In the Kettering Leader and Guardian, Friday August 19, 1938 in "Burton Topics" by Simon Straight under the sub-heading of "Memories of the Past" the following paragraphs appeared:

It is always interesting to hear of Burtonians overseas. Here is an extract from a letter recently received by Mrs. W. Howell of 29, Charles-street, Kettering (née Miss Annie Toseland) from her brother, Mr. Arthur Toseland, who emigrated from Burton in 1913, and now lives in Winnipeg, Canada, being employed as head janitor at an important technical school. It was through the “Leader” that Mr. Toseland got in touch with another Burtonian in Canada, Mr. A. Hodson, who, unknown to him, had been living not far away for 25 years. It is a visit to Mr. Hodson which is here described:

Addie and I have had a lovely week at Elkhorn at Bert Hodson’s farm. We had some real old-time chats. I think we went over everybody that lived in Burton years ago in our boyhood days.

We went up Old Orchard then up 40 Acre and on to the Round House, and all around the old ironstone pits, and then on to Cranford; then down to the Whirly Hole, where we used to bathe and the Hurdy Gurdy bridge to Isham, and back up by Isham station to Polwell Lane and Barton and all over our boyhood haunts.

Then we gathered together our old schoolfellows – Wallace Coles, Frank Barlow, Arthur Miller, George Talbutt, Arthur and Raymond Downing, Harry and Arthur Blake, Pearson Cooper, Tom Freestone, Jimmy Capps and many more.

We are the boys who really know what the Salvation Army did when they first took Burton over in the old furnace days. Yes, they cleaned up a rough job as we remember it in the days of half a century ago. We didn’t forget old friend P.C. Currin and his stick, and many of the people who lived in New Town at that time.

Then we went over Burton Feast in the old days with Flash George and his Flying Horses and Blandy’s Ghost show, and Professor Ball and his Boxing Booth. I remember, too, how he changed his life and used to preach in open air meetings of the Victoria Hall Mission …

We can never forget, wherever we may be , or however far from the old home...


In 1929, "The Outlook" the St. Mary's Church School magazine, published a long letter in two parts from Arthur Toseland, referred to above, in which he described conditions in Canada, especially Winnipeg, where he was working in the School Service.

The following appears on a website devoted to the history of Elkhorn and its inhabitants:

The G. A. (Bert) Hodson Family

On June 29th, 1901 G. A. (Bert) Hodson and Ada Whiting were married at Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. In 1903 they came to Canada and worked on a farm in the Hagyard school district south-east of Lenore for the summer. They then moved to Virden where Bert was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railways on a B. and B. gang. Ada worked in the old Balmoral hotel in Virden for a time. The Hodsons later moved to Elkhorn where Bert worked under the late Mr. Clifford as a miller in the Elkhorn grist mill north of the C.P.R. station. The following year, Bert rented the Clifford farm, one mile east of Elkhorn, before purchasing the Buckingham homestead (where the Buckingham School District received its name), on the southeast quarter of section 10-11-28, four and one half miles south of Elkhorn. In 1947, the Hodsons bought a house in the village. Bert lived here until his death in 1952 and Ada kept the house until 1963 when she moved to the Sherwood Senior Citizens' Home in Virden. The house was later sold to Rosalie Frattinger. Ada died in 1973. There were four children in the Hodson family.