The Clare Street drill hall is a military installation in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The building was designed in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style as the headquarters of the

1st Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps The 1st Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteers were a unit of the British Army raised from 1859 onwards as a group of originally separate Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). They later became the 4th Volunteer Force (Great Britain), Volunteer Battalion of th ...

and completed in 1859. The unit evolved to become the 1st Volunteer Battalion, 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 ...

in 1887 and the 4th Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment in 1908. The battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

and, ultimately, to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. The

Northamptonshire Yeomanry The Northamptonshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1794 as volunteer cavalry. It served in the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War before being reduced to squadron level in 1956. It cease ...

was also based at Clare Street at this time. The 4th Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment converted to become the 50th Searchlight Regiment,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

in 1940. This unit evolved to become the 637th Regiment, Royal Artillery (The Northamptonshire Regiment) in 1945 and 585th (The Northamptonshire Regiment) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery in 1947. The presence at the drill hall was reduced to a single battery, R (The Northamptonshire Regiment) Battery, 438th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery in 1955. The battery amalgamated with the 5th Battalion, The Northamptonshire regiment to form the 4th/5th Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment in 1961. Following the cut-backs in 1967, the 7th (Volunteer) Battalion, The

Royal Anglian Regiment The Royal Anglian Regiment is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It consists of two Regular battalions and one Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Reserve battalion. The modern regiment was formed in 1964, making it the oldest of the line regi ...

was formed at the Clare Street drill hall in 1971. The presence at the drill hall was reduced to a single company, D (Northamptonshire) Company, 4th/5th Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment, in 1978. The presence at the drill hall was further reduced to a single platoon from C (Leicestershire and Northamptonshire) Company, the

East of England Regiment The East of England Regiment (EER) was the infantry unit of the Territorial Army of the East Midlands and East Anglia from 1 July 1999 to 1 April 2006. Upon the re-organisation of the infantry in 2006, the regiment became 3rd Battalion, Royal An ...

in 1999 and from C (Leicestershire and Northamptonshire) Company, the 3rd Battalion, The

in 2006.

Current units

The following units are based at the barracks: British Army *Headquarters, 103 Battalion,

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is the maintenance arm of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's professional engineers". History Prior t ...

**118 Recovery Company Community Cadet Forces *Simpson Platoon, Leicestershire Northamptonshire and Rutland

Army Cadet Force The Army Cadet Force (ACF), generally shortened to Army Cadets, is a national Youth organisations in the United Kingdom, youth organisation sponsored by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence and the Bri ...

*5F (Northampton) Squadron, South & East Midlands Wing,

Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British Youth organisations in the United Kingdom, volunteer youth organisation; aligned to, and fostering the knowledge and learning of military values, primarily focusing on military aviation. Part of the ...

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Northampton Drill halls in England