Abthorpe, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Abthorpe, a village and a parish in Northamptonshire. The village stands on the river Tove, 3 miles WSW of Tow-cester, and 1 mile SW of Wappenham station on the L. & N.W.R. Post town, Towcester, which is the money order and telegraph office. The parish includes the hamlet of Foscote. Acreage, 1973; population, 433. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; yearly value, about £200. Patron, alternately the Bishop of Peterborough and the Trustees of Leeson's charity. The church, which was rebuilt in 1870-71, is a building of stone in the Early English style. Lace-making and the manufacture of boots and shoes are the chief employments.
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 | Abthorpe St. John the Baptist | |
Hundred | Towcester | |
Poor Law union | Towcester |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1650.
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. Andrew (parish church)
The church of St. Andrew is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of three bays, south aisle, chapel, south porch and a fine embattled western tower containing a clock and 5 bells: the church was thoroughly restored in 1872.
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is an edifice of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch, vestry and a tower with spire at the north-west angle, containing a clock and one bell: the chancel retains a piscina, and has a stained east window, inserted in 1913 as a memorial to the Rev. J. White, a former vicar, the glass originally in the east window has been transferred to the west window. The church was rebuilt in 1870-1, from designs by Mr. Ewan Christian, architect, of London, and was reopened April 12th, 1871, by Dr. Magee, then Bishop of Peterborough.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Abthorpe from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Abthorpe (St. John the Baptist))
- Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, 1914
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Abthorpe 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: