Monument record 622/1/3 - Northampton to Coventry Road Through Long Buckby

Probable alignment of road from Coventry to Northampton; hollow way mapping from RCHME & D.Hall.

{1} The main communication route through Long Buckby was the road from Northampton to Coventry, first mapped in 1675 but probably representing an important medieval route. The exact alignment of the road is difficult to recover but appears to run along the wide and deep hollow way immediately south of the castle site. Had the road run through the centre of the village then Ogilby would have depicted houses lining the road, as he does in other places such as Watford. Instead he just depicts the church and 'the Hall' on the east side of the road, the latter building presumably being the Hall recorded in the 1880s. The route is represented by the deep hollow way running on the south side of the castle site and running down into Salem to a crossing of the stream. Its presence here probably influenced the siting of the castle and may have been a contributory factor in the promotion of the town as a market centre in the medieval period. This major road was lost in the 18th century when the turnpike was constructed through West Haddon, which was then still a minor marketing centre with some local services.

{2} The road route runs along the south side of the castle, then south east across the line of the present Station Road as far as Benbow Farm. Along this section its line is still partly preserved either as a hollow way or as a track. Beyond Benbow Farm it appears to have joined the modern Brington Road running south east.

<1> FOARD G., 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Long Buckby (Medieval + Post Medieval), (checked) (Report). SNN100746.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.133 Site 6 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

Record last edited

Jan 26 2015 2:16PM