Northampton,
situated on the River Nene, the Normans built a castle here in the
11th century. This was demolished in the 17th century but some of
the medieval churches still survive.
Northampton was destroyed by fire in 1675 and this gave the local
people to build a spacious and well-planned town. The market square
was one of the largest in the country. Boot, shoe and leather manufacture
became major industries in Northampton in the 18th century. The prosperity
of the town was improved by the orders from the army and navy during
the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars. Housed the
the former county jail, the town's museum contains the world's largest
collection of ancient boots and shoes.
The town grew slowly in the 19th century until the opening of the
town's first canal in 1815. The census of 1831 shows that one-third
of the men living in the town were shoemakers (two-fifths in 1871).
Working-class terraced houses were built in the west and the north
of the town. More expensive houses for the middle-class houses tended
to be located in the eastern parts of Northampton. The population
of Northampton in 1801 was 7,000. Sixty years later it had reached
33,000.
The town developed a strong Radical movement and in 1880 elected Charles
Bradlaugh to represent them in Parliament. Bradlaugh was not a
Christian and asked to affirm rather than to swear on the Bible. The
Speaker of the House of Commons refused this request and Bradlaugh
was expelled from Parliament. William Gladstone,
the Prime Minister, supported Bradlaugh's right to affirm, but he
had upset a lot of people with his views on Christianity, the monarchy
and birth control and when the issue was put before Parliament, MPs
voted to support the Speaker's decision to expel him. Northampton
continued to elect him as their MP but it was not until 1886 that
he was allowed to take his seat in the House of Commons.
(1)
Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole
Island of Great Britain (1724)
Northampton is the handsomest and best built
town in all this part of England. The beauty of it is owing to its
own disasters, for it was so effectually and suddenly burnt down,
that very few houses were left standing. It is now finely rebuilt
with brick and stone, and the streets made spacious and wide. The
great new church, the town hall and all their public buildings, are
the finest in any country town in England.
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