Monument record 3969 - Rushton St.Peter

Deserted Medieval village, few earthworks survive due to garden landscaping.

{1} Deserted village of Rushton St Peter (SP 837827), lay in the area of the present Rushton Hall, on the N. side of the R. Ise, on sand and limestone at 98m above OD.
The village is listed in Domesday Book together with Rushton All Saints, with a total recorded population of 45. Later taxation records also list both villages together, and only in the 1524 Subsidy Returns is the village seperately taxed. Then 10 people in St Peter paid tax compared with 28 in All Saints. The village may have been removed finally by the Tresham family who acquired the main manor in 1438 and who certainly enclosed much of the parish. In the early 18th century Bridges recorded that, apart from the hall and
church, only four or five 'shepards lodges', existed in the Lordship.
These 'lodges' were presumably scattered throughout the parish. The two parishes of Rushton St Peter and Rushton All Saints were united in 1780 and in 1799 a faculty for the removal of St Peter's Church was issued. Nothing of the village, or the church, now remains above ground, the whole area having been landscaped for the gardens of the hall on a number of occasions. However N. of the present main entrance of the park, within an area of woodland (SP 83928278), are the mutilated remains of a short length of hollow-way, some 10m across and up to 0.25m deep, which continues the line of the existing road to the E. This is presumably the E. end of the main street of Rushton St Peter, leading towards Rushton All Saints.

{3} Later taxation records also list both villages together with exception of 1524 Subsidy Returns when 10 people paid tax compared with 28 in All Saints;

{4} 2 villages at Rushton - Rushton Atthallcus; Rushton St Peter; east manor in hands of Lord Cullen; 30 farms; apart from hall & church in early C18th were only 4 or 5 shepherds lodges remaining in lordship;

{5} 2 parishes were united in 1780;

{6} Listed together with Rushton All Saints; total population of 45;

{8} Family trees, crests, printed pedigree, notes, letters, painting, all relating to Sir Thomas Tresham;

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.131 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

<2> Ryland, W, Adkins, D, and Serjeantson, R M, 1902, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.333+335+353 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100368.

<3> PRO series E179, E179/155/133 (Document). SNN115882.

<4> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.67-68 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77326.

<5> STEPHENSON P.A.F., 1929, Parish Registers of Rushton, (unchecked) (Document). SNN47750.

<6> Thorn F.; Thorn C., 1979, Domesday Book: A Survey of The Counties of England, (unchecked) (Series). SNN1170.

<7> Fryer H.; Burt J.; Adams L.; Carter S.; Hutton Attenborough J., 2004, Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire: Preliminary Historic Landscape Appraisal, (unchecked) (Report). SNN104687.

<8> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/234/1,2,4-12,14-18,21,22,25-33,36,38,40-65 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 7:53PM