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Turvey is a small, rural village and most of its residents were involved in home-based craft-trades, particularly lace making and straw plait. Others offered goods and services for the villagers themselves.  There were many shops and various public houses.

At the turn of the century the main form of transport was still horses.  The blacksmith had his forge on the corner of Newton Lane.  This rare old photo shows the Turvey smith at his work.  As the horse population dwindled with the coming of the motor vehicle, most smiths turned to making fancy ironwork (gates etc) until even this trade reduced the profession to its current rarity.  Nowadays, people who shoe horses are known as farriers and the term blacksmith is used for those who make fancy ironwork.

The Covington family were blacksmiths in the village for many generations.  The Parish Registers note:

Peter who was buried 24 Jan 1627

Peter who was buried 2 Sep 1744

Henry who was buried 27 Jan 1802

Here is a very rare photograph of the little Turvey garage on the corner of Newton Lane.  Here, residents could have their 'new fangled' motor cars fixed and serviced.  The garage is no longer there, villagers now use the petrol station at nearby Lavendon for their fuel and buy their cars at the many big salesrooms in the area.  There are still a few privately run small garages in the area (there are two at nearby Warrington for example).  If anyone out there knows the make and date of this car I would love to hear from you!

This postcard shows the horse drawn reapers which would have been a regular sight each year.  Right up until the middle of this century, the villagers would attend the harvest - small children would scurry around the fields after the reaper, looking for any odd ears.  This was called gleening.

Who was the Tinker of Turvey?

If you have seen the Pubs page or the page on Nell's Well, you may have heard of the Tinker of Turvey.  What is now the village stores was once a public house called 'The Tinker of Turvey'.  See the previously mentioned pages for more info.

Anyway, a tinker was a man who mended pots, kettles and other metal household utensils.  Many could also make such items.  Some had workshops but many travelled from village to village.  Over the years the name 'tinker' fell into disrepute, becoming something of an insult.

The 'Specials'  - Turvey's voluntary

police force.

Click here to find out about the well-known local firm of Bailey's Transporters

Trade in Turvey

This rare picture from 1900 shows the tea rooms that were at Abbey Square in Turvey.

Click on it to enlarge.

This picture is from 1906 and shows men threshing the wheat harvest.  The machine on the left is a mechanical thresher.

Click the picture to enlarge.