Abington Park, in the Abington district of

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...

, has lakes, aviaries, and a museum, as well as trees and grassy open spaces.

Origins

Elizabeth Hall, granddaughter of William Shakespeare

The park contains the ruins of the former village of Abington, the site of a medieval manorhouse with a mill attached, mentioned 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 manusc ...

in 1086. The Abington gallows used for the five hangings in 1612 following the Northamptonshire witch trials, amongst the first in England to use trial by

ducking stool Cucking stools or ducking stools were chairs formerly used for punishment of disorderly women, scolds, and dishonest tradesmen in England, Scotland, and elsewhere. The cucking-stool was a form of or "women's punishment," as referred to in La ...

, are believed to have been situated at the crossroads in Abington Park. The village was enclosed and depopulated when the manor was enlarged and parklands created by the Thursby family in the late 17th century.

Abington Park Manor House

The museum was originally a manor house built at the turn of the 16th century. The Great Hall, now called the Oak Room because of its oak panelling, dates back to 1500. It was once home to

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's granddaughter, Elizabeth Bernard née Elizabeth Hall, who was buried in 1670 in the adjacent late 12th-century church of St Peter and St Paul. Her second marriage was to Sir John Bernard or Barnard, the MP for Huntingdon from 1660, who successively enlarged the house in the 1660s. It passed to the Thursby family in 1669 and was further enlarged and remodelled in the classical Georgian style between 1738 and 1743 by William Thursby. While owned by the Thursbys, the actor

David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...

planted a

mulberry tree ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 ide ...

in the grounds in 1778, in recognition of his friendship with Anne Thursby. In 1821, during repairs to the church, all but the main tower of the church was blown down in a storm; the Thursbys rebuilt the main body of the church, which retains few of its original features. In 1841 the manor was sold and its contents auctioned off. It was converted into a

lunatic asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatr ...

in 1845, directed first by

Thomas Octavius Prichard Thomas Octavius Prichard (1808–1847) was an English psychiatrist, one of the earliest advocates of " moral management", the humane treatment of the mentally ill. Having served as superintendent for two years at Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum, P ...

and later his cousin Thomas Prichard. The asylum was closed in 1892, when the Manor House and grounds were donated to Northampton Council. In 1994 the house was reopened as a museum after a complete restoration. The museum features displays about the social history of Northamptonshire (including a

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

collection) and its military history (including artefacts from the

Northamptonshire Regiment The Northamptonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1960. In 1960, it was amalgamated with the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment to form the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's O ...

). The Museum of Leathercraft was also based in the house until 2016, when it moved to premises in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre in the centre of Nottingham.

The Park

Abington Park has a bandstand which is suitable for hosting a selection of brass band,

concert band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion fami ...

, folk or

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

music. It was the venue for the annual 'Folk in the Park' festival until it moved to Delapré Park. The park also contains two lakes and a model boating lake, connected by a stream. The largest of the lakes was remodelled in the 1920s. There is also a play park, a cafe, tennis courts, outdoor table tennis, and a rose garden, as well as the church of St Peter and St Paul.

References

External links

Abington Park MuseumMuseum of Leathercraft
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Northampton Tourist attractions in Northampton Regimental museums in England Fashion museums in the United Kingdom Local museums in Northamptonshire Museums established in 1899 1899 establishments in England Parks and open spaces in Northamptonshire