Kettering - Recent History

Recent History

The present town grew up in the 19th century with the development of the boot and shoe industry, for which Northamptonshire as a whole became famous. Many large homes in both the Headlands and Rockingham Road were built for factory owners while terraced streets provided accommodation for the workers. The industry has markedly declined since the 1970s, large footwear manufacturers such as Dolcis, Freeman, Hardy and Willis, Frank Wright and Timpsons, having left the town or closed down in the face of stiff overseas competition, while others have outsourced their production to lower-cost countries. Only two smaller footwear businesses remain.

Victorian era Kettering was the centre of the 19th century religious non-conformism and the Christian missionary movement, and this has been preserved in many names. William Carey was born in 1761 at Paulerspury and spent his early life in Kettering before leaving for India as a missionary in 1793. Carey Mission House and Carey Street were named after him. Andrew Fuller helped Carey found the Baptist Missionary Society and he is remembered in the Fuller Church and Fuller Street. In 1803 William Knibb was born in Market Street and became a missionary and emancipator of slaves; he is commemorated by the Knibb Centre and Knibb Street. Toller Chapel and Toller Place are named after two ministers, father and son, who preached in Kettering for a total of 100 years. The chapel was built in 1723 for those who since 1662 had been worshipping in secret.

After several false starts Kettering station was opened in 1857 by the Midland Railway Company, providing a welcome economic stimulus to an ailing local economy, suffering as it was from the loss of wayfaring business since the introduction of railways nationwide. The line was finally linked to London in 1867.

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Kettering as:

In 1921 Wicksteed Park, Britain's second oldest theme park, was officially opened on the southern outskirts of the town, and remains popular to this day.

From 1942 to 1945 the town witnessed a large influx of American servicemen (including on several occasions Clark Gable), mainly from the US 8th Air Force at RAF Grafton Underwood, 3.7 miles (6.0 km) away. The base was soon nicknamed ‘Grafton Undermud’ in reference to the perceived English weather of 'rain, rain and more rain'. The first bombing raid - targeting the marshalling yards at Rouen, northern France - was led by Major Paul W. Tibbets who in 1945 piloted Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima Aircraft from Grafton Underwood dropped the 8th Air Force’s first and last bombs of WWII.