Eaton Socon, Church Of St Mary The Virgin c.1960

Photo ref: E202013

More about this scene

Just after the end of the First World War the town suffered a serious loss with the closure of Days' Brewery. When Frank Day died at the early age of 56 in June 1919 there was no family member to continue the business, so it had to close. The brewery buildings were taken over by the firm of Jordan and Addington, but they were no longer used for brewing. At the sale of Frank Day's estates, the Priory garden was acquired by St Neots & District Recreation Club Company and developed for various sports, especially bowls which gained great popularity in the area in the years immediately following the end of the war. Interest in the Recreation Club Company itself declined during the 1930s. In 1939 St Neots Bowling Club acquired its assets and with them control of the whole site. As the town began to recover from the effects of the war, the Urban District Council turned its attention to providing the new housing that the town needed. This resulted in 1921 in the first council house estates being built off the Cambridge Road, just before the railway bridge in St Neots, and off Berkley Street in Eynesbury.