Wakerley is a linear village

Linear village

In geography, a linear village, or linear settlement, is a small to medium-sized settlement that is formed around a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Wraysbury, a village in Berkshire, is one of the longest villages in England....

 and 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...

 in the 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...

 county of 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,...

.

Forming part of the district of East Northamptonshire

East Northamptonshire

East Northamptonshire is a local government district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council is based in Thrapston and Rushden, which is the largest town in the area...

, Wakerley is close to, and south of, the River Welland

River Welland

The River Welland is a river in the east of England, some long. It rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, to reach The Wash near Fosdyke. For much of its length it forms the county boundary between...

 that forms the boundary with Rutland

Rutland

Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....

; its nearest neighbour, Barrowden

Barrowden

Barrowden is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is often considered to be one of the more picturesque villages in Rutland due to its beautiful setting amongst hills and rivers, and also because of the open village greens and the village...

, is in that county and accessible by a footbridge. Wakerley is in the area of Rockingham Forest

Rockingham Forest

Rockingham Forest is a former Mediæval royal hunting forest in the East Midlands region of England; most of which was in the county of Northamptonshire but also extended slightly into the neighbouring counties of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire .The forest originally stretched from Stamford down...

 and Wakerley Great Wood is one of the forest's largest remnants.

St John the Baptist's church

St John the Baptist's Church, Wakerley

St John the Baptist's Church, Wakerley, is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Wakerley, Northamptonshire, England . It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust...

, Grade I listed, has been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust

Churches Conservation Trust

The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968...

 since the early 1970s.

Recent evidence points to Wakerley's industrial history as an iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

-smelting

Smelting

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...

 centre. Brick-built calcining kilns were used for reducing iron ore before transport to the steelworks at Corby

Corby

Corby Town is a town and borough located in the county of Northamptonshire. Corby Town is 23 miles north-east of the county town, Northampton. The borough had a population of 53,174 at the 2001 Census; the town on its own accounted for 49,222 of this figure...

.

External links

• Wakerley church on Churches Conservation Trust
• Iron-smelting archaeology
• http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/wildwoods.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/EnglandNorthamptonshireRockinghamForestWakerleyGreatWoodWild Woods at Wakerley Great Wood (Forestry Commission
  Forestry Commission
  The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
  
  site)]