Everything about Daventry totally explained
Daventry is a
market town in
Northamptonshire,
England, with a population of 22,367 (2001
census). The town is also the administrative centre of the much larger
Daventry district, population 71,838. The town is 124 km (77 miles) northnorthwest of
London, 22.4 km (13.9 miles) west of
Northampton and 16.4 km (10.2 miles) southeast of
Rugby. Daventry is near the
M1 motorway with access to two junctions to the northeast and southeast of the town. The town is also served by the
A45 and the
A361. The nearest
railway station is at
Long Buckby where access is gained to the
London Midland services to
Birmingham New Street and
Northampton, on the
Northampton loop of the
West Coast Main Line. Inter-city services (
Virgin Trains) can be accessed from
Rugby railway station. The nearest airport is at
Birmingham.
Description
The town comprises a historic
market centre surrounded by much modern housing and light industrial development. On the edge of the town centre is the popular
Daventry Country Park and
reservoir.
There is a street market every Tuesday and Friday which is held in the High Street, although its original site was on the aptly-named Market Square. On the first Saturday of each month a
Farmers' market is held in the High Street.
The town once had a railway station on the former
LNWR branch-line from
Weedon to
Leamington Spa but this was closed in September
1958. The local weekly newspaper, the
Daventry Express, is nicknamed 'The Gusher', after the steam engine that used to serve the town.
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Owing to its good transport links, Daventry is now a
warehousing and distribution centre. North of the town
Daventry International Railfreight Terminal (DIRFT) is a major terminal for freight interchange between road and rail.
Nearby places to Daventry include:
Rugby,
Southam,
Banbury,
Northampton and
Coventry. The town is
twinned with
Westerburg in
Germany.
An alternative pronunciation for Daventry used by locals is "
Daintree" but this has become less common
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History
Early history
On the 653-foot (199 m)-high
Borough Hill that overlooks the town, remains have been found of an
Iron Age hill fort - one of the largest found in Britain. Remains have also been found on the hill of a
Roman villa.
Daventy began as a small
Anglo-Saxon village in around 920, and by the 12th century had become home to a
priory. In 1255 Daventry was granted a charter to become a
market town. In 1576 Queen
Elizabeth I granted Daventry
borough status.
The town was mentioned by
William Shakespeare in
Henry VI, Part I, which refers to "the red nosed innkeeper of Daintree".
The "Daintree" Shakespeare wrote about is the old name for the town of Daventry, which refers to the town's history, in which the
Danish settlers planted an
oak tree on the summit of Borough Hill to mark the centre of England. This part of the town's history is reflected in the town's seal of a Viking/Saxon axeman and an oak tree.
During the
English Civil War, the army of King
Charles I stayed at Daventry in 1645 after storming the Parliamentary garrison at
Leicester and on its way to relieve the siege of
Oxford. The
Royalist army, made up of 5,000 foot and as many horse, camped on Borough Hill (then spelt Burrow Hill) while Charles went hunting in the nearby forests.
According to local legend, it was during his stay at the Wheatsheaf Inn in Daventry that Charles was twice visited by the ghost of his former adviser and friend,
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who advised him to keep heading north and warned him that he wouldn't win through force of arms.
However, Parliament's newly formed
New Model Army, led by
Sir Thomas Fairfax, was marching north from besieging Oxford after being instructed to engage the King's main army. Fairfax's leading detachments of horse clashed with Royalist outposts near Daventry on 12 June, alerting the King to the presence of the Parliamentary army. The Royalists made for their reinforcements at
Newark-on-Trent but after reaching
Market Harborough turned to fight, which resulted in the decisive
Battle of Naseby. The village of Naseby is approximately northeast of Daventry.
Stagnation and decline 1840-1960
The main roads from
London to
Holyhead passed through Daventry and the town for centuries flourished as a
coaching town. There were many coaching inns in the town of which only the
Dun Cow,
Saracens Head, and the
Coach and Horses remain as inns.
But when the
London and Birmingham Railway was opened in 1838 the coaching trade slumped and the town entered a long period of stagnation and decline which lasted for over a century. The
industrial revolution largely passed Daventry by owing to its poor transport links. The
canals passed around Daventry, although the
Grand Junction Canal (now Grand Union) passed a few miles north. A branch from the Grand Union Canal to Daventry was proposed but was never built.
The
railways didn't connect Daventry until quite late in the 19th century. Although the town was only a few miles from the main London to Birmingham line it took until 1888 before a branch line was built from
Weedon. In 1895 the line was extended to
Leamington Spa, although being only a branch line this failed to spur much growth. Daventry's economy remained largely rural, with
shoemaking as the main industry.
The Parish Church
Holy Cross is the parish church of Daventry and is the only 18th-century town church in
Northamptonshire. It was built between
1752 and
1758 by David Hiorne and is constructed of the local
ironstone. The western elevation is broad with large pilasters at the angles and the angles of the centre bay. The entrance porch was added in
1951. The tower rises from the centre bay and is square ending with an obelisk spire rising above. Inside, the church has three wooden galleries, to the north, south and west elevations. The
pulpit is decorated with
marquetry and
fretwork and has a staircase with a twisted balusters. Above the
altar at the eastern elevation is a three-bayed stained glass window.
The Moot Hall
The
Moot Hall stands on the north side of the market square next to the
Plume of Feathers inn. It was built in
1769 from
ironstone and has had various uses over the years, including town council building, a women’s
prison, the mayor's parlour, town museum and tourist information office and in recent years as an Indian restaurant. The building is currently unused. The building is of two and a half storeys, and has three bays of windows. The main entrance and its porch is on the western elevation where the building is connected to a house built in
1806. The original staircase from the moot hall is now installed at
Welton manor house.
Broadcasting station
In 1925 the newly created
BBC constructed a broadcasting station on
Borough Hill just outside the town. Daventry was chosen because it was the point of maximum contact with the land mass of England and
Wales. From 1932 the
BBC Empire Service (now the
BBC World Service) was broadcast from there. The radio announcement of "Daventry calling" made Daventry well-known across the world. It was the BBC's use of the literal pronunciation in this call-sign that resulted in the widespread displacement of the historical pronunciation "Daintree" (ˈdeɪntɹɪ), though the latter is still used in some circumstances locally, as in the name of Danetree Hospital.
On
26 February 1935 the radio station at Daventry was used for the first-ever practical demonstration of
radar, by its inventor
Robert Watson-Watt. Watson-Watt used a radio receiver installed in a trailer to receive signals bounced off a metal-clad bomber flying up and down the radio beam.
The station closed in 1992 and only one of the
radio masts now remains. Incidentally a busy directional radio beacon (VOR), identifier "DTY", for aircraft is situated approximately four miles (6.4 km) south of the town. The town also gives its name to the busy Daventry air traffic control sector.
See also
Borough Hill Roman villa
Modern times
The modern growth of Daventry occurred from the 1960s onwards as part of a planned expansion of the town.
Daventry remained a small rural town until the 1950s; in 1950 it had a population of around 4,000. Real growth started in 1955 when the
tapered roller bearing manufacturer
British Timken located a large factory in the town (which was closed in 2000).
In the early 1960s Daventry was designated an 'overspill' to house people and industry moved from
Birmingham; a planned expansion was carried out as part of an agreement with Birmingham City Council. The plan did not, however, live up to expectations. The target population was 36,000 by 1981 but actual growth was much slower than this; nevertheless, by 1981 the population had soared to 16,178. In 2001 it was 22,367. More recently a new wave of development has been proposed, which could take the town's population to somewhere near 40,000 by 2021.
In 1974 the old
borough of Daventry was abolished and merged into the new
Daventry district, also containing a large rural area and a population in 2001 of 71,838. In 2003 Daventry gained its own
town council when it became a
civil parish.
In 2006 the outdoor pool, built and funded by residents of Daventry in the 1950s after three children were drowned in the local reservoir, was closed owing to the district council's persistent underfunding and its plans for redevelopment. In 2007 Daventry began plans to modernise the town with a futuristic
personal rapid transit system that would link outer estates to the town centre, and a
canal arm and
marina next to the outdoor pool's former location.
Education
Daventry has two secondary schools:
Daventry William Parker and
Danetre. Primary education facilities include
St James Infant School,
Falconer's Hill Junior School and the
Abbey Junior School.
Daventry now has a lot of estates, which include: Drayton, Middlemore Farm, Lang Farm, Ashby Fields, Timken and New Timken. As the district has spread out, other notable secondary schools have become joined to Daventry, including
Guilsborough School and Technology College, and
Moulton School.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Daventry'.
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