Byfield, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Byfield, a large village and a parish in Northamptonshire, with a station on the East and West Junction railway, 7½ miles SW by S of Daventry, and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) Acreage of the civil parish, 2760; population, 737; of the ecclesiastical, 749. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; net value, £440 with residence, in the gift of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The church is an ancient structure of stone in the Decorated style, dating from about 1350. There are Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapels, and some small charities.
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 | Byfield Holy Cross | |
| Hundred | Chipping-Warden | |
| Poor Law union | Daventry |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1688; marriages, 1636.
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
The Holy Cross (parish church)
The church of the Holy Cross is an edifice of stone, in the Decorated style, erected about 1350 on the foundations of an earlier church said to have been built in 1242; it consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south chapel, south porch and a western tower with spire and massive angle turrets, containing 5 bells; in 1906 these bells were rehung and another added by the then rector at a cost of £182; the tower also contains a clock with two dials and chimes, erected as a memorial of the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 of Her Majesty Queen Victoria: the western front is ornamented with three canopied niches: the seats throughout are of carved oak: in the chapel a memorial window to William and Mary Farebrother, 1838-57, and in the tower one to Richard Bromley and his wife; another was presented in 1897 by Mrs. Farebrother to members of her family: in the church is a memorial window to the Rev. Francis Henry Curgenven M.A. rector 1872-1901: the chancel retains a piscina and three sedilia, and there are other piscinæ in the nave and chapel: within the tower are fragments of stone coffins found during the restoration in 1870; when the church was thoroughly repaired, at a cost of nearly £3,000: an organ chamber was added in 1877, and in 1885 a stained east window and a reredos of Caen stone and marble were erected: the church will seat 378 persons.
Congregational
Congregational chapel
The Congregational chapel here was built in 1827.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist chapel
The Primitive Methodist chapel was built in 1840.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Byfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Byfield (Holy Cross))
- 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 Byfield 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: