Nosing around Northampton.

Saturday 21st September

The next day was dry and sunny and we had a day looking around Northampton and doing a little shopping.

The first building of note I noticed was on the corner of Fish Street (where the Medieval fish markets was held) and The Ridings. I love a carved stone or brick frontage and this one had the lot, bull's heads, seductive ladies, fishes and sort of trees with bold lettering. Malcolm Inglis and Co. Glasgow were leather factors and dealers and so were the centre of the show making business here. The company was set up in 1796 by George Inglis in Edinburgh. His son John took over in 1848 and moved the business to Glasgow seeing that it was fast becoming the industrial centre of Scotland. The business grew slowly as by 1868 there were only 4 employees. John retired in 1874 and his son Malcolm took over and straightaway grew the business by opening branches in Northampton, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Leicester. Northampton was the best and biggest. The crests below the bull's head have the names of all the branches. It was to be their showroom and offices. It was designed by Glasgow architect and the stone carving was done by Yorkshireman Abraham Broadbent who also did the work on the Victoria and Albert Museum. It opened in 1900. After the business closed it became a pub for a while.

In St. Giles Square is the 3rd Guild Hall for Northampton. This one was designed by Edward William Godwin and opened in May 1864. This was the building that has the square clock tower at the centre of three bays either side. The clock and bell were added in 1867. Strangely it seems that the bell is not bell shaped, but a hemisphere!

The extension to the west was added in 1892 giving 14 bays and sculptor R. L. Bolton was commissioned to provide statues for between each window of Monarchs and other famous people. In then great hall, that unfortunately wasn't open, is a mural by Colin Gill of famous local people completed in 1925 and then another mural of Muses Contemplating Northampton by Henry Bird finished in 1949. There is also a statue of Spencer Percival, MP for Northampton and the only Prime Minister to be assassinated. To the east of all this is a 1992 addition too.

The Plough Hotel on Bridge Street was built in the 1890's as a coaching inn with brick and stone exterior and mock beams inside. In WWII it was taken over by the American Red Cross and was used as a leave centre for American troops. Over three years it hosted 174,000 troops. In 2016 they applied for planning for 56 apartments. It was turned down but it seems that the original building will remain, but some extensions at the back will be demolished to make room for 34 apartments, parking etc.

On George Row and facing Gold Street is the church of All Saints. It was built on the site of the Church of All Hallows that was burned down in the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675. King Charles II gave 1,000 tons of timber for the rebuilding. At one time its design was attributed to Christopher Wren but it is more likely to have been Henry Bell of King's Lynn. The main body of the church was completed in 1680 but the columned portico was added in 1701 and the cupalo in 1704. The statue at the front of the portico is of Charles II was placed in 1712. The church is of the Catholic tradition within the Church of England and as the parish rejected the ordination of women I think they only have male priests

Looking east towards the chancel you can see that the nave is just about square with four central columns. To the left is the original pulpit with Victorian base. The reredos, the screen behind the altar on the eastern wall, has the Crucifixion in the centre and then a panel of the Ten Commandments on either side. There was little stained glass and maybe this was why it looked nice and bright within the church. There is a nice cafe at the front of the church partly under the portico.

We saw that the Holy Sepulchre so after lunch we decided to go and have a look. From this end of the church it looks like a 'normal' church made from the local ironstone. These parts of the church were added after the original church was erected.

The outstanding feature of the original church is that it was round. There are only 4 round Medieval churches still in use in England, London, Cambridge and Little Maplestead in Essex are the others. The Earl of Northampton Simon do Senlas went on the first Crusade and would have seen Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This is where the site of the Crucifixion was supposed to have taken place and of the tomb where the body was laid, hence the name. In Northampton the church is roughly half the size of the Jerusalem one and was built in 1100.

A. Watts and Sons Ltd are one of the few department stores that are left these days. They were established in 1896 here in Northampton and are still today a home furnishings hub. Until the end of the 90's they had a very large toy department too.

Further down Abington Street is the Northampton Central Library. It was erected in 1910 after a design by Herbert Norman, a local architect. The statues in the niches are of John Dryden, a Northamptonshire poet and critic, Thomas Fuller, a Northamptonshire Churchman, historian and a writer. In fact he was one of the first English authors who could make a living from his writings. There is also George Washington and Andrew Carnegie up there. This library was one of the first to have a children's library within it, introduced in 1912.

This lovely Art Deco building was built in 1938 as the Co-op store in Abington Street. There is another entrance on St. Giles Street that has the name and date above it. The shop closed in 2005 and since then it has been restyled with an arcade running through known as The Ridings Arcade, with small shops accommodated.

On the way back to the boat we crossed South Bridge over the River and we could see this on the gable end of a building just across the bridge. Norton's Corn, Hay and Chaff Store. Sack's ...  Hire. and then low down it says Norton's Sack Depot, Corn sacks Let On E......  Looking back on old maps there may have been a blacksmiths here at one time. Across the road was the goods depot of the Northampton and Peterborough Branch Railway and just to the south was another goods depot. The N and P Branch Railway became part of the LNWR in 1846.