Flore
| Flore | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP642600 |
| Location: | 52°14’20"N, 1°3’25"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,221 |
| Post town: | Northampton |
| Postcode: | NN7 |
| Dialling code: | 01327 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Daventry |
| Website: | Flore Parish Council |
Flore is a pretty village in Northamptonshire, a place most familiar to drivers passing through on the A45 but when explored, a village with many and various older houses in memory of its days as a prosperous wool village.
Flore is found between Northampton and Daventry, 7 and 5 miles east and west respectively,and 9 miles north of Towcester. The village is found just to the west of the M1 motorway, with the A45 running east to west through the village.
The River Nene flows past the south end of Flores, the village rolling down to its meadows, and the Grand Union Canal following its valley. The village of Weedon Bec is to the west.
The population at the 2001 was 1,221. The A45 road divides the upper part of the village from several older streets clustered around the church, closer to the river meadows. Although the village has no railway station, the close road connections make it a popular commuter village.
The name of the village has appeared in the record in a variety of forms, and it was called Flower until 1685.
Parish church
The parish church is All Saints, a church manly of the 13th century with work from later centuries. It was repaired in 1796 and the interior restored in 1876-7.[1]
About the village
The Nene valley hereabouts yields rich farmland which has supported large flocks of sheep. Flores though is particularly famed for its fruit orchards, more than anywhere else in the county. In these orchards grows a local variety of plum; the 'Flore Plum' and local tradition has it that it was brought to the area by the Romans from Damascus (the site of a Roman villa is found on the south side of the village). The Flore plum appears on the village flag.
The parish is crossed by two long distance footpaths; the Macmillan Way and the Nene Way.
At the edge of the village is Flore House was built in 1608 for the Enyon family. It is now Grade II listed.[2]
The family of Cecil Rhodes, founder of Rhodesia, lived in Flore from 1760 until they sold the house in the 1960s.
Village flag
The name inspired the village flag, which shows a plumb blossom flower and a plum; the flower from the name of the village (once named "Flower") and the plum from the local variety, the Flore plum. The colours are gold and purple; gold for "the warmth of the community" and purple for the plum and the numerous fruit orchards of the town – it once had more than any other in the county.
The curved stamen in the flower recall the view from above of a maypole, which is part of village traditional, and the two motifs are separated per bend wavy, for the River Nene.
Flower festival
Local myth has it that the Romans named the village here ‘Flora’ on seeing the plum trees in blossom, which sounds like a rather recent ancient myth, though certainly the Romans were here as the remains of villas have been found. Flore is almost the first village in Britain to hold a flower festival, beaten only by Walpole St Peter in Norfolk. The flower festival has run since 1963.
The Flower Festival has lately raised great sums to restore the chancel roof of the parish church.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Northamptonshire Flore) |
References
- ↑ All Saints Church, Flore – British Listed Buildings
- ↑ Flore House – British Listed Buildings