Monument record 3034 - Laxton

{?}The extensive late 18th and 19th century estate housing may have involved significant replanning of the settlement but this cannot be easily explored due to the absence of early maps.

{1} Lady Carbery, a little before 1800, had rebuilt the village and raised pairs of gabled stone cottages, with bargeboards which William Pitt considered "both comfortable and ornamental", a great improvement on tenements built with mud and covered with thatch. He welcomed " a display of neat and decent cottages, built with economy, but with lasting materials".

{3} Originally included the present parish of Fineshade. Lies in Rockingham Forest, and in the C15th was held by service of hunting and taking wolves, cats and other vermin. In the C16th it passed to the Staffords of Blatherwycke who appear to have let the house to tenants. When the land was divided between two heirs in the early C18th Laxton went to the younger daughter Ann, who married George Evans of Bulgaden Castle, who became First Baron Carbery.
On the death of the fourth baron in 1804 Laxton passed to his widow, who married George Freke Evans. He rebuilt the village as an essay in the picturesque. IN 1806 Humphry Repton was engaged in planning works to the village, but never claimed payment. The village was never large and remained a constant of about 40 families from 1719 until its decline in the early C19th.

<1> Steane J., 1974, The Northamptonshire Landscape, p.241 (checked) (Book). SNN5137.

<2> Pitt W., General View, p.25 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN105578.

<3> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1984, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.106-115 (part checked) (Series). SNN77384.

<4> 1800, Freke Evans Archive, (unchecked) (Archive). SNN105579.

Record last edited

Dec 3 2024 3:24PM