Blisworth
| Blisworth | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 Blisworth Tunnel on the Grand Union Canal | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP727534 |
| Location: | 52°10’30"N, -0°56’13"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 2,867 (2011) |
| Post town: | Northampton |
| Postcode: | NN7 |
| Dialling code: | 01604 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
South Northamptonshire |
Blisworth is a village in Northamptonshire, sitting some five miles south of the county town, Northampton, and four miles north of Towcester.
This is known as a canal village. The Grand Union Canal passes through the village and the north portal of the Blisworth Tunnel is near Stoke Road.[1]
The West Coast Main Line from London Euston to Manchester and Glasgow runs alongside the village, partly hidden and partly on an embankment. The M1 motorway motorway Junction 15 is about two miles north-east of the village.
About the village
This is a small place: a little supermarket/post-office/newsagent is the only shop in Blisworth. There is a modern well-equipped doctor's surgery in Stoke Road serving several surrounding villages as well as Blisworth itself.
The village pub is The Royal Oak.[2] A second pub, The Sun, Moon and Stars, near the canal closed at least 50 years ago, and a third pub, the Grafton Arms, is now a private dwelling. There is though a hotel, "The Walnut Tree Inn", which was the original Blisworth Station Hotel, and it stands opposite the site of the former station.
Blisworth has a primary school, Blisworth Community Primary School,[3] with around 200 children.
Churches
- Church of England: St John The Baptist
- Baptist. The Baptist Chapel was enlarged in 1871.[4]
The Church of St John The Baptist was built between the 13th and 15th centuries. It underwent a Victorian restoration in 1856, undertaken by Edmund Francis Law[1]
The Rectory stands to the west of the church, and was built in 1841.[1]
Transport
Canal
The village is the site of the Blisworth Tunnel of the Grand Union Canal and one of the longest on the English canal system. The tunnel runs south to the nearby village of Stoke Bruerne. The canal runs to the south-west side of the village and a bridge carries the main road though the village. The bridge is partly original, partly widened, as the main road carried the A43 trunk road until a by-pass was constructed.
Roads
The A43 (Northampton-Oxford) Milton Malsor and Blisworth by-pass was opened on 21 May 1991. The by-pass runs to the west of the two villages, now following a newly created route from Tiffield. The road joins the M1 motorway at West Hunsbury, by Northampton. From Northampton to Blisworth the by-pass closely follows the trackbed of the Blisworth to Northampton railway, long since closed. The new road makes a slight detour near the Northampton arm of the canal at the staircase of locks near Rothersthorpe.
Railways
The London and Birmingham Railway, under the surveying and construction control of Robert Stephenson, bypassed Northampton and opened a station in Blisworth in 1839. In 1842, after much discussion, Lord Grafton agreed to fund a new station as long as it were a "first class" station, which is to say that all trains would stop at it. Ford Lane became Station Road, the location of Blisworth station. In 1845 a branch line on to Peterborough was completed via Northampton, and in 1866 a single-track line was built to Banbury. Blisworth station closed in January 1960 and both branch lines have also long since gone. The main railway line remains, electrified in the 1960s and is now part of the West Coast Main Line running 125 mph trains from London Euston to Glasgow. The Northampton Loop of the line leaves the main line at Roade, north of Roade cutting and just south of Blisworth, taking trains on into Northampton and further north to re-join the main line at Rugby.
The Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway ran from Blisworth station south to Towcester, Banbury and Stratford upon Avon but closed in the 1960s. Much of the infrastructure such as cuttings and bridges remain along the route.
Quarrying
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries iron ore and limestone were quarried at Blisworth. A limestone quarry began in 1821 north east of the canal tunnel and was connected to a canal wharf at the west end of the tunnel by horse-drawn tramway. The tramway ran from the quarry, across the Stoke Bruerne Road and above the west end of the tunnel. Trains of loaded wagons descended by gravity and empty ones were pulled up by a horse. There was a chute for filling the canal boats from the stone wagons .The quarry was closed in 1912 or 1913.
A trial iron ore quarry operated in 1852, probably close to the east side of the Towcester road. The ore was sent to an ironworks in Staffordshire. The ore was probably taken by horse and cart to the canal for despatch to the ironworks.Quarrying began seriously in 1853 or 1855 to the north of the road to Stoke Bruerne near the west end of the canal tunnel. The quarry was connected to the canal wharf by a tramway worked probably by hand and with a cable worked incline running through a bridge beneath the road and over a wooden bridge over the canal . At the canal, the ore was loaded by hand into canal boats for transport to Staffordshire.This quarry closed in 1855 but was reopened in 1859 closed again in 1861 and reopened in 1863. At this time the ore was taken by horse and cart through the village to be loaded into railway wagons at Blisworth Station. In 1863 however the tramway was reopened and canal boats took the ore to Blisworth Station for transhipment to railway wagons. Steam cranes were installed at the canal wharf and at the station. The ore was now taken to South Wales. In 1903 the ore was taken by canal to furnaces at Hunsbury,near Northampton later by canal and railway. The iron ore workings were extended northwards and a further quarry opened north of the Courteenhall Road. the tramway was extended to cater for these quarry extensions and was worked by horses upwards and gravity downwards above the incline. These quarries closed in 1921. Part is still visible in some allotments. Part has been filled in and built on. Part has been smothed over for agriculture. On Courteenhall Road the level of the fields is lower than the road. Traces of the tramway route remain.
Further iron ore quarries were opened to the west of the village in about 1873,operating to the north of the Gayton Road until 1895 and south of the road from 1895 to about 1913. Horse Tramways connected these quarries eastwards to the canal and westwards to the railway. A new quarry operated to the south of these in 1942 and 1943 and between 1954 and 1967. This was the only iron quarry at Blisworth to use mechanical diggers. They were electric and diesel powered. The quarry was connected by standard gauge steam operated tramway to sidings on the railway at Gayton south of Blisworth Junction on the line to Towcester. The ore was taken to Scunthorpe and South Wales for smelting. A few traces of all of these quarries remain mainly in the form of depressed field levels and some buildings connected with the later quarry.
Lastly another limestone quarry was opened near Rectory Farm west of the Towcester Road to provide stone for use in connection with construction of the M1 motorway. This remains and is now a nature reserve.[5]
Sport and leisure
- Football: Blisworth FC
An annual Canal Festival is held in the village in August, held to help celebrate the part that the canal has played in Blisworth's history.[6] The festival is organised by the Blisworth Canal Partnership.[7]
Pictures
- Recent images showing a current medium-sized typical Northampton village
-
Grafton Villas, Northampton Road, in November 2007 -
Blisworth House main entrance, in January 2008 -
St John the Baptist Church, Blisworth, in January 2008
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Blisworth) |
- [http://www.blisworth.org.uk/images/ Blisworth.org.uk
- Blisworth Parish Council
- Transport heritage:
- Blisworth Tunnel Preservation Group@
- Pictures of Blisworth station
- [http://www.blisworthcanalpartnership.org/ Blisworth Canal Partnership
- Information on the annual Blisworth Canal Festival
- Royal Oak Public House
- Archived research:
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, 1961; 1973 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09632-3page 108–9
- ↑ The Royal Oak
- ↑ Blisworth Community Primary School
- ↑ Pictures in and around the Baptist chapel - blisworth.org.uk
- ↑ Tonks, Eric (1989). The Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands Part 3 The Northampton Area.. Cheltenham: Runpast. pp. 12–30 and 40–59. ISBN 1-870754-03-4.
- ↑ Canal Festival
- ↑ Blisworth Canal Partnership