England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Northampton St Peter

The Parish

The town of Northampton lies in the southern portion of its county and is roughly 66 miles northwest of the city of London. Northampton sits as a major junction of several main A roads chief of which is the A45 which traverses the valley of the River Nene and links the modern M1 motorway northeastwards towards Wellingborough, Thrapston and the cross-country A14. Approaching from the south is the A43 which links Northampton with Oxford and smaller A roads linking the town with Market Harborough and Bedford. Northampton has a lengthy history, already a significant settlement in Domesday times it was given a castle by the conquering Normans, little remains of said castle above ground today. The town attracted a large religious community with houses for Cluniacs, Augustinians and Grey, Black & Whitefriars. The town was granted its first charter in 1189 and quickly grew into a small and important market town serving the region. Its position on the northern banks of the navigable River Nene gave it access to Peterborough and the North Sea so small wharves grew alongside. Throughout the Middle Ages the town grew slowly as a largely wood and thatch settlement which met a sad fate in 1675 when almost the entire core of the town was raised by fire. Rebuilt in brick and stone thereafter the town was described by Daniel Defoe as "the handsomest and best built town in all this part of England". Despite its excellent communications Northampton remained a small market town at the start of the 19th century with only 7,000 inhabitants. Its economy had started to diversify and it became known as a centre for the manufacture of boots and shoes in small home-based units rather than large factories. Growth began to speed up with the arrival of the Grand Junction Canal in 1815 which connected the town to the main spine of England's canal network, the Grand Union Canal, and also to the capital. Lucrative contracts for supplying the army grew the boot trade exponentially further enhanced by the arrival of railway lines to the capital and to Peterborough in 1845. Northampton's explosive growth came in more modern times when it was selected as a town for New Town development and vast modern developments engulfed the small villages around the medieval centre, which was also massively redeveloped. Today the boot & shoe trade is much diminished due to cheap foreign imports but the economy based largely on light industry and services has created an urban environment which stretches for over 6 miles from west to east, even south of the Nene it has grown to connect the town fully with the modern M1 motorway in swathes of modern residential estates and light industrial parks. Whilst Northampton at one time held 7 parishes by the time of this transcript this had consolidated down to just 4 of which St Peter was the smallest in both area and population. St Peter's parish covered the southwestern area of the town centre, an area of relatively few acres yet supporting a population of close to 1,000 parishioners. As already mentioned Northampton was of sufficient size to be counted amongst the largest 20% of settlements in the land as recorded in Domesday Book, as it was entirely held by King William it's many assets were not detailed as these would already have been familiar to the monarch.

The Church

St Peter's church stands almost on the edges of the town's dual-carriage way beset inner ring road, above a side valley where a tributary of the Nene arrives bringing water from Pitsford Reservoir. To its north runs the town's Marefair but the best approach is from the west along St Peter's Street. The church was deemed surplus to religious requirements and closed for worship, it is now managed by the Churches Conservation Trust, which has their headquarters within the grounds. Despite the closure it remains as Pevsner states "one of the most exceptional Norman churches in the country". The church's origins go back before the 12th century with evidence that the church had minster status in Saxon times and was an important shrine to the Saxon prince, Ragener, slain in battle in 870. Of course nothing of that pre-Norman period remains except as archaeological evidence from excavations. Today's church was built on the site of its predecessor commencing c1130 - 1140 and is a superb example of a 12th century Norman Romanesque basilica. Internally there is no divide between chancel and nave with continual arcades from west to east unbroken by a chancel arch. The western tower was largely rebuilt in the 17th century but retains the 12th century basal stages whilst its upper stages are clearly of the 17th century. That century also saw many of the windows replaced, a process ongoing from the late medieval period as demonstrated by a smattering of Perpendicular styled examples too. A major restoration of 1850 saw most of the eastern end rebuilt, thankfully the work was true to the original design and merely brought things up to date. Like most urban churches St Peter is best visited on foot after using one of the many car parks in the area. There are entrances from both Marefair and St Peter's Street, sadly for the photographer the church sits too close to the southern edges of the churchyard for those aspects to be used but all other angles are available.