BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



stories with battlemcnted parapet, the hall being on 

 the first floor, and the ground story originally open. 

 Several pointed two-light windows on the first floor 

 long survived, though latterly in a more or less muti- 

 lated state, but the upper windows were square- 

 headed. The door and the outside staircase were 

 burnt in 1675, but the rest remained until 1864, 

 when, on the building of the new Town Hall in St. 

 Giles Street, the old hall and its site were sold by 

 auction for j^l,20O, and the old hall destroyed.*' 

 Some oak wainscot from the council chamber and 

 an Elizabethan table with bulbous legs 

 are in the Abinglon Museum. 



The east wing of the present Town 

 Hall, designed by E. \V. Godwin, was 

 built in 1861-4; the west wing, added 

 in 1889-92, was designed by A. W. Jeflrey 

 and M. H. Holding, the restorers of 

 Castle Ashby. The public library was 

 housed here with the museum, until 1883; 

 the borough records are now preserved 

 here. 



Of the few surviving houses which 

 escaped the fire of 1675 the most notable 

 is No. 33 Marcfair, known as the Hazlc- 

 rigg Mansion, since 1914 a ladies' club.'" 

 It is a stone-fronted building of two 

 main stories, and attics with three 

 rounded dormer gables corbelled out 

 from the wall, and appears to date from 

 the end of the l6th or early years of 

 the 17th century. It was purchased by 

 Robert Hesilrige in 1678,''* and continued fl 

 in the family till about 1835,''* when 

 it was bought by George Baker,^ ilic 

 historian of the county, who with his 

 sister resided in it and died there. The 

 building formerly extended farther to 

 the east, with fi\e gables to the street, 

 and a frontage of about 97 ft., now 

 reduced to 51 ft. 3 in. It has a square- 

 headed moulded doorway, and mullioned 

 windows of two or three lights, all with- 

 out transoms or hood moulds. There 

 seems originally to have been a porch.'* 

 The interior has been much altered and 

 the plan modified. None of the old 

 fireplaces remains, but there is a good contemporary 

 staircase with twisted balusters and moulded hand- 

 rail. In one of the bedrooms arc three large and 

 two smaller pieces of tapestry.** The garden extended 

 from St. Peter's Church to the present Freeschool 

 Lane, and contained a summer house. The building 

 was recently restored. 



The so-called ' Welsh House ' or ' Dr. Danvers' 

 House ' from Dr. Daniel Danvers v, I\o lived in it at 

 the end of the 17th century (No. 2 NewJand) at the 

 north-east corner of the Market Place,** was until 



recently a building of some architectural interest, but 

 the ground floor was first converted into shops and 

 in 1924 the three lofty dormers of the attic story, 

 with three-light windows and curved gables, were 

 taken down. Little old work therefore remains except 

 the calling and mullioned windows of the first floor, 

 between which on the upper part of the waU are three 

 shields with the arms of Wake of Courteenhall and 

 Parker, and another shield which has been attributed 

 to Danvers.** There is also a shaped device with 

 tall finial, formerly surmounting one of the lower 



Mi 



'li \mfm 



Northampton : The Town Hall 



windows, on which are the initials and d.Ue 'W.E.P., 

 1595,' and the motto ' heb . dyw . heb . dym . dyw . 

 A DicoN ' (Without God, without everytliing, with 

 God enough). Below the motto is a large shield 

 with the arms of Parker with crescent for difference, 

 flanked by two smaller unidentified shields.** The 

 history of the building is not known, but judging from 

 the initials and two of the shields, it may have been 

 the residence of John Parker, Serjeant at law, of 

 Northampton, and built by one of the family.** It 

 has a frontage facing west of 60 ft. and a depth of 



•• Boro. Rec. ii, 17;. 



" It ii alto the head>]uartcri oi the 

 Northampton and Oakham Arch, and 

 Archzol. Soc. It i> on the touth tide of 

 the street, and it alio known at Cromwell 

 Houie from a local tradition that Crom- 

 well ilept there the night before the battle 

 of N>teb)r. 



♦• Serjeinttoo, Hill, of Cb. tj Su Ptur, 

 Koribtmfl. tji. 



" Xoribaiiipt. iV. anil O. i, 57. 



'• Ibid. Before purchase by Mr. B.iker 

 the house had remained so long empty 

 and shut up that the title \nt rumoured 

 lost. It wat stripped of much of itt wains- 

 cot and ornament at this time. 



•' A tquare projection it ihown on a 

 plan of 1713 ; ibid. 58. 



" Noriiampi. N. and Q., i, 59, where 

 they are detcribed. 



37 



" It was the only house on the 

 Market PI.->-c spared by the fire of 

 1675. 



^* Arch. '^ urn. xxxv, 436. The third 

 sliiclJ ' thr^c bars ermine' is not that 

 usually attributed to Danvers. 



*• A chevron between three roset, and a 

 chevron between three birds. 



'* Sir Henry Drydcn iii Njrihdmpl. 

 ,V. and Q. i, 1S5. 



