Rugby
You can look at rugby as a game that is about winning big smashes and recycling the ball out to the fast guys while the opposition defence is still picking itself up in a daze. You can have all the fancy moves in the world but they are no good to you if you are stuck under several hundred kgs of Shark. You can also look at it as a game where a lot of calories are expended on shock and awe collisions when the ultimate mission in any rugby game is to hit space, not people. That trade-off between big guy and little guy energy is the ying and yang at the heart of rugby union that makes it such a compelling sport.
Sale’s fiery on the edge style gained them points but lost them manpower, we lost playmakers but we had more playmakers and by the end of the game more energy. I could make a Second World War analogy about tanks running out of fuel but that would be a bit tasteless and casts Sale in the role of the baddies. Not even their brilliant General George Ford could save them. Just saying.
Even with the cards at home in front of a rapturous crowd this win felt like an immense achievement. That is partly respect due to Sharks who many would have expected to find a way to muscle through anyway. But it is also partly due to that win against Leicester a couple of weeks back – a similar type of challenge that might have gone a different way for Saints a couple of seasons ago. Saints fans have been watching their team almost do things like this for a while, now they are doing it.
We are used to being cast as the underdog and right now Saints might be in that sweet spot before everyone else realises that’s not true. If you look at the current Premiership Team Stats, Saints are in the top two for every category (things like most metres gained, most tries etc) apart from Turnovers Won. Keep it under your hat for now, but we might be sneaking up on something here.
Review of Michael Rosen’s Unexpected Twist, Royal and Derngate, Northampton
As latecomers were still taking their seats, two young male actors appear in front of the curtain to beatbox a message – this show has no instruments other than voice. And boy, do they use that voice well. Musical director Conrad Murray and song writer Yaya Bey’s work with a cast of incredible multitalented actors is the absolute heart of this show.
This is more than just an adaptation of Oliver Twist, interlinked by Michael Rosen into a contemporary setting, it’s a show, a spectacle, a musical remix of a story of exploited and abandoned children by today’s society, set to a banging original soundtrack.
Drew Hylton, Rosie Hilal, James Meteyard, Liyah Summers, Polly Lister. All photos by Manuel Harlan
Just as in Dickens’ original story of child exploitation, Roy Williams’ clever stage adaptation takes it a little further – bringing alive the truth of poverty and politics – and the message of the power of books to make sense of our society.
Reminiscent of previous R&D show Education, Education, Education, it opens in a contemporary classroom, with teacher Miss Cavani trying to get her unruly charges to engage with readings from Oliver Twist. With the exception of the keen-to-learn Rasheda (Liyah Summers), the class are disruptive and disengaged.
The staging is on two levels – a clever construction of stepped lockers and climbing bars allowing the Victorian and contemporary stories to overlap without set changes. The lighting is used effectively as an extra layer of staging – although in Row F of the stalls the light bursts into the audience are just too much – several times we had to cover our eyes to avoid another migraine-inducing blast.
New girl Shona, (a brilliant performance by Drew Hylton), is grieving the death of her mother and frustrated by constantly moving house due to her dad’s inability to function, without recognising his own grief. Their relationship, like too many young people in poverty, has switched the parent/child responsibilities.
The characters are all stuck in their own survival loops – Tino/Dodger (Alexander Lobo Moreno) is trapped in co-dependency and fear by Pops/Sykes while the teacher is fighting to ‘save’ pupils past and present from their fate while enduring her own unseen trauma. The child gang here is trapped by county lines and money laundering, and the bribery/blackmail of people in poverty thinking they can change their lot by agreeing to a ‘one-off’ favour that binds them to criminality.
Drew Hylton as Shona and Tomas Vernal as Dad
And the phones, the ubiquitous phones. The addiction and control that they exert is as glittery as a gold necklace to Fagin’s gang. They promise freedom but hold us back. Their presence runs through the show, brilliantly choreographed, like a poisonous fruit.
The music lifts the show in every way. Beats can scream anger and provoke laughter one minute and deep melancholy the next. Kate Donnachie stands out as disruptive Desree and her beatboxing and movement leads the entire cast, cleverly choreographed by Arielle Smith.
Alexander Lobo-Moreno as Tino/Dodger
There are some parts that grated – like the very odd attempt at cockney rhyming slang that is overused and just doesn’t land. There are some very simplistic resolutions, and by the end this was killing some of the justified rage at inequality and class bias I expect Rosen and Dickens intended. But remember this is a show for children (secondary age I’d advise) and as we went on press night, it felt odd to watch in an audience of, let’s just say it, privilege. Theatre can have a huge influence and I think, had I seen it on a matinee full of year 8s, it might have felt less awkward.
I urge any parents of teen to go and see it – the musical talent alone is worth the ticket price.
Unexpected Twist is a Royal & Derngate and Children’s Theatre Partnership production, and runs at Royal & Derngate until February 25, box office 01604 624811, before a national tour.
Two from the top and five from the bottom as they say on Countdown. Those are Saints’ final seven games of the season, with Sale – second in the league – coming to Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday.
The correct rugby understatement for this game is: “We expect it to be physical”. The north westerners will be bringing the smash, not least via their legion of South Africans but these days they also know a bit about the finer things thanks to influences like George Ford.
Suddenly Sale have assembled a glittering squad of talent in all areas and their reward for it is that only they are really keeping up with Saracens in the race to finish first at the end of the season.
Maybe too often Saints have been the beauty to Sale’s beast when they clash and Saints frontline prop Paul Hill is clear in his mind about how Northampton will approach this game.
“Sale is a team we always look forward to. I don’t think we have won down there since I’ve been at the club but when they come here it’s always a fantastic game. It was the year of Covid, they had a very similar pack to what they have now and the boys put in one of the best defensive performances I have ever seen in a game of rugby. They’ve got a big old pack, very organised maul and their scrum has been doing some damage this year, so those are the bits we have got to target,” he said.
He’s not too concerned about the arithmetic of who can overtake who at this stage of the league.
“I know we are fourth and that’s about all I know. I’m one of those who just likes to rock up and play my best. We have got seven games left and every one of those is a massive game. We’ve got to build on that momentum for the last stretch,” he said.
George Furbank is among the internationals available to Saints this week and knows Sharks will be no pushover.
“They are obviously flying this season. They bring a big physical game, a big kicking game and they have really developed that running game so they are a triple threat. It’s going to be a big challenge for us this week, but one we are really excited for,” he said.
Director of Rugby Phil Dowson agreed that the grit that secured a win at Leicester needs to be shown at home now.
He said: “Yes we need to bring that physicality every week. There are not many teams that win games that aren’t physical, who aren’t winning physical battles. All the fundamentals of the game are essential, particularly against one of the top two sides in the country.”
I have unfair expectations of many people – the sports teams I support, the politicians I don’t vote for, even Jesus – but perhaps the most unreasonably high expectations I have of anyone are for bakeries.
My expectations are so high I lie to myself about it. I kid myself that I am going into a bakery just because I am hungry when in fact that is the last reason anyone should go to a bakery. If you buy with your stomach in a bakery you will spend and eat way more than our puny human bodies and bank accounts can handle.
The real reason I go into bakeries (and I would argue most of us are the same) is for The Joy. I’m talking about everyday euphoria. Modest ecstacy. Ordinary wow. It’s the uplift of the spirit that comes from ranks of cakes, pies, slices and loaves bejewelled with toppings sweet and savoury and arranged like a gallery of desires for the common man.
We might coquettishly refer to this kind of offering as ‘one of life’s little luxuries’ but that’s not honest. I would be surprised, for instance, if there has been a single week of my life since I was 18 when I have not managed to get my chops round some fresh crusty bread of some sort. The Joy is not (or should not only) be a reward for living in a gentrified hipster hellscape. It should be a planning consideration on any new significant housing development along with all the other essential amenties. We need these places.
A good bakery is the kind of thing you unknowingly yearn for when you haven’t got one near you. And when you find one it hits you from all angles: the visuals, the aromas, the potential… sunny morning strolls to pick up some bread, technically a chore but no-one would deny you a coffee and pastry would they?
The point is, when you make your purchase, there is so much riding on the item you have in your pleasingly crumple-able paper bag it’s an almost impossible ask for any mortal baker to satisfy it. And yet somehow it happens.
This week it happened for me with a Chicken and Leek Pasty from Duston Village Bakery.
Chicken and Leek Pasty from Duston Village Bakery
You’ve got a sense already of how animated I am about the bakery thing so I have decided to make it a little side quest of mine to seek out and expose the baking excellence that is around us in the Northampton area. The Good Loafand Magee Street Bakery are the first thoughts but out there just beyond the suburbs in Main Road, Duston, is the gem that is Duston Village Bakery.
Dating back to 1925 it is located in a picturesque stone building on Main Road, Duston, easily distinguishable as the only property with a large Hovis sign on the front it. There is a cafe and a bakery and its displays are crammed with goodies. The bread now comes in from Weetabix Food and Drink Award winning Whittlebury Bakery(silver medal for white sourdough) but the pies, cakes and pastries are crafted in Duston.
The Duston Pasty is the local version of the Cornish classic (you can’t call it a Cornish Pasty, I don’t care why) and they are, by anyone’s standards, large but between them and the Steak Slices was the Chicken and Leek. In a world where pastry enclosed chicken never seems to come without mushrooms in a suspicious looking gelatinous goo it caught my eye straight away. I thought of the famed Pork and Leek pies of Earls Barton which have become their own kind of subculture. Could this be Duston’s answer to that cult pastry dish? I was in.
With a takeaway coffee in one hand and the warmed up Chicken and Leek in the other I headed out to the nearby public bench by the railings where I had locked my bike. Flaky pastry that’s been through a microwave loses its structural integrity and by rights I should have been in trouble. But with a bit of careful handling the excellently constructed pasty held its form perfectly. It didn’t flop over my fingers and drool hot filling, nor did it drop onto my clothing the moment I looked in the other direction. And the filling was so much better than I was expecting, so much fuller, so much tastier. There were ribbons of leek, with their oniony kick intertwined with chicken flesh you actually have to bite, rather than the spongey mass produced commercial pie nonsense that is meat in legal terms only.
I don’t know if it is the best thing they do although if I’m honest, it looks like their cabinets are packed with favourites. Their own website describes their bacon rolls as ‘infamous’ which goes some way to revealing our complicated relationship with culinary pleasure in this country, where it is meaningful to describe something in terms of the food guilt you will get from an item rather than The Joy it brings. That’s what I’m having next time.
Duston Village Bakery will bake cakes to order and also offers Sugarcraft courses. The link to their website is above. Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions about bakeries that are worth a try.
If no lesser figure than King Charles III likes a rummage around in the shoe factories of Northampton then why should you deny yourself the pleasure of picking up some real quality for a real bargain.
He visited Trickers in 2019 to help them celebrate 20 years of their Royal Warrant and is just one of many famous men (Daniel Craig, David Beckham) who like to treat their feet to footwear made in Northamptonshire.
The Google Map above is a guide to some of the top shoe and boot related places in Northamptonshire, the button at the map’s top left hand corner operates a slide out index.
The list is not exhaustive and feel free to add your suggestions in the comments. There are one or two novel inclusions.
Springline in Moulton Park is the last maker of bespoke lasts (a kind of carved replica foot that shapes the shoe during construction) while JuJu is the home of the Jelly fun shoe often seen on beaches.
The leather centre at the University of Northampton is a specialist research facility that also tans leather for industry. Meanwhile the Museum of Leather in the Grosvenor Centre houses a fascinating collection of historic leather and hide-based items, showcasing how important the material has been in human development.
Northampton Museum is already famous for its shoe collection that has a permanent gallery in the recently redesigned building. It traces the history of shoe design and features shoes from a number of celebrities.
Once you have added your factory shop trips why not round the day off with a selfie at the Cobblers Last statue in Abington Street or even at Sixfields, the home of Northampton Town FC aka The Cobblers.
