Northamptonshire place-names

Adm. div.
Full name	Northamptonshire
Abbreviation	Northants
Coordinate	52.283333, -0.833333
Area (1801)	2550.96832 km2
Population (1801)	131525

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Localities named after Robin Hood (or members of his band) in Northamptonshire. Click cluster marker for locality markers. Click locality marker for link to page. Historical county boundary coordinates provided by the Historic Counties Trust.

English counties. Click within any county to go to its landing page. There are also pages on: London, the East, North and West Riding of Yorkshire. Historical county boundary coordinates provided by the Historic Counties Trust.

Viewing choropleth • View choropleth • View choropleth • About the choropleths. County boundary data provided by the Historic Counties Trust.

"Thoroughfare","Thoroughfare",

"","",

"Robin Hood name","Robin Hood name",

"Extant","Extant",

Little John's Close (Peterborough)¤|Robin Hood Close (Peterborough)¤|

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-10-19. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2022-05-27.

County description

The Historic Counties Trust describes Northamptonshire as follows:

Northamptonshire is an inland county. It was once known as the county of "spires and squires"; the haunt of wealthy landowners and a place with several fine mediæval church spires. It is said to be fine foxhunting country. Industry and new town developments have changed the face of Northamptonshire though. Corby was until recently one of the greatest steelworks towns, working the local iron ore. Other towns around it have grown up to service Corby industry or to hug the transport links that cross the shire. Northampton has long been famous for shoes. The industry is no longer dominant, but Northampton is the top location for the leatherworking trade. The town has grown substantially in the last decade or two since it was declared a New Town. The New town elements are the growing outskirts of the town; the centre remains that of a traditional market town. The north-eastern extremity of Northamptonshire is known as the Soke of Peterborough. The Soke has its origin in the Mid-Saxon period, when King Peada of Mercia founded an Abbey at "Medehamstede" and granted it extraordinary civil and ecclesiastical exemptions (or so a charter conveniently discovered much later claimed). "Medehamstede" in time became named "Peterborough". At the heart of Peterborough is its Cathedral, a fine Barnack rag construction slightly incongruous in what has become a modern City Centre. (Barnack itself, with a fine Anglo-Saxon church, lies to the north.) Peterborough is also a New Town, but more comprehensively than Northampton; whole new town suburbs and concrete multi-lane roads have been spread across the land and across the Nene into Huntingdonshire. Away from the developments Northamptonshire still retains a good deal of its old halls and manor houses and villages.

Main Towns: Brackley, Brixworth, Corby, Daventry, Earls Barton, Irthlingborough, Kettering, Northampton, Oundle, Rushden, Peterborough, Silverstone, Towcester, Wellingborough.
Main Rivers: Nene, Welland, Avon, Swift.
Highlights: Eleanor Cross, Northampton; Fotheringhay; Kirby Hall; Naseby battlefield; Peterborough Cathedral.
Highest Point: Arbury Hill, 224.94 m.
Area: 2548.55 km3.^[2]

Chronology

All localities

2 Place-names and localities.

Place-name clusters

1 Cluster of Robin Hood place-names, localities with local traditions, literary locales etc.

Bretton

Lists and gazetteers

Background

Neighbours

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Histpop – The Online Historical Population Reports Website: Population tables I, Vol. I. England and Wales. Divisions I-VII, 1851 – Page clxviii (University of Essex). Google: Acres to km2.
↑ The Historic Counties Trust has kindly allowed me to quote its county descriptions in toto. We have converted square miles to km² and feet to meters.

Place-names

[census1801-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Histpop – The Online Historical Population Reports Website: Population tables I, Vol. I. England and Wales. Divisions I-VII, 1851 – Page clxviii (University of Essex). Google: Acres to km2.

[2] The Historic Counties Trust has kindly allowed me to quote its county descriptions in toto. We have converted square miles to km² and feet to meters.

[1]

[2]