1.
Non-metropolitan district
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Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a two-tier arrangement, in the 1990s, several non-metropolitan counties were created that are unitary authorities and also have non-metropolitan district status. A third category is the districts of Berkshire, which are districts that are unitary authorities. Non-metropolitan districts are subdivisions of English non-metropolitan counties which have a structure of local government. Most non-metropolitan counties have a county council, and also have several districts, many districts have borough status, which means the local council is called a Borough Council instead of District Council and gives them the right to appoint a Mayor. Borough status is granted by charter and, in many cases, continues a style enjoyed by a predecessor authority. Some districts such as Oxford or Exeter have city status, granted by letters patent, by 1899, England had been divided at district level into rural districts, urban districts, municipal boroughs, county boroughs and metropolitan boroughs. This system was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and the Local Government Act 1972, non-metropolitan districts were created by this act in 1974 when England outside of Greater London was divided into metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties. Metropolitan counties were sub-divided into metropolitan districts and the counties were sub-divided into non-metropolitan districts. The metropolitan districts had more powers than their non-metropolitan counterparts, initially, there were 296 non-metropolitan districts in the two-tier structure, but reforms in the 1990s and 2009 reduced their number to 201. A further 55 non-metropolitan districts are now unitary authorities, which combine the functions of county, in Wales, an almost identical two-tier system of local government existed between 1974 and 1996. In 1996, this was abolished and replaced with a unitary system of local government. Since the areas for Wales and England had been enacted separately and there were no Welsh metropolitan areas, a similar system existed in Scotland, which in 1975 was divided into regions and districts, this was also abolished in 1996 and replaced with a fully unitary system. In England 200 out of the 201 non-metropolitan district councils are represented by the District Councils Network, special interest group which sits within the Local Government Association. The network’s purpose is to “act as an informed and representative advocate for districts to government and other bodies, based on their unique position to deliver for ‘local’ people. ”This is a list of non-metropolitan counties. Some non-metropolitan districts are coterminous with non-metropolitan counties, making them unitary authorities and these are excluded from this list as is Berkshire which has no county council. For a full list of districts of all types including unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs and this is a list of former two-tier districts in England which have been abolished, by local government reorganizations such as the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. It does not include districts that still exist after becoming an authority or those that transferred from one county to another
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
6.
East Midlands
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The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. The eastern part of the Midlands, it consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, the region has an area of 15,627 km2, and was home to over 4.5 million people in 2011. The regions relative proximity to London and its connectivity on the national motorway and it is also the location of East Midlands Airport in north Leicestershire. The high point at 636 m is Kinder Scout, in the Peak District of the southern Pennines in northwest Derbyshire near Glossop. Other upland, hilly areas of 95 to 280 m in altitude, together with lakes and reservoirs, rise in and around the Charnwood Forest north of Leicester, and in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The regions major rivers, the Nene, the Soar, the Trent and the Welland, flow in a direction towards the Humber. The Derwent, conversely, rises in the High Peak before flowing south to join the Trent some 2 miles before its conflux with the Soar, the centre of the East Midlands area lies roughly between Bingham, Nottinghamshire and Bottesford, Leicestershire. The geographical centre of England lies in Higham on the Hill in west Leicestershire, some 88% of the land is rural in character, although agriculture accounts for less than three per cent of the regions jobs. Lincolnshire is the only county of the six, with a true North Sea coastline of about 30 miles due to the protection afforded by Spurn Head. Church Flatts Farm in Coton in the Elms, South Derbyshire, is the furthest place from the sea in the UK, in April 1936 the first Ordnance Survey trig point was sited at Cold Ashby in Northamptonshire. The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and The Wildlife Trusts are based next to the River Trent, the National Centre for Earth Observation is at the University of Leicester. The region is home to large quantities of limestone, and the East Midlands Oil Province, Charnwood Forest is noted for its abundant levels of volcanic rock, estimated to be approximately 600 million years old. 25% of the UKs cement is manufactured in the region at three sites in Hope and Tunstead in Derbyshire, and in Ketton Cement Works in Rutland. Of the aggregates that are produced in the region, 25% is from Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire each produce around 30% of the regions sand and gravel output. Barwell in Leicestershire had Britains largest meteorite on 24 December 1965, the 2008 Lincolnshire earthquake was 5.2 magnitude. Rockingham Forest was designated as a hunting forest by William the Conqueror. The National Forest is a project in central England run by The National Forest Company. It stretches from the outskirts of Leicester in the east to Burton upon Trent in the west
7.
Non-metropolitan county
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A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.4 million, the term shire county is, however, an unofficial usage. Many of the non-metropolitan counties bear historic names and most end in the suffix -shire such as Wiltshire or Staffordshire, of the remainder, some counties had the -shire ending and have lost it over time, such as Devon and Somerset. Shire county is, strictly, a dual-language tautology since the French-derived county means the same as the older Anglo-Saxon word shire, prior to 1974 local government had been divided between single-tier county boroughs and two-tier administrative counties which were subdivided into municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts. The Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, divided England outside Greater London, each county was divided into anywhere between two and fourteen non-metropolitan districts. As originally constituted, the counties were largely based on existing counties. Some counties were based on areas surrounding large county boroughs or were formed by the mergers of smaller counties, examples of the first category are Avon and Cleveland. Examples of the category are Hereford and Worcester and Cumbria. The Royal Mail adopted the counties for purposes in most areas. A Local Government Commission was appointed in 1992 to review the structure of the non-metropolitan counties. It was anticipated that a system of unitary authorities would entirely replace the two-tier system, the Commission faced competing claims from former county boroughs wishing to regain unitary status and advocates for the restoration of such small counties as Herefordshire and Rutland. The review led to the introduction of local government in some areas. In the majority of unitary authorities an existing district council took over powers from the county council, the 1972 Act required that all areas outside Greater London form part of a non-metropolitan county, and that all such counties should contain at least one district. Accordingly, the instruments that effected the reorganisation separated the unitary districts from the county in which they were situated and constituted them as counties. An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council. This was done in order to preserve its status as a royal county, with the creation of numerous new non-metropolitan counties, the areas used for lieutenancy and shrievalty began to diverge from local government areas. This led to the development of counties for these purposes. A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government, while a number of new county counties were created, several of the new authorities continued to have the boundaries set in 1974
8.
Northamptonshire
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Northamptonshire, archaically known as the County of Northampton, is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2011, it had a population of 629,000, the county is administered by Northamptonshire County Council and seven non-metropolitan district councils. Northamptonshire is the southernmost county in the East Midlands region, apart from the county town of Northampton, other large population centres include Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Rushden and Daventry. Northamptonshires county flower is the cowslip, there are two more possible hill-forts at Arbury Hill and Thenford. In the 1st century BC, most of what later became Northamptonshire became part of the territory of the Catuvellauni, a Belgic tribe, the Catuvellauni were in turn conquered by the Romans in 43 AD. The Roman road of Watling Street passed through the county, there were other Roman settlements at Northampton, Kettering and along the Nene Valley near Raunds. A large fort was built at Longthorpe, after the Romans left, the area eventually became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and Northampton functioned as an administrative centre. The Mercians converted to Christianity in 654 AD with the death of the pagan king Penda, 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. Consequently, it is one of the few counties in England to have both Saxon and Danish town-names and settlements, the county was first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as Hamtunscire, the scire of Hamtun. The North was added to distinguish Northampton from the other important Hamtun further south, 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, the now-ruined Fotheringhay Castle was used to imprison Mary, 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 Washingtons ancestor, Lawrence Washington, was Mayor of Northampton on several occasions and it was George Washingtons great-grandfather, John Washington, who emigrated in 1656 from Northants to Virginia. Before Washingtons ancestors moved to Sulgrave, they lived in Warton, 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. Its livestock were celebrated, Horned cattle, and other animals, are fed to extraordinary sizes, 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 area became industrialised
9.
Thrapston
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Thrapston is a small town in Northamptonshire, England. It is the headquarters of the East Northamptonshire district, and at the time of the 2011 census, had a population of 6,239, Thrapston is close to the River Nene and is at the junction of the A14 and the A45. Until the 1960s, Thrapston had two railway stations, Thrapston was on the Kettering to Cambridge route, and the former station and viaduct can be seen from the adjacent A14 road. Thrapston was on the former LNWR Northampton to Peterborough line, a market charter was granted to the town in 1205, in exchange for two palfreys. This is celebrated every year with the towns Charter fair, when the street is closed. A relative of George Washington, Sir John Washington, lived in Chancery Lane in the town, Sir John was brother to George Washingtons great-grandfather. Naturalist and writer Horace William Wheelwright practised as an attorney in Thrapston in the 1840s, Thrapston has two schools, Thrapston Primary and King John middle school, which together serve children from four to thirteen. Thrapston Primary is for children aged 4 to 9 and King John is for ages 9 to 13, following which children go to schools elsewhere, the towns football club, Thrapston Town, plays in the United Counties League. The local authorities that cover different aspects of life in Thrapston are Thrapston Town Council, East Northamptonshire District Council. John Hindhaugh, motorsport and media presenter, media related to Thrapston at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
11.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
12.
UTC0
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UTC±00,00 is the following time, Coordinated Universal Time, the basis for the worlds civil time. Time used there is 2 hours and 12 minutes ahead of time in the summer. The easternmost settlement where UTC with DST is applied is Lowestoft in Suffolk, East Anglia, note that Ireland uses the term standard time in reference to the summer months and winter time during what the rest of the time zone calls standard time. This is the reverse of the practice of most countries in the EU, see also Time in Antarctica The westernmost point where UTC with no DST is applied is Bjargtangar, at the northwest peninsula of Iceland. Time used there is 1 hour and 38 minutes ahead of physical time and this is the greatest deviation from physical time for UTC with no DST. The easternmost locale where UTC with no DST is applied is Bouvet Island, of Norwegian jurisdiction, at the South Atlantic Ocean
13.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
14.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
15.
Rushden
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Rushden is a town and civil parish in the county of Northamptonshire, England. The parish of Rushden covers an area of some 9,000 acres, the population of Rushden is 29,272, making it the fifth largest town in the county. The Rushden-Higham urban area, which includes the town of Higham Ferrers, has an estimated population of 36,410. Rushden lies on the A6 midway between Bedford and Kettering, the southern limits of the town border on the county of Bedfordshire, and to its north lies the River Nene which flows into The Wash. Rushden lies in a valley, with a stream or brook known as Sidney Brook flowing through the centre of the town. During the late 1960s and 70s this stream was culverted to prevent flash flooding, from whichever way Rushden is approached, the streets and roads can be seen stretching out in the valley, with the spire of St Marys church prominent above its rooftops. Peter Bone MP is the local MP representing Wellingborough, as a result of recent electoral changes, Rushden has been divided into five wards for both District and Town Council purposes. With the following re-classifications, Rushden Spencer, Rushden Hayden, Rushden Bates, Rushden Sartoris, Rushdens growth has resulted from a number of industries, including lacemaking and farming, and especially shoemaking and associated trades. In the mid-1900s there were well over 100 boot and shoe factories in Rushden, one of the most renowned is Sanders and Sanders, which makes boots for the British Army and several other defence departments throughout the world. Some of the redundant factories have been converted into flats, today, as with many towns in England, industry in the town is varied, and mostly situated in an out-of-town industrial estate. As with the industry, town centre shopping in Rushden has changed considerably although there are many shops. Rushden has the oldest toy shop in the county, in 1893 a short branch line railway opened linking Rushden and Higham Ferrers with the Midland Main Line. The line was closed in 1959 and dismantled, in 1991 the trackbed was converted into a pocket park. The former Rushden railway station is now owned by the Rushden Historical Transport Society, the society often holds special events, including an annual 3-day transport cavalcade. The society aims to rebuild the line from Higham Ferrers to Wellingborough. There is also a privately owned museum in Rushden which is situated in the towns Hall Park and it is open between the months of May and October. Rushden Hall is the oldest domestic building in the town, once owned by families throughout the years including the Sartoris family. The hall now functions as the office of the town council
16.
Oundle
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Oundle /ˈaʊndəl/ is a market town on the River Nene in Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the 2011 census. It is 68 mi north of London and 12 mi south-west of Peterborough, the nearest railway station, Corby, is 9.3 mi to the west. Inhabited since the Iron Age, Oundle was originally a place and market for local farmers. The Saxon invasion saw the arrival of a tribe called Undalas which possibly meant undivided and it is the death place of St Wilfrid in 709 AD where he had consecrated a church as well as being the location of one of his monasteries. The current St Peters Church occupies the site as St Wilfrids original church. Saint Cetta or Cett, a 7th-century saint, is the Patron Saint of Oundle, the presence of this shrine and the market charter explain much of the growth of Oundle in the 12th century. The Domesday Book records Oundle in Polebrook hundred with a population of 36 households, a mill and a value in 1066 of £0.3, as the area became prosperous, wealthy traders set up shops and houses, and guilds were formed. Unlike other settlements in the vicinity, Oundle was unaffected by the Black Death in the mid-14th century, Oundle had a grammar school since at least 1465, at which Sir William Laxton was educated. He founded Laxton Grammar School in 1556, administered by the Worshipful Company of Grocers, in 1743 a group of mutineers from the Black Watch were captured at Ladywood, near Oundle. They had deserted in protest at being sent abroad, instead of patrolling the Highlands, among the oldest buildings is the Talbot Hotel. This was constructed of timber, it was rebuilt with stone from the ruins of nearby Fotheringhay Castle, other public houses include the Rose & Crown, the Ship Inn, the Angel, the George and the Riverside, which has become derelict. There are a number of churches, by far the most prominent, its 210 foot spire being the tallest in Northamptonshire, is St Peters Church which has the main churchyard. There are also Methodist, Baptist and Roman Catholic churches, the Baptist church has a premises on St Osyths Lane but holds services on Sunday mornings at Oundle Church of England Primary School. The two main schools are Prince William School, a school, and Oundle Church of England Primary School rated as Outstanding in its most recent Ofsted inspection. The town is also the location of Oundle School, a boarding independent school with around a thousand pupils. These summer schools are centred on a Frobenius organ in the Oundle School chapel, a concurrent festival programme for the public was also planned as a recurrent feature. The Oundle Festival of Literature has regular events throughout the year featuring established, local, the Oundle carnival has taken place since 2009. The World Conker Championships have taken place in the village of Ashton on the second Sunday of October since the championship started in 1965
17.
Raunds
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Raunds /ˈrɔːndz/ is a small market town in rural Northamptonshire, England. It has a population of 8,641, is a civil parish, Raunds is situated 21 miles north-east of Northampton. The town is on the edge of the Nene valley. Nearest civilian airports are Luton 50 miles and East Midlands 65 miles, Raunds is close to Stanwick Lakes, a country park developed from gravel pits and managed by the Rockingham Forest Trust. This park is recognised for its birdlife and can be reached on foot from Raunds along Meadow Lane bridleway. In the mid-1980s, during excavations in the Nene valley. Excavation of the area, near Stanwick, was delayed by several years while archaeologists studied the remains, in 2002 Channel 4s Time Team excavated a garden and found remains of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The place-name Raunds is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of circa 972-992 and it appears as Rande in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in a later survey of Northamptonshire as Raundes. The name is the plural of the Old English rand, meaning border, Raunds played a role in the boot and shoe industry until its decline in the 1950s and 60s. In 1905 a dispute arose about wages to be paid to army bootmakers, several factories remained into the early 1990s but all are now closed, with many being demolished and housing estates built. The Coggins boot factory was the last to go, and the site of it is now Coggins Close. The land on which the factory and the original Coggins houses stood, was purchased by Robert Coggins on 25 February 1899 from the Duchy of Lancaster. The houses are there, but were sold to Charles Robinson of Wellingborough in 1934. Robert Coggins lived in the hall where his picture hangs in the meeting room, there is no industry in the town now, although there are some industrial sites on the outskirts. Raunds once held the record for the highest temperature in Britain at 36.7 °C, set on 10 August 1911, the Historic England website contains details of a total of 19 listed buildings and six scheduled monuments at or in the vicinity of Raunds. Amongst them are, St Peters Church, Church Street, the Manor House,2 Manor Street. St Peters, CoE is in the Diocese of Peterborough and St Thomas Mores, RC is in the Diocese of Northampton. In 1801 there were 800 persons In 1831 there were 1,370 persons In 1841 there were 1,653 persons In 2011 there were 8,641 persons Raunds is adjacent to the A45 and close to the A14 jct 13
18.
Irthlingborough
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Irthlingborough /ˈɜːrθlɪŋbərə/, is a town on the River Nene in Northamptonshire, England. It had a population of 8,535 at the 2011 census and is the smallest town in England to have had a Football League team, Rushden & Diamonds F. C. The parish church, St Peter, has a tower, unusual for Northamptonshire churches. It also has doors at the four points, of note are the eight misericords in the chancel. Irthlingborough was called Yrtlingaburg in the 8th century, Erdiburn in the Domesday Book, king Offa of Mercia held court near Irthlingborough circa 790. The college was to have six secular canons — one a dean — and four clerks, the design was eventually accomplished by his widow, Joan, in 1388. In the past ironstone was mined near Irthlingborough, and as part of the ironstone mine. The tunnel still exists, although the Irthlingborough end has been landscaped over, Irthlingborough railway station closed in 1964 to passengers. More recently the River Nene floodplains located between the town and its neighbour, Higham Ferrers, have been quarried for gravel, quarrying in the area was extensive, stretching to Northampton in the west and Thorpe Waterville in the north-northeast. The quarries were left to fill with water creating man-made lakes. In 2012 the area was acquired by The Wildlife Trust, and has since turned into Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows. It will forms part of the Upper Nene Valley Special Protection Area, the A6 used to pass through the town, but was bypassed in the 1930s to the north. The former route is the B5348, Irthlingborough Viaduct was built in 1936 and connects the town to Higham Ferrers and the busy A45. The A45 is a dependable road than the A6, being less twisty. Whitworths, the baking and healthy snack products company, has been based in the town since 1886. Sonifex, a manufacturer of radio broadcast products, has been in the town since its beginning in 1969 and has its research, in 2003 the company made a loss of £60m, having lost £32m in 2002. The companys office is now in Wollaston, the Wellingborough factory was the first to close in July 2002. C. Were promoted to League 2 after winning the 2000-01 Football Conference title and this was in part due to the funding of local businessman Max Griggs who bankrolled the club in the late 90s until the mid millennium when he sold to a fans group for just £1 in 2005
19.
Higham Ferrers
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Higham Ferrers is a market town in the Nene Valley in East Northamptonshire, England, close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders. It forms a single area with Rushden to the south and has an estimated population of 7,145. The town centre contains many buildings around the Market Square. Henry Chichele was born in Higham Ferrers and he was Archbishop of Canterbury and founded All Souls College, Oxford. In 1422 Higham Ferrers School was founded, the second Charter was granted in 1556 in the reign of Mary Tudor. For many years the town provided a seat for a supporter of the Crown nominated by the Duchy of Lancaster. When James I came to the throne the opportunity was taken to obtain a confirmation and further extension of civic powers, again after the Restoration of Charles II to the throne and the passing of the Corporations Act of 1662 the liberties were confirmed and extended. The town was a borough and sent one MP to the unreformed House of Commons until it was stripped of its representation by the Reform Act 1832. This Charter is the one of the towns charters written in English. The castle is thought to have been not long after the Norman Conquest in 1066. However towards the end of the 15th century the castle suffered years of neglect and it was finally demolished in 1523 and the stone removed to build Kimbolton Castle. A grass bank and a pond are all that remain of the defensive earthworks, in the garden of the Green Dragon Inn, formerly within the area of the outer ward of the castle, are the remains of a rectangular dove-house. Higham Ferrers is twinned with Hachenburg in Germany, historically, the town was at the crossroads of the A45 east-west route from Northampton to Cambridge, and the A6 north-south road from London to Leicester. It was a busy junction as both were long-distance transport corridors, the A45 bypassed the town in the early 1990s with a dual-carriageway, the former route becoming the B645. As the A6 carried less traffic, a bypass around Higham Ferrers and Rushden came later, opening on 14 August 2003, Higham Ferrers railway station was the terminus of a short railway branch line on the Midland Railway from Wellingborough. There was a station at Rushden. The station closed to services in 1959 and closed completely in 1969 with the end of goods services. Nowadays, the nearest operational station is at Wellingborough about four miles away
20.
Local Government Act 1972
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The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. In Wales, too, the Act established a pattern of counties and districts. Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as shadow authorities until the handover date, elections to county councils were held on 12 April, for metropolitan and Welsh districts on 10 May, and for non-metropolitan district councils on 7 June. Elected county councils had established in England and Wales for the first time in 1888. Some large towns, known as county boroughs, were independent from the counties in which they were physically situated. The county areas were two-tier, with many municipal borough, urban district and rural districts within them, however, most of the Commissions recommendations, such as its proposals to abolish Rutland or to reorganise Tyneside, were ignored in favour of the status quo. It was generally agreed that there were significant problems with the structure of local government, the Local Government Commission was wound up in 1966, and replaced with a Royal Commission. The new government made Peter Walker and Graham Page the ministers and they invited comments from interested parties regarding the previous governments proposals. The Association of Municipal Corporations put forward a scheme with 13 provincial councils and 132 main councils, the incoming governments proposals for England were presented in a White Paper published in February 1971. The White Paper substantially trimmed the metropolitan areas, and proposed a structure for the rest of the country. Many of the new boundaries proposed by the Redcliffe-Maud report were retained in the White Paper, the proposals were in large part based on ideas of the County Councils Association, the Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association. The White Paper set out the division of functions between districts and counties, and also suggested a minimum population of 40,000 for districts. The government aimed to introduce a Bill in the 1971/72 session of Parliament for elections in 1973, the White Paper made no commitments on regional or provincial government, since the Conservative government preferred to wait for the Crowther Commission to report. The proposals were substantially changed with the introduction of the Bill into Parliament in November 1971, Area 4 would have had a border with area 2, seaham and Easington were to be part of the Sunderland district. Humberside did not exist in the White Paper, the East Riding was split between area 5 and an area 8. Area 33 to include Brackley and Brackley Rural District from Northamptonshire, Area 39 to include Henley-on-Thames and Henley Rural District from Oxfordshire Area 40 to include Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet and area from Hampshire. The latter was removed from the Bill before it became law, proposals from Plymouth for a Tamarside county were rejected. The Bill also provided names for the new counties for the first time, on 6 July 1972, a government amendment added Lymington to Dorset, which would have had the effect of having the entire Bournemouth conurbation in one county
21.
Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)
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In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an urban district council, which shared local government responsibilities with a county council. In England and Wales, urban districts and rural districts were created in 1894 as subdivisions of administrative counties and they replaced the earlier system of urban and rural sanitary districts the functions of which were taken over by the district councils. The district councils also had powers over local matters such as parks, cemeteries. An urban district contained a single parish, while a rural district might contain many. Urban districts were considered to have problems with public health than rural areas. Urban districts usually covered smaller towns, usually with populations of less than 30,000, originally there were 1013 urban districts. Under the Local Government Act 1929206 urban districts were abolished, many were merged with surrounding rural districts, and so many urban districts often covered some rural areas as well. Larger towns became municipal boroughs which had a higher status. Many parish councils in England were created for towns previously covered by urban districts, in Wales, all urban and rural areas are now covered by communities. In Ireland urban districts were created in 1898 by the Local Government Act 1898 based on the sanitary districts created in 1878. Urban districts had powers greater than towns with town commissioners but less than the municipal boroughs preserved by the Municipal Corporations Act 1840 or created subsequently, a few places were promoted or demoted between these three categories in subsequent decades. After the partition of Ireland in 1920–22 urban districts continued in both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, the rural and urban districts in Northern Ireland were abolished in 1973, and replaced with a system of unitary districts. In the Republic, while rural districts were abolished in 1925 and 1930, urban districts continued to exist but were renamed simply towns under the Local Government Act 2001
22.
Newton Bromswold
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Newton Bromswold is a village and civil parish about 1.9 miles east of Rushden in Northamptonshire, England, adjacent to the border with Bedfordshire. At the 2001 census the population was 62 people in 27 households. The population remained less than 100 at the 2011 Census and is included in the town of Rushden and it is near the villages of Wymington, Chelveston, Knotting, Knotting Green, Yielden and Melchbourne. There is a pub and a small church, the village takes its name from the forest which once stood where the village is today, called Bruneswald Forest. The village pub features in one of local author H. E, batess novels, and was frequented by US bomber pilots from nearby RAF Chelveston in the war. It has its own car park, a garden and a games room, the villages church, named for Saint Peter, is known for its exquisite medieval stained glass. The church has three bells, one of which is unmarked and it is thought to be over 500 years old, media related to Newton Bromswold at Wikimedia Commons Rushden On Line Map sources for Newton Bromswold
23.
Rockingham Forest
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Rockingham Forest is a former royal hunting forest in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It is an area of some 200 sq mi lying between the River Welland and River Nene and the towns of Stamford and Kettering and it has a rich and varied landscape, with farmland, open pasture, pockets of woodland and villages built from local stone. The forest was named after the village of Rockingham, where the castle was a royal retreat, the boundaries were marked by the River Nene on the eastern side and on the western side what is now the A508 road from Market Harborough to Northampton. Over the years the forest shrank, and today only a patchwork of the north-eastern forest remains, the bulk of the remaining forest is located within a square, of which the corners are Corby, Kettering, Thrapston and Oundle. The area became a hunting ground for King William I after the Norman conquest. The term forest represented an area of jurisdiction and remained so until the 19th century. A Cistercian abbey was established in 1143 which became known as Pipewell Abbey, in 1298 the de Lacys were granted permission to inclose 30 acres pertaining to the manor of Wadenhoe, lying within the forest, in order to make a park. The forest boundaries were set in 1299, although the boundaries returned to an area as a result of King Charles Is actions. King Charles II took little interest in the forest and gave away or sold much of it, by 1792 there was no significant royal ownership of the forest area. Parliamentary enclosure of the bailiwicks and disafforestation of Rockingham bailiwick in 1832 resulted in a smaller forest area with much of the land turned over to agriculture. The Forestry Commission took over the remnants of woodland in 1923. The forest originally stretched from Stamford down to Northampton, List of forests in the United Kingdom List of Ancient Woods in England Forestry Commission
24.
William the Conqueror
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William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward, after a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England six years later. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Roberts mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, during his childhood and adolescence, members of the Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy and his marriage in the 1050s to Matilda of Flanders provided him with a powerful ally in the neighbouring county of Flanders. By the time of his marriage, William was able to arrange the appointments of his supporters as bishops and his consolidation of power allowed him to expand his horizons, and by 1062 William was able to secure control of the neighbouring county of Maine. In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by the childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. There were other claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After further military efforts William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066 and he made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 Williams hold on England was mostly secure, Williams final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his eldest son, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes. In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings. William died in September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern France and his reign in England was marked by the construction of castles, the settling of a new Norman nobility on the land, and change in the composition of the English clergy. He did not try to integrate his various domains into one empire, Williams lands were divided after his death, Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert Curthose, and his second surviving son, William Rufus, received England. Norsemen first began raiding in what became Normandy in the late 8th century, permanent Scandinavian settlement occurred before 911, when Rollo, one of the Viking leaders, and King Charles the Simple of France reached an agreement surrendering the county of Rouen to Rollo. The lands around Rouen became the core of the duchy of Normandy. Normandy may have used as a base when Scandinavian attacks on England were renewed at the end of the 10th century. In an effort to improve matters, King Æthelred the Unready took Emma of Normandy, sister of Duke Richard II, as his second wife in 1002
25.
RAF Spanhoe
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RAF Spanhoe is a former World War II airfield in Northamptonshire, England. The airfield is located approximately 4 miles east of Uppingham, about 80 miles north-northwest of London Opened in 1943, during the war it was used primarily as a transport airfield. After the war it was closed in late 1945, today, much of the airfield has been returned to agriculture, however one runway remains and the airfield is currently active and houses various privately owned light aircraft. The airfield was known as USAAF Station AAF-493 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war and its USAAF Station Code was UV. On 8 July 1944 two C47s of the 315th collided shortly after take-off for an exercise, one crew member managed to parachute safely but eight others and 26 Polish paratroops perished in the crash at Tinwell, near Stamford. Between 6/116 April 1945, the 315th TCG moved from Spanhoe to their Advanced Landing Ground at Amiens/Glisy airfield, in 1946 RAF Spanhoe was closed and returned to the farmers from whom it had been requisitioned. On 12 August 1960 a Vickers Valiant, BK1 XD864 of No.7 Squadron, while sorting it out the aircraft stalled and crashed into the ground at Spanhoe airfield. All five of the crew were killed, between 1964 and 1967 the airfield was used by Perkins Engines Gliding Club, laterly known as Welland Gliding Club. The gliding clubs origins were Perkins Engines Sports Association of Peterborough, in the 1970s, the north and west areas were excavated for iron ore and today little of the airfield remains. The 02/20 secondary runway is visible in aerial photography As of 2007. It is also the home of Windmill Aviation, the south-western taxiway is now runway 27, and the southeast section of the wartime 14/32 runway was re-opened in 2004. Some of the wartime Nissen huts are in use and a new hangar, a memorial obelisk on the approach road to the airfield commemorates the 315th Troop Carrier Group and a memorial in Tinwell Church commemorates US and Polish victims of the C-47 collision. List of former Royal Air Force stations This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http, freeman, Roger A. UK Airfields of the Ninth, Then and Now. After the Battle ISBN 0-900913-80-0 Maurer, Maurer, Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama, Office of Air Force History, Crash of Vickers Valiant XD864,12 August 1960 Crash of Vickers Valiant XD864,12 August 1960 An alternative View
26.
RAF Deenethorpe
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Royal Air Force Deenethorpe or more simply RAF Deenethorpe is a former Royal Air Force station located 2 miles east of Corby, Northamptonshire, England. Deenethorpe was constructed in 1943 and was allocated to the United States Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force and it was assigned USAAF designation Station 128. The 401st was assigned to the 94th Combat Bombardment Wing of the 1st Bombardment Division, the Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for striking telling blows against German aircraft production on 11 January and 20 February 1944. The surviving members of the crew just had time to evacuate the wreckage, the blast was felt in Kettering nine miles away. After V-E Day, the group departed from Deenethorpe in August 1945 and returned to Sioux Falls AAF where the unit was inactivated, personnel demobilized, the 401st Bombardment Group had flown 255 combat missions from Deenethorpe airfield. After the war, Deenethorpe was used as a RAF Recruiting Centre and it was finally sold in 1963 and largely returned to agriculture. Part of the old runway is now used as a private airstrip. The 600 acres airfield is one of the sites that has approved for a garden village in 2017. The plans include a green, shops and community hall. On 17 June 2011 the widow of an American air crewman who took part in bombing raids from the airfield buried a time capsule on the crews behalf. Joan Parker was married to Tom Parker, the last of the eight-man 401st Bombardment Squadron crew, in a ceremony, Mrs Parker buried eight glass-bottomed tankards along with a story of the men at the airfield. The crew carried out raids on marshalling yards in Berlin and it was all agreed that whoever was the last one would bring the tankards back to Deenethorpe, she said. It took some time trying to all of the information. The tankards were a gift from the pilot of Lady Luck, mr Parker, the last member of the crew, died in March 2011. List of former Royal Air Force stations This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http, airfields of the Eighth, Then and Now. After the Battle ISBN 0-900913-09-6 Freeman, Roger A, the Mighty Eighth The Colour Record. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, maxwell AFB, Alabama, Office of Air Force History. United States Air Force Unit Designations Since 1978
27.
RAF Polebrook
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Royal Air Force Station Polebrook or more simply RAF Polebrook is a former Royal Air Force station located 3.5 miles east-south-east of Oundle, at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, England. The airfield was built on Rothschild estate land starting in August 1940, RAF Polebrook was the first airfield to be completed out of a number in the Northamptonshire/Huntingdonshire area which were laid down for RAF Bomber Command during late 1940 and early 1941. Like other airfields in the program at the time, Polebrook was built by George Wimpey & Co. The initial construction was of three runways, the concrete runway lengths were 08-26 at 1,280 yards, 14-32 at 1,200 yards, in addition, thirty square hardstands most on the eastern side, were reached by very long access tracks. The weapons store was unusual in that it lay within the track at the southern end. One Type J and two Type T-2 hangars were erected on the site outside the northern perimeter with the domestic sites dispersed in woodland beyond. One of the first units to operate from the airfield was No.90 Squadron RAF, several of the hardstands and taxiways were still under construction when the squadron arrived. No.90 Squadron was equipped with the American B-17C, called Fortress 1 by the RAF, although the US Army Air Forces did not consider the B-17C as being combat ready, the RAF was sufficiently desperate in 1941 that these planes were immediately pressed into front-line service. The Fortresses were used for very high-altitude attacks in daylight, the first operation from Polebrook being flown on 8 July 1941 when three Fortresses were dispatched on a raid to Wilhelmshaven. Engine trouble forced one of the planes to divert to a second target, unfortunately, the planes were not able to hit anything from such extreme altitudes. In addition, their crews found that the temperatures at this altitude were so cold that their machine guns froze up when they tried to fire them. However, all returned safely to base. Their last raid launched from Polebrook was on September 2,1941, RAF Fortresses had flown 22 attacks against targets such as Bremen, Brest, Emden, Kiel, Oslo, and Rotterdam. A total of 39 planes had been dispatched, out of eighteen planes had aborted. Eight Fortresses had been destroyed in combat or lost in accidents, discouraged by these losses, the RAF decided to abandon daylight bombing raids over Europe. Although two Fortresses were missing from operations, the only loss resulting from a raid flown from Polebrook involved a badly battle-damaged aircraft that landed at a south-coast airfield. Nevertheless, their British crews generally were quite pleased with the Fortress I, regarding it as easy to fly, very maneuverable, the short runways at Polebrook were found to be unsatisfactory for the operation of the heavy-loaded, four-engine B-17. In 1942 the airfield was improved to Class A airfield standards, the main runway was extended to 1,950 yards and the secondary runways to 1,400 yards each
28.
RAF Chelveston
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During the Second World War the airfield was occupied by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. It was given the USAAF designation Station 105, during the Cold War, Chelveston housed some flying units, however its main role was that of a readiness station to receive USAF units from the United States in case of an emergency. Construction of Chelveston began in 1940 with short runways and three hangars grouped together. The airfield opened in August 1941 as a RAF station and it was first used for the Central Gunnery School, then the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment took over with its gliders. However, the landing strips were deemed unsuitable for heavy 4-engine bombers, so concrete runways were constructed along with taxiways. The airfield was upgraded to Class A airfield standards before being used by the U. S, Eighth Air Force as a heavy bomber airfield. The first USAAF unit to occupy Chelveston was the 60th Troop Carrier Group, the 60th consisted of the 10th, 11th, 12th and 26th squadrons, equipped with 53 C-47 aircraft. The 60th arrived in early July, but its stay was brief, after its training in the UK, the unit moved on to the 12th Air Force for operations in the Mediterranean theater. On 9 August 1942, the 301st Bombardment Group took up residence on the station, the 301st was assigned to the 1st Combat Wing at Brampton Grange. Its operational squadrons were the 32d, 352d, 353d, 354th and 415th Bomb Squadrons, the unit was the second heavy USAAF bomber group to arrive in England. It flew its first operational mission on 5 September 1942 to the Rouen marshalling yards in northern France, during its stay at Chelveston, the unit attacked submarine pens, airfields, railroads, bridges, and other targets on the Continent, primarily in France. The 301st BG was allocated to Operation Torch, and on 26 November 1942 it departed for the Twelfth Air Force, being moved to Tafaraoui Airfield, the next group to use Chelveston was the 305th Bombardment Group, moving in from RAF Grafton Underwood in December 1942. The 305th Bomb Group was one of the most decorated USAAF bomb groups in the European Theater, the 305th BG was assigned to the 40th Combat Wing at RAF Thurleigh. The group tail code was a Triangle G and its operational squadrons were the 364th, 365th, 366th and 422d Bomb Squadrons, each initially equipped with B-17Fs, then upgraded to the B-17G in 1944. During the winter of 1942/43, the 305th was commanded by Colonel Curtis LeMay and these fundamental procedures and techniques were later adapted to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which fought the war to its conclusion in the Pacific. The 305th BG bombed the navy yards at Wilhelmshaven on 27 January 1943 when heavy bombers of Eighth AF made their first penetration into Germany. Through mid-1943, the group attacked strategic targets as submarine pens, docks, harbours, shipyards, motor works, and marshalling yards in France, Germany, during the second half of 1943, the unit began deeper penetration into enemy territory to strike heavy industry. A second Distinguished Unit Citation was awarded to the 305th for withstanding severe opposition to bomb factories in central Germany on 11 January 1944
29.
Daventry District
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Daventry is a local government district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Daventry, at the 2011 Census, the district had a population of 77,843, a little under a third of whom lived in the town of Daventry. Other significant settlements include Brixworth, Long Buckby and Weedon Bec, the rest of the district is predominantly rural. Grade I listed buildings in Daventry District Grade II* listed buildings in Daventry District
30.
Northampton
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Northampton /nɔːrθˈæmptən/ is the county town of Northamptonshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies on the River Nene, about 67 miles north-west of London and 50 miles south-east of Birmingham, One of the largest towns in the UK, Northampton had a population of 212,100 in the 2011 census. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman. During the Middle Ages, the rose to national significance with the establishment of Northampton Castle. Medieval Northampton had many churches, monasteries and the University of Northampton and it was granted its first town charter by King Richard I in 1189 and its first mayor was appointed by King John in 1215. The town is also the site of two battles, the Battle of Northampton and the second in 1460. The town also suffered the Great Fire of Northampton which destroyed most of the town and it was soon rebuilt and grew rapidly with the industrial development of the 18th century. Northampton continued to grow following the creation of the Grand Union Canal, after the World Wars, Northamptons growth was limited until it was designated as a New Town in 1968, accelerating development in the town. Northampton unsuccessfully applied for status in 1996 and city status in 2000. According to Centre for Cities data in 2015, Northampton had a growth of 11. 3% between the years 2004 and 2013, one of the ten highest in the UK. The earliest reference to Northampton in writing occurred in 914 under the name Ham tune, the prefix North was added later to distinguish it from other towns called Hampton, most prominently Southampton. The Domesday Book records the town as Northantone, which evolved into Norhamptone by the 13th century, present-day Northampton is the latest in a series of settlements that began in the Bronze Age. During the British Iron Age, people lived in protected hill forts. Present-day Hunsbury Hill is an example of settlement, a circular ditch. In the Roman period, a rural settlement is thought to have existed in the present-day district of Duston. Following Danish invasion, the area of the town was turned into a stronghold called a burh. A ditch was dug around the settlement and it was fortified with earth ramparts, having conquered Mercia, the Danes turned the settlement into a centre for military and administrative purposes, which was part of the Danelaw. In the 9th century Regenhere of Northampton an East Anglian Saint with localised veneration was buried in Northampton, by 918, Northampton had an earl and an army dependent upon it, whose territory extended to the River Welland
31.
South Northamptonshire
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South Northamptonshire is a district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Towcester, first established as a settlement in Roman Britain, the population of the Local Authority District Council in 2011 was 85,189. The largest town in the district is Brackley, which had a population of 14,000 in 2008 followed by Towcester which has a population of nearly 10,000, other significant settlements in size include Deanshanger, Bugbrooke, Roade, Kings Sutton, Silverstone and Middleton Cheney. Many of the villages listed have populations exceeding 1000 and this ridge is part of the Jurassic Way. Lower parts are at 85m AOD in the southwest corner and 50 m AOD in the northeast, an additional arm near its foot reaches north through the large village of Chipping Warden to Upper Boddington. Land is taken up with for the most part with arable agriculture peppered by villages, the district in terms of watercourses has sources and headwaters of the rivers Cherwell, Great Ouse and Nene. This lies between Silverstone and Potterspury or equally between Deanshanger and Towcester, with just over 79,293 people in 2000 and 91,000 in 2008, a 14. 8% increase. The growth in population between 2001 and 2007 was the third largest of all districts in the country and consisted of 35,700 households
32.
Corby
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Corby is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It is located 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton, the borough had a population of 61,300 at the 2011 Census. Figures released in March 2010 revealed that Corby has the fastest growing population in both Northamptonshire and the whole of England, the Borough of Corby borders onto the Borough of Kettering, the District of East Northamptonshire, the District of Harborough and the unitary authority county of Rutland. The town was at one time known locally as Little Scotland due to the number of Scottish migrant workers who came to Corby for its steelworks. Recently, Corby has undergone a regeneration process with the opening of Corby railway station and Corby International Pool in 2009. This is home to Corby Borough Council offices and also houses a 450 seat theatre, the Borough of Corby consists of the town of Corby, as well as the villages of Weldon, Rockingham, Gretton, Cottingham, Middleton, East Carlton, Stanion and Little Stanion. Mesolithic and Neolithic artefacts have been found in the area surrounding Corby, the first evidence of permanent settlement comes from the 8th century when Danish invaders arrived and the settlement became known as Koris by – Koris settlement. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Corbei, Corbys emblem, the raven, derives from an alternative meaning of this word. These Danish roots were recognised in the naming of the most southern of the housing estates, Danesholme. Corby was granted the right to two annual fairs and a market by Henry III in 1226. In 1568 Corby was granted a charter by Elizabeth I that exempted local landowners from tolls, dues, a popular legend is that the Queen was hunting in Rockingham Forest when she either fell from her horse or became trapped in a bog whilst riding. Upon being rescued by villagers from Corby she granted the charter in gratitude for her rescue, another popular explanation is that it was granted as a favour to her alleged lover Sir Christopher Hatton. The Corby Pole Fair is an event that has taken place every 20 years since 1862 in celebration of the charter, the next pole fair is to be held in 2022. The local area has worked for iron ore since Roman times. An ironstone industry developed in the 19th century with the coming of the railways, by 1910 an ironstone works had been established. In 1931 Corby was a village with a population of around 1,500. The start of construction in 1934 drew workers from all over the country including many workers from the depressed west of Scotland, the first steel was produced in October 1935 and for decades afterwards the steel works dominated the town. By 1939 the population had grown to around 12,000, at which time Corby was thought to be the largest village in the country, but it was at that point that Corby was re-designated an urban district
33.
Borough of Wellingborough
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The Borough of Wellingborough is a Non-metropolitan district and borough in Northamptonshire, England. It is named after Wellingborough, its town, but also includes surrounding rural areas. The local council prefers to call itself the Borough Council of Wellingborough rather than the usual form Wellingborough Borough Council. The borough covers almost the same area as the Wellingborough constituency and it was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the borough of Wellingborough with Wellingborough Rural District. The area called Stanton Cross will increase the size of the town by 30%
34.
Henry Chichele
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Henry Chichele, was an English archbishop and founder of All Souls College, Oxford. Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364, Chicheley told Pope Eugene IV, in 1443, in asking leave to retire from the archbishopric, that he was in his eightieth year. Chicheles occupation does not appear but his eldest son, William, is on the earliest extant list of the Grocers Company, on 9 June 1405 Chichele was admitted, in succession to his father, to a burgage in Higham Ferrers. His mother, Agnes Pincheon, is said to have been of gentle birth, there is therefore no foundation in fact for the account that Henry Chichele, as a poor ploughboy eating his scanty meal off his mothers lap, was picked up by William of Wykeham. This story was unknown to Arthur Duck, Fellow of All Souls, biog. to cover the mistaken supposition that St Marys College was not founded till 1393. St Marys College was in fact founded in 1382. Chichele appears in the Hall-books of New College up to the year 1392/93 and he was then already beneficed, receiving a royal ratification of his estate as parson of Llanvarchell in the diocese of St Asaph on 20 March 1391/92. In the Hall-book, marked 1393/94, but really for 1394/95 and he had then left Oxford and gone up to London to practise as an advocate in the principal ecclesiastical court, the Court of Arches. Like other ecclesiastical lawyers and civil servants of the day Chichele was paid with ecclesiastical preferments and this year Chicheles brother Robert was senior sheriff of London. On 7 May 1404, Pope Boniface IX provided him to a prebend at Lincoln, notwithstanding he already held prebends at Salisbury, Lichfield, St Martins-le-Grand and Abergwyly, and the living of Brington. On 9 January 1405 he found time to attend a court at Higham Ferrers, in 1406 renewed efforts were made to stop the schism, and Chichele was one of the envoys sent to the new Pope Gregory XII. On 31 August 1407 Guy Mone, bishop of St Davids, died, another bull the same day gave him the right to hold all his benefices with the bishopric. He was consecrated on 17 June 1408 and these, together with Benedicts revolting cardinals, summoned a general council at Pisa. In November 1408 Chichele was back at Westminster, when Henry IV received the cardinal archbishop of Bordeaux, obedience was withdrawn from both the existing popes, and on 26 June a new pope elected instead of them. Accordingly, he had to resign livings and canonries wholesale. In May 1410 he went again on an embassy to France, on 11 September 1411 he headed a mission to discuss Henry Vs marriage with a daughter of the duke of Burgundy, and he was again there in November. In the interval Chichele found time to visit his diocese for the first time, on 30 November 1411 Chichele, with two other bishops and three earls and the prince of Wales, knelt to the king to receive public thanks for their administration. That he was in favour with Henry V is shown by his being sent with the earl of Warwick to France in July 1413 to conclude peace
35.
Rushden & Diamonds F.C.
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Rushden & Diamonds Football Club was an association football club based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England. It was formed by a merger of Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds in 1992, the club played in the Conference National following a short spell in the Football League at the start of the 2000s. Nicknamed The Diamonds, the played at Nene Park. The clubs main rivals were county neighbours Kettering Town, Rushden and Diamonds was formed on 21 April 1992 by a merger of Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds. The move was the brainchild of Max Griggs, on 22 August 1992, Ollie Kearns scored the first league goal in the clubs history, against Bilston Town in the Southern League Midland Division. The clubs first few seasons were remarkable for the success the team enjoyed, the following year they won the division, winning promotion to the Southern League Premier Division, and two years later the Diamonds were again promoted as champions. The team had gained promotion to the Football Conference after just four years as a club and it was within this period that the club had achieved their best success in the FA Cup, getting to the 3rd Round twice. In 1998–99, the Diamonds held Leeds United to a famous 0–0 draw at Nene Park, after taking a shock early lead at Elland Road in the replay, they went on to lose 3–1. In the following campaign, the club were rewarded with a 3rd Round draw away to Sheffield United, the Diamonds secured a 1–1 draw at Bramall Lane, to force a replay. In the return fixture, the match went to penalties following a 1–1 deadlock after extra-time, in the shootout however, it was the Blades who finally edged the Diamonds out 6–5 to go through. In their first season in new surroundings, the Diamonds reached the Division Three Play-Off Final, after overcoming Rochdale 4–3 on aggregate over the two-legged Semi-Final, the club lost to Cheltenham Town in the final, 3–1 at the Millennium Stadium. In 2003, they won the division, pipping Hartlepool United to the Division Three championship on the last day of the season – their third title in eight seasons. The 2003–04 season in Division Two proved to be one of difficulty for Rushden & Diamonds. Despite a promising start, a run of bad results over the winter period saw the club slip down the table. Barry Hunter took over as caretaker player-manager but they were relegated in 22nd place after losing their last three games of the season, ernie Tippett was confirmed as permanent manager for the start of the 2004–05 season. Hunters contract was not renewed over the summer, the seasons following the Diamonds return to the Football Conference were marred by instability on and off the pitch. Keith Cousins took over the club in November 2006 and resigned in 2011 and he was replaced by Liam Beasant and Gary Calder, the latter of whom himself quit the club just weeks after taking over. Meanwhile, five managers took control of the team at different times, during their first three seasons back in Englands fifth division the Diamonds failed to finish in the top ten
36.
East Northamptonshire College
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The East Northamptonshire College or TENC for short is a consortium of secondary schools in East Northamptonshire that offer Post-16 education. The Consortium consists of three schools, Rushden Community College based in Rushden, The Ferrers School based in Higham Ferrers. The college provides transport to the different schools so all students can get to individual lessons. This is seen in the rapid growth in recent years. As the College is split between three schools, the governments inspectors - Ofsted do not inspect the College as a whole and this then gives three different reports on how the sixth form is being managed at different schools. The College is officially based at Rushden Community College, where the director, Rushden Community College Ferrers College Huxlow College EduBase
37.
Achurch
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Achurch is a village in Northamptonshire, England. It was called Asechirce in the Domesday Book, the population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 421. It is part of the parish of Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe and Thorpe Achurch. It has lent its name to peoples surnames who are believed to have originated from the village, robert Browne who had previously founded the Brownists, a forerunner of Congregationalism, was rector here from 1591 to 1631. The parish includes the Grade 1 listed home of Lilford Hall, media related to Achurch at Wikimedia Commons A series of ten photographs and some further details of the village Map sources for Achurch Achurch in the Domesday Book
38.
Aldwincle
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Aldwincle is a village and civil parish located in the district of East Northamptonshire, with a population at the time of the 2011 census of 322. It is situated on a bend of the River Nene,4 miles to the north of Thrapston, in 1879, two ecclesiastical parishes, Aldwinkle All Saints and Aldwinkle St Peter merged after the parish church of the former was declared redundant in 1971. All Saints, a designated Grade I listed building, is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, the small primary school, Aldwincle Trinity, opened in 1976. The village rectory was the birthplace of the English poet, John Dryden, All Saints Church, Aldwincle Media related to Aldwincle at Wikimedia Commons Aldwincle in the Domesday Book A series of high resolution photographs etc. Illustrated walk to Wadenhoe and return
39.
Apethorpe
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Apethorpe is a village and civil parish in East Northamptonshire district of the shire county of Northamptonshire, England. The 2001 census records a population of 130, increasing to 160 at the 2011 census, Apethorpe was recorded in the Domesday Book as Patorp. The village is compact, uniform and centred on Main Street, in the late 15th Century Apethorpe was acquired by Sir Guy Wolston, an officer in the household of Edward IV, who began the construction of the present Apethorpe Palace. The village is approximately 6 miles north of the Northamptonshire market town of Oundle,12 miles northeast of Corby, the nearest railway stations are in Corby for London St Pancras and Peterborough for London Kings Cross. London is about 75 miles via the A1 road, St Leonards Church, Apethorpe is mostly Perpendicular but has a chapel of 1621 and tower partly 1633. There is a monument to Sir Anthony Mildmay and another smaller one to Sir Richard Dalton. Mildmay was the eldest son of Sir Walter Mildmay, an English statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer of England under Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Anthony inherited the family estate of Apethorpe and was knighted in 1596 when he was appointed ambassador to Henry IV of France. The Willow Brook bounds the eastern edge of the village, which contains Apethorpe Palace formerly known as Apethorpe Hall q. v. In 1904 Leonard Brassey made many alterations to the village, a number of cottages were built, there is a stocks and whipping post just west of the church. An agents House south of the church and the Dovecote north of the Hall are both 17th century, pevsner also mentioned Blue Field Farm 0.5 miles northeast as having an interesting barn with a cross-cartway through it. The remains of the lie in the Hall grounds about 500 yards southeast of the Hall and were excavated in 1859. A courtyard of ca.230 by 240 feet contained the main buildings, the main block on the north side had hypocausts and fine geometric mosaics with two other wings and a bath block. Slate from Collyweston was used for the roofs, pottery found included terra sigillata and Castor ware. Coins located the main period of use as the 4th century AD, there was a well in the centre of the courtyard. Two small un-inscribed house-altars were found, one coin of Septimius Severus, the remainder Constantinian, possibly indicating the date of the main phase of the villa. In successive phases of building there appears to have been at least one aisled building in the position relative to a winged corridor house at Ickleton. The villa combines a house with an aisled house. The village was home to the actor Rowan Atkinson, known for his roles in Mr. Bean and the Blackadder series
