Passenham is a small village in the

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 ...

Old Stratford Old Stratford is a village and wider civil parish in the south of the English county of Northamptonshire. The population of the civil parish (including Passenham) at the 2011 Census was 1,935. The 'Stratford' part of the village name is Anglo-Sax ...

in south-west

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England. It is just north of the River Great Ouse, which forms the boundary with Buckinghamshire, and close to (but separated by the river from) Stony Stratford in Milton Keynes. The village's name means 'Passa's hemmed-in land'.

Governance

The village parish council is joined with the village of

Old Stratford Parish Council
/ref> which also administers the village and both are part of

West Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire is a unitary authority area covering part of the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, created in 2021. By far the largest settlement in West Northamptonshire is the county town of Northampton. Its other signific ...

. It was governed by

South Northamptonshire South Northamptonshire was, from 1974 to 2021, a district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council was based in the town of Towcester, first established as a settlement in Roman Britain. The population of the Local Authority District Council in ...

District CouncilSouth Northamptonshire District Council
/ref> and

Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council that governed the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, recreated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 19 ...

until local government changes in 2021.

Landmarks

The church of St Guthlac has a late 13th-century tower, the upper part rebuilt 1626. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was built in 1626 by Sir Robert Banastre (who died in 1649). Some remarkable furnishings, stalls and

misericords A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a par ...

date from 1626. There are also original wall paintings which were restored in the 1960s. Also notable are box pews, stained glass and a monument to Banastre.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire Country houses in Northamptonshire History of Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District