Barby 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 ...

about north of

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...

in Northamptonshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 2,336. Barby is located right off the M45 motorway a short spur from the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

to the A45 Trunk Road. To the northwest and southwest the parish boundary forms part of the county boundary with

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, and the village is only about southeast of Rugby.

Rains Brook Rains Brook is a tributary of the River Leam. Formed by a series of small headwater streams midway between Barby and Kilsby in Northamptonshire, it then flows west in a valley south of Rugby on the border between Northamptonshire and Warwic ...

, a tributary of the

River Leam The River Leam (), anciently Leame, etc, is a river in England which rises at Hellidon Hill in Northamptonshire then flows through Warwickshire, including the town of Leamington Spa, named after it. It then flows into the River Avon near Warwic ...

, forms the parish and county boundary northwest of the village. The village is near the top of a hill that rises to above sea level south of the village. Barby's

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

comes from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

''Bergbýr'', meaning "hill dwelling".

Archaeology

North of the village is a Norman

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

and earthworks but no bailey. It is called Barby Castle but is really the site of an early fortified

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

. The

abandoned village An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, f ...

of Onley is in the north-west of the parish.

Parish church

The oldest part of the Church of England parish church of St Mary is a Saxon window west of the south doorway. The windows in the north wall of 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 ...

were inserted about 1300, which is when the west tower was built. The church is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

. The tower has a ring of five bells. The third bell was cast at Leicester in about 1599. Hugh II Watts, who had foundries at Leicester and

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, cast the second bell in 1622. Mears and Stainbank of the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

cast the treble bell in about 1871.

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...

cast the fourth and tenor bells in 1922. At the same time Taylor's also cast the sanctus bell. Barby Rectory was built in 1869. St Mary's is part of a single benefice with St Faith's,

Kilsby Kilsby is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. It is situated a short distance south of the border with Warwickshire approximately five miles southeast of Rugby. The parish of Kilsby, which includes Barby Nortoft, was es ...

Economic and social history

The

Oxford Canal The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thames ...

was dug through the parish in the early 1770s, passing about west of the village. In 1774 it opened from Bedworth in Warwickshire as far south as

Napton-on-the-Hill Napton on the Hill, often referred to locally as just Napton, is a village and civil parish east of Southam in Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 1,144. Manor The toponym Napton is derived ...

. The nearest wharf was outside Willoughby, about southwest of Barby. The canal reached Oxford at the end of 1789. South of Barby village is an early 19th-century former

tower mill A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden 'cap' or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind.Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia (2005), 520 Thi ...

, which has been converted into a private home. The Great Central Main Line from to

London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern te ...

was built through the west of the parish in the 1890s and opened in 1899. Its nearest railway station was at Willoughby Wharf. The railway station was renamed twice, the second time in 1938 when the London and North Eastern Railway renamed it . British Railways closed Braunston and Willoughby railway station in 1957. The M45 motorway was built through the parish in the late 1950s and opened in 1959, passing about north of the village. In 1963 '' The Reshaping of British Railways'' report recommended that British Railways close the railway, which it did in 1966.

Amenities

Boat heading north through bridge 81, Oxford Canal, Onley - geograph

The village has a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

primary school. There are a general shop and post office, a garden centre, a

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

and a children's play area. Barby Cricket Ground is in Longdown Lane opposite the windmill. The club plays in the Warwickshire League and has men's, women's and junior sides. Stagecoach in Warwickshire bus route 10 runs hourly between Rugby and Daventry via Barby. It also has a pub, the Arnold Arms.

Twin village

Since 1995 the village has been twinned with

Vulaines-sur-Seine Vulaines-sur-Seine (, literally ''Vulaines on Seine'') is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Twin towns It is twinned with the village of Barby, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. ...

in France.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Barby & Onley Parish Council
* {{Authority control Civil parishes in Northamptonshire Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District