Eastcote, Northamptonshire

Eastcote
Northamptonshire
Daffodils on Pound Lane, Eastcote
Location
Grid reference:	SP680540
Location:	52°10’50"N, 1°0’22"W
Data
Post town:	Towcester
Postcode:	NN12
Dialling code:	01327
Local Government
Council:	West Northamptonshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Daventry

Eastcote is a small village in Northamptonshire, about seven miles south-west of the county town, Northampton, along Banbury Lane. It is close to the A5 road, which follows the Roman Road known as Watling Street, about four miles north-west of Towcester.

History

Eastcote House stood in 60 acres and was owned by a Mr Gresham. The house was demolished around the middle of the 20th century.

Just before the start of First World War, the house was sold as a retirement home to the National Sailor's and Firemen's Union of England as a retirement home. The Union decided that they would help German seaman and prepared an internment camp initially housing 50 men. However, the leader of the union was greatly upset by the fact that, after he had left the concert room where he had informed the internees about the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 and the loss of fellow merchant navy sailors, they had started to sing German songs. The next morning the leader of the union held a meeting with the War Office resulting in the camp being handed over to the British Government and subsequently surrounded by barbed wire. Most of the internees were transferred out of the camp by July 1916. The camp became a POW camp expanding to about 4500 men by 1919 and was complete with a new water supply, sewage system, hospital, theatre and workshop. The village of Pattishall did not have electricity until the 1930s.

After the war the property was sold by the union.