Literature

Passing Shades by Eileen Robbins is a compendium of Wappenham ghost stories based on her personal experiences and those of Wappenham villagers.

Eileen has an incredible memory for detail and this coupled with her background as an historian makes Passing Shades a very good read - even if you don't believe in ghosts! It is filled with dates, facts, and information about specific houses and people in Wappenham, as far back as the 16th century.This booklet is available through wappenham@tiscali.co.uk and is priced at £2.50 including postage. Passing Shades is published by Val Sabin  

Leeson Cottage by Una Tucker. This seven page booklet is about Una's recollections of Leeson cottage and life in Wappenham. She relates the story of how her ancestors came to live in this lovely old cottage and about the wonderful summers she spent there visiting her grand-father.

It will definitely interest anyone who has known George Gasson (Una's father and the present occupant's grand-father) and John Leeson (the previous generation). There are still villagers who remember as children ringing the door bell of Leeson cottage and running away just to irritate old John Leeson. And they still recount this story with gleeful chuckles!

 

WAPPENHAM'S GILBERT SCOTT HERITAGE Photo Source

Wappenham in the news

In 1970 the Mercury and Herald dedicated a full page to Wappenham and in 1975 the same journalist, L.W. Dickens, wrote a piece on George Allan Gasson and Wappenham's church clock.

Wappenham Profile of a village by L.W. Dickens Mercury & Herald, Thursday August 27, 1970

When George goes on holiday... Time stands still, by L.W. Dickens Chronicle & Echo, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 1975

Wappenham in the
1901 Census for England and Wales

The census has information such as surname and name, relation to the head of family, marital status, profession or occupation, age at last birthday, male or female, employer or employee, working at home or not, place of birth and finally, if the person is either Deaf and Dumb, Blind, a Lunatic, or an Imbecile/Feeble-minded. There are 17 pages in total for Wappenham.

Finding Wappenham on the 1901 census was a bit tricky. I first typed in Wappenham for the 'place keywords' and Northamptonshire for the 'Administrative county' and it came up with 'No results found'. Then I tried by family name this was still problematic because of a spelling mistake, Leeson was spelt Leison, so again 'No results'. I eventually found the pages I was looking for. If only I had known that Wappenham is known as Wappenham Entire on the census, it would have been a lot easier.

Please note that you have to pay to view pages of the census (some pages are free but they are not the useful ones).

Here is the link to the website
http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.html
Then click on Place Search in the left column and enter the following information.

Help

Place Keywords	e.g. Longtown
Administrative County	e.g. Herefordshire

You may wish to visit the Roman Britain website were you will find interesting information regarding Wappenham and Lactodorum (Towcester).

If you have any information you would like adding to this page please let us know at wappenham@tiscali.co.uk