Towcester - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Towcester the Roman town

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

of Lactodorum, is a small town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

in south 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,...

, England.

Etymology

Towcester comes from the Old English Tófe-ceaster. Tófe refers to the River Tove

River Tove

The River Tove is a river in England, a tributary of the River Great Ouse. Rising in Northamptonshire, it flows for around 15 miles past the town of Towcester before meeting the Ouse near Milton Keynes. Its final 5 miles form part of the border between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, running...

; Bosworth and Toller

An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary

An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary is a dictionary of Old English, a language that was previously known as Anglo-Saxon. Four editions of the dictionary were published. It has often been considered the definitive lexicon for Old English...

compare it to the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa
Tofa (Poetic Edda)
Tófa is the wife of Angantyr and mother of Hervor, in Hervararkviða, a poem from the Poetic Edda which is part of the Tyrfing Cycle.-In the Poetic Edda:She is mentioned only once, in Hervor's appeal to Angantyr:...

. The Old English ceaster comes from the Latin castra ("camp") and was "often applied to places in Britain which had been originally Roman encampments." Thus, Towcester means "Camp on the (river) Tove

River Tove

Location

The town is about 8 miles (12.9 km) south-west of Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

and about 10 miles (16.1 km) north-west of Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

, the nearest main towns. Oxford is about 30 miles (48.3 km) south-west via the A43 road

A43 road

The A43 is a primary route in the English Midlands, that runs from the M40 motorway near Ardley in Oxfordshire to Stamford in Lincolnshire. Through Northamptonshire it bypasses the towns of Northampton, Kettering and Corby which are the three principal destinations on the A43 route...

, M40 motorway

M40 motorway

The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...

and A34 road. The A43 now by-passes the town to the north but the A5 road still passes through the town centre. This still carries much traffic in the north-south direction which may be by-passed to the west with the possibility of expansion of the town.

Demographics and expansion

The population was 8,856 at the time of the 2001 census

United Kingdom Census 2001

A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....

but has since rapidly expanded and there are plans to expand still further with another 3,300 houses equating to an appx 8,250 increase in population. With normal growth this could see the total population rise to around 20,000 people by 2020 (based on the current multiplier of 2.5 persons per average household). The expansion will include an A5 north-south by-pass west of the town and improvements to the links to the A43.

Governance

The town has its own Town Council

Town council

A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....

, with limited powers, and is also the administrative headquarters of the South Northamptonshire

South Northamptonshire

South Northamptonshire is a local government district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council is based in Towcester.The district is rural and sparsely populated with just over 79,293 people in 2000 and 91,000 in 2008, a 14.8% increase. The largest town in the district is Brackley, which has a...

district council. The town is in the Northamptonshire County Council area.

Towcester used to be within the parliamentary constituency of Daventry

Daventry (UK Parliament constituency)

Daventry is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a strongly Conservative seat.- Boundaries :The constituency covers the west of Northamptonshire and is named for the market town of Daventry...

. However, due to boundary changes, it now forms part of the South Northamptonshire constituency

South Northamptonshire (UK Parliament constituency)

South Northamptonshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current Member of Parliament is Andrea Leadsom of the Conservative Party.-History:...

(since the 2010 general election).

Facilities

The town has good shopping facilities with the three major supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

chains of Waitrose

Waitrose

Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...

, Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

and Co-operative

The Co-operative Group

The Co-operative Group Ltd. is a United Kingdom consumer cooperative with a diverse range of business interests. It is co-operatively run and owned by its members. It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 5.5 million members, who all have a say in how the business is...

plus a very good number and range of smaller shops and stores. Towcester also has an Air Cadet squadron located near to Sponne School

Sponne School

Sponne is the oldest secondary school in Northamptonshire, and one of the oldest in the country.Part of the school was originally Towcester Grammar School, until Grammar schools were abolished in Northamptonshire...

.

St. Lawrence' Church, CofE

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

, stands in the middle of the town. It has a 12th century Norman Transitional

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

ground plan and foundation, probably laid over a Saxon

Anglo-Saxon architecture

Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England, and parts of Wales, from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing...

10th century stone building. Its ecclesiastical heritage may well relate back to Roman times as St Lawrence was patron saint of the Roman Legions. The building was reconstructed in the Perpendicular style 1480–85 when the church tower was added. Permission to quarry stone for this restoration from Whittlebury Forest was granted by Edward IV

Edward IV of England

Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...

and later confirmed by Richard III

Richard III of England

Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...

on his way towards Leicestershire and his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field

Battle of Bosworth Field

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the penultimate battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York that raged across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians...

.

The church contains a "Treacle" Bible, a table tomb and cadaver of Archdeacon Sponne, Rector 1422–1448. The Archdeacon started what was thought to be the oldest Grammar school

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

in Northamptonshire, which was merged with the old Secondary Modern School

Secondary modern school

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...

in Towcester to produce Sponne School. The church tower contains more bells than probably any other parish church in the land: a fine peal of 12 bells and a chime of 9 bells which ring the hours and chime tunes at frequent intervals.

Sport

Towcester is famous for its racecourse, originally part of the Easton Neston

Easton Neston

Easton Neston is a country house near Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, and is part of the Easton Neston Parish. It was designed in the Baroque style by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Easton Neston is thought to be the only mansion which was solely the work of Hawksmoor...

estate on the east side of the town. Many important national horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

events are held there.

Nearby is the Silverstone motor racing circuit

Silverstone Circuit

Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...

, currently home to the British Grand Prix

British Grand Prix

The British Grand Prix is a race in the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship. It is currently held at the Silverstone Circuit near the village of Silverstone in Northamptonshire...

. In fiction, the "Saracen's Head Inn" in Towcester features in Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

's novel The Pickwick Papers

The Pickwick Papers

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...

as one of Mr Pickwick's stopping places along what is now the A5 trunk road

Trunk road

A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports, and other things.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic...

.

Towcester is also home to Towcestrians RFC, a rugby club founded in 1933. Towcestrians play in the Mildands 2 East (South) Division and are affiliated to the RFU, East Midlands Rugby Union and the Northants Rugby Alliance.

Since 2010, Towcestrians RFC has hosted the Towcester Beer Festival, marrying a festival of 40 guest ales and ten ciders with rugby and live music. This year's festival takes place on April 29 and 30, the weekend of the Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding is a 1951 Hollywood musical comedy film known for Fred Astaire's dance performance on a ceiling and another with a coat rack. The story is set in London in 1947 at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and stars Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah...

Prehistoric and Roman periods

Towcester lays claim to being the oldest town in Northamptonshire and possibly, because of the antiquity of recent Iron Age

British Iron Age

The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...

finds in the town, to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the country. There is evidence that it was settled by humans since the Mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

era (middle stone age). There is also evidence of Iron Age burials in the area.

In Roman Britain

Roman Britain

, Watling Street

Watling Street

Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...

, now the A5 road, was built through the area and a garrison town called Lactodurum established on the site of the present-day town. Two candidate sites for the Battle of Watling Street

Battle of Watling Street

The Battle of Watling Street took place in Roman-occupied Britain in AD 60 or 61 between an alliance of indigenous British peoples led by Boudica and a Roman army led by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Although outnumbered, the Romans decisively defeated the allied tribes, inflicting heavy losses on them...

, fought in 61AD, are located close to the town, these are Church Stowe

Church Stowe

Church Stowe is a village in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire in England. It is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Stowe Nine Churches.- External links :*...

which is located 7 km to the north and Paulerspury

Paulerspury

Paulerspury is a civil parish and small village in South Northamptonshire, England. It is approximately south of Towcester and north of Milton Keynes along the A5 road...

which is 5 km to the south.

Lactodurum was surrounded by a wall that was strengthened at several points by brick towers. Substantial remains of one of these towers could be seen until the 1960s, when it was demolished to make way for a telephone exchange. The wall was also surrounded by a ditch part of which became the Mill Leat on the east side of the town.
The modern day St Lawrence's Church in Towcester is thought to occupy the site of a large Roman civic building, possibly a temple. Small fragments of Roman pavement can be seen next to the church's boiler room.

It is also thought that a Roman pillar is in the garden of one of the houses along Watling Street.

The Saxon period and Medieval age

When the Romans left in the 5th century, the area was settled by Saxons

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

. In the 8th century, the Watling Street became the frontier between the kingdom of Wessex

Wessex

The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...

and Danelaw

Danelaw

The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the "Danes" held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. It is contrasted with "West Saxon law" and "Mercian law". The term has been extended by modern historians to...

, and thus Towcester became a frontier town . Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...

fortified Towcester in 914. In the 11th century, the Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

built a motte and bailey castle on the site. Bury Mount

Bury Mount

Bury Mount Motte is the remains of an earthwork motte and bailey fortification or ancient castle, and has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument...

is what is left of the Norman fortification consisting of a Motte and Bailey is a scheduled Ancient Monument

Ancient monument

An ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. In the United Kingdom it is a legal term, differing from the American term National Monument in being far more numerous and always man-made...

. It is currently (from 2008) undergoing repair and renovation.

Georgian and Victorian periods

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, in the heyday of the stagecoach and the mail coach, the Watling Street became a major coaching road between London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

and Holyhead

Holyhead

Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....

, and Towcester flourished, becoming a major stopping point. Many coaching inn

Coaching inn

In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...

s and stabling facilities were provided for travellers in Towcester, many of which remain.

The coaching trade came to an abrupt halt in September 1838 when the London and Birmingham Railway

London and Birmingham Railway

The London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway ....

was opened, which bypassed Towcester and passed through Blisworth

Blisworth

Blisworth is a village and civil parish in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. The West Coast Main Line, from London Euston to Manchester and Scotland, runs alongside the village partly hidden and partly on an embankment...

, barely four miles away but enough to result in Towcester quickly reverting to being a quiet market town. By 1866 however, Towcester was linked to the national rail network by the first of several routes which came together to form the Stratford and Midland Junction Railway, known as the "SMJ". Eventually, from Towcester railway station

Towcester railway station

Towcester was a railway station on the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway which served the Northamptonshire town of Towcester between 1866 and 1964. It was one of the most important stations on the line, and once served as an interchange for services to Stratford, Banbury and Olney....

it was possible to travel four different ways out of the town: to Blisworth (opened May 1866); to Banbury

Banbury

Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...

(opened June 1872); to Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...

(opened July 1873); and finally Olney (for access to Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

, opened December 1892). The latter line however was an early casualty, closing to passengers in March 1893 although it continued to be used by race specials up until the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The Banbury line closed to passengers in July 1951 and the rest in April 1952. Goods traffic lingered on until final axing in February 1964 as part of the Beeching

Beeching Axe

The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

cuts. The site of Towcester railway station is now a Tesco supermarket.

Towcester might have gained a second station on a branch line of the Great Central Railway

Great Central Railway

The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...

from its main line at Brackley

Brackley

Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...

to Northampton

Northampton

, but this branch was never built.

20th century and beyond

The motor age brought new life to the town. Although now by-passed by the A43, the A5 trunk traffic still passes directly through the historic market town centre causing traffic jams at some times of the day. The resulting pollution has led to the town centre being designated an Air Quality Management Area. An A5 north-south by-pass is likely with plans for expansion of the town being planned by the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation

West Northamptonshire Development Corporation

The West Northamptonshire Development Corporation is an urban Development Corporation set up to cover parts of Northamptonshire in England, by the United Kingdom government in December 2004. WNDC was set up by the Secretary of State under the provisions of the Local Government Planning and Land...

External links

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