British Counties›England›Northamptonshire
Historic County of England

Northamptonshire

County town: Northampton

County origins

Northamptonshire Historical Research

Northamptonshire was established as a shire in the 10th century following the reconquest of the Danelaw. Northampton, sited on the Nene, was one of the Five Boroughs and a significant Saxon trading centre.

Northamptonshire is a midland county of limestone uplands and river valleys, drained by the Nene and its tributaries. Its landscape is characterised by ironstone villages of warm orange-brown stone and a remarkable concentration of medieval church spires — 'the county of spires and squires'. The county's leather industry, based in Northampton and the surrounding towns, made it England's boot and shoe capital from the 17th century onward, supplying the armies of Cromwell and Wellington alike. Great houses like Boughton, Althorp, and Burghley reflect centuries of powerful aristocratic landowners. The county was a battleground in both the Wars of the Roses and the Civil War.

Domesday Book 1086

Northamptonshire was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 358 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.

Browse 358 Domesday settlements in Northamptonshire
358
Domesday settlements
About England's historic counties

England's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.

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Everything a full report reveals about Northamptonshire

This page introduces the historic county of Northamptonshire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:

Overview
An interactive map of the location with every monument and battle plotted, and a plain-language history built only from what the record holds.
Monuments
The legally protected scheduled monuments around the location, each with its period, type and significance.
Battlefields
The battles and sieges fought on this ground, mapped and set on a timeline of the wider conflict.
Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Domesday
The settlement's entry in the 1086 Domesday Book: who held it, what it was worth, and the people who worked the land.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
LiDAR
Laser-scanned terrain that reveals earthworks hidden under fields and woodland, with likely features flagged.
Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
The books, county histories, charters and archives that mention this place, quoted with their sources.
Legal
The protected sites nearby and the metal-detecting, access and treasure laws that apply to this ground.
Spotlight
A deep dive into the most remarkable, lesser-known history of the place, traced back to the record.
Target Zones
For detectorists: the most promising ground to search nearby, ranked by confidence, with what to expect.
Timeline
The whole story of the location told era by era, from prehistory to the present day.
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Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.

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Scheduled monuments

Northamptonshire contains 230 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

Browse scheduled monuments in England
230
Scheduled monuments
Aubrey Research

Research Northamptonshire's History

An Aubrey report for a specific location in Northamptonshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.

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