Broughton is a large 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

North Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. The council is based in Corby, the district's la ...

, England. The village is around south-west of

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

and is bypassed by the

A43 road The A43 is a primary route in the English Midlands and northern South East England, that runs from the M40 motorway near Ardley in Oxfordshire to Stamford in Lincolnshire. Through Northamptonshire it bypasses the towns of Northampton, Kette ...

. At the 2011 census, the population of the parish was 2,208. The village's name is derived from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

meaning "fortification farm/settlement" or, perhaps, "brook farm/settlement". Broughton appears 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Burtone''. The church (St. Andrew), which is mostly early 14th century (although the chancel was actually rebuilt in 1828), incorporates part of a (12th century) Norman aisleless church at the south-west angle, including the reset south doorway with colonettes, scallop capitals and zigzags. The village has some notable Jacobean houses. Broughton currently has one

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, The Red Lion; it used to also have The Sun but that closed. A protest to keep the pub running was fought for by driving a tank to

Kettering Borough Council Kettering is a market and industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north-east of Northampton. It is west of the River Is ...

offices but no appeal has been won. The village also has three shops. It used to have a separate post office; that is now part of one of the shops. Many years ago, it had a cinema, five bakers, 7 pubs, 6 shops, a petrol station, and a butcher.

Tin Can Band

An ancient

custom Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to: Traditions, laws, and religion * Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom * Mores, what is wid ...

ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

, which still exists in the village, is that of the "Tin Can Band". It is held annually in mid-December, when, at midnight, a group of people walk around the village making as much noise as possible by banging on tin cans (anything from cans to pots, pans and metal dustbins). Various reasons have been suggested for the custom, including scaring away evil spirits just before Christmas, or (less charitably) that was a kind of "

rough music Charivari (, , , alternatively spelled shivaree or chivaree and also called a skimmington) was a European and North American folk custom designed to shame a member of the community, in which a mock parade was staged through the settlement accompa ...

" to drive out gypsies.Information Britain: Broughton Tin Can Band, Northamptonshire
/ref> Nowadays it's quite good-natured, but in the past there have been riotous scenes, especially in years when the authorities tried to prevent it happening.Dorothy A. Grimes, ''Like Dew Before the Sun – Life and Language in Northamptonshire'' (Privately published, Stanley L Hunt (printers), Rushden, 1991), pp. 6–8. / It doesn't happen as regularly or noticeably anymore, but most people in Broughton participate in some way.

References

External links

Broughton Village HallBroughton Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire Civil parishes in Northamptonshire