WILLYBROOK HUNDRED 



FOTHERINGHAY 



Fodringeia (xi and xii cent.) ; Foderingeye (until 

 xvi cent). 



The parish of Fotheringhay is situated in the 

 widest and richest part of the valley of the Nene. It 

 is one of the largest in this district, covering about 

 2,130 acres, of which 23 are water, 824 arable, 

 1,165^ pasture, and iij wood. The population 

 in 1 90 1 was 195. The parish lies very low, 

 never rising more than 100 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum, but it is very different in character from the 

 somewhat bare, flat district round Peterborough. 

 There is little real woodland, but many trees along the 

 roads, and about the village ; and the soil, varying 

 from a rich loam to clay, partly upon alluvium, and 

 partly great oolite, is very fertile. The ' mervelus 

 faire corne grouned and pasture ' noticed by Leland 

 in the i6th century is still a distinctive feature of 

 Fotheringhay. 



The main road passing through the parish is that 

 from Oundle to Stamford, which crosses the Nene by 

 Fotheringhay Bridge. Just north of the river where 

 the village is built this road is joined by one running 

 south-east from Woodnewton. The Northampton 

 and Peterborough branch of the London and North 

 Western Railway passes through the east side of the 

 parish ; Elton Station on that line being just within 

 the boundar}'. 



The village of Fotheringhay lies on the north side 

 of the River Nene, which, with a tributary passing to 

 the north of the village, almost surrounds it. It is 

 approached from the south by a stone bridge of four 

 arches, which is on the site of a bridge built by order 

 of Queen Elizabeth. The first reference to a bridge 

 at this village is in 1330, when the inhabitants of 

 Fotheringhay and Nassington were distrained for 

 neglecting to repair * the bridge at Walcotforth which 

 is crossed by footmen, horses, and carriages, from the 

 vill of Undale to Stanford,' and is ' broken so that 

 hardly any winter passes without danger of death in 

 crossing there.' ' Queen Elizabeth ordered a new 

 bridge to be built with stone piers covered with wood, 

 and an inscription commemorating the donor from 

 which the line ' God Save the Queen ' was cut by 

 Parliamentary soldiers.' The present bridge was 

 built with stone from the quarries at Kings Cliffe in 

 1722, by order of Daniel, earl of Nottingham, then 

 trustee for the owners of the manor.' 



Many descriptions of Fotheringhay have been 

 written within the last three centuries, all note cer- 

 tain distinguishing features, but they illustrate also 

 the great change which has come over the place 

 within this period. Leland, in the middle of the 

 1 6th century, says : ' The Toune self of Foderingeye is 

 but one streat al of stone building. The glorie of it 

 standith by the Paroche chirch of a fair building and 

 coUegiatid . . . There be exceeding goodly [meadowes 

 by] Foderingey . . . The bridg to Fotheringey over 

 Avon [is of timber]. The castclle of Foderingey is fair 

 and meately strong with doble diches, and hath a 

 kcpe very auncient and strong.' * The first part of 

 this is applicable to-day, the latter part shows the 



difference three centuries have wrought. The de- 

 struction of the castle must have entirely altered not 

 only the appearance, but the whole character of the 

 village ; from being a state stronghold and a favourite 

 home of princes, Fotheringhay has now become an 

 insignificant and declining country village, which 

 lives on the associations connected with its earlier and 

 more glorious days. The efforts of its lords to raise 

 the town to importance by grants of market and fair 

 and various liberties were never successful. Fother- 

 inghay, apparently, during the existence of the castle 

 lived on the trade and business it brought, as it now 

 lives on its memory. 



By the time of the visit of Stukeley in the early 

 1 8th century the appearance of Fotheringhay must 

 have been much the same as it is to-day. He refers 

 to ' the pleasant and woody country,' and wide, 

 ' extended meadows,' but the castle was by then ' mostly 

 demolished,' and very little of the college remained.* 

 All that is now left of the castle is a high mound at 

 the extreme east of the village close beside the river, 

 with remains of a moat encircling it, and one shape- 

 less mass of masonry. Of the two ancient inns which 

 stood near the west entrance of the castle little is left. 

 The Old Inn, indeed, has quite disappeared, and its 

 site is now occupied by cottages. The New Inn, 

 according to a survey taken in 1624 — quoted by the 

 Rev. H. K. Bonney in his Historic Notes in reference 

 to Fotheringhay (1821), was 'built with stone with 

 two fair courts and a Ijack part with barns and stables, 

 and contained ' a hall, a parlour, a kitchen, divers 

 other chambers, fair stables, barns, and out-houses,' ^ 

 but of all this only a small part now remains facing 

 the road. The interior has been entirely modernized, 

 a few moulded ceiling-beams being the only remnants 

 still visible, and the exterior has been much renovated. 

 But the gateway is left in a good state of preser\'ation, 

 and is a charming specimen of 15th-century domestic 

 architecture. It consists of a flat-pointed moulded 

 arch springing from broad splayed jambs ; a square- 

 headed label surmounts the arch, leaving a spandrel on 

 each haunch which is filled with cusping, and above 

 the label is a row of cusped and quatrefoiled panels. 

 Above this again is a two-light window with cusped 

 heads surmounted by a square label. The composi- 

 tion is flanked on either side by a buttress. The 

 label terminations, now somewhat defaced, bear shields 

 of arms which serve to date the building. They all 

 have reference to Edward IV and his ancestors, and 

 represent four generations, terminating with himself. 

 On the label of the gateway are Castile and Leon, for 

 Isabel of Castile, wife of Edmund of Langley, fifth 

 son ofEdwardIII,andgreat-grand£uher of Edward IV; 

 and Mortimer, for Ann Mortimer, wife of Richard, 

 earl of Cambridge, second son of Edmund of Langley. 

 On that of the window are France and England, 

 quarterly, impaling Nevill, for Richard, duke of York 

 (only son of Richard, earl of Cambridge), and his wife, 

 Cecily Nevill ; and lastly, France and England, 

 quarterly, for Edward IV himself, who was son of 

 Richard, duke of York. 



1 Assize R. No. 632, m. 50 d. 

 ' Stukeley, Itin. Curios. (2nd ed.). 

 " Bib. To fog. Brii. iv, 21. 



* Itin. (ed. Hcame 1744), i, 5. 

 ' Itin. Curios, p. 35. 



* Taken from a manuscript referred to 



569 



by Bridges, NorthantSy ii, 449^ and Bonney, 

 Fcthcrmghayy p. 3, 



