A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



them under the management of T. Wyatt, as described 

 in the previous volume/^ and for a while Marvell's 

 Mills were known as the Cotton Mills. The venture 

 failed, for lack of capital as much as of good manage- 

 ment. The Nuns' mills to the south-east of the town 

 were held by Delapre Abbey .1* After the shoemaking 

 and leather curr^nng industry, the town is to-day noted 

 for its flour mills, as well as its makings and breweries. 

 There are also iron-foundries of some importance. 



The Northampton Chamber of Commerce was 

 founded in 1917, and its organ, The Northants Journal 

 of Commerce, began to appear in January 1919, 

 announcing as its aim ' to extend the fame of our 

 members' productions in every market throughout the 

 world.' ^ 



The parts of the town that have 

 DESCRIPTION been longest inhabited are round 

 the castle site and the churches 

 of St. Peter and the Holy Sepulchre. The convergence 

 of streets on the Mayorhold,^' together with the name 

 Newland and the reference to the waste open space 

 by All Saints' Church in 1235 suggest that the oldest 

 town lay entirely to the west of the road from London 

 to Leicester. Dr. Cox beUeved that the wall built 

 by Simon de Senhs I (1090-1111) ran south of St. 

 Andrew's Priory and west of St. Giles' Church, and 

 that the tower which was still standing not far from 

 the Derngate in Lee's time was a survival from the 

 Norman wall, whilst the line of wall shown on Speed's 

 map in 1610 is assigned by him to about 1301.^' 

 Grants of murage were made to the town in 1224,'* 

 1251,1* and 1301,2*' the last on so large a scale as to 

 suggest rebuilding rather than repairing. On the 

 other hand, the action of the prior of St. Andrew's in 

 1264^1 seems to prove that the priory was then inside 

 the town wall. Further repairs of the wall were 

 authorised in 1378,^ 1400,2^ and 1549.^ The wall 

 ran north and east of the town ; to the west and south 

 the river and the castle fortifications formed adequate 

 defences. The hne of the later wall and ditch is still 

 clearly traceable from its north-west corner on the 

 river, along the south side of St. George's Street 

 (North Gate), Campbell Street, the Upper and Lower 

 Mounts (East Gale), York Road, Cheyne Walk (Dcrn 

 Gate), Cattle Market Road (South Gate), Weston 

 Street, across the gas works (Marvell's mill postcrn)^^ 

 and so up to the West Gate near the castle, on Black 

 Lion Hill. There was also a postern between the East 

 Gate and the Dern Gate, near St. Giles' Churchyard,^* 

 and another called the Cow Gate,*' leading from Cow 

 Lane (now Swan Street) into Cow Meadow. The 

 four main gates stood where the Market Harborough, 

 Kettering, London and Daventry roads entered the 

 town. 



The gates,^ and the East Gate in particular,^' are 

 mentioned in John's reign. Those mentioned by Lee 

 in the 17th century appear from his description to 

 have been built in the 14th century, the East Gate 

 being very handsome and adorned with coats of arms ; 

 the other three main gates being then used as tene- 

 ments for the poor.^ Sir Thomas Tresham describes 

 the guard kept at the South Gate, with partisans and 

 halberds, on the morning of Lady Day 1603, when he 

 came to the town with the news of Queen Ehzabeth's 

 death.^i The wall, or a part of it, between the East 

 and North Gates, is described in an inquisition ad 

 quod damnum of 1278. It was then crenellated and 

 much used for walking purposes, by sick burgesses 

 when they vrished to take the air, by all who wanted 

 to take short cuts to avoid the muddy lane below in 

 winter, and by the night watchmen who spied through 

 the battlements upon malefactors as they came in 

 and out of the town.^^ The sheriff notes that the 

 opposition to blocking up the battlements and the 

 wall-walk was so strong in the town that he chose the 

 jury from outside the borough, from Billing, Bough- 

 ton, Mouhon, Weston and Overstone, but their verdict 

 was as emphatic as the townsmen could wish, and 

 nothing was done. The walls, which had been al- 

 lowed to fall into a bad condition in the i6th century, 

 were repaired by the strenuous labours of the towns- 

 men in 1642-3 ;'* and they were destroyed by royal 

 order in 1662.** A drawing in the British Museum 

 by a foreign artist shows them as they were in 1650, 

 when there was, apparently, no wall between the East 

 Gate and Marvell's Mill postern.^ The town ditch, 

 mentioned in the inquests of 1274-5^* and the town 

 terrier of 1586,*' survived the walls for a good while ; 

 part of it, near St. Andrew's Mills, was still visible in 

 1849,^ whilst the section north of the Cow Meadow 

 had only recently been filled in.^ 



If the earliest centre of the town was indeed, as 

 the evidence indicates, the Mayorhold, it was probably 

 the building of the castle** which caused the centre 

 of gravity to shift eastwards. From the 13th century 

 the modern market square is the commercial and 

 civic heart of the town ; and a scries of deeds dealing 

 with the transfer of house properly, shops and stalls 

 suggest the growth of a thriving eastern quarter. 

 Early in the 14th century, however, complaints are 

 heard of the ' decay ' of the town. The petition of 

 1334 speaks of houses fallen to the ground, and rents 

 thus lost ;** an ordinance of about 1 390-1400 pro- 

 vides for the letting out by the mayor and chamber- 

 lains of certain waste places from which no returns 

 or profits have accrued for some lime past.** In 1484 

 Richard III, in remitting fifty marks of the fee farm, 

 accepts the mayor's account of the town as in great 



'• y.C./f. Northanli. ii, 334-5. 



" Another mill wai later known ai the 

 Clack Mill, and later (till at Mulliner'i 

 Mill. Norihanii. Nat Iliit Sor. xv, 247-9. 



*• Nortbantt. Journal of Commerce^ no.!. 



" Kingiwell Street led directly from the 

 South hridge to the Mayorhold. 



" Boro, lite, ii, 515, and lee map at end, 

 which, however, repreirnti the wall at 

 continued along the river between St. 

 Andrew'i and the cattle. 



" Pal. R. 'I Hen. HI, pi. 2, m. 8. 



'• Ibid. 36 lien. Ill, m. 11. 



•• Ibid. 29 F.dw. I, m. 6. 



■* Sec above, p. 3. 



•• Pal. a. I Ric. II, pt. i. m. 31. 



" Ibid. 2 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 40. 



** Acts of Prhy Council, 1547-50, p. 

 391. For later repairs ordered by the town 

 aitembly, tee Poro. Rrc. ii, 428 ff. 



" Pol. {fund, ii, 3. 



" I'otjibly the ' foUcrna de Lurlcborn' 

 of Rol. Ilund. ii, 3. 



" Rol. Ilund. ii, 3. 



" Mem. Wall, de Cotentria (RoUl Ser.), 

 ii, 219. 



" Chart. R. 2 John, m. 4. 



" I.ee, Coll. p. 91. 



" //«/. MSS. Com. Rep. vol. 103, pp. 

 117-123. 



'* Inq. a.q.d. 6 Edw. I, file iv, no. 21. 



" See above, p. 12. 



30 



" Lee, Coll. p. 112. 



" Add. MS. 11564 fo. 49. It is possible 

 th.Tt this part of the town defences never 

 had more than a ditch ; but the existence 

 of the west gate and the south-west postern 

 seems to imply a wall here. 



'* Rol. Ilund. ii, 3. 



"' Northampt. Corp. Deeds, Press C. 

 107 ; Poro. Rec. ii, 155. 



" ("1. N. Wetton, Guidebook 10 Norlb- 

 ampl. and tis Vutnily (1849), p. 29. 



•» Ibid. p. 62. 



'" R. M. Scrjeantion, Hist, of the Cb. 

 of Si. (hies, Norlhampt. p. 15. 



•• Pari. R. ii, 85. 



*■ Boro. Rec. i, 251. 



