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Coordinates: 52°16'N 1°10'W? / ?52.26, -1.16
Daventry (pronounced /'de?nt??/) is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 (2001 census). The town is also the administrative centre of the much larger Daventry district, population 71,838. The town is 124 km (77 miles) northnorthwest of London, 22.4 km (13.9 miles) west of Northampton and 16.4 km (10.2 miles) southeast of Rugby.[1] Daventry is near the M1 motorway with access to two junctions to the northeast and southeast of the town. The town is also served by the A45 and the A361. The nearest railway station is at Long Buckby where access is gained to the London Midland services to Birmingham New Street and Northampton, on the Northampton loop of the West Coast Main Line. Inter-city services (Virgin Trains) can be accessed from Rugby railway station. The nearest airport is at Birmingham.
[edit] Description
The town comprises a historic market centre surrounded by much modern housing and light industrial development. On the edge of the town centre is the popular Daventry Country Park and reservoir.
There is a street market every Tuesday and Friday which is held in the High Street, although its original site was on the aptly-named Market Square. On the first Saturday of each month a Farmers' market is held in the High Street.
The town once had a railway station on the former LNWR branch-line from Weedon to Leamington Spa but this was closed in September 1958. The local weekly newspaper, the Daventry Express, is nicknamed 'The Gusher', after the steam engine that used to serve the town. [1]
Owing to its good transport links, Daventry is now a warehousing and distribution centre. North of the town Daventry International Railfreight Terminal (DIRFT) is a major terminal for freight interchange between road and rail.
Nearby places to Daventry include: Rugby, Southam, Banbury, Northampton and Coventry. The town is twinned with Westerburg in Germany.
An alternative pronunciation for Daventry used by locals is "Daintree" but this has become less common [2] [3].
[edit] History
[edit] Early history
On the 653-foot (199 m)-high Borough Hill that overlooks the town, remains have been found of an Iron Age hill fort - one of the largest found in Britain. Remains have also been found on the hill of a Roman villa.
Daventy began as a small Anglo-Saxon village in around 920, and by the 12th century had become home to a priory. In 1255 Daventry was granted a charter to become a market town. In 1576 Queen Elizabeth I granted Daventry borough status.
The town was mentioned by William Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part I, which refers to "the red nosed innkeeper of Daintree".
The "Daintree" Shakespeare wrote about is the old name for the town of Daventry, which refers to the town's history, in which the Danish settlers planted an oak tree on the summit of Borough Hill to mark the centre of England. This part of the town's history is reflected in the town's seal of a Viking/Saxon axeman and an oak tree.
During the English Civil War, the army of King Charles I stayed at Daventry in 1645 after storming the Parliamentary garrison at Leicester and on its way to relieve the siege of Oxford. The Royalist army, made up of 5,000 foot and as many horse, camped on Borough Hill (then spelt Burrow Hill) while Charles went hunting in the nearby forests.
According to local legend, it was during his stay at the Wheatsheaf Inn in Daventry that Charles was twice visited by the ghost of his former adviser and friend, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who advised him to keep heading north and warned him that he would not win through force of arms.
However, Parliament's newly formed New Model Army, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, was marching north from besieging Oxford after being instructed to engage the King's main army. Fairfax's leading detachments of horse clashed with Royalist outposts near Daventry on 12 June, alerting the King to the presence of the Parliamentary army. The Royalists made for their reinforcements at Newark-on-Trent but after reaching Market Harborough turned to fight, which resulted in the decisive Battle of Naseby. The village of Naseby is approximately 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Daventry.
[edit] Stagnation and decline 1840-1960
The main roads from London to Holyhead passed through Daventry and the town for centuries flourished as a coaching town. There were many coaching inns in the town of which only the Dun Cow, Saracens Head, and the Coach and Horses remain as inns.
The Dun Cow, an old coaching inn
But when the London and Birmingham Railway was opened in 1838 the coaching trade slumped and the town entered a long period of stagnation and decline which lasted for over a century. The industrial revolution largely passed Daventry by owing to its poor transport links. The canals passed around Daventry, although the Grand Junction Canal (now Grand Union) passed a few miles north. A branch from the Grand Union Canal to Daventry was proposed but was never built.
The railways did not connect Daventry until quite late in the 19th century. Although the town was only a few miles from the main London to Birmingham line it took until 1888 before a branch line was built from Weedon. In 1895 the line was extended to Leamington Spa, although being only a branch line this failed to spur much growth. Daventry's economy remained largely rural, with shoemaking as the main industry.
[edit] The Parish Church
Holy Cross is the parish church of Daventry and is the only 18th-century town church in Northamptonshire.[2] It was built between 1752 and 1758 by David Hiorne and is constructed of the local ironstone. The western elevation is broad with large pilasters at the angles and the angles of the centre bay. The entrance porch was added in 1951. The tower rises from the centre bay and is square ending with an obelisk spire rising above. Inside, the church has three wooden galleries, to the north, south and west elevations. The pulpit is decorated with marquetry and fretwork and has a staircase with a twisted balusters. Above the altar at the eastern elevation is a three-bayed stained glass window.
[edit] The Moot Hall
The Moot Hall stands on the north side of the market square next to the Plume of Feathers inn. It was built in 1769[3] from ironstone and has had various uses over the years, including town council building, a women’s prison, the mayor's parlour, town museum and tourist information office and in recent years as an Indian restaurant. The building is currently unused. The building is of two and a half storeys, and has three bays of windows. The main entrance and its porch is on the western elevation where the building is connected to a house built in 1806. The original staircase from the moot hall is now installed at Welton manor house.[4]
[edit] Broadcasting station
In 1925 the newly created BBC constructed a broadcasting station on Borough Hill just outside the town. Daventry was chosen because it was the point of maximum contact with the land mass of England and Wales. From 1932 the BBC Empire Service (now the BBC World Service) was broadcast from there. The radio announcement of "Daventry calling" made Daventry well-known across the world. It was the BBC's use of the literal pronunciation in this call-sign that resulted in the widespread displacement of the historical pronunciation "Daintree" ('de?nt??), though the latter is still used in some circumstances locally, as in the name of Danetree Hospital.
On 26 February 1935 the radio station at Daventry was used for the first-ever practical demonstration of radar, by its inventor Robert Watson-Watt. Watson-Watt used a radio receiver installed in a trailer to receive signals bounced off a metal-clad bomber flying up and down the radio beam.
The station closed in 1992 and only one of the radio masts now remains. Incidentally a busy directional radio beacon (VOR), identifier "DTY", for aircraft is situated approximately four miles (6.4 km) south of the town. The town also gives its name to the busy Daventry air traffic control sector.
See also Borough Hill Roman villa
[edit] Modern times
The modern growth of Daventry occurred from the 1960s onwards as part of a planned expansion of the town.
Daventry remained a small rural town until the 1950s; in 1950 it had a population of around 4,000. Real growth started in 1955 when the tapered roller bearing manufacturer British Timken located a large factory in the town (which was closed in 2000).[5]
In the early 1960s Daventry was designated an 'overspill' to house people and industry moved from Birmingham; a planned expansion was carried out as part of an agreement with Birmingham City Council. The plan did not, however, live up to expectations. The target population was 36,000 by 1981 but actual growth was much slower than this; nevertheless, by 1981 the population had soared to 16,178. In 2001 it was 22,367. More recently a new wave of development has been proposed, which could take the town's population to somewhere near 40,000 by 2021.[citation needed]
In 1974 the old borough of Daventry was abolished and merged into the new Daventry district, also containing a large rural area and a population in 2001 of 71,838. In 2003 Daventry gained its own town council when it became a civil parish.
In 2006 the outdoor pool, built and funded by residents of Daventry in the 1950s after three children were drowned in the local reservoir, was closed owing to the district council's persistent underfunding and its plans for redevelopment. In 2007 Daventry began plans to modernise the town with a futuristic personal rapid transit system that would link outer estates to the town centre, and a canal arm and marina next to the outdoor pool's former location.
[edit] Education
Daventry has two secondary schools: Daventry William Parker and Danetre. Primary education facilities include St James Infant School, Falconer's Hill Junior School and the Abbey Junior School. Daventry now has a lot of estates, which include: Drayton, Middlemore Farm, Lang Farm, Ashby Fields, Timken and New Timken. As the district has spread out, other notable secondary schools have become joined to Daventry, including Guilsborough School and Technology College, and Moulton School.
[edit] References
- , ’OS’ Explorer Map, Rugby & Daventry 222, ISBN 978 0 319 23734 2
- , The Buildings of England, Northamptonshire, by Nikolaus Pevsner, 2nd Edition revised by Bridget Cherry, Page 173. ISBN 0 14 071022 1
- , The Buildings of England, Northamptonshire, by Nikolaus Pevsner, 2nd Edition revised by Bridget Cherry, Page 173. ISBN 0 14 071022 1
- , The Buildings of England, Northamptonshire, by Nikolaus Pevsner, 2nd Edition revised by Bridget Cherry, Page 173. ISBN 0 14 071022 1
- , BBC news article
[edit] See also
- The hamlet of Drayton, now a suburb of Daventry.
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |