A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Millcote (or Cotton) was situated, and an inclosure 

 near by called Chapel Close is referred to by Bridges 

 as the site of the chapel.' Ringstead Mill, now disused, 

 is also near the station. 



The road from Thrapston to Bedford crosses the 

 parish from north to south. The village, which is large 

 and irregular, is 2 J miles south of Thrapston, and lies 

 in the northern half of the parish along a road branching 

 west from this road, from which Gladstone Street and 

 Spender Street branch east. When Bridges wrote, it 

 housed about fourscore families. The population of the 

 whole parish has increased from 454 in 1801 to 916 in 

 1931. 



RiNcsTEAD Church 



The village has largely been rebuilt in brick but 

 several 17th- and 18th-century stone houses remain. 

 West of the church is a two-story block consisting of 

 two dwellings, with good wind-break chimneys, and 

 close by on the other side of the road a barn on which 

 is a panel inscribed t. e. 1630 m. e. A thatched gabled 

 house north of the church is dated 1641, and near the 

 entrance to the village from Denford is a good end-gabled 

 house with pantiled roof, alternate bands of freestone 

 and ironstone in the end walls, and panel inscribed i ■' d 

 171 1. Another house in the middle of the village, 

 though much restored, is dated 171 2 with initials i " l, 

 and west of the church is a large 18th-century two- 

 story house faced with ashlar, with drafted quoins, 

 stone-slated roof, and good lead-head, dated 1765. 



A pubKc elementary school (mixed) for Ringstead 

 and Denford was built in 1867 and enlarged in 1874, 

 and again in 1 894. West of the church is the Methodist 

 chapel, built in 1848, and the cemetery, consecrated 

 in 1893. There is a Temperance Hall built in 1861, 

 and a Village Institute built in 1908. 



At the northern boundary of the parish is Ringstead 

 Lodge. There are old stone quarries in the north-west. 



and stone is quarried in many parts for buildings and 

 roads. About 1,000 tons of ironstone were at one time 

 turned out weekly at the works opened in 1871 by 

 Messrs. Butlin, Bevan, & Co.^ Bridges writes of ' good 

 pits of red and white building stone, of which the red 

 will best endure the weather'. Shoemaking is carried 

 on by a large portion of the population. .'\t one time the 

 women made lace. 



An Inclosure Act was passed in 1839. The soil is 

 good agricultural land; the subsoil clay, ironstone, and 

 gravel. The chief crops are wheat, beans, barley, oats, 

 turnips, and roots. 



No record of RINGSTEAD occurs in the Domes- 

 day Survey, and it was evidently 

 included in the 

 MANORS manor of Raunds 

 (q.v.), of which 

 manor a manor of Ringstead 

 appears later as a member, and 

 in Denford. 



In the Northamptonshire Sur- 

 vey 33^ hides and \ virgate 

 were entered in this hundred 

 and a half as in the demesne of 

 William Peverel. His lands 

 were forfeited for rebellion and 

 granted by Henry II to William 

 de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, the 

 husband of his daughter and 

 heir Margaret.^ 



On 14 September 1227 Wil- 

 liam de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, 

 made a grant to the great 

 Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, 

 and his fourth wife Margaret 

 (the sister of Alexander II, King 

 of Scotland), inter alia, of 12 

 virgates of land in Ringstead, 

 with other lands in Stanwick, 

 Caldecott, and Chelveston."* In 

 1 232, on the disgrace of Hubert, these lands were seized, 

 but were restored to him later in that year.^ On 7 Feb- 

 ruary 1233 directions were issued for their dehvery to 

 Robert Passelewe* that he might out of the issues thereof 

 make satisfaction to certain Roman and Italian clerics 

 and others for injuries sustained by them at the hands of 

 Hubert. A year later it was commanded that the manor 

 of Ringstead should be delivered by Robert Passelewe 

 to Margaret wife of Hubert de Burgh for her sus- 

 tenance during the king's pleasure,' but this order was 

 cancelled, and they remained in the king's hands until 

 June, when William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, re- 

 covered possession.* A grant of free warren in his manor 

 of Ringstead was made in 1248 to William de Ferrers.' 

 He died in 1254, when izh virgates of land and 2 

 cottages in Ringstead were delivered in dower to his 

 widow Margaret,'" who survived until 1281," after 

 which they passed with the other Ferrers estates to 

 Edmund the king's brother. Earl of Lancaster,'- and the 

 overlordship descended with Higham Ferrers (q.v.). 

 The Hundred Rolls of 1274-5 show that the bailiffs 

 of the Earls of Gloucester had in 1274-5 f°'' sixteen 

 years past been appropriating payments and services due 



' The chapel of the Holy Trinity in the 

 vill of Middelcotes is mentioned in 1252 : 

 Assize R. 915, m. 13 d. 



2 Whellan, Hist, of Northants. 925. 



3 G.E.C. Peerage, iv, 194. 



■• Cal. Chart. R. i, p. 60. 



5 Cal. Close, 1231-4, p. 166. 



<> Ibid. 188. 



' Ibid. 1231-4, p. 378. * Ibid. 446. 



» Cal. Chart. R. p. i, 332. 



'0 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Hen. Ill, no. 31, 

 " G.E.C. Peerage, iv, 201. 

 '- Cal. Close, 1279-88, p. 85; Plac. 

 de Quo If'arr. 3 Edw. Ill, 580. 



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