Monument record 3884/66 - Castle Fields Recreational Ground, Castle Street

{1} Castle Fields Recreational Ground, Castle Street. Castle Fields Recreational Ground remains intact complete with bandstand etc.

{2} In the map of 1803, close to where Swanspool House now stands, was an area called Horn Castle, with a lane running to it from the east called Castle Lane, which suggests that there may have been a castle in the vicinity. There has never been any conclusive evidence that one ever existed, as there is no mention of one in the medieval records. There is an etching that shows a gateway with battlements and bears the legend ‘Wellingborough Castle, as it stood in 1675’ (Plate 6). The building shown on the engraving is clearly a gatehouse and it may have been that the gatehouse for Croyalnd Hall because Cole stated that ‘that distinguishing characteristic of a castellated edifice- the gateway, referred to by Bridges, has been swept away.’
During World War II, when the fields were ploughed for the cultivation of sugar beet as part of the Dig for Victory campaign, many large peices of masonry and stone were recovered. However, still visible on the right as you can enter Castle Fields are a series of undulating parallel banks. These are the remnants of medieval and post-medieval farming and are commonly known as ridge and furrows acted as drains, as well as demarcating property boundaries. The presence of these features means that Castle Fields were not within the settlement of Wellingborough during the medieval period, but were part of the open fields.
In 1803, in one of the earliest maps of Wellingborough, the whole area that was to become Castle Fields was still open fields. The fields were called Little Meadow Ley and Meadow Brook Up (later Brook Meadow). However, by the late 1880s the land is already known as a recreation ground and seems to have the same paths as it still does today. Castle Fields became a municipal park in c1911. The bandstand was erected in 1912 and is one of two in the town (the other is in Bassetts Close). Celebrations were held here for the coronation of King George V and Queen Mark in 1911, the avenue of trees was planted to commemorate the coronation.
The park was unused as a military camp for troops in both the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Areas of the park were flattened in the 1940s to provide the football and cricket pitches.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Wellingborough (Industrial), (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100290.

<2> Walker C., 2006, Documentary Research for Wellingborough Green Heritage Trail, 2.5 Castle Fields (checked) (Report). SNN108005.

Record last edited

Feb 19 2015 12:07PM