More childhood memories as I plunge back into rural Northants, just for you.
LifeAfterFootball may even know some of these places from his career at the Cobblers.
These are undiscovered lands off the old A45 from Purgatory to Despair, far from the neon lights of Pop World and Yates in Northampton.
Some 43 years ago, before BRAPA and Matthew were born, I was spending one of those famous hot weeks of the Summer of ’76 learning to play drums at the Salvation Army band camp at Grendon Hall. I broke my ankle (not playing drums, I hasten to add).
Grendon has never called me back to tick a pub, but 2 miles north Earls Barton calls my name.
Northampton is a surprising county, and Earls Barton is rather astonishing, particularly if you have any interest in Anglo-Saxon history.
I don’t, to be honest, but All Saints is a remarkable church with a harrowing “Crucifixion” and I know if it was 20 miles west in Oxon it would be overrun on Sundays, rather than empty.
Inevitably, the GBG entry is a micro which gives a nod to history.
I liked the Saxon a lot, though I was a bit confused to get “m’duck” this far south.
But the proof of the welcome comes at the bar, not the door, and was superb.
The lovely barmaid was ever so patient as I counted out my £1.75; no outstretched palm here.
A group of local gentlefolk sat at the window discussing their wine purchases, a chap my age kept the pumps cask flowing.
Cosy, I thought, as I passed judgement on a cool, chewy Phipps.
But never mind the church, the castle, the conkers or the cask.
Come for the loos. They’re sensational.
retiredmartin 
You’ve got me wondering if one could draw a “m’duck line” at some point between north and south, and if so which cities it would intersect. They could post signs along the border: “Now Entering M’Duck Territory”
Did that final sign persuade you to go get a tattoo? I vote for a map of the UK with the ticked portions in pink. 🙂
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M’duck is a phrase most definitely not of the North, but Midland, Mostly the shires of Derby, Nottingham and Northampton. I always find it endearing if a tad odd.
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Works for me, as does mate.
Sir or Madam, less so.
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EP,
Yes, and it’s spread from Derby to Stoke.
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“Now entering M’duck territory”
Brilliant.
I’m scared of needles. In fact I’d be scared of those removable tattoos as well 😱
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Derby and Burton are duck territory… Tamworth, Measham et Al aren’t….
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I’ll say one thing, if anyone can declare definitively what is duck territory it’s you 🦆👍
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Dancing Duck brewery should be official cut off point!!!
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No one says mi duck in Northampton!!! I have to confess I was probably more Hard Rock Cafe and Yates/ Slug & Lettuce during my Cobblers days 😉 there was also a nightclub but can’t remember the name!!! However I do remember drinking in Weston Favell, Duston and a cracking Cromwell named boozer just before the M1!
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I think there’s more to Greater Northampton than we think.
The Bold Dragoon has been top dog in Favell for a while. Duston, no idea.
Cromwell Cottage in Kislingbury?
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That’s the one!!! Quite well to do but always good for a livener post training before the tribulations of the M1 😉
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“learning to play drums at the Salvation Army band camp ”
All I can think of is the movie American Pie and the phrase, “this one time, at band camp”. 😉
“Castle mound”
You do realise that looks a bit like a plumber’s butt crack right?
“A view to actual hills”
The bird in the photo above that looks like something from Harry Potter.
“as I counted out my £1.75”
That wouldn’t get you a quarter of a pint of barely wine in the Lakes according to Si.
“Don’t ask how I got this”
The finger to the lips in the photo says the same dunnit?
Cheers
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Oxon is twenty miles west, not east, or more accurately south-west. I’m sure you do it deliberately to trigger me 😛
It may not all be m’duck territory, but Northants is definitely Midlands, not Home Counties.
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That wasn’t intentional. I actually checked that as I wrote it and definitely wrote west. I reckon there’s an auto-correct feature called “automatically upset Old Mudgie” and I’m not even joking.
Yes, Northants is definitely Midlands, though the stretch from Towcester toward Banbury gives Oxon a run for its money.
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Yes, Northamptonshire is the most southerly of the six counties in the East Midlands.
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Dandy…dandelion…I can reliably inform the readership, that more than one country has explored the commercial potential, for producing rubber from the white sap of dandelions, and even of lettuces too.
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