Potterspury, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Potterspury, a village, a parish, and the head of a union in Northamptonshire. The village stands near Watling Street, 1 mile W of the Grand Junction Canal, 1¼ W of the river Tove at the boundary with Bucks, 2¼ miles NNW of Stony Stratford, 5¼ SE from Towcester, and 3½ SW from Castlethorpe station on the L. & N.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stony Stratford. The parish contains also the hamlet-chapelry of Yardley Gobion, which is situated about 1 mile NE of the village. Area of Potterspury, 1284 acres; population, 1037. Area of Yardley Gobion, 1080 acres; population of the ecclesiastical parish, 1551. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. The manor, with Wakefield Lodge and much of the land, belongs to the Duke of Grafton. Pottersbury House, a stone mansion, stands at the S end of the village. Wakefield Lodge stands in the centre of a woodland, which was formerly Whittlewood Forest, and has a lawn of 500 acres. Yardley Gobion House is a mansion of stone, very pleasantly situated. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £92 with residence. Patron, Earl Bathurst. The church was restored in 1848 at a cost of about £3000, is a building of stone in the Decorated style, and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with massive W tower. A cemetery, with a small chapel, is at the SE end of the village. A chapel of ease is in Yardley Gobion, and was built in 1864 at the sole expense of the Duke of Grafton, who also provided a suitable endowment. The W window was filled with stained glass in 1888 in memory of Lord Charles Fitzroy of a former generation. There is a Congregational chapel with a burial ground, a school and pastors' house at Potterspury, and there is also a Primitive Methodist chapel. There is a Congregational chapel at Yardley Gobion. The workhouse at Yardley Gobion was built in 1837, and has accommodation for 200 inmates. There is a post office at Yardley Gobion, under Stony Stratford; money order and telegraph office, Potterspury.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Northamptonshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Potters-Pury St. Nicholas | |
Hundred | Cleley | |
Poor Law union | Potterspury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Cemeteries
At the south-east end of the village, inclosed by a stone wall, is a cemetery, with a small chapel; both the site and building were the gift of a former Duke of Grafton.
Church Records
The register, including Yardley Gobion, dates from the year 1667.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with the Northamptonshire Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts for Northamptonshire online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Leonard's chapel, Yardley Gobion
The chapel of St. Leonard is a building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch, with clock above it, vestry and a western turret containing 1 bell; the chapel was erected in 1864, at the sole expense of William Henry, 6th Duke of Grafton, and consecrated December 22nd, 1864, and was endowed by him with £100 yearly on condition that two full services are provided for every Sunday by the vicar of Potterspury. There is a stained window to the memory of Lady Charles Fitzroy, d. June 17, 1865; the east window is a memorial to the 6th Duke of Grafton (d. 1882), and was erected by the Duchess of Grafton in 1903, who also presented an oak reredos in 1904.
St. Nicholas (parish church)
The church of St. Nicholas is a building of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, embattled south porch and a massive embattled western tower containing a clock, presented in 1888 by the Duke of Grafton, and 5 bells: in the south aisle is a brass, with effigy and quartered arms, to Agnes (Mandley), wife of Cuthbert Ogle, ob. 29th May, 1616; above the brass is a stone monument to her husband, Cuthbert Ogle esq. lieutenant of Whittlewood Forest, ob. Aug. 25, 1633: in the north aisle is a marble monument to Gabriel Clarke esq. a benefactor to the parish, ob. April 10, 1624: the church was restored in 1848, at a cost of about £3,000, £1,000 of which was contributed, by Henry, 5th Duke of Grafton, and in 1888 the west window was filled with stained glass by the present Duke of Grafton K.G., C.B. who, in 1905, filled the nave windows with stained Munich glass: there are 500 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational chapel
Here is a Congregational chapel, with minister's house and burial ground: the chapel was founded in 1690, and has 350 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Potterspury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Potters-Pury (St. Nicholas))
- Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, 1914
Land and Property
Wakefield Lodge is about a mile and a half south-west of the village; the building has been added to from time to time and stands on the borders of Bucks, in the centre of a woodland district, formerly constituting Whittlewood Forest; one front of the mansion faces a spacious lawn, ornamented with a fine sheet of water.
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Potterspury are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Northamptonshire papers online:
Poor Law
Potterspury was the head of a Poor Law Union, which comprised the following places in Northamptonshire in 1914:- Alderton, Ashton, Cosgrove, Furtho, Grafton Regis, Hartwell, Passenham, Paulerspury, Potterspury, Wicken & Yardley Gobion; and in Buckinghamshire: Calverton, Stony Stratford East, Stony Stratford West & Wolverton.
The area of the union is:- Northants, 19,914 acres; rateable value, April, 1914, £33,483; Bucks, 4,459 acres; total of union, 24,373 acres; total rateable value of the entire union, £105,875; the population in 1911 was :-Northants, 5,189; Bucks, 10,427; total, 15,616.
Workhouse
The Workhouse, at Yardley Gobion, erected in 1836-7, was capable of holding 200 inmates; a new casual ward was added in 1885, to replace the one at Old Stratford.