NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

A very fine memorial recalls the period of the Second World War between 1943 and 1945, at the USAF Station DEENETHORPE east of Corby.  Situated on the roadside alongside the former airfield, the inscription reads :

To remember the 401^st Bombardment Group H

8^th United States Air Force Station 126 Deenethorpe

October 1943 – June 1945

The best damned outfit in the USAF

 

 

The church at WELDON near Corby has an unusual lantern top to its tower. 

This area was once surrounded by dense woodland and a traveller became hopelessly lost there until he spotted the tower of the church above the trees.   In gratitude he paid for the lantern top to be placed on the tower and so created an inland lighthouse!

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old stone built circular building with a conical roof stands alongside the village green at WELDON. It is a former Roundhouse or village lock-up used in former times to detain minor law breakers and drunks.

 

 

 

Sir Thomas Tresham was a notable 16^th century Roman Catholic convert  who owned a variety of properties in Northamptonshire.    Tresham became obsessed with his beliefs, for which he was imprisoned, and he constructed two curious allegoric buildings.

The Triangular Lodge was erected in the grounds of Rushton Hall south west Corby in 1593.   This folly has : 

Just 3 sides, each one 33ft 3ins long,

3 floors, each with 3 triangular windows in each wall,

3 triangular gables to each side with 3 pinnacles above,

3 x 3 gargoyles,

Latin inscriptions in double 3 couplets, each line with 33 letters.
All these depicting the Trinity.

This extraordinary building is now in the care of English Heritage.

 

 

 

 

Lyvedon New Bield was to have been built as a garden house in the grounds of Lyvedon Bield south east of Corby in 1595.   The building was designed in the shape of a Greek cross and the exterior incorporates friezes inscribed with religious quotations and signs of the passion.   Sir Thomas died before the building was completed and the shell is now in the care of the National Trust.

 

 

 

 

The fine 13^th century stone cross at Geddington south of Corby, is one of only three of the surviving Eleanor  Crosses.   Queen Eleanor was the wife of King Edward 1 and when she died at Harby in Lincolnshire on 28^th November 1290, her body was taken to Westminster Abbey for burial.   In memory of his wife, Edward ordered that elaborate stone crosses be erected at points where the cortege rested on its journey.   Of the crosses erected at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham Abbey and Charing.  Only those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Abbey have survived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BADBY is a charming rural village on the upper reaches of the River Nene south of Daventry in Northamptonshire.

An unusual house situated at the roadside just outside Badby may have been a gate-house or a toll-house.   This tiny early 19^th century building is known locally as The Lantern House because of its distinct shape.  

It has now been restored as a dwelling.

 

 

AYNO is a small village of Anglo Saxon foundation situated in the far south of Northamptonshire south of Brackley.

Apricot trees are an unusual feature in this pretty village, and although relatively rare in this country they apparently thrive in this limestone village.  Fan trained apricot trees adorn the walls of many of the ancient cottages in the village where they flourish in the southerly aspect and the limestone soil.   The trees are harvested in September and in former times, the lords of The manor claimed the fruits as part of the cottage rents.