Blakesley is a village in the

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 ...

, England. It is about west of Towcester. It is about above sea level according to

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

. North-west of Blakesley, and now contiguous with it, is the hamlet of Quinbury End.

Demographics

According to the 2001 census it had a population of 492,National Ststistics, published 28 April 2004, accessed 2 April 2010
/ref> increasing to 508 at the 2011 census.

Facilities

Blakesley has a pub named the Bartholomew Arms, a primary school and its own village shop with a post office.
Blakesley Church of England Primary School
in the village is in the catchment area of Sponne School in Towcester.

History

The name is believed to have come from an Old English place-name meaning "Blaecwulf's wood or clearing" (or "black wolf's wood/clearing"). Over time the name contracted to the present form. The name of the brook running through the village, the Black Ouse, was derived from the name of the village, and not the other way round as sometimes claimed.

Buildings

Blakesley Hall

The village was the location of Blakesley Hall, a 13th-century

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 ...

. It was owned by Charles William Bartholomew, but demolished in 1957-58.

Parish Church

The parish church, built in the style of the

Early English Period English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ...

, dates from the late 13th century, the first parish priest having been recorded as a certain William of Melchbourne, who took office in 1275. The church is dedicated to St Mary. Since 2006 it has formed part of the Lambfold beneficeThe Lambfold benefice
/ref> along with the parishes of Adstone, Maidford,

Litchborough Litchborough is an historic village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 300 people,

and Farthingstone. There are memorials to Matthew Swetenham (D.1416), Bowbearer to Henry IV, and also William Wattes (d.1614).

Other buildings

The church building itself forms the centre of a number of obviously ecclesiastical buildings probably related to a religious community. South-east of the church is a house dated 1689. Glebe farm, west of the church has a

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

doorway and part of a Perpendicular window. The Sycamores, south of the church is dated 1670. Kendall House is 18th-century and a former Inn. Seawell farm is part of the Grafton Estate of 1840.

Blakesley railway station

The station on the

Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

(SMJ) served the village from 1873 to 1962. It was linked to nearby

Blakesley Hall Blakesley Hall, a grade II* listed building is a Tudor hall on Blakesley Road in Yardley, Birmingham, England. It is one of the oldest buildings in Birmingham and is a typical example of Tudor architecture with the use of darkened timber a ...

by a miniature railway which ran from a terminal adjacent to the station. Nothing remains of the building.

Barrow

There is a Barrow at Woodend about 250 yards east of Green's Park Farm.

References

External links

Blakesley Village Website
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District Civil parishes in Northamptonshire