Cranford St John is an English

England

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 is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 village near Kettering

Kettering

Kettering is a market town in the Borough of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. It is situated about from London. Kettering is mainly situated on the west side of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene which meets at Wellingborough...

 in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

. It is in the southern half of the civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Cranford

Cranford, Northamptonshire

Cranford is a civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. The two settlements in the parish are:* Cranford St Andrew* Cranford St JohnAt the time of the 2001 census, the parish population was 414 people....

, next to Cranford St Andrew

Cranford St Andrew

Cranford St Andrew is a settlement in the civil parish of Cranford, Northamptonshire, England. It neighbours Cranford St John....

 - both named after the two parish churches. The two settlements are divided by the River Ise

River Ise

The River Ise is a river in Northamptonshire, England and a tributary of the River Nene.The river rises in the very field that hosted the Battle of Naseby at the north-western tip of Northamptonshire...

; the derivation of the name is "ford frequented by cranes or herons".

The only public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 left is the Red Lion in Cranford St John. The old station house is all that remains of the Kettering Ironstone Railway

Kettering Ironstone Railway

The Kettering Ironstone Railway was an industrial narrow gauge railway that served the ironstone quarries around Kettering.- Locomotives :-See also:* British industrial narrow gauge railways...

 that used to run along the side of the village, which hints at the massive quarrying that used to take place in the area. The pocket park in Cranford St Andrew's side is full of depressions where the tunnels used to move quarried material to the kilns in Cranford St John have collapsed.

The last remaining chimney just outside the village was demolished during the building of the A14 road (which was built on a large section of the old railway line by Cranford). The former Sunday school has been converted into a residential property.