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.