Gloria Alderman

Bob Alderman in the milking parlour May 1992
Bob and Gloria Alderman showing Anthony Thomas the milk storage tank

Wolverton Express 22nd June 1973

FIREMEN spent seven hours, using water from the nearby canal, to put out blazing farm buildings at Castlethorpe Wharf Farm, Cosgrove, on Friday.

Luckily, the farmer, Mr. Robert Alderman and his wife Gloria managed to rescue all the animals from the buildings with no injuries. and also got out several farm implements.

But the couple. who have built up a cattle rearing business at the farm over the past seven years. lost all the calf breeding boxes and will now have to start from scratch again.

Mr. and Mrs. Alderman. who are tenants at the farm, returned from a fortnight’s holiday abroad only the night before.

The fire started in straw in one of the wooden buildings on Friday afternoon, and destroyed half of the outbuildings. The farmhouse and dutch barn were not damaged.
A BBC Northampton Live Broadcast 24th May 1993



Gloria during her interview talks of Bob Scrivener with his sheep dog herding ducks at the 1992 school fete

The Tale of the Turkey

Not long after I moved to Cosgrove in 1998, I was gardening next to the bridle path in Bridge Road. I heard a noise that I took to be a woodpigeon, and when it persisted I went to look for it at the back of my garden, in case it was injured.

In the flowerbed was a splendid turkey – minding its own business and scratching for food.

Now as a newcomer, I’d already seen the Currie family (who lived at 15 Bridge Road, now demolished) flying owls in the Sawpits field, and I knew they kept chickens, so I went to find them, as my only poultry related contact. Their daughter came to help me round up the turkey, as it wasn’t theirs,

Having made sure it was safe, I rang round the farms and eventually got someone to alert Gloria Alderman at Elm Tree Farm who was known for her collection of poultry birds.
A fleet of landrovers and people in wax jackets arrived at the gate – whereupon the turkey fled up the bridle path pursued by a posse of farming friends. Finally it was captured and Gloria tucked it under her arm and said “Now where’s the other one?”

We hunted high and low and finally a second turkey was tracked down at the Lock. Apparently these were two pet birds that Gloria had hatched from eggs. Taking it into their heads to go walking, they had escaped from the farm, opposite the Navigation, and walked all the way down the towpath. One had popped up at Cosgrove Bridge and the other had carried on by itself to the Lock.

Only in Cosgrove ………….

Wendy Page