Learn more about our quaint villages, stunning landscape and rich history.
Stibbington
The church stands about a quarter of a mile east of the Great North Road near the ford to Sutton. Stibbington Hall,near the church, is a 17th-century house. Stibbington House lies between the Oundle Road and the Nene, and was the residence of Sir Stephen Hastings. Stibbington Manor Farm, on the south-west side of the road near Sibson Manor House, was built about 1625.
Wansford
According to local folklore, the name Wansford-in-England comes from the tale of a local man who fell asleep on a hayrick and upon awakening found himself floating down the River Nene. He asked a traveller on the riverbank where he was, and upon hearing the reply "Wansford", asked, "Wansford in England?". The name stuck and the Haycock Hotel takes its name from the legend.
Yarwell
Yarwell is a parish of 490 hectares on the W. of the R. Nene. It has always been a chapelry of Nassington, and served by a curate. Yarwell is not named in Domesday Book but was probably included in Nassington, a village attributed with two mills, one of which may have been at Yarwell. In the Middle Ages the village was in Rockingham Forest. The extra-parochial forest area of Sulchay Walk was always regarded as part of Yarwell until it was transferred to Nassington in 1869.
Nassington
The village has existed since at least Anglo-Saxon times, for an Anglo-Saxon hall was taken over by the Viking king, Cnut the Great, as one of his royal halls. Cnut is known to have visited after 1017. In 1107 Henry I gave the hall and land to the Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Bloet, to endow a prebend.
The village and manor were featured in episode 117, King Cnut's Manor of Time Team (aired 7 March 2004). The manor is now a private home, but the Prebendal Manor and Tithe Barn Museum, and gardens, are open to the public.
The Prebendal Manor
The Queens Head Inn
Yarwell Mill
Adventure Rutland
Elton
Elton Hall is a baronial hall in Elton, Cambridgeshire. It has been the ancestral home of the Proby family since 1660. The hall lies in an 3,800-acre estate through which the River Nene runs. The building incorporates 15th-, 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century parts and is a Grade I listed building.
Loch Fyne Seafood and Grill
Elton Hall House and Gardens
The Black Horse
Bosworth's Garden Centre
Fotheringhay
Most noted for being the site of Fotheringhay Castle which was razed in 1627. There is nothing left of the castle to be seen today other than the motte on which it was built that provides excellent views of the River Nene. The Nene Way long distance footpath runs through the village.
As the home of the great Yorkist line, the village was, for a considerable part of the 15th and 16th centuries, of national standing. The death of Richard III at Bosworth Field altered its history irrevocably.
Warmington
Warmington and its rich farming lands belonged to the Abbey of Peterborough in Saxon Times and in the Middle Ages was a prosperous agricultural community.
The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin stands on the south side of the village. It consists of a Chancel, Nave with North and South Aisles, West Tower with spire, and North and South Porches. The walls are partly of ashlar and partly of rubble. The roof of the chancel is steep-pitched and stone-slated and the nave roof is low-pitched.
Warmington has an old water mill which functioned until the mid twentieth century, which was previously restored and used as a retail outlet for the ceramic tile company, Fired Earth.
Cotterstock
In the summer of 1736 a Romano-British villa was discovered when tesserae from a large mosaic pavement were uncovered during ploughing. The villa was subsequently located a second time by aerial photography during the extremely dry summer of 1976, when parch marks of buried walls were recorded spread across three fields. A geophysical survey undertaken to accurately locate and amplify the aerial photographic information was carried out over a total of ten days in 1992 and 1993.
The Church of St Andrew is located to the east of the village, adjacent to the River Nene; it dates from the late 12th century. The main period of construction was in the 13th and 14th centuries and the building was restored and extended in 1876. Cotterstock Hall was built in 1658 with alterations in the early 18th century and a main staircase added in the 19th century. The poet and playwright John Dryden was a frequent visitor and is thought to have stayed in the south-west attic room at the Hall, visiting relatives, the last of whom, Rev Sir George Booth, died in 1797.
Ashton
Ashton was re-built in 1900 by the Rothschild family for estate workers. Since 1965 it has hosted the World Conker Championship traditionally on the second Sunday of October. This is now held at the Shuckburgh Arms.
The village is the birthplace of Dame Miriam Rothschild a noted natural scientist and author.
Polebrook
There is evidence that Polebrook as a settlement dates back to 400 BC, where the village consisted of mainly farms. There may have been a wooden church on the site of the current 12th century stone Church of All Saints. Thomas de Thelwall, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster was the parish priest of Polebrook in the 1360s.
RAF Polebrook was a little southeast of the village during the Second World War from 1941 to 1945. The USAAF 351st Bomber Group was stationed at the airfield from 15 April 1943 to 23 June 1945, and the U.S. flag hangs as a memorial to the men, along with a roll of honour in the church. The airfield is now disused, but remains a rich part of Polebrook culture; there is a memorial chapel in Polebrook Church. The base was used as a site for Thor missiles in the 1950s.
For some time during the war Clark Gable was stationed at Polebrook and at RAF Marston Moor near Wetherby.
Stoke Doyle
Stoke Doyle is two miles south-west of the town of Oundle, on the road between there and Wadenhoe. A stream running through the village rises in Lilford Wood and flows into the River Nene.
Stoke Doyle's church, dedicated to Saint Rumbold, stands to the east of the road and was built between 1722–1725. The village has a pub, the Shuckburgh Arms.
Barnwell
The village has two Church of England churches reflecting the fact that the village is formed from two separate ones. St Andrew's is externally mostly 13th century including a tower. There are monuments to Christopher Freeman (d.1610) and Rev Nicholas Latham (d.1620). All Saints' is also 13th century but only the chancel remains after the rest was demolished in 1825 and that retains the Montagu monuments: Henry Montagu (d.1625), Dame Letice Montagu (d.1611).
Barnwell railway station on the Northampton to Peterborough line closed in 1964. The building remains preserved as a private residence on the corner of Well Lane and the A605.
Wadenhoe
There has been a settlement in Wadenhoe for over 800 years and it is mentioned in the Domesday Book.
The 13th century church; The Church of St. Michael and All Angels is located in a prominent position on a hill overlooking the meadowlands of the Nene valley and isolated from the main part of the village which lies below along the River Nene.
The current village was built in what was once a deer park and dates back to about 1657. The current village is made up of 17th, 18th and 19th century limestone buildings with thatched roofs or Collyweston slate tiles and pan tiles.
The Nene Way long-distance footpath passes through the village.
Thorpe Waterville
Thorpe Waterville lies on the A605 road some three miles north-east of the town of Thrapston. Thorpe Waterville Castle, of which only a building used as a barn remains, was mainly the work of Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Treasurer to King Edward I.
Aldwincle
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.