Badby
| Badby | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 Badby | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP559590 |
| Location: | 52°13’48"N, 1°10’48"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 632 (2011) |
| Post town: | Daventry |
| Postcode: | NN11 |
| Dialling code: | 01327 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Daventry |
Badby is a village in Northamptonshire. It stands in the west of the county and is one of its highest villages, for close by is Arbury Hill, the county top of Northamptonshire.
The village is about 2 miles south of Daventry, on the A361 Daventry to Banbury road, which still follows the route of the Lutterworth-Daventry-Banbury turnpike approved in 1765. The parish is bisected west to east, at about 395 feet above sea level, by the upper reaches of the River Nene. The village is mainly south of the river, where the land rises to Badby Down at 610 feet.
Contents
Name
Badby is found spelled in various ways since Anglo-Saxon times, until printing stabilised it in the present form, an amongst the variants found are: Badby, Badbye, Baddebi, Baddeby, Badebi and Badeby. In a charter of 944, the names Baddanbyrg and Baddan Byrig appear,[1] although these likely refer specifically to Arbury Hill.
History
There are several mediæval charters referring to the area around Badby, but some are suspect. The manors of Badby and Newnham were treated as one until the Knightleys sold Newnham manor to the Thorntons of Brockhall in 1634. The church benefice has always been Badby with Newnham (or Badby-cum-Newnham), Newnham being a chapel of the parent church at Badby in the initial times, but for a few years was recorded as the main church. The shared rector or vicar arrangement goes back 750 years.
Middle Ages
Charters record that the land was given to the Abbey of Croyland around the year 726. In a charter dated 944, King Edmund I gave an estate comprising Dodford, Everdon and all of Badby with Newnham to Bishop Aelfric of Hereford. After Edmund's murder in 946, the estate was returned in 948 to Croyland by his brother, King Edred on the advice of Turketul), his chancellor.
Abbot Godric II of Croyland, to buy protection against the threatening Danes, leased Badby in 1006 for 100 years to the son of Earl Leofwine. In 1016 the new Danish king, Canute transferred it to Earl Leofric of Mercia, who had supported Canute. In turn, Earl Leofric gave the lordship of the manor of Badby and Newnham to the Benedictine Abbey of Evesham, for the remainder of the 100-year lease supposedly granted by Abbot Godric II of Croyland. This was ratified by King Canute in 1018.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records Badby amongst the lands owned by Croyland Abbey. Around 1124, as the lease to Evesham had ended, elderly Abbot Joffrid of Croyland set about resolving with Evesham the ownership of Badby. The fire that burned down Croyland Abbey in 1091 destroyed any deeds, if they existed. Abbot Reginald of Evesham convinced Joffrid that Croyland had no claim, and the retention by Evesham was confirmed in 1246 in a charter by King Henry III and again in 1330 by King Edward III after a court hearing.
Evesham Abbey built a moated grange or farm headquarters 500 yards north-east of the church.[2] The house was built by the notorious Abbot Roger Norreys in 1189. He was a well known womaniser who was exiled to the small and distant priory of Penwortham in 1213.[3] In 1246 King Henry III granted free warren within Badby Wood and authorised the formation of a deer park [4] for hunting and food. The enclosing embankments and ditches of the deer park still exist to the east of the village. Archeological excavations of the grange site in 1965-69 identified work from the 13th to 16th centuries. Three bakehouses were added in the 1350s; its hall and chapel were renovated in the 1380s. It continued in a variety of uses after the dissolution of the Abbey during the Reformation. The grange finally tumbled down in 1722. Its remains lie hidden in a thicket at SP562592 which unfortunately developed after the excavations above.
In 1316, there was no Abbot in post, so King Edward II appointed Thomas de Evesham, one of his Chancery clerks, as rector of the benefice. The licence moved more control to the Abbot of Evesham. In 1343 the endowment for a vicar was laid down in a Lincoln diocesan document Ordinacio Vicarie in Ecclesia de Baddeby; 1343, and Reginald Musard became the first vicar.
Modern Age
The Abbey of Evesham was dissolved at the Reformation and King Henry VIII granted the manors of Badby and Newnham in 1542 to Sir Edmund Knightley[5] and his wife Ursula and their heirs. The dower house in Fawsley Park, last inhabited in 1704 is now in ruins. It was built for Lady Ursula after Sir Edmund died. There was considerable unrest in the parish in the last 20 years of the 16th century, when Valentine Knightley attempted to transfer much area of arable to pasture and to restrict tenants’ rights to woodland. Several tenant families, despite being Puritans like Knightley, used aggressive action as well as national legal arbitration to protect their rights. The manor lands were dissolved in the early 20th century.
In 1546 the rectorship and patronage of Badby and Newnham were passed to Christ Church, Oxford. It remained with Christ Church, Oxford, except for disruption by the Commonwealth, until 1919, when the Bishop of Peterborough became the patron.
Parish church
The parish church is St Mary’s. It was mostly built in the early fourteenth century with a very fine continuous clerestorey added in the fifteenth century and the tower rebuilt in 1707-9.[2]
The building was restored in 1880-1 by Edmund Francis Law.
The parish is part of the united benefice of The Knightley Parishes, within the Diocese of Peterborough.
Four of the chest tombs in the churchyard were separately listed as Grade II in 1987.[6]
About the village
In 1987 alone, 29 houses became listed buildings in Badby. Many very valuable features remain too in other buildings. The core of the village was designated a Conservation Area in 1993.
One of the 17th-century cottages in the village was the only thatched Youth Hostel in Britain. After being closed in 2005, it was modernised. It is now a single-family residence and thatched again in 2012. The adjacent former warden's cottage was sold separately and its old corrugated iron roof was replaced by thatch in 2009.
The Lantern House in the village is so named because of its octagonal tower shape. It was completely restored and extended to provide modern living accommodation in 1981-2.
From 1964, Badby House had extensions carried out for use by passionist contemplative nuns, when it also became known as 'Our Lady of Passion Monastery'. It was listed Grade II in January 1968, English Heritage ID 360650. In 2009 it became a care home and now operates as Badby Park.
Morris dancing
Badby had a tradition of Morris dancing, and village men still danced till about the 1870s, when the side broke up. Without new recruits, the dancing stopped. The dances of Badby might have been lost too, but about 1911 a folk song and dance collector called Cecil Sharp visited the Daventry area with George Butterworth, a fellow collector. They sought older villagers who could remember the Morris and the names of those men involved in it. The team costume was described as all white with pleated shirts with epaulettes and decorated with red, white and blue rosettes, two white silk scarves were worn crossed over shoulders to opposite waist side over the shirts. They wore bells on their legs and a "scotch" glengarry type of hat with ribbons at the back. The dances they did were named: First Morris; Second Morris; Balance the Straw; Beaux of London City (stick dance); Broad Cupid; Shepherds Hey (stick dance); Cuckoo's Nest; Shepherds Hey (hand clapping dance); Flowers of Edinburgh; Bobbing Joe; Old Black Joe; Trunkles; and Saturday Night.
The dances are particularly energetic and flowing in style, with beautiful tunes. Most current Morris teams dance at least one Badby dance, usually Beauxs of London City". The local team Moulton Morris Men have revived the whole Badby dance tradition, as they specialise in Northamptonshire Morris dances. Badby is fortunate to have such a valuable history of local folklore and its own village folk music tunes.[7]
Badby Woods
The nearby Badby Woods are famous for their bluebells in spring. The woods are owned by the Fawsley Estate. This estate belonged to the Knightley family from 1416 and passed through the female line to the Gage[8] family of Firle,[9] Sussex in 1938 when the male line died out.
There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within the woods, originally designated in 1955 and repeated under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The citation states:
| “ | Badby Wood is the largest of a localised group of ancient semi-natural woodlands lying mainly on acidic soils derived from Jurassic Upper Lias Clays and Northampton Sands. It has a history of continuous woodland cover for over seven hundred years. Lowland hazel-pedunculate woodland is the most common vegetation type present, with pedunculate oak-ash-hazel occurring locally in the wetter areas. Woodland habitat of this kind has declined significantly throughout Northamptonshire and is now unusual in the county.[10] | ” |
Early 2007 saw the start of work undertaken by Fawsley Estate under a Forestry Commission Woodland Grant Scheme Agreement, running from 2006-2011. Natural England was involved and supports the works undertaken. A large number of sycamore and some larch were felled and removed to allow for native species, and the edges of the rides cleared in the first stage. In the second stage, more and larger larch were removed. A ring of horse chestnut trees, marking the start of the path to the stone arch into the cherry tree avenue, declined over ten years. The last ones fell over or were felled by the end of 2008. Fawsley Estate erected new gates and fencing here in 2009.
Footpaths
There are several off-road rights of way within the village and to nearby villages:
- The Knightley Way [11] runs through 12 miles of attractive countryside formerly owned by the Knightley family of Fawsley Hall.
The Nene Way [12] extends 110 miles from Badby through Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire and ending at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. Its route is well marked.
Arbury Hill and earthworks
Arbury Hill at 738 feet is the highest point in Northamptonshire and 1¼ mile due west of the church tower. There is a single-rampart Iron Age square-shaped Hill Fort with sides about 600 feet long.[2]
A tumulus is about a mile north along the Daventry road and damaged by ploughing.[2]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Badby) |
References
- ↑ 944 AD charter
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1961). The Buildings of England – Northamptonshire. London and New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-300-09632-3.
- ↑ Knowles, Dom David (2004). The Monastic Order in England: A History of Its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council 940-1216. Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ http://www.hobbyhorsefestival.co.uk/hunting/badby.html
- ↑ Sir Edmund Knightley
- ↑ Badby - British Listed Buildings and Badby - British Listed Buildings
- ↑ Badby Fayre 2004 Programme and Guide, article written by Barry Care MBE
- ↑ The Gage Family
- ↑ Firle House
- ↑ Natural England SSSI Citation for Badby Wood
- ↑ LDWA website and Knightley Way route map
- ↑ LDWA website and Nene Way route map
