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Rushden ‘s most famous son, Herbert Ernest Bates
was born at 51 Grove Road on May 16th 1905. His father, A E Bates
was a director of the shoe factory Knight and Laurence Ltd, which
was situated only a few yards from the family home. When ‘HE’
was six the family moved to a considerably better house at 15 Essex
Road, the home of his grandfather. ‘HE’ attended Newton
Road School and then Kettering Grammar School. As a young man he
worked in a leather warehouse and in those early years was surrounded
by shoe factories, red brick houses, small family businesses and
Non-conformity chapels. It has to be these early experiences that
enabled him to write so graphically about Rushden and its people,
not least in his autobiography ‘The Vanished World’.
His book ‘Love for Lydia’ is based upon a visit to Rushden
Hall when he was a young reporter for the local paper and rings
very true to those who know the place. Indeed this applies to all
his books that are based on Rushden and its surroundings.
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