Wootton, Northamptonshire

Wootton, Northamptonshire is a village about south of Northampton town centre and now part of the Northampton Borough Council area.

The village is separated from Hardingstone by the Newport Pagnell Road the B526, formerly part of the A50 road. Part of the village is alongside the busy A45 dual carriageway from the M1 to Wellingborough which is seen and heard from that part of the village.

History

Domesday Book

In the Domesday Book, Wootton is described as “Wetone”. It later became Weton, Wutton and then Witton. "Wootton" appeared in the 14th century. The names probably have the Saxon origin of "Wudutun" and mean settlement or farmstead in, or by, a wood, which may have been Salcey Forest.

Church

The thirteenth century Parish Church of St. George, The Martyr, stands in the High Street in a conservation area and is a Group 1 listed building. It was restored in 1865. It was again restored and re-dedicated in 1991 after a £93,000 restoration programme had been successfully completed.

The Rectory, west of the church is dated 1630.. A memorial in the south wall is to the wife of John Harris – the Lord of the Manor in the eighteenth century.

17th and 18th centuries

Little of the village dates from earlier than Stuart times. Most of the stone houses are ca. late 17th or early 18th century. Many of these houses were originally thatched, as can be seen from the...
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