Great Oakley, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Oakley, Great, a village and a parish in Northamptonshire. The village stands on an affluent of the river Nene½ known as Harper's Brook, half a mile from Geddington station on the Kettering, Manton, and Nottingham section of the M.R., and 5 miles N of Kettering, and has a post office under Kettering; money order office, Corby; telegraph office, Geddington. The parish comprises 2208 acres; population, 192. The manor belongs to the De Capell Brooke family. Oakley Hall is a seat of the De Capell Brookes, and is a large ivy-covered mansion. The living is a donative in the diocese of Peterborough; value, £50 with residence. The church is ancient but good, consists of nave, S aisle, and chancel, with porch and tower, and contains several memorials of the Broke or Brooke family.
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 | Oakley St. Michael | |
| Hundred | Corby | |
| Poor Law union | Kettering |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1718.
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. Michael (parish church)
The church of St. Michael is an ancient building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle of six bays, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 4 bells: in the church are several monuments to various members of the Brooke or Broke family, including an inscribed brass to Sir Thomas Broke kt. dated 1557, and a monument to Arthur Brooke esq, d. Nov. 26th, 1620.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Great Oakley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Oakley, Great (St. Michael))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Great Oakley 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: