History
Before the Swinging 60’s Caught up with Potton
There were a few ‘Rock Around The Clock’ teenagers in Potton in 1961 but the Beatles and the Swinging Sixties had yet to happen. However, Potton was doing its bit to respond to the new Elizabethan age by sweeping away its ancient Market Shambles buildings and opening in 1956 a neat and up to date Clock House and Library in the centre of the Square which retained the style of the original Georgian buildings. The population of the town was 2070, one less than the 1871 figure. The footprint of the town was little more than in Edwardian times and the old barns that fed a thriving pre-railway market still ran back from the centre of town and a few market gardening plots can be seen off Royston Street. The horse era was largely gone but off the Chequers Square area of Brook End is an old Smithy where a young lad could lean over the back gate of Tysoe’s Ironmongers and watch Mr Smith shoeing a horse hammering home the nails with steam rising from
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the hoof without any concern from the animal. The never to be forgotten aroma of the Tanyard at the bottom of Bury Hill wafted in the breeze. Car were beginning to look ‘Space-Age’ making the standard black 40’s & 50’s vehicles look as out of date as a stagecoach. There was no going round the Square a few times to find a space as there was plenty of room in the new car park by the Clock House. The garage and new showrooms on the Sun Street and Royston Street corner were doing an increasing trade. See if you can spot the gasholder or the Lawn Tennis Courts by the Brook or the new Telephone Exchange. Check out the Potton History Society web site for more information about past times and find out how YOU can help maintain or add to its collection of historical material.
By Peter Ibbett
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