HUXLOE HUNDRED 



KETTERING 



About 1700, Kettering is described in the Maptia 

 Britannica as ' a well traded popidous market town ' 

 which owed its prosperity wholly to the woollen manu- 

 facture, introduced by Mr. Jordan and then still 

 carried on by his posterity. About 20 years later 

 Bridges described Kettering as ' a large and populous 

 town ' containing 566 houses and 2,645 inhabitants. 

 The market place lay to the north-west of the church, 

 in the middle of which, dividing the Sheep Market 

 from the Butcher Row, was a row of houses later 

 known as Rotten Row. At the end of Butcher Row 

 was the Sessions House, ' a good stone building sup- 

 ported by pillars ' ; eastward was Newland pond and 

 in one of the pond walls was fixed a piece of the stump 

 of a cross. ' Coming out of the north end of Newland 

 and crossing the stone pit Leys,' where stone was then 

 dug ' you descend by going westward into Staunch 

 Lane, so named from pellucid or vitrified stones, 

 which from the shape of some of them are called 

 Kitcats and are seemed good for staunching blood.' 

 They are also found in several other shapes in the clay 

 used for making brick and sometimes near the surface 

 of the ground.'* 



The growth of the town through the latter part of 

 the 19th century was rapid. Besides the woollen 

 trade already alluded to, silk, plush and ribbon 

 weaving, linen making, lace making and wool combing 

 were carried on, and bells were cast at a foundry at 

 W'adecroft Lane from c. 1710 to 1762 by the Eayre 

 family. All these trades save the bell foundry were 

 prosperous at the beginning of the 19th century, 

 but they gradually gave place to the manufacture of 

 boots and shoes, a trade said to have been introduced 

 by Thomas Gotch about 1790. It was not, however, 

 till about 1857 that this industry developed, and it 

 greatly increased in 1870 during the Franco-German 

 war. Railway communication, which reached the 

 town in 1857 when the Leicester and Hitchin Railway 

 was opened, also helped towards its prosperity. Since 

 this date Kettering has become an important railway 

 centre. Previously the means of communication had 

 been by one coach which passed through the town 

 from Uppingham to Wellingborough, and an omnibus 

 to the latter place. 



In connexion with the woolcombing industry there 

 were processions on the festival of St. Blaise (3 Feb- 

 ruary)'* the patron saint of the trade, the last of which 

 took place in 1829. 



The old town of Kettering lay on the west side of 

 the main road from Wellingborough to Uppingham. 

 Eayre's map of the town made about 1720 (here repro- 

 duced) gives a good idea of its extent at that date. 

 The fires which devastated it in 1744 and 1766 have 

 left little in the nature of old buildings. The Sessions 

 House built by the Earl of Westmorland in 1629,'''' 

 which stood in the Market Place as already mentioned, 

 was pulled down in 1805. The Market Place was 

 rciYiodclled at the end of the l8th century; the line 

 of thatched shops called Rotten Row in the middle of 

 the Market Place, was pulled down between 1785 and 

 1789. The cross, with a dungeon or lock-up under it, 

 which stood close to the old .Market House near the 



entrance to the churchyard, w.is removed about 1 790. 

 The smaller cross which was erected on the site of 

 the old cross was destroyed about 1808. Near it 

 stood the stocks, later moved to Hog Leys, the whip- 

 ping post and pillory.'" 



'Fhe Sawyer almshouses in Sheep Street were 

 formerly of one story with high-pitched roof and 

 dormer windows, but the walls have been heightened 

 and have windows lighting the upper rooms. The 

 block consists of six dwellings with as many dor.rvvays 

 and mullioned windows on the ground floor and is 

 built of ironstone rubble ; the roof is covered with 

 stone slates. Over the middle windows is a panel 

 inscribed ' This Hospitall was Built by Edmund 

 Sawyer Esqr Afio Dmni, 1688,' and the founder's 

 arms above with helm, crest and mantling. 



The government of the town was administered at 

 the Abbot of Peterborough's manorial court and we 

 have references to the bailiff of the manor as the 

 principal oflicial of the manor and town and the 

 constable acting under him, to carry out the orders of 

 the steward." The vestry began to assume powers 

 possibly in the 17th century, but certainly early in the 

 l8th century, and the organization of a workhouse by 

 the vestry in 1717 is an early instance of such an 

 institution.'* In 1862 the officials of the vestry 

 were the four overseers, two surveyors of highways, 

 a Nuisance Removal Committee, twelve in number, 

 and a Sanitary Committee." A Local Board was 

 formed in 1873 which in 1894 became the Urban 

 District Council, now consisting of twenty-five 

 members. The district is divided into five wards. 

 Proposals were made in 1893 and again in 1901 to 

 apply for a charter of incorporation, but they were 

 negatived. There was an Inclosure Av\'ard in 1804. 

 The Public Library and Museum were given by Mr. 

 Andrew Carnegie in 1904 and the Alfred East Art 

 Gallery adjoining it was built in 1913 as a memorial 

 to Sir Alfred East, R.A., a native of the town. The 

 Gallery contains a representative collection of Sir 

 .Alfred's paintings. 



By a charter of 956 King Edwy 

 MANORS granted 10 cassati of land at KETTER- 

 ING to his thegn Aelfsige the gold- 

 smith.^" The boundaries of the land are set out and 

 seem to have included the site of the present town. 

 They run from Cransley Bridge along the brook to 

 Humbridge, thence to the gallows tree on Debden, 

 from there to Kinston Head to Flie Long Dike, then 

 to Weekley Ford along the Ise until it came to Pytchley 

 Ford, and from the ford along the brook until it came 

 back to Cransley Bridge. Possibly Aelfsige gave 

 Kettering to the monastery of Medeshamstede or 

 Peterborough as, by a charter dated 972, King Edgar 

 confirmed it to that monastery.-' Although this 

 charter is spurious, it is probably correct as to its 

 facts, for in 975 it is said thatLeofsi son of Bixi, ' an 

 enemy of God,' dispossessed Peterborough Abbey of 

 Kettering for two years, but by the influence of 

 Actlielvvold, Bishop of Winchester, possession was 

 regained. The manor is assigned to the abbey in 

 the Domesday Survey (1086) and by several confirma- 



" DiiJgci, Uiit. NortbaHts. ii, 241. refer to the Sessions House, which cvisted " Ibid. 55-8 ; Webb, F.ngl. Local Govit. 



'• Hull op. cit. 4^. twenty ycart earlier. I3in, ijm. " Bull.op. cit. 70. 



''» A stone bearing the dale 1640, " Bull, op. cit. 160, 161 j //hoc /Jrri. " Birch, Caria/. S<jAr. iii, no. 943; Lansd. 



built into the old Loal Board room in Hoc. Reps, xxiii, iHo; xxviii, no. MS. lozg, fol. 79 ; Bull, op. cit. 3. 



the comer of the Market Place, cannot " Bull, op. cit. 141 el seq. " Birch, op. cit. iii, no. 1281. 



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