Knight is a well-known and very long established Denton name. In 1861 records show George Knight as a carrier and brother Charles Knight as a general dealer and shoe agent but by 1869 Charles was also noted as a carrier who was making 3 trips weekly to Northampton on Monday, Wednesday & Saturday and older brother George doing the same trip on Wednesday and Saturday.Wednesday and Saturday were Northampton markets days and this is why all the carrier went on those days. The carrier would return to the village around 7 pm and then had to organise distributing goods bought back.

 

However it was Charles and wife Mary Ann who had produced a single son, Alfred, who was born in 1863. He grew up and followed the family tradition and became one of the carriers in Denton.

 

 One of his contracts was to haul roadstone. This was bought to the area by rail to either Billing Station or, to Denton’s nearest station, confusingly named Piddington Station, but in fact between Denton and Horton. He would collect the stone in his horse and cart and then deliver it to wherever it was needed for making or repairing roads.

 

Alfred married Alice Sophia Newton Gammage. They were rather more prolific than Alfred’s parents had been managing to produce a daughter, who died in infancy, followed by a further 7 sons and 3 daughters to complete his large family.

Alfred lived to the age of 60 and died in 1924 while Sophia lived on until 1938 and died at the age of 73.

 

Their 3^rd child was Mervyn Llewelwyn Knight  born in 1887 who became chauffeur and butler to the rector of Whiston the Rev. the Hon. Llewellyn Charles Robert Irby M.A of Brasenose College, Oxford. (at this time the Denton living was a joint rectory alternating between the rectors of Yardley Hastings and Whiston with a single curate shared between them). His employer thought highly of Mervyn and on Rev Irby’s death he was left a sum of money so he could look after the rector’s widow. It is with part of these funds that, in April 1913, Mervyn Knight bought a second-hand 30hp Daimler lorry that he used to convey passengers and goods. Thus the Knight family’s association with 'buses' in the broadest sense began.

 

In the early days there was no formal timetable but Mervyn would ferry groups rather as a taxi service and carry passengers as well as goods in the course of his carrier work - in much the same way as his father had before him.

 

However things were not to have a happy ending. In 1917 Mervyn was taking load of furniture to the south coast but on route the lorry burst into flames and everything was lost. Worse still, it is believed the shock of the incident so affected Mervyn that he developed pneumonia which developed into double pneumonia and he died at the very early age of 30 later that year.

 

The Knight family story does not end there, however, as two more of the 11 offspring of Alfred and Sophia also went into the transport business. Charles White Knight was one of Mervyn’s younger brothers and during the First World War he worked on the land and became a pig breeder.

 

He met and married Sarah Jane Cavey from Cold Higham. She was always known as ‘Sally’ and by all accounts was the driving force in their marriage. In 1925 they decided to operate a bus service in an era when there were still very few people who owned cars. In February that year they bought a new 14 seater saloon Ford T bus which cost £328 from the Northampton Ford dealer Henry Oliver Ltd. The picture below left, although very poor quality, is important as it shows this bus, registration number RP764, and it is reasonable to assume the proud lady beside it is 'Sally' Knight.

 

It was fondly known as ‘the orange box’ and they used it to run the very first timetabled service – initially just on a Wednesday and Saturday (the old carriers days simply because they were Northampton market days) between Denton – Brafield – Northampton. Soon the service extended to the East taking in Yardley Hastings – Olney – Lavendon – Harrold.

 

Apparently they owned two bodies for the vehicle, one the orange box 14 – seater (7 each side) and the other a truck back, and it was a common sign to see them being interchanged with the aid of a chain block and tackle at the Main Street garage depending upon whether passengers or carrier’s freight were to be transported. If the bus was full with passengers its power was rather tested on Sheep Wash Hill (the hill out of the village towards Brafield) and it was not unknown for passengers to have to get out to lighten the load, or even push the bus!

 

Although Charles Knight played an active role in the business it was carried out solely in the name of Sarah Jane Knight suggesting the capital for the venture had come from her side of the family and it was the name ‘Sally’ that was to appear on the buses.

 

Bus operating at this time was becoming a competitive business with quite a few companies vying for passengers.

Northampton Omnibus Company, Minneys of Yardley Hastings and Laws of Brafield were all running similar routes and there were periodic spats between them. However Knights seemed to have the money to flourish and expand. Four new and one second-hand buses were added in 1926/7 and another four new vehicles in 1929. In 1930 the much smaller Yardley firm of Minney’s succumbed to the competition and was bought out by Knights and with it their two buses and the lease to the garage in Little Street in Yardley which gave Knights much needed garage space.

 

By 1930 there was a comprehensive service operating. One route was from Harrold to Northampton which took an hour and ran on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 7.15 am to 10.30 pm at intervals of around 30 minutes! The service from Northampton to and from Olney ran every day at similar intervals and it from Denton it was 20 minutes to Northampton and the same the other way to Olney.

Such a service makes today’s service look decidedly limited!  

 

Continued expansion meant that by the mid 1930s space to accommodate the fleet was at premium again

and it began to cause traffic congestion problems in Denton village – an unusual problem for that era!

The issue was resolved when, in April 1935, the Northampton operator C. Wilford & Son was acquired by Knights which not only further expanded the ‘Sally’ Coaches fleet but, equally importantly, provided a large garaging facility. Furthermore the property included a house in Colwyn Road, Northampton and it was not long after that Sarah and Charles moved from Ivy Cottage in Main Street to Northampton and continued to run their successful business from Colwyn Road until their early retirement when they sold most of the stock and moved to Hackleton. One of Charles’ other, Denton born, younger brothers Herbert Sidney Knight then took over the lease of the Colwyn Road property and five remaining vehicles and continued to run these for private hire and excursions.

 

Meanwhile many of the Knight family continued to live in Denton. It is difficult to unravel which Knights were related to each other but as early as 1851 the census return lists no fewer than 25 Knights (out of a total village population of 595) – these include 4 Marys and 3 Charles!

 

By 1881 there were 7 Knight households and 19 Knights living in Denton. Twenty years later in 1901 there were still 20 Knights living in 9 different family units but many were now of advanced years living on their own or with a housekeeper or the next generation so the dynasty was on the wane although obviously the female lines continued under various married names.