Cotterstock is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

North Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire is one of two local authority areas in Northamptonshire, England. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area forming about one half of the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northampto ...

, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 153.

Geography

Cotterstock is on the banks of the

River Nene The River Nene ( or : see below) is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in Northamptonshire.OS Explorer Map sheet 223, Northampton & Market Harborough, Brixworth & Pitsford Water. The river is about long, about of w ...

, which flows through the city of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

to the north east and empties into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

The Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it is fed by the riv ...

. The nearest larger town is

Oundle Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough. The town is home to Ound ...

to the south west.

History

Cotterstock was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

as ''Codestoche'', the name probably deriving from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

"corther-stoc" (dairy farm). In the summer of 1736 a

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

villa was discovered when

tessera A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus. Historical tesserae The oldest known tesserae ...

e from a large mosaic pavement were uncovered during ploughing. The villa was subsequently located a second time by

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

during the extremely dry summer of 1976, when parch marks of buried walls were recorded spread across three fields. A

geophysical survey Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the E ...

undertaken to accurately locate and amplify the aerial photographic information was carried out over a total of ten days in 1992 and 1993. A total of 19,140 soil resistance values were recorded at one-metre intervals within a grid composed of 20-metre squares. The Church of St Andrew is located to the east of the village, adjacent to the

; it dates from the late 12th century. The main period of construction was in the 13th and 14th centuries and the building was restored and extended in 1876. Cotterstock Hall was built in 1658 with alterations in the early 18th century and a main staircase added in the 19th century. The poet and playwright

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

was a frequent visitor and is thought to have stayed in the south-west attic room at the Hall, visiting relatives, the last of whom, Rev Sir George

Booth Booth may refer to: People * Booth (surname) * Booth (given name) Fictional characters * August Wayne Booth, from the television series ''Once Upon A Time'' *Cliff Booth, a supporting character of the 2019 film ''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' ...

, died in 1797. The house was later purchased by

Jane Fane, Countess of Westmorland Jane Fane, Countess of Westmorland (1783 – ), formerly Jane Saunders (or Huck-Saunders), was the second wife of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland. Life Jane was one of the two daughters of Dr Richard Huck-Saunders (born Richard Huck) ...

, who died there in 1857. Also of interest is the ''Old Mill'' which was built during the early 19th century. Cotterstock parish contains 20 entries on the statutory list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest, 16 of which are within the Conservation Area covering the eastern part of the village around St Andrew's Church and Cotterstock Hall. Tree Preservation Orders have been made on trees in and around the village. Cotterstock was the birthplace of

John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded Yor ...

, the first Lieutenant Governor of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

from 1791–1796 and founder of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, who was born here on 25 February 1752.

Infrastructure

The village consists of a single street with Cotterstock Hall located in the centre and St Andrew’s Church in the east. Cotterstock has a village hall.

In the media

In 2010, Cotterstock Hall was used as a film set for ' The Woman in Black'. Star Daniel Radcliffe said of the Hall: "Cotterstock Hall is a remarkable building bursting with Gothic grandeur – perfect for The Woman In Black".

References

External links

Oxford Dictionary of British Place NamesEast Northamptonshire WebsiteThe Roman Villa at Cotterstock, NorthamptonshireBritish History OnlineVillage churches around the Peterborough area
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire Civil parishes in Northamptonshire