Brixworth
| Brixworth | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 All Saints' parish church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP7470 |
| Location: | 52°19’44"N, 0°54’14"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 5,162 (2001) |
| Post town: | Northampton |
| Postcode: | NN6 |
| Dialling code: | 01604 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Daventry |
| Website: | Brixworth Online |
Brixworth is a village in Northamptonshire. It is best known for its remarkable parish church, All Saints, which is perhaps the most complete Anglo-Saxon church in the land.
The village is found about 5 miles north of Northampton and 8 miles south of Market Harborough, beside the A508 road, now by-passed, and close to the A14 east-west trunk route.
The village had a 2001 recorded population of 5,162. It is popular with commuters to Leicester, Peterborough, Birmingham and London, although the nearest railway stations for London are at Northampton and Kettering.
Contents
All Saints' Church
All Saints' Church, the parish church, is one of the oldest, largest and most complete Anglo-Saxon churches in the country. It was founded around 680 and has been called as "The finest Saxon church north of the Alps".[1] It is one of a number of fine examples of Anglo-Saxon church-building in Northamptonshire, and there is another fine Anglo-Saxon church 8 miles away at Earls Barton, east of Northampton.
The parish registers start in 1546. The Rev James Jackson, who was vicar of Brixworth from 1735 to 1770, compiled an analytical index to Brixworth families since the 16th century which incorporated information from his personal knowledge as well as entries from the parish register. It therefore includes considerable information about the origins and destinations of people who arrived in or migrated from the village during the 18th century.[2]
History
The historic settlement centred on the area near the church and around the grounds of Brixworth Hall.
The main road from Northampton to Market Harborough passed through the village, where a number of coaching inns served the needs of travellers: the buildings of two present-day pubs in the village date back to this period:
In 1819 Sir Charles Knightley purchased land between Spratton Road and Kennel Terrace, where the Pytchley Hunt then erected kennels, providing a fresh source of local employment at a time of agricultural depression. The Hunt remained in the village until 1966, after which the site was developed for housing.
Brixworth Poor Law Union was established in 1835 and a workhouse erected on the south side of Spratton Road soon afterwards. Only the entrance block, including some later side extensions to it, remains., and the premises are used for business purposes. The activities of the Brixworth Poor Law Union attracted controversy, particularly in the latter part of the 19th century, because of its reluctance to provide relief to poor people unless they agreed to enter the Workhouse. Brixworth is the focus of a substantial work on the political, social and personal implications of welfare policies during the period.[3] The Workhouse was closed in 1935.
The Northampton and Market Harborough railway through the parish was opened in 1859, passing half a mile west of the village. An ironstone quarry, served by its own industrial railway, was developed near the village. British Railways closed Brixworth railway station to passenger traffic in 1960 and closed the line to freight traffic in 1981. The trackbed of the former railway was reopened in 1993 as the Brampton Valley Way.
From the 1960s onwards, a large amount of new housing has been built at Brixworth, mainly on fields to the south of the original village. A by-pass on the east side has diverted traffic travelling between Northampton and Market Harborough away from the built-up area. Another major change has been the creation of Pitsford Water (a reservoir) and Brixworth Country Park, which is a short distance from Brixworth itself.
Churches
The churches that currently worship at Brixworth are:
A Wesleyan Methodist (later Methodist) chapel was opened in Church Street in 1811 and enlarged in 1860. The chapel closed in the 1970s and the building is now in residential use.[4]
Big society
- Drama Society, which stages 2–3 productions a year
- Sir William Harrington's Companye, an award winning historical re-enactment society, who recreate life as it would have been for the 15th Century inhabitants of Brixworth.
There is a free village newspaper, the Brixworth Bulletin.[5]
Sport and leisure
- Football: Brixworth Juniors Football Club
- Cricket: Brixworth Cricket Club
The Brampton Valley Way passes half a mile west of the village, Pitsford Reservoir is about 2 miles to the east and the Northampton & Lamport Railway is 3 miles to the south at Pitsford and Brampton railway station.
Business
Ilmore Engines provide racing engines that have won many Indianapolis and Formula One championships, the works standing just 800 yards from the church Ilmor sponsor many clubs and associations in the village. The Ilmor factory filters the noise and heat of the engines under test through large water tanks, both to reduce the noise and to heat the factory.
Brixworth is also home to the production facility of Haddonstone, the cast stone manufacturer which moved to its current location from Harlestone after expansion.
In 2008 the Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines (HTP) premises in Brixworth planned to build two vast wind turbines here, which plan has not proceeded, after strong local opposition.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Brixworth) |
- Brixworth Parish Council
- Friends of Brixworth Church
- Brixworth Christian Fellowship
- Brixworth Village Hall
- Brixworth History Society
- BRANE: Brixworth Residents Against New Estates
References
- ↑ Clapham, 1930, page 33, cited in Blair, 1977, page 152
- ↑ Howcutt, Francis (1985-09-01). "Brixworth - An 18th Century Parish Register Analysis". Genealogists' Magazine (London: Society of Genealogists) 21 (11): 398–399. SSN 0016-6391.
- ↑ Hurren, Elizabeth T (2007). Protesting About Pauperism: Poverty, Politics and Poor Relief in Late-Victorian England, 1870-1900. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-86193-292-4.
- ↑ Brixworth History Society (1993). Brixworth Now & Then. Brixworth: Brixworth History Society. pp. 3.
- ↑ Brixworth Bulletin
- Blair, Peter Hunter (1977) [1956]. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (Second ed.). Cambridge & London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 146, 151–152. ISBN 0-521-29219-0.
- Brixworth History Society (1999). A Pictorial History of Brixworth. Brixworth: Brixworth History Society. ISBN 0-9536010-0-5.
- Brixworth History Society (2012). Another History of Brixworth in words and pictures. Brixworth: Brixworth History Society. ISBN 9780953601035.
- "Brixworth Union Workhouse". http://brixworthhistory.org/text-archive/brixworth-union-workhouse-1837/. Retrieved 2013-02-09.
- Clapham, A.W. (1930). English Romanesque Architecture: Volume I: Before the Conquest. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 30.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (1973) [1961]. Northamptonshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 124–127. ISBN 0-14-071022-1.
- Salzman, L.F., ed (1937). A History of the County of Northampton, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 150–157.
