The 1910s

During this decade Mr Cameron was the headmaster, the Rev Isham Longden was the Rector, and Lieut.-Col Livingstone-Learmouth was in residence at the Manor House.

Mr. Cameron is reputed to have enjoyed his beer. It has been said that every lunch time he would send one of the older boys down to the Old Sun to collect his beer. The boys were told to go to the Old Sun via Watery Lane, not via Middle Street, as Mr. Cameron didn't want his wife to see that he was drinking.

On one occasion he was found asleep in the hedge/ditch on the road from Upper to Nether Heyford and he appeared to have been the worst for drink. He was summoned by the Board of Education in Northampton to explain himself. The outcome of the appearance before the Board was that Mr. Cameron was told to "Sign the Pledge" and he was warned that if he was ever in trouble again he would be sacked. He remained as School Master until 1925 when we assume he retired.

In 1911 William Jones became Clerk to the Parish Council, and remained in the post until 1927. Around 1915 John Banner came to the village where he, together with his family took over the running of the mill, until it became derelict in the 1950s.

In 1917 Thomas Faulkner died. He had been an influential; character in the village. He owned the village bake house in Church Street, he was for fifty years the minister at the Methodist Chapel, and he became the first Chairman of the Parish Council.

But probably the key influence of this decade was the first world war. While the young men were away, the football and cricket virtually ceased and the pubs were sparsely occupied. The women began going to work in Northampton. Some by bike, others by bus. One such place was a munitions factory, which operated on the site of the old Express Lift company. About 20 girls from the village were collected each day and taken by motor bus to work there.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, nineteen lads from the village had travelled to the Barracks in Northampton to enlist. More were to follow as they became old enough. By 1918, twenty-three of Heyford's young men had died.