Launceston, Cornwall
Launceston is a town, ancient borough, civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile west of the middle stage of the River Tamar, which constitutes the entire border between Cornwall and Devon; the landscape of the town is steep at a sharp south-western knoll topped by Launceston Castle. These gradients fall down to smaller tributaries; the town centre itself is no longer physically a main thoroughfare. The A388 still runs through the town close to the centre; the town remains figuratively the "gateway to Cornwall", due to having the A30, one of the two dual carriageways into the county pass directly next to the town. The other dual carriageway and alternative main point of entry is at Saltash over the Tamar Bridge and was completed in 1962. There are smaller points of entry to Cornwall on minor roads. Launceston Steam Railway narrow-gauge heritage railway runs as a tourist attraction during the summer months, it was restored for aesthetic and industrial heritage purposes and runs along a short rural route, it is popular with visitors but does not run for much of the year.
Launceston Castle was built by Count of Mortain c. 1070 to control the surrounding area. Launceston was the caput of the feudal barony of Launceston and of the Earldom of Cornwall until replaced by Lostwithiel in the 13th century. Launceston was the county town of Cornwall until 1835 when Bodmin replaced it. Two civil parishes serve the town and its outskirts, of which the central more built-up administrative unit housed 8,952 residents at the 2011 census. Three electoral wards include reference to the town, their total population, from 2011 census data, being 11,837 and two ecclesiastical parishes serve the former single parish, with three churches and a large swathe of land to the north and west part of the area. Launceston's motto "Royale et Loyale" is a reference to its adherence to the Cavalier cause during the English Civil War of the mid-17th century; the Cornish name of "Launceston", means the "church enclosure of St Stephen" and is derived from the former monastery at St Stephen's a few miles north-west and the Common Brittonic placename element lan-.
Dunheved was the Southwestern Brittonic name for the town in the West Saxon period. The earliest known Cornish mint was at Launceston, which operated on a minimal scale at the time of Æthelred the Unready before Cornwall received full diocesan jurisdiction in 994. Only one specimen is known to exist. In the reign of William the Conqueror, the mint was moved to Dunheved and remained in existence until the reign of Henry II, 1160. During the reign of Henry III of England, another mint was established in Launceston. Launceston Castle, in good repair, is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle, was built by Robert, Count of Mortain c. 1070 to dominate the surrounding area. Launceston was the caput of the feudal barony of Launceston and of the Earldom of Cornwall until replaced by Lostwithiel in the 13th century. Launceston was the county town of Cornwall until 1835 when Bodmin replaced it; the lands of Robert, Count of Mortain, became the core holdings of the feudal barony of Launceston, the Fleming family continued to hold most of their manors from that barony, as can be seen from entries in the Book of Fees.
In the Domesday Book it is recorded that Launceston was held by the Count of Mortain, that he had his castle there. There was land for 10 ploughs, 1 villein and 13 smallholders with 4 ploughs, 2 mills which paid 40 shillings and 40 acres of pasture; the value of the manor was only £4 though it had been worth £20. The Roman Catholic martyr Cuthbert Mayne was executed at Launceston — a legacy of memorials and a church exists. During the English Civil War Launceston was known to be Royale et Loyale to Charles I of England, hence its coat of arms, his son, crowned Charles II of England, stayed in the town for a couple of days en route to the Cavalier army based further west. In 1643, the Parliamentarian forces under the command of Major General James Chudleigh advanced in an attempt to capture Launceston from the Royalists; the Royalist commander, Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, stationed his forces on the summit of Beacon Hill, a steep hill which overlooks the town. The Parliamentarians captured the foot of the hill, but were unable to dislodge the Royalist forces from the top.
Hopton led a counterattack down the hill and, despite fierce fighting and the arrival of Parliamentary reinforcements, forced Chudleigh's troops to retreat. Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet was committed by Prince Charles to Launceston Prison for refusing to obey Lord Hopton. Launceston has the only document in the UK signed by Mary II of England and her husband, William III of England. Launceston is said to have gained its historical importance from being the furthest into Cornwall that Justices and other Officers of the Crown felt safe to venture; when the situation had been improved Bodmin became the county town. Launceston's role as the de facto county town of Cornwall became established in the 13th century but it was never designated as the county town. Viscount Launceston was a title of nobility created in 1726 but
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex and by tradition of all of Sussex. Lewes remains the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes, it is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district as well as the seat of East Sussex County Council at East Sussex County Hall. The population of Lewes is now around 17,000; the settlement is a traditional market town and centre of communications and, in 1264, it was the site of the Battle of Lewes. The town's landmarks include Lewes Castle, the remains of Lewes Priory, Bull House, Southover Grange and public gardens, a 16th century timber-framed Wealden hall house known as Anne of Cleves House. Other notable features of the area include the Glyndebourne festival, the Lewes Bonfire and the Lewes Pound. Archaeological evidence points to prehistoric dwellers in the area. Scholars think that the Roman settlement of Mutuantonis was here, as quantities of artefacts have been discovered in the area.
The Saxons built a castle. After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror rewarded William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, with the Rape of Lewes, a swathe of land along the River Ouse from the coast to the Surrey boundary, he built Lewes Castle on the Saxon site. Lewes was the site of a mint during the Late Anglo-Saxon period and thereafter a mint during the early years after the Norman invasion. In 1148 the town was granted a charter by King Stephen; the town became a port with docks along the River Ouse. The town was the site of the Battle of Lewes between the forces of Henry III and Simon de Montfort in the Second Barons' War in 1264, at the end of which de Montfort's forces were victorious; the battle took place in fields now just west of Landport. At the time of the Marian Persecutions of 1555–1557, Lewes was the site of the execution of seventeen Protestant martyrs, who were burned at the stake in front of the Star Inn; this structure is now the Town Hall. A memorial to the martyrs was unveiled on Cliffe Hill in 1901.
Through the 17th and 18th centuries, Lewes developed as the county town of Sussex, expanding beyond the line of the town wall. It was an active port and developed related iron and ship building industries. In 1846 the town became a railway junction, with lines constructed from the north and east to two railway stations; the development of Newhaven ended Lewes's period as a major port. During the Crimean War, some 300 Finns serving in the Russian army captured at Bomarsund were imprisoned at Lewes. Lewes became a borough in 1881; the name Lewes is the name of the parliamentary constituency and the local district council as well as Lewes Town Council. Lewes is where the East Sussex County Council has its main offices, located at County Hall in St Anne’s Crescent. Lewes District Council is administered from offices in Southover House on Southover Road. Lewes Town Council is based in the Town Hall on Lewes High Street. For many years, Lewes was dominated at local and national levels. In 1991, the Liberal Democrats won the District Council for the first time, the constituency returned a Liberal Democrat MP for the first time in 1997.
The Conservatives won control of the District Council in 2011, strengthened this position in 2015. They won back the parliamentary seat in the 2015 election with Maria Caulfield defeating the incumbent Liberal Democrat of 18 years, Norman Baker by 1,083 votes. In organisational terms, Lewes became one of the non-county boroughs within the Sussex, East county under the Local Government Act 1933. In 1974, Lewes District Council was formed on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, was a merger of the former borough of Lewes along with Newhaven and Seaford urban districts and Chailey Rural District; the election in 2015 was the first time in which Green Councillors had been elected to the Lewes District Council, all from the wards in the town of Lewes. The Lewes Councillor elected to the District Council, Ruth O'Keeffe, was elected as Chairman of the Council; the town of Lewes became a civil parish with the title of town. Lewes Town Council is one of the 300 largest of the 9,800 parish councils in England and Wales, with expenditure budgeted at just over £1 million.
In the 2015 elections for Lewes Town Council, the Green Party were the largest party with 9 seats. But, they lost a seat to an Independent in a by-election and split. There are now 6 Liberal Democrats, 5 Greens, 4 Independents and 3 Independent Green members of Council; the Mayor for 2017/18 is Councillor Michael Chartier and the Deputy Mayor is Janet Baah, both Liberal Democrats. The representation from Lewes wards at local government levels, as at the latest elections, is as follows. On 31 March 2009 Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, announced his decision to confirm the designation of the South Downs National Park, which came into being one year and includes the town of Lewes within its boundaries. You can see Lewes lying like a box of toys under a great amphitheatre of chalk hills... on the whole it is set down better than any town I have seen in England. Lewes is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, in a gap in the Sout
Court of Common Pleas (England)
The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas". Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common Pleas served as one of the central English courts for around 600 years. Authorised by Magna Carta to sit in a fixed location, the Common Pleas sat in Westminster Hall for its entire existence, joined by the Exchequer of Pleas and Court of King's Bench; the court's jurisdiction was undercut by the King's Bench and Exchequer of Pleas with legal fictions, the Bill of Middlesex and Writ of Quominus respectively. The Common Pleas maintained its exclusive jurisdiction over matters of real property until its dissolution, due to its wide remit was considered by Sir Edward Coke to be the "lock and key of the common law", it was staffed by one Chief Justice and a varying number of puisne justices, who were required to be Serjeants-at-Law, until the mid 19th century only Serjeants were allowed to plead there.
As one of the two principal common law courts with the King's Bench, the Common Pleas fought to maintain its jurisdiction and caseload, in a way that during the 16th and 17th centuries was categorised as conservative and reactionary. Reaching an acceptable medium with the King's Bench and Exchequer of Pleas proved to be the downfall of all three courts. With an Order in Council issued on 16 December 1880, the Common Pleas Division of the High Court ceased to exist, marking the end of the Court of Common Pleas; the sole fixed "court" was the curia regis, one of the three central administrative bodies along with the Exchequer and Chancery, from which the Court of Chancery formed. This curia was the king's court, composed of those advisers and courtiers who followed the king as he travelled around the country; this was not a dedicated court of law, instead a descendant of the witenagemot. In concert with the curia regis, eyre circuits staffed by itinerant judges dispensed justice throughout the country, operating on fixed paths at certain times.
These judges were members of the curia, would hear cases on the king's behalf in the "lesser curia regis". The curia split into two distinct branches, the coram rege and de banco. Much academic discussion occurs over the times of their founding. In 1178, a chronicler recorded that when Henry II: learned that the land and the men of the land were burdened by so great a number of justices, for there were, chose with the counsel of the wise men of his kingdom five only, two clerks three and laymen, all of his private family, decreed that these five should hear all complaints of the kingdom and should do right and should not depart from the king's court but should remain there to hear the complaints of men, with this understanding that, if there should come up among them any question which could not be brought to a conclusion by them, it should be presented to a royal hearing and be determined by the king and the wiser men of the kingdom; this was interpreted as the foundation of the King's Bench, with the Court of Common Pleas not coming into existence until the signing of Magna Carta, which mandated in Section 17 that common pleas be heard in "some fixed place".
This ensured that rather than the source of justice moving from place to place as the king did, there would be a fixed location that claimants and defendants could travel to that would address their problems. The theory was that Henry II's decree created the Court of Common Pleas, not the King's Bench, that the King's Bench instead split from the Common Pleas at some time. In the 20th century, with better access to historical documents, legal historians have come to a different conclusion. Rather than the Common Pleas being created out of the curia regis directly, it instead arose out of the Exchequer of Pleas, another body split from the curia regis. By the beginning of the 13th century, a split began; the Court of Common Pleas, along with the other superior courts, sat in Westminster Hall from its creation. Due to the provisions in Magna Carta, it was bound to sit there; the court sat in a space marked off by a wooden bar with the court officials sitting at a large oak table covered in green cloth and the justices on a raised platform at the rear of the court.
During the 15th century, the common law courts were challenged by the civil law and equity found in the Chancery and similar courts. These courts and legal methods were much faster than the common law courts, so lawyers and claimants flocked to them; this was perceived as a threat for good reason. In reaction to this, the Court of King's Bench developed its own, faster system, intent on winning cases back, through procedures such as the Writ of Quominus and Bill of Middlesex acquired a wider jurisdiction. While this succeeded in fo
Henry II of England
Henry II known as Henry Curtmantle, Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, ruled as King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou and Nantes, Lord of Ireland. Before he was 40 he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France—an area that would come to be called the Angevin Empire. Henry was the son of daughter of Henry I of England, he became involved by the age of 14 in his mother's efforts to claim the throne of England occupied by Stephen of Blois, was made Duke of Normandy at 17. He inherited Anjou in 1151 and shortly afterwards became the Duke of Aquitaine by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII of France had been annulled. Stephen agreed to a peace treaty after Henry's military expedition to England in 1153, Henry inherited the kingdom on Stephen's death a year later. Henry was an energetic and sometimes ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the lands and privileges of his grandfather Henry I.
During the early years of his reign the younger Henry restored the royal administration in England, re-established hegemony over Wales and gained full control over his lands in Anjou and Touraine. Henry's desire to reform the relationship with the Church led to conflict with his former friend Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury; this controversy lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in Becket's murder in 1170. Henry soon came into conflict with Louis VII and the two rulers fought what has been termed a "cold war" over several decades. Henry expanded his empire at Louis' expense, taking Brittany and pushing east into central France and south into Toulouse. Henry and Eleanor had eight children -- five sons. Three of his sons would be king, though Henry the Young King was named his father's co-ruler rather than a stand-alone king; as the sons grew up, tensions over the future inheritance of the empire began to emerge, encouraged by Louis and his son King Philip II. In 1173 Henry's heir apparent, "Young Henry", rebelled in protest.
France, Brittany and Boulogne allied themselves with the rebels. The Great Revolt was only defeated by Henry's vigorous military action and talented local commanders, many of them "new men" appointed for their loyalty and administrative skills. Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted again in 1183; the Norman invasion of Ireland provided lands for his youngest son John, but Henry struggled to find ways to satisfy all his sons' desires for land and immediate power. By 1189, Young Henry and Geoffrey were dead, Philip played on Richard's fears that Henry II would make John king, leading to a final rebellion. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to Chinon castle in Anjou, he was succeeded by Richard. Henry's empire collapsed during the reign of his youngest son, John. Many of the changes Henry introduced during his long rule, had long-term consequences. Henry's legal changes are considered to have laid the basis for the English Common Law, while his intervention in Brittany and Scotland shaped the development of their societies and governmental systems.
Historical interpretations of Henry's reign have changed over time. In the 18th century, scholars argued that Henry was a driving force in the creation of a genuinely English monarchy and a unified Britain. During the Victorian expansion of the British Empire, historians were keenly interested in the formation of Henry's own empire, but they expressed concern over his private life and treatment of Becket. Late-20th-century historians have combined British and French historical accounts of Henry, challenging earlier Anglocentric interpretations of his reign. Henry was born in France at Le Mans on 5 March 1133, the eldest child of the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey the Fair, Count of Anjou; the French county of Anjou was formed in the 10th century and the Angevin rulers attempted for several centuries to extend their influence and power across France through careful marriages and political alliances. In theory, the county answered to the French king, but royal power over Anjou weakened during the 11th century and the county became autonomous.
Henry's mother was King of England and Duke of Normandy. She was born into a powerful ruling class of Normans, who traditionally owned extensive estates in both England and Normandy, her first husband had been the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. After her father's death in 1135, Matilda hoped to claim the English throne, but instead her cousin Stephen of Blois was crowned king and recognised as the Duke of Normandy, resulting in civil war between their rival supporters. Geoffrey took advantage of the confusion to attack the Duchy of Normandy but played no direct role in the English conflict, leaving this to Matilda and her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester; the war, termed the Anarchy by Victorian historians, degenerated into stalemate. Henry spent some of his earliest years in his mother's household, accompanied Matilda to Normandy in the late 1130s. Henry's childhood from the age of seven, was spent in Anjou, where he was educated by Peter of Saintes, a noted grammarian of the day. In late 1142, Geoffrey decided t
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, is a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The town has a population of 26,000, according to the 2011 census; the earliest reference to the town appears in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by Bede in 731 AD, which refers to "Herutford". "Herut" is the Old English spelling of "hart", meaning a mature stag. The Domesday Book of 1086 gives a spelling of "Hertforde". Hertford has been the county town of Hertfordshire since Saxon times when it was governed by the king's reeves. By the 13th century, the reeves had been replaced by a bailiff, elected by the burgesses. Charters of 1554 and 1589 established a common council of a bailiff. Another charter of 1605 changed the bailiff's title to mayor. In 1835, Hertford became a Municipal Corporation; this body elected the mayor. Since 1974, Hertford has been within the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire; the headquarters of Hertfordshire County Council is at County Hall in Hertford.
East Herts District Council's offices adjoin County Hall, there is a Hertford Town Council based at Hertford Castle. Hertford is at the confluence of four river valleys: the Rib and Mimram join the River Lea at Hertford to flow east and south toward the Thames as the Lee Navigation, after Hertford Castle Weir; the shared valley of the Lea and the Beane is called Hartham Common and this provides a large park to one side of the town centre running towards Ware and lying below the ridge upon which Bengeo is situated. The town centre still has its medieval layout with many timber-framed buildings hidden under frontages in St Andrew Street. Hertford suffers from traffic problems despite the existence of the 1960s A414 bypass called Gascoyne Way which passes close to the town centre. Plans have long existed to connect the A10 with the A414; the town retains much a country-town feel, despite lying only 19.2 miles north of Central London. This is aided by its proximity to larger towns such as Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Stevenage where modern development has been focused.
The first mention of the town was in 673 A. D.: the first synod of a number of the bishops in England was held either in Hertford or at Hartford, Cambridgeshire. It was called by Theodore of Tarsus. In 912 AD, Edward the Elder built two burhs close by the ford over the River Lea as a defence against Danish incursions. By the time of the Domesday Book, Hertford had two markets and three mills; the Normans began work on Hertford Castle, Hertford Priory was founded by Ralph de Limesy. King Henry II rebuilt the castle in stone, but in 1216, during the First Barons' War, it was besieged and captured after 25 days by Prince Louis of France; the castle was visited by English royalty and in 1358, Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II, died there. The priory was dissolved in 1536 and subsequently demolished and in 1563, the Parliament of England met at the castle because of an outbreak of plague in London. Hertford prospered as a market and county town; the Port Hill drill hall was completed in 1898 and Yeomanry House was brought into military use in 1910.
A fair amount of employment in the town is centred on County Hall, Wallfields and McMullens Brewery, one of a dwindling number of independent pre-1970 family brewers in the United Kingdom. Many residents commute to work in London. Hertford differs from neighbouring towns. However, it has most of the usual supermarkets. A Tesco store occupies part of the former Christ's Hospital Bluecoat Girls School, which closed down in 1985. Sainsburys opened a new store on part of the McMullens Brewery site in June 2012. A Waitrose occupied a reasonably large store in the Bircherley Green Shopping area that closed on 12 September 2017; the local branch of Woolworths closed for good on 27 December 2008, after the collapse of that store chain. There are fewer of the usual chain shops found in most high streets and this makes Hertford stand out from other "clone towns". There are a high number of independent shops with a variety of boutiques and salons. Hertford has a leisure centre on Hartham Common. There is a Non-League football club Hertford Town F.
C. which plays at Hertingfordbury Park. Hertford Town Youth FC, a FA Charter Standard Award|FA Charter Standard Football Club, play at County Hall Playing Fields, situated next to the headquarters of Hertfordshire County Council at County Hall in Hertford. Other clubs surrounding the town include Bury Rangers, Hertford Heath Youth FC and Bengeo Tigers Football Club Hertford Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, located in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire. Cricket records for a Hertford club go back a far as 1825, however the club in its present form has been in existence since 1860; the club plays its matches at Hertford. The club runs five teams and all the teams play in the local league; the band Deep Purple formed in Hertford in 1968. Alfred Russel Wallace who proposed a theory of natural selection at the same time as Charles Darwin lived in Hertfo
Horsham
Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is 31 miles south south-west of London, 18.5 miles north-west of Brighton and 26 miles north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the north-east and Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill to the south-east, it is the administrative centre of the Horsham district. The first historical record of Horsham is from AD 947; the name may mean either "horse home" or "Horsa's home". The town has been known for horse trading in early medieval times and brick making up until the 20th century, brewing more recently. Horsham is the largest town in the Horsham District Council area; the second, tier of local government is West Sussex County Council, based in Chichester. It was once part of the county of Surrey in 1758 until a change in boundaries through the parliament act in 1867. In addition there are various Parish Councils; the town is the centre of the parliamentary constituency of Horsham, recreated in 1983.
Jeremy Quin has served as Member of Parliament for Horsham since 2015, succeeding Francis Maude, who held the seat since 1997 but retired at the 2015 general election. Horsham holds the UK record for the heaviest hailstone to fall. On 5 September 1958, a hailstone weighing 140g landed in the town, it was similar in size to a tennis ball and impact speeds have been calculated to be 100 m/s. Horsham is 50 metres above sea level, it is in the centre of the Weald in the Low Weald, at the western edge of the High Weald, with the Surrey Hills of the North Downs to the north and the Sussex Downs of the South Downs to the south. The River Arun rising from ghylls in the St Leonard's Forest area, to the east of Horsham, cuts through the south of the town makes its way through Broadbridge Heath; the Arun is joined by a number of streams flowing down from the north. Horsham has grown up around the Carfax. To the south of the Carfax is the Causeway; this street consists of houses erected in the 17th, 18th and early 19th century and is lined with ancient London Plane trees.
The Horsham Museum is at the north end opposite to the developed former headquarters of the R. S. P. C. A.. At the south end of the Causeway is the Church of England parish church of St. Mary: Norman in origin, rebuilt in the 13th century and restored in 1864–65 by the Gothic revival architect S. S. Teulon; the area to the south of the parish church is known as Normandy. It was an area of artisans cottages and an ancient well. Fifty metres south is the River Arun. On the northern bank is Prewett's Mill and on the south side is the town's cricket field. A short walk along the banks of the Arun in a south easterly direction is Chesworth Farm, an area of open public access. To the north of the Carfax is a park, Horsham Park, the remnant of what was the Hurst Park Estate; the park has a wildlife pond and tennis courts. Leisure facilities, including a swimming complex and a gymnastic centre, have been built on land around the park. To the east along Brighton Road is Iron Bridge named after the railway bridge that carries the railway from London Victoria to Littlehampton.
The area consists of Victorian and Edwardian houses to the north of Brighton Road, whilst to the south there are areas of inter- and post-war housing. This area is known as the East Side. Horsham has developed beyond the original boundaries to incorporate some of the smaller hamlets which now form part of the outer districts. An area of Horsham named after a feeder stream of the River Arun, it consists of residential housing, the majority of, of late 20th century origin. The suburb is substantial enough for two council wards; the hamlet around Old Holbrook House is to the north of the A264 which abuts Holbrook. Holbrook House was the home of Sir William Vesey-Fitzgerald, Governor of Bombay and M. P. for Horsham. The Tithe Barn at Fivens Green is the most notable building in the district; this hamlet dates back to the late 18th century, when a small number of houses were in existence, with an inn opening in the early part of the 19th century. A station opened in the area in 1907 called Rusper Road Crossing halt, but renamed Littlehaven.
South-west of the town the Needles estate was laid out from c. 1955, with a mixture of owned and council-built houses and bungalows. Land around Hills Farm nearby was sold for development in 1972 and further development took place in the 1980s; the Needles are named after a local farmhouse, called so as it was built using timbers from ships wrecked on the Needles formation. In keeping with many other towns, new developments to the east of the town centre were rapid in the early Victorian era, that area of town became known, as it is today, as New Town; the area contains the Iron Bridge, a steel structure that carries the railway to the south of Horsham. Used as a label to describe the northern part of the parish of Horsham, this area was developed as a district in the latter part of the 20th century; this area was known as Grub Street, developed south of Depot Road in the 19th century. Roffey is north east of the centre of Horsham and as a hamlet dates back to at least the 13th century, with taxation records of 1296 showing 18 liable people in the area.
Kelley's Post Office Directory for 1867 describes'Roughey' as consisting'of a few farmhouses and cottages. Here is an iron church, capable of accommodating 80 persons'. Maps of the 1880s show Roffey Corner, but appear to label th
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire, archaically known as the County of Northampton, is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015 it had a population of 723,000; the county is administered by Northamptonshire County Council and by seven non-metropolitan district councils. It is known as "The Rose of the Shires". Covering an area of 2,364 square kilometres, Northamptonshire is landlocked between eight other counties: Warwickshire to the west and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east, Buckinghamshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the south-west and Lincolnshire to the north-east – England's shortest administrative county boundary at 19 metres. Northamptonshire is the southernmost county in the East Midlands region. Apart from the county town of Northampton, other major population centres include Kettering, Wellingborough and Daventry. Northamptonshire's county flower is the cowslip. Much of Northamptonshire's countryside appears to have remained somewhat intractable with regards to early human occupation, resulting in an sparse population and few finds from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods.
In about 500 BC the Iron Age was introduced into the area by a continental people in the form of the Hallstatt culture, over the next century a series of hill-forts were constructed at Arbury Camp, Rainsborough camp, Borough Hill, Castle Dykes, Guilsborough and most notably of all, Hunsbury Hill. There are two more possible hill-forts at Arbury Thenford. In the 1st century BC, most of what became Northamptonshire became part of the territory of the Catuvellauni, a Belgic tribe, the Northamptonshire area forming their most northerly possession; the Catuvellauni were in turn conquered by the Romans in 43 AD. The Roman road of Watling Street passed through the county, an important Roman settlement, stood on the site of modern-day Towcester. There were other Roman settlements at Northampton and along the Nene Valley near Raunds. A large fort was built at Longthorpe. After the Romans left, the area became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, Northampton functioned as an administrative centre.
The Mercians converted to Christianity in 654 AD with the death of the pagan king Penda. From about 889 the area was conquered by the Danes and became part of the Danelaw – with Watling Street serving as the boundary – until being recaptured by the English under the Wessex king Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, in 917. Northamptonshire was conquered again in 940, this time by the Vikings of York, who devastated the area, only for the county to be retaken by the English in 942, it is one of the few counties in England to have both Saxon and Danish town-names and settlements. The county was first recorded as Hamtunscire: the scire of Hamtun; the "North" was added to distinguish Northampton from the other important Hamtun further south: Southampton – though the origins of the two names are in fact different. Rockingham Castle was built for William the Conqueror and was used as a Royal fortress until Elizabethan times. In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Northampton took place and King Henry VI was captured.
The now-ruined Fotheringhay Castle was used to imprison Queen of Scots, before her execution. George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, was born into the Washington family who had migrated to America from Northamptonshire in 1656. George Washington's ancestor, Lawrence Washington, was Mayor of Northampton on several occasions and it was he who bought Sulgrave Manor from Henry VIII in 1539, it was George Washington's great-grandfather, John Washington, who emigrated in 1656 from Northants to Virginia. Before Washington's ancestors moved to Sulgrave, they lived in Lancashire. During the English Civil War, Northamptonshire supported the Parliamentarian cause, the Royalist forces suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Naseby in 1645 in the north of the county. King Charles I was imprisoned at Holdenby House in 1647. In 1823 Northamptonshire was said to " a pure and wholesome air" because of its dryness and distance from the sea, its livestock were celebrated: "Horned cattle, other animals, are fed to extraordinary sizes: and many horses of the large black breed are reared."Nine years the county was described as "a county enjoying the reputation of being one of the healthiest and pleasantest parts of England" although the towns were "of small importance" with the exceptions of Peterborough and Northampton.
In summer, the county hosted "a great number of wealthy families... country seats and villas are to be seen at every step." Northamptonshire is still referred to as the county of "spires and squires" because of the numbers of stately homes and ancient churches. In the 18th and 19th centuries, parts of Northamptonshire and the surrounding area became industrialised; the local specialisation was shoemaking and the leather industry and by the end of the 19th century it was definitively the boot and shoe making capital of the world. In the north of the county a large ironstone quarrying industry developed from 1850. Prior to 1901 the ancient hundreds were disused. Northamptonshire was administered as four major divisions: Northern, Eastern and Southern. During the 1930s, the town of Corby was established as a major centre of the steel industry. Much of Northamptonshire remains rural. Corby was designated a new town in 1950 and Northampton followed in 1968; as of 2005 the government is encouraging d
