Monument record 667 - Blakesley

Blakesley settlement remains suggest an unusual village plan

{1}Brass rubbings of Matthew Swetenham (1416);

{2} Blakesley ecclesiastical parish includes the deserted village of Foxley, Woodend and the deserted village of Kirby. The last two now form a separate civil parish of Woodend. Blakesley township was enclosed in 1760; the new allotments are described in the Award of 1762. A written survey of 1838 refers to a map that is now lost; about 1480 acres were enclosed out of the total of 2530 which includes Blakesley (1640) and the old enclosures of Foxley (483) and Seawell (409). There was old enclosure around the village core, which amounted to about 160 acres, since Foxley and Seawell were excluded from the enclosure process.

{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.

{4} Blakesley has a plan which is unique in the county. Before modern development it consisted of two almost completely separate units joined by a central green. In the north was a straight street extending north east with the church on its east side and a minor lane running north from the centre of its west side. In the south was a neat L-shaped arrangement of streets. The origins of this plan are obscure and it is possible to interpret it a number of ways. The streets in the north around the church may be the oldest part, and the south part a planned extension with the green being created even later. On the other hand it may have been a polyfocal village with two original centres, later joined by the green. A futher possibility is that the green may be the old centre and that there was later expansion to the north and south. A further complication is the small group of houses known as Quinbury End which lies immediately north west of the green and until recently was quite separate from the rest of the village.The surviving earthworks and other material do not help to elucidate the problem.

{7} Transcript of deed relating to Blakesley, written 1469, transcript done in 1880;

{8} Various diagrams and drawings relating to Blakesley, including the Church and the Hall;

{9} Booklets on the Parish, various drawings and notes on the monuments, mostly within the church, also details of population count 1801 to 1881, and copy of part of deed re funding of Blakesley school;

<1> Brass Rubbings at Ashmolean Museum, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN41806.

<2> Hall D.N.; Britnell T., 2000?, South Northamptonshire Historic Landscape: Part III, P. 8 (checked) (Report). SNN103302.

<3> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 3.5.1 (checked) (Report). SNN103132.

<4> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.13 site 1 (checked) (Series). SNN77382.

<5> Biggs C., 2005, Early Modern Blakesley: A Study Based on Wills 1543-1700, p.37-53 (unchecked) (Article). SNN109350.

<6> Aerial Photograph, A/P (RAF CPE/UK/1926, 1047-9) (Photographs). SNN112974.

<7> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/28/1 (Archive). SNN115.

<8> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/28/1, 2, 4, 7-11 (Archive). SNN115.

<9> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/28/14-19, 22, 25, 27, 31-34 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Jan 31 2025 2:56PM