INNS

There were several ale houses in the village. The Fox & Hounds has been on its present site since 1840, others were situated at 1 High Street, 19 Pudding Bag Lane and 4 Oakham Road. All these have cellars. The original vicarage was at Yew Tree House, opposite the church. By special Act of Parliament, this was relinquished to the Patron, the Noels, in the early 19th Century, a new vicarage being built at Barham Court. This became a private house in 1938.

METHODIST CHAPEL

There was a Methodist Chapel in Top Street on the site of "Lyndons", this closed in 1905. A tin tabernacle made from the stable lads recreation hut was erected on the site of the Dairy in 1908, it closed in 1939.

NURSING HOME

There was a nursing home at the end of Pudding Bag Lane, organised by Lady Agnes Noel and her sister, Lady Norah Bentinck, run by the nuns from the Catholic school for mothers and babies from the village and also for babies sent from London. This ceased during the Great War.

SCHOOLS

The earliest school is recorded in 1692, in a building on the site of 4 Oakham Road on the green reaching as far as numbers 13 & 14 The Green. This is still known today as School Yard.

There were several schools in the village, Roman Catholic and Church of England. The main C of E school was at 4 Oakham Road from 1840, the Roman Catholic school was situated in St Mary's from 1874. These were closed in 1967 and amalgamated into the new school in Garden Road.

GAS WORKS

The gas works were built in 1870, to supply the Hall, Vicarage, School and a few houses on the banks of the brook in what is now Church farmyard. They closed in 1914. There was at least one fatal accident at the turn of the century, men being suffocated by gas.

WORKHOUSE

This was in Number 9 Top Street built by Exton Estate as a refuge for the poor and destitute and was used until the opening of the Oakham Union Workhouse in 1836.

WATER SUPPLY

Public drinking water was only available from the Town Pump until the Grandfather of the present Earl put in stand pipes at the beginning of this century. The ram for this was at Hawkswell spring, in the spinney near The Brooks. This is still known as Ram Spinney

HORSE POND

The Old Horse Pond was filled in in 1960. It was situated in the dip on Oakham Road below the Old School. A horse-shoe shape, it was used for washing horses feet when they came off the fields, and for swelling the wood of the cart wheels in dry weather. Sheep were also washed here

TRADERS

In the early 20th century the village was mainly self sufficient. The Barnetts had been bakers since before 1845, and Mr Johnny Castle baked at 3 Malting Yard until 1955, the house serving as a shop. He then moved to the old butchers shop at 5 Stamford Road, put in modern ovens and continued baking until 1964. Another Barnett had baked at 1 High Street but ceased in 1914, when the building became a soup kitchen in the 1st World War.

The last blacksmith to work the forge in Blacksmith's Lane was Tommy Royce. He died a young man in the 1914 war. The last smith to work in the village was at the smithy behind 3 The Green - Amos Smith - who retired in the 1950's. There was a shop in the building now used as the Doctor's surgery run by the Stannage family, and another, "Choco Bottomley's" licensed to sell tobacco at 14 Top Street.

At the corner of Stamford Road/Blacksmith's Lane a slaughter house stood. This closed in 1950. The adjoining butchers and wet fish shop are also no longer in existence. At the end of Blacksmith's Lane on the site of the new houses was the threshing barn for the allotment holders.

POST

Post arrived by horse drawn mail box from Oakham

WAR

During the Great War 118 men from Exton went to serve in the Forces, 1/5 of the population. 15 gave their lives for their country. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham dedicated the War Memorial on 4 October 1922.

During the 2nd World War incendiaries were dropped near the Double Lodges, The Grange, Top House, and across the fields as far as the brook. The Home Guard post was in the fish shop at the end of 5 Stamford Road.

IRONSTONE MINING

In 1948 the Earl of Gainsborough gave the United Steel Company a lease to quarry ironstone at Exton Park. Success of this venture resulted in the purchase of Sundew, the world's largest walking dragline. This was so large that it arrived in pieces, being erected on a special site at Cherry Oak Corner, near Tunnely Wood. Sundew worked from 1957 - 1974, when mining ceased and Sundew walked to Corby to its final resting place.