Northamptonshire

Lore & Background

Northamptonshire's early history includes Iron Age hill-forts such as Hunsbury Hill and Roman settlements like Lactodurum (modern Towcester). After the Romans left, the area became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and Northampton served as an administrative centre. The county was part of the Danelaw, with Watling Street as the boundary, and was first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011 as Hamtunscire.

During the later Middle Ages, the county saw the Battle of Northampton in 1460 during the Wars of the Roses, where King Henry VI was captured. In the English Civil War, Northamptonshire strongly supported the Parliamentarian cause, and the decisive Battle of Naseby in 1645 destroyed the main Royalist army. King Charles I was later imprisoned at Holdenby House in 1647.

The county became known for shoemaking and the leather industry during the Industrial Revolution, and in the north a large ironstone quarrying industry developed from 1850. Corby was established as a major steel centre in the 1930s and designated a new town in 1950, followed by Northampton in 1968.

Reader's Guide

Northamptonshire's significance lies in its layered history as a borderland of the Danelaw, a site of pivotal medieval and civil war battles, and a centre of the footwear and leather industries during the Industrial Revolution. The county's landscape of low, undulating hills and its principal river, the Nene, shaped its rural character, while towns like Northampton, Corby, and Kettering became industrial hubs. The county's historical boundaries once included the Soke of Peterborough, which was transferred to Cambridgeshire in 1974. Northamptonshire is also notable as the ancestral home of George Washington's family; his ancestor Lawrence Washington was Mayor of Northampton and purchased Sulgrave Manor in 1539. The county's legacy includes its role in the development of the English shoe trade and its preservation of Iron Age and Roman remains, as well as its reputation as the 'county of spires and squires' due to its many stately homes and ancient churches.

Did You Know?

• Northamptonshire was first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011 as Hamtunscire.
• The county was the site of the decisive Battle of Naseby in 1645 during the First English Civil War.
• George Washington's great-grandfather, John Washington, emigrated from Northamptonshire to Virginia in 1656.
• The county historically included the Soke of Peterborough, which was transferred to Cambridgeshire in 1974.