OCCUPATIONS

Since records began Stoke Goldington was essentially a small farming village that had the usual local rural trades of baker, blacksmith, farm workers, innkeepers, lace-makers etc.

This was until the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries when people and goods began to move much farther distances and technical developments changed the skills needed.

Stoke Goldington was ideally placed on the roads to and from London and the North via Northampton, and quickly became a significant staging post for Mail and Passenger Coaches.

In 1830 there were  seven coaching inns in the parish ( including Eakley) and  many of the occupations in the village were to supply the needs of the coaching trade (inn keepers, ostlers stable hands, farriers, feed suppliers etc).

Coaching as a means of employment was sadly short-lived and, with the arrival of the railways at Wolverton and a station nearby  at Olney, the coaches had gone by 1850 and the Inns became Farm houses or Beer houses.

The Railway Works and McCorquodale Printers in Wolverton later offered better paid employment to a few who were able to go outside the village and learn new skills

However several businesses were later set up in Stoke Goldington, some of which may be surprising…

• Stoke Water Board (set up by J W Carlile in 1887)
• Public Houses – The Lamb The White Hart,  with Maltings House  at rear
• Restaurant – Hollow Tree  (former White Lyon Inn)
• Wesley’s Coaches (“Bluebell Coaches”)
• Dickson’s Roses 
• Boat Transport – Park Farm
• Gardner & White – Car and Motorcycle garage (on former site of ‘Bluebell’ coaches)
• Christmas Trees at Purse Lane