The medieval town of Wellingborough housed a modest monastic grange – now the Jacobean Croyland Abbey – which was an offshoot of the monastery of Crowland (or Croyland) Abbey, near Peterborough, some 30 miles (48 km) down-river.

Originating about 1100 as a walled town with a castle on the River Nene, Northampton was granted its first charter in 1189. Historically Northampton was known for its shoe and leather industry. The town is now an important retail and market centre.

Set in the heart of the Nene Valley, Rushden town centre offers a wealth of independent businesses as well as well-known high street brands within an attractive late Victorian/ Edwardian setting, an enduring reminder of Rushden’s rise to prominence as a ‘boot and shoe’ town. Rushden Lakes offers an exciting new dimension to the town with 30 acres of high … Read More

Irthlingborough is an ancient settlement. Evidence of pre-historic and Roman occupation has been found, together with an Iron-Age hill-fort on Crow Hill, the second largest discovered in Northamptonshire. The Roman road from Lowick to Irchester passed through the parish. The Battle of waterloo was filmed in 1913 at Irthlingborough and was one of the biggest films of its day. It was … Read More

Higham Ferrers contains many historic buildings around the Market Square and College Street. The first Charter of 1251 was due to the Lord of the Manor, William de Ferrers, who created the Borough in order to promote a prosperous community at the gates of his castle, where people had begun to settle in numbers and to trade in the ancient … Read More

In the mid-1980s, during sand excavations in the Nene Valley, the remains of a Roman villa were discovered. Excavation of the area, near Stanwick, was delayed by several years while archaeologists studied the remains.  Raunds played a role in the boot and shoe industry until its decline in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1905 a dispute arose about wages to be paid to … Read More

Thrapston has a late Bronze / early Iron Age ringworks, possibly a mini hill-fort, dating from around 700 – 800 BC which was partially excavated in the 1990s. In 1205 Baldwin de Vere, the Lord of the Manor, requested the permission of King John to hold a market in the town every Tuesday. King John awarded the market charter in … Read More

Oundle, has been occupied continuously since the Iron Age. In Roman times there was an extensive settlement at Ashton, near the old railway station. The first written reference to Oundle occurs in Saxon times: the Venerable Bede writing in the eight century states that Saint Wilfrid died ‘in his monastery in the region of Oundle’. This suggests that Oundle was … Read More