Monument record 728 - Greens Norton

The earliest depictions of the village in the 18th century show that it was made up two parts.

{1} Norton was enclosed in 1799 (NRO Map 2897), Award Inc 55 (1801). Map 2897 (1798) is the draft enclosure map with furlong boundaries and furlong names marked as well the allotments. An estate map 1767 (NRO map 4219) shows land use and old enclosure. Six of them forming an approximate square have Park names. The draft enclosure map shows named furlongs and cow pastures. Old enclosure has a red outline and a different numbering system. The Tithe Map of 1848 (NRO T129) shows the Park lying at the north-west, divided into many closes extending to 854 acres. These closes probably include some of Potcote (in Cold Higham) since Bridges (1791 I 238), says the Park was 200 acres in extent. The Park is not recorded in published sources until 1546 (Gover et al, 1933, 43), but it is likely to be much older.
The draft enclosure map does not show all of township, the block of ancient enclosures in the north-west being excluded. The township was mapped from the 1767 estate map using the draft enclosure map for cross reference. Settlement was mapped from the draft enclosure map since this is the most accurate and has the most detail. A group of closes to north-west of Greens Norton marked as ‘part of park’ on the 1767 map was added to browser. A large enclosure to the north of Greens Norton called was called ‘Ambross House Grounds’. It is likely that this is showing the extent of a single property rather than a single enclosure and therefore although subdivisions are not shown they very probably existed.

{2} Entries in Domesday Book indicate that the area around Towcester was the focus of iron working in the years preceding the Conquest, when the annual render from the smiths of Greens Norton, Blakesley and Adstone amounted to £7, and that from the smiths of Towcester amounted to 100 shillings. The size of the payment has led to the suggestion that the fabri were iron workers rather than smiths. In 1086, however, they paid nothing.

{3} Greens Norton has undergone many changes in the last two centuries and especially in recent years with the addition of large housing estates. The earliest depiction of the village, in the 18th century, shows that it was then made up of two parts. In the north was the main village, lying along the present High Street, with a large rectangular open space or green at the north end already partly encroached upon; the church stood on the east side of the green. To the south, linked to the main village by a narrow road and centred on the present hall, was a series of lanes with buildings scattered along them. These lanes are shown as already incomplete in 1726 and large parts of them have since been abandoned. The field evidence indicates that the street system here was once even more complex than is shown on the 18th century maps.
Greens Norton settlement remains SP 668499, 669491, 671492.

{9} Drawing of bell with dimensions;

<1> Hall D.N.; Britnell T., 2000?, South Northamptonshire Historic Landscape: Part III, p.12 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103302.

<2> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 3.4.1 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103132.

<3> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.71 Site 4 (checked) (Series). SNN77382.

<4> Mortimer, J., 2011, The Distribution, Function, Form and Future of "Outyards": A Study in Two Northamptonshire Parishes (Greens Norton and Pattishall), (unchecked) (Dissertation). SNN107594.

<5> 1726, Map of Greens Norton, (unchecked) (Map). SNN12756.

<6> 1767, Map of Greens Norton, (unchecked) (Map). SNN13216.

<7> Hall D., 2001, The Woodland Landscapes of Southern Northamptonshire, p.33-46 (unchecked) (Article). SNN102520.

<8> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, A/P (RAF VAP F21 58/RAF/2316, 0065-7) (Photographs). SNN104890.

<9> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/126/2 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:46PM