Kettering - the 1930's Silicon Valley?

How did I not know about this?  Does anyone know about this?  I've spoken to a couple of other Kettering folk today and they also looked at me with blank faces, registering nothing (although this isn't entirely unusual).

We all know that Kettering is famous for literally a scant handful of things, so the fact that a Kettering man built a robot back in the 1930's has seriously wowed me.  Add in the fact that the robot's creator taught him to smoke, consider my gob well and truly smacked!

WTF? Robert the Kettering Robot!

Whatever next?  Will someone unearth evidence of a dinosaur known to have roamed the Grange Estate back in the 1960's, that somehow we've collectively forgotten?  What about the little known flying saucer crash at Wickies in the 1970's?  Or, even more unlikely, will proof of Mark English actually paying a Tax Bill be found?

We need to know!