Cogenhoe and Whiston Village Booklet 2019 Please retain this booklet for future use and leave it at the premises for the newcomers if you leave Cogenhoe Table of Contents A Short History of Cogenhoe and Whiston ................................................................ 3 The Two Parish Churches ......................................................................................... 8 St. Peter’s, Cogenhoe ............................................................................................ 8 St. Mary the Virgin, Whiston ................................................................................. 10 Other Local Churches .............................................................................................. 11 Local Village Organisations ..................................................................................... 12 Village Sports Clubs ................................................................................................ 14 Other Organisations ................................................................................................ 15 Local Councillors ..................................................................................................... 16 Medical Facilities ..................................................................................................... 17 Cogenhoe Village Facilities ..................................................................................... 18 Local Recycling Services ......................................................................................... 19 Local Library Service ............................................................................................... 19 Local Accommodation ............................................................................................. 20 Local Attractions ...................................................................................................... 21 Local Restaurants and Public Houses ..................................................................... 22 Local Public Houses ............................................................................................. 22 Other Local Restaurants ...................................................................................... 23 Local Village Transport ............................................................................................ 24 Local Other Services ............................................................................................... 24 Local Village Businesses ......................................................................................... 25 Local Village Problem Reporting ............................................................................. 28 Local Walks ............................................................................................................. 29 Regular Village Events ............................................................................................ 29 Cogenhoe Green Plaque Scheme ........................................................................... 30 Purpose of Document This document has been created by the Cogenhoe and Whiston Parish Council as a guide to the Northamptonshire Villages of Cogenhoe and Whiston. The latest version of the guide can be found on the Cogenhoe and Whiston Parish Council Web Site at this link https://www.cogenhoeandwhiston-pc.gov.uk/. For comments or errors contact the Council at [email protected] Thanks Many have contributed to the booklet but special thanks to Denis Pearson who produced the line drawings. Denis lived in the village for many years and was an architect. He was also the Church's architect, bell ringer and Churchwarden for many years. 2019 Update A village map has been included along with details of the Heritage Trail and many minor updates. Regular Updates in the Parish Magazine (Outlook) This is published 11 times a year at the start of each month (no edition in August). It carries village news and details of village events. If you wish to advertise your event or local business or have village news then contact the editor on [email protected]. Use this email to also arrange a subscription. The parish council website also has a WHATS ON page see https://www.cogenhoeandwhiston-pc.gov.uk/ Jon Bailey Page 2 A Short History of Cogenhoe and Whiston The history of both villages begins millennia before they received their modern names. In prehistory, the Nene valley was a system of braided channels with Neolithic and later, Bronze Age man living in around the area. The main evidence from these periods is the many flint tools which have been found including arrow heads, scrapers, boring tools and an axe-head. On top of the hill towards Cogenhoe Firs, and almost halfway between Cogenhoe and Whiston, one group of people were actively engaged in making these tools and possibly trading in them. Their little settlement looked north and down into the river valley where, over many years, they constructed a barrow cemetery of at least six large mounds, each presumably containing at least one grave of an important member of the community. Only one of these mounds has survived the plough and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument and can be seen from the footpath to Earls Barton. There were a number of Iron Age settlements in the Parish including one in Short Lane. A later settlement took root on the south side of Cogenhoe Firs and developed into an important Romano-British settlement which lasted for several hundred years. Apart from a villa with mosaic floors, there were many other buildings with a variety of uses. Iron slag suggests that they had learned to use the local ores for smelting, and other materials including copper alloy and glass, were also used. A large number of bronze coins were found over the years and a grave with a small child was discovered in 1959. The body had been buried with two small pewter dishes beside it. Another Romano-British villa was built on the southern rim of the valley and east of Whiston. Still to be excavated, this villa had glass windows and other high-status building materials. In Cogenhoe village, north of Station Road, a number of skeletons from the Romano-British period have been found. One group of three included two children and an adult with a snake’s head bracelet on their wrist. Another, decapitated skeleton was found with its head lying between its legs. Yet another skeleton, also decapitated was left to lie in peace in one of the gardens off Station Road and is still there to this day. One of the front gardens in Corn Kiln Close is home to the Roman corn drying kiln that lies preserved there and which gives the Close its name. When the E-shaped kiln was excavated in the early 1960s, a variety of finds included animal bones, antlers, quern stones (for grinding corn), a bronze brooch, a buckle and numerous coins were found. There were even carbonised grains of corn left by the Roman farmer. Later pottery from the Dark Ages has been found west of Cogenhoe Church. This may have belonged to the first Christians to worship there. Later Saxon pottery was also found further to the west and it was probably these people who gave Cogenhoe its name. The name, Cogenhoe, has two elements to it. The second, ...hoe, is easy to interpret – having a topographical origin. A hoe was a spur of land, usually overlooking a valley. Other Northamptonshire examples include Farthinghoe and Wadenhoe. The first part of the name is problematic. It could refer to a personal name – Cucga’s Hoe. A 19th century cleric believed that it was a corruption of the Latin word, gucken if so then it became Gucken Hoe or Spy Hill. Page 3 Latin place names though are rare and it is more likely that it is a corruption of a north Germanic word which may have the same or similar meaning – a lookout place. In the 10th century, Whiston (or Hyctintune as it was then spelt) was given to Ramsey Abbey and it may be that it was the Abbott who named the village after St Wistan who died at the Abbey (another example is Wigston, in Leicestershire). Later manorial lords were the Catesby family who owned a moated manor house to the North-west of the village alongside the stream. Moat Cottage or Place House still stands there and many of the earthworks have survived but in about 1575, Thomas Catesby had the old manor house pulled down and the materials transported to his new estate across the valley at Ecton where they were used to help build the Elizabethan Ecton Hall. Remains of a late Medieval settlement were found south of the present village and nearer to the Church but at some point it became depopulated and was eventually given over to agriculture. Ploughing in the 1970s revealed roof tile and other building materials in the field to the west of the Church path. Similarly, at Cogenhoe a medieval settlement north of the church which included narrow closes and a fishpond also became empty – probably by the early modern period. At Domesday, there was a third settlement or manor that was centred on the present Cotton’s Farm where a number of houses were shown on the later Cogenhoe map of 1630. These were in the field to the south of Cotton’s Farm but then seem to have disappeared soon after – possibly by fire. A large quantity of pottery and other finds have been discovered on this site and a crudely-made stone cross base was found in a wall on Cotton Hill in the 1960s. Apart from agriculture, the two villages have, over time, supported other industries. Until the 19th