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Northampton Leasing

Did You Know?

Northampton was considered the capital of England when it was captured from the Danes in 913 and remained so for nearly two centuries, although various other settlements have made claims of being the capital, to varying degrees of recognition.

The Palaeolithic era is considered the earliest period of human activity in history, and artefacts from that time have been found in Northampton. This shows evidence of human activity in the region nearly 800,000 years ago. The artefacts recovered include hand-axes and scraper/blades used by the hunter-gatherers of the time. There is further evidence of human activity found in the lower parts of the Nene Valley, from the Mesolithic period.

Agnes Browne, Joan Browne, Mary Barber, Arthur Bill and Helen Jenkinson were accused of crimes such as bewitching a local noblewoman and murdering a child and livestock by sorcery in 1612. Three of them were found riding on the back of a sow when they were arrested. They were later found guilty and hanged for their crimes, in what came to be known as the Northamptonshire Witch Trials.

A spark from an open flame in a house on St Mary’s Street quickly engulfed over two-thirds of the town, in what was dubbed the Great Fire of Northampton. A strong westerly wind managed to carry the flames across narrow roads to attack thatched, wooden houses. Witness accounts describe it as being "more furious and more destructive" than the Great Fire of London which gutted the medieval city inside the old Roman city wall.

John Clare, one of England most famous poets, was born in Northampton and lived in the county, until his death at "Northampton General Lunatic Asylum" in 1864. He spent the last 27 years of his life in asylums, at various points claiming he was both William Shakespeare and Lord Byron.

Northampton began as an Anglo- Saxon village called Hamm Tun, this then changed to North Hamm Tun and eventually into what we now know it as.

Shakespeare’s granddaughter (his last direct descendant) is buried in Northampton.

78, Derngate, a narrow terraced house in Northampton, is the only domestic building in England to be designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Oak Apple Day has recently been revived as a reminder of the time when Charles II donated much of the oak to help restore Northampton after it was devastated by fire