A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



BRIXWORTH 



Briclesworde (xi cent.) ; Bricklesuurtha, Brihteswrde, 



Briglesword (xii cent.); Brythtesworth, Brikelesworth 

 (xiii cent.); Bryxworth al. Bryckelsworth (xvi cent.). 



The parish of Brixvvorth covers an area of 3,148 

 acres, and rises to a little over 400 ft. above the ord- 

 nance datum. The soil is mainly Northamptonshire 

 sandstone, with ironstone and a little clay; the subsoil 

 is ironstone. Iron ore is quarried extensively in the 

 parish and there is a brick and tile works situated on 

 the southern border. The chief crops produced are 

 wheat and barley, and much of the land is given to 

 pasture. There are several natural springs in the 

 parish. The village is situated on the main road from 

 Northampton to Market Harborough, and about a 

 mile to the west is a station for the Northampton and 

 Market Harborough branch of the L.M.S. railway 

 which passes through the parish. Brixworth is the 

 head of a rural district and in 193 1 had a population of 



1,173- 



Brixworth Hall' stands almost in the centre of the 

 village in extensive grounds, and is a fair-sized build- 

 ing of three stories above a lofty ground floor, probably 

 erected towards the end of the i8th century, but 

 incorporating parts of an older house. The main, or 

 south, front has a centrally placed doorway with semi- 

 circular head beneath an entablature, three square- 

 headed windows on each side, and seven windows in 

 the upper stories; there is a projection at each end, set 

 well back. The building is constructed of yellow sand- 

 stone with dressings of white Weldon stone,^ and 

 finishes with a cornice and plain parapet, hiding the 

 leaded roof. The portions of the building at the back 

 have high-pitched roofs, and on the west side there 

 remains a two-light muUioned window, now blocked.^ 

 On the north-west are hunting-stables and outbuild- 

 ings, and to the north-east, overlooking the lawn, an 

 orangery.* The Hall, at present unoccupied, was for 

 some time the headquarters of the Pytchley Hunt Club, 

 and the kennels of the Hunt are stiU in the village. It 

 is the property of W. T. Vere Wood, esq., who hves at 

 The Manor House, which stands on the east side of 

 the village^ and is a modernized 17th-century two-story 

 gabled building with low mullioned windows. 



The plan of the village is unusual, the older houses 

 being grouped round, and largely to the south of, the 

 roughly circular enclosure formed by the Hall and its 

 grounds, and the church lying on the extreme northern 

 edge of the village.* 



The cross stands in the middle of the north part of 

 the village, south of the church, on a calvary of four 

 octagonal steps. The stump only of the original shaft 

 remains, about 2 ft. high, set in a rectangular socket, 

 on each face of which are angular incised lines, and on 



' There is a drawing from the south- 

 west in Neale's Vieivs of Seats (1820), 

 vol. iii. 



^ AU the windows except those in the 

 basement have architraves, and sills sup- 

 ported by brackets. The sash windows 

 retain their divisional bars. 



3 On the north side of the eastern pro- 

 jection is a piece of moulded string-course 

 belonging to the older house. A low wing 

 on the west appears to have been erected 

 by Sir Edward NichoUs in 1707; it bears 

 a stone with that date and his partly 



the north side the date 1727, in commemoration of the 

 accession of George II.' 



In the village are a fair number of 17th- and early- 

 iSth-century stone-built houses, mostly undated, but 

 one bears the date 1696, and two others 1727 and 

 1740 respectively. 



The Methodist chapel, a brick building erected in 

 1 8 1 1, was enlarged in 1 860. 



At the time of the Domesday Survey the 

 MANOR king possessed 9J hides in BRIXWORTH, 

 which had in Edward the Confessor's time 

 been ancient demesne, and worth £'^0. There were 

 two mills rendering 33/. 41/.; a wood pertaining to the 

 manor which used to render \oos. yearly was then 

 in the king's forest.^ The land did not remain crown 

 demesne for long, for at the time of the Northampton- 

 shire survey (12th cent.) Simon son of Simon held 

 8J hides in Brixworth of the fee of Curcy and Alfred 

 held one hide and one virgate of the fee of Salisbury.' 

 In the carta of William de Curcy made in 1 166 Simon 

 son of Peter (of Brixworth)'" is noted as holding 8| fees, 

 and his son, the above-named Simon, 4 fees in the 

 right of his wife who is described as the daughter of 

 Roger de Fresnoy.' ' William de Curcy's heir William' ^ 

 came of age in 11 86, but died without heirs and the 

 overlordship of Brixworth passed to Margaret, daughter 

 and coheir of Warin fitz Ceroid by Alice, sister and 

 coheir of William de Curcy. She married Baldwin de 

 Rivers, heir of William Earl of Devon, and on his death 

 in 1 2 16 was compelled to marry Faukes de Breaute 

 who held 10^ carucates in Brixworth in 1220." In 

 1235-6 and 1242-3 Lady Margaret de Rivers held 

 2| fees in Brixworth.'"* She died in 1252 and the land 

 passed to her grandson Baldwin de Rivers, Earl of 

 Devon, Lord of the Isle of Wight. On his death in 

 1262 the 3 fees he held in Brixworth were assigned 

 to his widow Margaret in dower. Her title was dis- 

 puted by Isabel, Countess of Aumale and Devon, 

 sister and heir of Baldwin, but a decision was given in 

 Margaret's favour in 1266." She died in 1292, her 

 lands passing to Isabel, who died the next year. Robert 

 de risle, one of the heirs of Isabel, held the overlord- 

 ship of the manor as part of the honor of Aumale, 

 in 13 1 5.'* The honor was transferred to the Crown 

 by Robert de I'lsle in 1368, and subsequently granted 

 to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1373, Brix- 

 worth thus becoming a part of the Duchy of Lancaster. 



Simon son of Simon, who held 4 fees of the honor 

 of Curcy in 1166, was succeeded by his son Simon, 

 who joined the barons against King John in 121 5. In 

 November of that year his lands in Brixworth were 

 committed to Roland Bloet," but were later given to 

 his wife, Beatrice of Brixworth." She also had a grant 



obliterated initials. 



* The lawn appears to have been the 

 original bowling-green. The orangery is of 

 five bays with round-headed windows and 

 doorway: it is built of Kingsthorpe stone: 

 Markham, in The Reminder [Northants. N. 

 ©■g.), Nov. 19:7. 



5 On the east side of the old turnpike 

 road from Northampton to Market Har- 

 borough : Assoc. Arch. Soc. Repls. xxvi, 44.1 . 



^ See plan (1846) and notes by the Rev. 

 A. K. Pavey in Assoc. Arch. Soc. Repts. 

 xxvi, 441-7. 



' Markham in Assoc. Arch. Soc. Repts. 

 xxiii, 166. 



8 r.C.H. Northants. i, 306. 



» Ibid. p. 381. 



'" Bridges, Hist. Northants. i, 453, 501. 

 " Red Bool! (Rolls Ser.), i, 224. 

 ■- Pipe R. 33 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc), 

 p. 161. '3 £k. of Fees, i, 326. 



'■* Ibid. p. 497; ii, 931. 

 ■s Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 160. 

 ^^ Cal. Inq. p.m. v, no. 596. 

 " R. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 236. 

 '8 Ibid. p. 282. 



150 



