In the course of our work, we have been offered or already have in our 'Rushden Research' archive, some indexes, photographs and documents relating to nearby villages. The old administration area to which Rushden belongs was the Higham Ferrers Hundred, consisting of 14 parishes. Chelveston, Newton Bromswold and Higham Park have dedicated sections. Our first major project was to index the 1901 census, and we completed this for the whole Hundred in 2004. The remaining small parishes will be covered, to a lesser degree, under this Villages section. Several indexes cover all these smaller parishes.

We also have a little information for the Bedfordshire parishes which share the county boundary with Rushden, or are close by. Like Chelveston, both Podington and Melchbourne saw Americans based there in WWII. The men came into all the villages and many friendships were made with local families. Rushden being the largest town in the area drew many of the men there for their leisure time, where there were pubs and cinemas and dances. In return the Americans would also put on events when they would invite local people to their camps. Some local girls married their GIs and went to live in America. We'd be pleased to add stories and photographs that you would like to share.