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[/av_textblock][av_textblock size='' font_color='' color='' admin_preview_bg='']“This all used to be fields when I were a kid”, said every adult ever.My dad actually said this to me the other day as we were driving through the Ise Lodge estate in Kettering, that builders started putting up in the 60s. And it got me thinking. Surely, at some point most of what is now Kettering would’ve been fields?If we wind the clocks back to 1851, we see that the population of the town was a mere 5,198. Contrast that to the figure from the 2011 census of 67,635 and most of the town must have been fields. Over the years, then, there’s been a significant amount of house building - indeed there still is a lot of development happening as I write this. There are a few thousand new-builds planned for the new estate at the top of Deeble Road and new developments in Burton Latimer.Going back to 1851 once more, the main bulk of the town consisted of the historic centre around the Parish church, and expanded south to The Broadway where it was mostly middle-class villas and terraces. Take a trip down these streets today and the majority of these fine houses still stand. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a soft-spot for them.Development to the west of the town was limited for many years due to the railway line and the meadows, so builders began to look to the north and east of the town centre. By this time there was a growing need for decent housing for the working classes and the first piece of land to be developed was the piece from Alfred Street to Mill Lane, by J.T. Stockburn in 1865.Back in these days the majority of work was carried out by local businessmen, such as Mr Stockburn and Mr Milligan (who was the builder behind Upper Field Street to Duke Street in 1869), unlike Northampton, which was developed by Land and Building Societies. Two of the Kettering builders that had the most impact were William Meadows and John Bryan, who are responsible for most of the houses north and east of Princes Street. They were able to buy this land - almost 70 acres - from the profits they earned from large shoe-making enterprises.[/av_textblock][av_slideshow_full size='featured' min_height='0px' stretch='' animation='slide' autoplay='false' interval='5' control_layout='av-control-default' src='' attachment='' attachment_size='' position='top left' repeat='no-repeat' attach='scroll'][av_slide_full slide_type='image' id='526' video='http://' mobile_image='' video_format='' video_ratio='16:9' title='Broadway, Kettering' custom_title_size='' custom_content_size='' caption_pos='caption_bottom' link_apply='' link='lightbox' link_target='' button_label='Click me' button_color='light' link1='manually,http://' link_target1='' button_label2='Click me' button_color2='light' link2='manually,http://' link_target2='' font_color='' custom_title='' custom_content='' overlay_opacity='0.5' overlay_color='' overlay_pattern='' overlay_custom_pattern=''][/av_slide_full][av_slide_full slide_type='image' id='527' video='http://' mobile_image='' video_format='' video_ratio='16:9' title='Broadway, Kettering' custom_title_size='' custom_content_size='' caption_pos='caption_bottom' link_apply='' link='lightbox' link_target='' button_label='Click me' button_color='light' link1='manually,http://' link_target1='' button_label2='Click me' button_color2='light' link2='manually,http://' link_target2='' font_color='' custom_title='' custom_content='' overlay_opacity='0.5' overlay_color='' overlay_pattern='' overlay_custom_pattern=''][/av_slide_full][/av_slideshow_full][av_textblock size='' font_color='' color='' admin_preview_bg='']They developed this land over the next decade building long, terraced streets of houses, shops and factories, many of which still exist to this day. And here’s an interesting fact for you. Have you ever noticed that this area of Kettering only has a few pubs, and these are in relatively new buildings? That’s because Meadows and Bryan were devout men of god. They had the belief that if people wanted t a drink they could walk into the town centre and get one.Not everything went to plan for these enterprising businessmen, however. In 1872 there was a brick shortage. Yes, you read that right. Such was the expansion of the town Messrs Meadows and Bryan had to start their own brick manufacturing company in order to avoid importing millions of bricks in from afar. There was also a downturn in the property market, which meant that despite being started in 1875, the estate north of Duke Street didn’t fully sell until 1884. There were quite a few property speculators that lost a lot of money on this deal.The majority of development in Kettering didn’t evolve around a master plan, so the town - as can still be seen today - became a dense brick jungle. This led John Bryan to persuade the Kettering Local Government Board to purchase some land that lay on the edge of his development and to turn it into a park for the town. This park still exists: Rockingham Road Pleasure Park.Not all of these developments survive today. In the 1970s the council decided to bulldoze large parts of Alfred, Alexandra and Albert Streets due to the sub-standard quality of accommodation that these houses provided. My dad actually grew up on Alfred street and one of the things I’m reminded of on a consistent basis was the fact that they didn’t have an indoor toilet and he had to run down to the bottom of the garden “come hell or high water”. If you ask me, I’m glad that most of Kettering is no longer all fields and the standard of living is high. Long live the Kettering builder.[/av_textblock]