Preston Deanery

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Preston Deanery
Northamptonshire

Preston Deanery Hall
Location
Grid reference: SP788556
Location: 52°11’37"N, -0°50’51"W
Data
Population: 51  (2010 est.[1])
Post town: Northampton
Postcode: NN7
Dialling code: 01604
Local Government
Council: West Northamptonshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
Northampton South

Preston Deanery is a hamlet and ancient parish in Northamptonshire. It is four miles south of Northampton town centre and a mile and a half by road to the M1 London to Yorkshire motorway junction 15. It lies just off the B526 road (the former A50) from Northampton to Newport Pagnell, between Hackleton and Wootton, a former village which has become now a suburb of Northampton.

Preston Deanery constitutes a lost village. The corresponding civil parish was abolished in 1935 when it was merged into that of Hackleton.[2] The 1801 census[2] showed a population of 70. The current population estimate is 51.[1]

Buildings

Church

Preston Deanery Church of Saints Peter and Paul

The church was dedicated to St Peter circa 1200, then St Peter and St Paul c.1415. It was a parish church for what was at the time a much larger and later abandoned village. The church is now redundant but cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. It has a 12th-century west tower with a central pilaster-buttress on each face, a single nave, and a square-ended chancel. A small part of the church is early Norman (11th century) and an even earlier part appears to have an early Viking influence, which is very unusual for the area. The chancel arch is Romanesque.[3]

Preston Deanery Hall and other houses

Around 1940 Preston Deanery consisted of four semi-detached properties, half a dozen farms and Preston Deanery Hall, once inhabited by monks but since converted to a private residence. During the Second World War one of the houses was occupied by a boy and his mother, who worked as a domestic servant at the Hall. The boy went to school in Hackleton. His experiences are described on the BBC People's War website.[4]

Preston Green

Further urban expansion of Northampton was being planned in October 2008 with another 13,500 houses and additional infrastructure in the rural areas around Grange Park, Quinton and Preston Deanery[5] however the incoming Conservative-LibDem coalition government of the 2010 General Election has abolished this expansion proposal.

References

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Preston Deanery)

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