1941: On this day, 814 20-year-old city girls responded to their call-up papers - although some forgot their registration card! Many of the girls had come with their mothers, while others had their boyfriends for company. Some are described as arriving 'with an army escort on either side'. Quite a few perambulators are also recorded as being parked outside the building. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
The parish church of Woodston is St. Augustine's. Sitting on Oundle Road behind some trees, it would be very easy to forget that the church was there. However, there has been a church there for at least 1,000 years.
The first written record of Woodston church was in the Domesday Book of 1086. The church, however, dates to the period before the Norman conquest. This is evident in some of the architecture of the west tower. On the west wall of the tower is a small section of wall with a window, which belonged to a Saxon church. St Augustine's Saxon wall is typical of pre-Norman architecture with small rough stones and a small window. Thankfully the wall survived despite much rebuilding of the church.
It would be incredibly difficult to date the wall remains, so it has been given the rough date of 1000AD.
Photo credit: cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Mike Bardill - geograph.org.uk/p/164909