Explore-Heritage-South-Northamptonshire
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www.southnorthants.gov.uk Explore Heritage in South Northamptonshire 1 Contents Welcome to the rich Welcome 2 Ancient News heritage of South Ancient News 3 The character of South Northants is bound up under the Romans and in the 9th century, was Historic Routes 4 Northamptonshire in its ancient past. Notably its geology, which established as the boundary between Alfred’s relates almost entirely to the Jurassic period, Anglo-Saxon Wessex and the Danish-ruled Working Classes 6 This rural and sparsely populated landscape has around 150 million years ago. This is apparent areas in the north east under Danelaw. You remained largely unchanged for centuries. Miles Architecturally Appealing 7 in the locally quarried ironstone and pale can see a wide range of Roman artefacts at of rolling green countryside, woodland and quiet sandstone (akin to Cotswold stone), which has former Wesleyan Chapel, Piddington Roman Divine Dwellings 12 country lanes are interspersed with peaceful been used to build our towns and villages. Villa Museum, which houses pieces discovered during a 25 year excavation of a Roman villa. Royal Connections 14 villages and the two unspoilt market towns of Brackley and Towcester. The Iron Age is evident at a number of sites. Military Might 16 Rainsborough Camp hill fort near Charlton The area has a rich history that spans the clearly shows a rampart and ditch thought Market Towns 18 millennia. Its social, cultural and industrial to have been built in the 5th century BC and heritage is reflected in the many things there are to The Berry in Rothersthorpe is an example of a rare defensive ringwork. see and do here - 1,800 listed buildings, many built from the distinctive local limestone and ironstone; The Romans had a big impact on the region, over 50 conservation villages; dozens of ancient building Watling Street (the A5), which churches; the Grand Union and Oxford canals; and passes through Towcester, or Lactodorum, the popular visitor attractions of Castle Ashby the oldest town in Northamptonshire. Some Gardens, the Iron Trunk Aqueduct at Cosgrove, believe that Boudicca fought her last battle Silverstone circuit, Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum, against the Romans around AD60 at Cuttle Mill, just south of Towcester on Watling Sulgrave Manor and Towcester Racecourse. Street, marking the end of British resistance to Roman rule. It remained an important route 2 3 Historic Routes Bringing together people, agricultural aqueduct, horse tunnel and ornamental bridge and Sulgrave. The station is now a car tyre and part of the old produce and industrial materials, many at Cosgrove; Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum; shop. A well-known feature of the town was Jurassic Way, which routes, ancient and modern, pass through and Blisworth Tunnel. Further details are the 19 metre high, 233 metre long Brackley ran from the Humber to the Avon. South Northamptonshire, which sits at the available in the guide, ‘Canals in South Viaduct. It was demolished in 1978. It enters the district at Thorpe Mandeville, heart of England. Over the centuries, the Northamptonshire’. coming out onto the Culworth/Weston Road, horse, chariot, stagecoach, canals, railways Drovers’ Routes emerging at Adstone Lodge and crossing the and roads have all had an impact on the local Railways These originated in the 13th century as A5 at Fosters Booth. Passing through Weedon landscape and way of life. The first mainline railway through green lanes between settlements that were Lois, Oxford Lane brought meat from Leicester to the University. Linking London and the north west, Watling Northamptonshire was the London to used by merchants, travellers and pilgrims. Birmingham line (now the West Coast They developed as routes for driving cattle Street has been an important trading route Drovers lanes are identifiable by their wide since Roman times. Dissecting the A5 is the Mainline), which opened in 1838. Blisworth and sheep following the introduction of root was the connection for Northampton. It vegetables such as turnips and swedes, which verges, which accommodated the cattle and A43, originally a trading route between the inns that sprang up along the way, such as the busy towns of Oxford and Northampton and became a hugely popular stopping off point, meant that cattle could be overwintered. with a hotel and pleasure gardens built Previously, only the breeding stock was kept Three Conies at Thorpe Mandeville and the beyond. Sections of the long distance walking three storey farmhouse (formerly the Magpie routes, the Midshires Way, Knightley Way, specifically for passengers. and the rest slaughtered and the meat salted down for winter. Now, in the spring, livestock Inn), at the junction of the Culworth Road Grafton Way, Macmillan Way and Jurassic Way The Great Western Railway line from Oxford and the turn to Sulgrave on Banbury Lane. also pass through the area. could be driven from Wales to markets in to Banbury opened in 1850, later becoming London to feed the growing population. Opposite is evidence of a former ‘stance’, part of the Great Western’s mainline to a rectangular field that would have been Canals Birmingham. Today it serves the Chiltern line, South Northamptonshire is riddled with used to hold the cattle. Bordering Welsh Around 17 miles of the London to Birmingham with a station at King’s Sutton. Near Aynho old drover routes. The South Wales route Lane near Greatworth is a large meadow Grand Union Canal flows through the district, Wharf, you can see the original station (1850), from the Lampeter area passed through called the Gallows Field where cattle thieves from Cosgrove to Nether Heyford, as does a built to Brunel’s design for small stations. It Chipping Norton, Adderbury and Aynho, on to would have been hung. The routes declined short stretch of the Oxford Canal near Aynho. closed in 1964 and is no longer accessible to Croughton, where the cattle would have been with the arrival of the railway and changing Although today they provide a tranquil haven the public. watered, then to a large inn at Barley Mow on agricultural methods in the 19th century. for boaters and walkers, in the past, canals the A43, beyond to Buckingham and the Essex played a hugely Brackley and Towcester markets. The North Wales route from Anglesey important role were once both served by came via Birmingham, arriving on Welsh Lane, in the area’s the railway but both lines between Middleton Cheney and Culworth, industrial were lost to Beeching going on to Helmdon, Syresham, Biddlesden development. in the 1960s. Brackley and Buckingham. Sitting at the crossroads of Some things Central station serviced Banbury Lane and Welsh Lane, Culworth once of note along the Great Central Main had a thriving market and fair. the canals are Line, which continued the iron trunk north through Helmdon Banbury Lane was one of the earliest routes 4 5 Working Classes Architecturally Appealing Although a largely agricultural area, over the making, clock-making, baking and hosiery The area has a rich architectural history centuries, people have been employed in a at Middleton Cheney. Another important that spans all the main architectural styles - variety of industries. Heavy industry included source of employment was ‘outworking’ Elizabethan, Jacobean, Baroque, Palladian, ironstone and limestone quarries, ironworks, for the booming shoe and boot industries Georgian and Victorian. Its stately homes furnaces and brickworks. By creating a means of Northampton. At Harpole, a number of and buildings are connected with the famous of transport for materials, the arrival of the houses were extended to accommodate architects of their day, including Inigo Jones, canal and railway had a direct impact on local stitching shops and football boots were still Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Kent, Sir John communities, generating jobs and wealth. being made there in the 1940s. Soane, Sir George Gilbert Scott and landscape Related industries sprang up in nearby villages gardeners, Humphry Repton and Capability such as Nether Heyford, whose industrial Reading Rooms Brown. The area is also rich in vernacular past is evident in the name of one of its These were often funded by local architecture, notably the many cottages and streets – Furnace Lane. Meanwhile, the area’s philanthropists during the 19th and early buildings made from local ironstone and agricultural past was once visible in its many 20th century for use by local working men. sandstone, good examples of which can be windmills. Today most are lost or converted to With the cost of newspapers relatively high, seen at Blakesley, Blisworth and Culworth. dwellings but you can catch glimpses of them it was a place to read newspapers and at Blakesley, Silverstone and Greens Norton. periodicals for free, or for a small Aynhoe Park, Aynho subscription. The development of libraries The Grade I listed 17th century Palladian Lace-making was an important industry and the education system led to their mansion was built in 1615 by the Cartwright during the 19th century, particularly at decline in the 20th century. Many have family, who remained there for 300 years, Paulerspury, Pury End and Potterspury, disappeared, or been turned into homes but giving their name to the Cartwright Hotel where skilled lace-makers sold lace to royalty in some villages they continue to be used as and Restaurant opposite. It is associated and gentry. Long Row in Pury End was a row of community facilities, including Blakesley, with architect, Sir John Soane, while the 13 lace workers’ cottages and in Potterspury, Bradden, Croughton and Helmdon. Sulgrave park was laid out in the 18th century by the Duke of Grafton built ‘Factory Row’ as lace Reading Room has been converted into a Capability Brown. Adjacent is the church of cottages. Later they became a match factory. successful not-for-profit community shop. Saint Michael, largely rebuilt in the early 18th Among other places, lace is also known to have century in the English Baroque style.