The Rushden Steam Laundry Allen Road Under Entirely New Management
Lace Curtains Cleaned, Dyed & Dressed Equal to New (with dust resisting surface)
Under 21/2yards 6d per pair - Over 3 yards 9d per pair
Gulpure, Swiss and Madras Muslin Curtains, from 1/- per pair
Frilled Muslin Curtains in First-class Style, price as per Labour
All other Laundry Work undertaken, and correct despatch All communications to Manager will receive
prompt and careful attention.
A postcard showing The Green & Church Parade with the
Rushden Steam Laundry wagon standing outside the church c1910
Rushden Steam Laundry building, in 2011 is now used by S C Packaging, along with the old Chapman's Box factory opposite
The earliest record we have is that Frank Newman was the secretary, and the works were in Allen Road in 1897. In 1903 George S Mason was the secretary, and E A LAW the manager. In September 1906 Albert James Jeffries took on the laundry, after having previously been taken on to run it for the liquidators. But in June the following year he was declared a bankrupt.
Mr J Mepham was the proprietor of the Rushden Steam Laundry when the postcard above was produced in about 1910. John Richard Mepham was born in 1868 in Marylebone, and married Clara Jane. In 1893 their son Alfred Archibald was born in Burton on Trent and daughter Rhoda Amelia in 1896. John had established a laundry business in Rugby St Andrews by 1901, and another son Albert Richard was born in 1904 at Hove in Sussex.
John and Clara brought their family to Rushden in 1908 and first lived at 148 Queen Street and operated the business from the premises in Allen Road. By 1911 he was living at 103 Portland Road. As well as laundry services, he also offered carpet beating. Archie was the carman, collecting and delivering the laundry, and his sister Rhoda was assisting her parents in the laundry. John's sister-in-law Elsie Jeffries was packing and sorting the laundry, and his niece Lydia Wheeler was the ironer.
John died in 1943 and his wife Clara died in 1948, and they are buried in Rushden Cemetery grave F.588. Their son Archie fell in the Great War, and is listed on the Rushden War Memorial.
