Dodford, Northamptonshire
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Dodford is a village in
West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
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 ...
, England. Prior to local government changes in 2021 it was within the Weedon Ward of Daventry District. The village is just north of the
A45 road The A45 is a major road in England. It runs east from Birmingham past the National Exhibition Centre and the M42 motorway, M42, then bypasses Coventry and Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby, where it briefly merges with the M45 motorway, M45 until it ...
west of Weedon. The population of the
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 ...
at the 2011 Census was 203. It is east of Daventry and west of
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 ...
. It is also close to junction 16 of the
M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...
. The parish consists of some and is bounded on the east by the A5 trunk road which is the old
Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
of
Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England, running from Dover and London in the southeast, via St Albans to Wroxeter. The road crosses the River Thames at London and was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the M ...
. Most of the village and parish sits astride the valley of an east-flowing stream which is a tributary of the River Nene.


Medieval history and later

The villages name means 'Dodda's ford'. There are considerable earthworks around the village on the northern side of the stream, which indicate that Dodford was a larger settlement than it is today. Many of these earthworks have been ploughed out in recent years, but the evidence has been recorded of their existence. These earthworks suggest that there was a large scale de-population or a considerable movement of the village. Dodford is mentioned in an
Anglo-Saxon charter Anglo-Saxon charters are documents from the History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieval period in England which typically made a grant of Real Estate, land or recorded a Privilege (legal ethics), privilege. The earliest surviving charters were ...
of 944. The village is recorded 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 a manor of three hides belonging to Robert, Count of Mortain (who was the half-brother of
William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...
), with a recorded population of 22 including a priest. In 1222 the manor of Dodford was acquired by William de Keynes, who enclosed much of the land including a deer park which lay to the south of the village, between it and what is now the A45 between Daventry and Weedon. In 1673 it is recorded that 39 people paid Hearth Tax. By the early part of the 18th century, there were 21 dwellings in the village, and a map dated 1742 shows the layout of the village much as it is today.An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in North West Northamptonshire, page 72, 5th par. In 1801 the village is recorded as having 205 residents.


St Mary the Virgin church

Dodford has a Grade I listed parish church, called St Mary the Virgin. It was founded by the
Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...
in 1066, rebuilt by Ralph de Keynes in 1100, and the tower and north chapel were added by William de Keynes in 1221. St Mary's has a nave with a north aisle and a
clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...
on the north side only. The arcade, of four bays, is 14th century. The south wall of the nave has two plain 12th-century splayed windows, of which the west one is now blocked, and part of the plain arch of a doorway; on the exterior there is much herringbone masonry. The south porch is of two storeys. The
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
was rebuilt in the 19th century. The church contains an elaborately carved 12th-century
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
. Dodford church has the distinction of being the first church that the antiquary Elias Ashmole (founder of the
Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...
) is known to have visited with the aim of recording its inscriptions, armorial bearings etc. Ashmole visited Dodford church on 15 April 1657, and his handwritten notes are now in the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...
. There is a tall 13th-century west tower which was structurally crumbling until major repairs in the late 20th century. It contains
ring of six bells
each of which was cast in a different year between 1614 and 1907. The bells hang in a timber frame placed diagonally in the tower. This is a weak layout and the bells remained neglected and unringable for several decades until essential frame strengthening was carried out in 2007.


References


External links


Dodford website
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District Civil parishes in Northamptonshire