When the time came to move on, she was too ill to travel in a jolting caravan, and so the gypsies stayed a further two months on the cold bleak heath.

A few weeks later, a marble slab arrived from London, and was placed over her remains, subscribed by the many gypsies who converged from afar to express sympathy with their king.

In addition, Bates' carrier journeyed from Barrowden each Friday to convey goods, but no passengers, to Stamford; cash would also be taken to the banks.

War touched the community in the form of 28 child evacuees, who in 1940 arrived from London at the height of the bombing of that city.

On the south side of this road stands a brick barn, this being built in Victorian times to serve as a dance hall for the two villages.

In the 1920s, the Asphaltic Slag & Stone Co. Ltd set up a quarry and erected an office on the Stamford road, opposite the entrance to the recreation ground.

One villager recollects a farmer walking his sheep from Ayston to Stamford Market and resting them in the pinfold overnight.

The Hempyards, also known as the Ropewalk, survive as mounds today, but nothing is known of the actual works, and it is assumed that they closed in the mid 19th century or earlier.

The public water supply for the other half of the village came from the spring, still running today, and sited below the old grocer's shop opposite the Boot Inn.

Cattle were taken to be washed at the wash-dyke set in the Chater, just below the stone bridge on Moor Lane (North Luffenham Road).

[10] Owned by Molesworths, a miller was employed, who was responsible for controlling the water level of the sluice and the working of the mill.

Prior to 1910, flour had mainly been milled, and 16 stone (100 kg) sacks were hoisted to the second floor for storage and lowered to carts below when required.

Wheat was frailed (flailed) at home with two long poles with leather thongs, this having to take place when there was a high wind, in order that the chaff should blow away.

Mr Asplin, the miller, closed the sluice gate one night, forgot about it, and by morning the house and the mill were flooded.

In 1942, the Ryvita Company installed a plant for drying and washing rye for biscuit manufacture, up to 20 men being employed at the peak season.

From this point, the track became Hangman's Lane up to the gallows, sited there, it is said, to discourage the poor who would collect their wood and feed their geese on the common.

An elderly woman who was walking up the common from Tixover during a cold and foggy night, was guided back to South Luffenham by the sound of the church bell tolling.

In gratitude, and for others who might become lost, she donated a field, whose income should pay the sexton to ring the bells at 5 am and 8 pm daily from the end of October to 25 March.

A coal business was also carried on from the inn, and the village bakehouse was on the west corner of the building, Mr Chard being the last baker until the 1950s.

Villagers brought joints of meat and batter for Yorkshire puddings here on Sundays, and these were cooked in the bake oven for twopence a time up until 1935.

The May Queen and her attendants travelled around the village in three or four farm wagons, which were decked up with garlands, all the horses having their martingale brasses highly polished.

There was then a free tea for the children in the rectory (or occasionally the Hall) grounds, and the lawns would be lit up with large Chinese lanterns.

Great bouts of singing and dancing took place in the pubs during the week, and most men got drunk, some paralytic, on homemade wine.

At one time, thirteen trains a day plied between Stamford through South Luffenham and on to Seaton railway station on a double line, although one track was taken up in 1914.

At the turn of the 20th century Jack Ingram, a well-known steeplejack, visited the village one Saturday, and was asked to grease the weathercock.

The stream was thought to be a canal, when the sea came up to Uffington, and was quite deep until the water was backed up and silted in the race to provide power at the watermill.

In July 1874, Samuel Hippey, a six-year-old child, playing with lucifer matches beneath a straw stack of Mr Ball, the baker, started a conflagration that spread to two cowsheds.

These were in Pinfold Lane; the position of the inn is unrecorded, although it is known from the 1846 Directory that the pub was the Axe and Saw with Mr Pridmore the licensee.

In April 1913, after the passing of the LNWR football special carrying excursionists to Market Harborough to cheer on Stamford (who lost), fire was noticed in Pridmore's farmyard.

Properties destroyed included Mr Greenfield's butcher shop, five cottages, two farms and three straw stacks; a quantity of livestock, mainly chickens, was also lost.