Rothwell is a
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...
in
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
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It is situated northwest 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- ...
, southeast of
Market Harborough
Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the United Kingdom census, 2021, 2021 census. It is the ad ...
, and southwest of
Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
. Rothwell's nearest railway station is at
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- ...
on the
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...
.
Rothwell – "the place of the red well"
The ridge on which present day Rothwell stands, overlooking the gentle
Ise Valley, has witnessed the comings and goings of successive generations. Four thousand years ago
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
mourners buried their dead alongside offerings of food in vessels. The
Romano-British
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...
people, two thousand years later, built a settlement in what is now ''Rothwell''.
Dark Age invaders came next and founded the
Danish settlement of "Rodewell" or "place of the red well", presumably so-called because of the area's many freshwater springs coloured red by iron and other minerals.
There is an alternative explanation for the name however. According to AD Mills the name meant stream or spring by a clearing or clearings in the forest. Mills gives the name as Old English (i.e. Anglo-Saxon) rather than Danish
By the early
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
Rothwell, or "Rowell" as it is known locally, was already a town of some importance, dominating the then smaller settlement of Kettering (a state of affairs which persisted until the arrival in Kettering of the railway). A charter, granted by
King John in AD 1204 permitting a weekly market and annual fair, confirmed the trade. Both a market and a fair are still extant. The market is held every Monday and the fair, called "Rowell Fair", takes place on Market Hill during the week following
Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christianity, Western Christian liturgical year, liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity. Trinity Sunday celebrates the Christian doctrine of the ...
.
Rothwell Market House was completed in 1578.
The town has a rich history and possesses a large parish church, the longest in the county and complete with
bone-crypt, and the Market House built by
Thomas Tresham in 1578. Rothwell was once one of the three largest towns in
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 ...
, the other two being
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 ...
and
Stamford (which is now in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
). Rothwell is also on the pilgrimage route from the former Benedictine Abbey at Peterborough to Santiago de Compostella, a route still used today.
''Rowell Fair''
In 1204
King John issued a royal charter granting Rothwell the right to hold a market every Monday:
''John, by the grace of God King, be it known that we have granted, and by this our present charter do confirm to our beloved and faithful Richard - Earl of Clare and his heirs that they may have their market of Rowell on Monday, with all the liberties and free customs to that market belonging as it was formerly eldon Sunday, so that nevertheless it be not the hurt of neighbouring markets. Besides which we grant and by this our charter we have confirmed to the same Earl Richard and his heirs, that they may have yearly, a fair at Rowell at the feast of the Holy Trinity for and during the five days, that is to say on the eve of the Holy Trinity and on that day and on three following days, so nevertheless that such fair will not be to the hurt of neighbouring fairs. Wherefore we will and firmly declare that the aforesaid Earl Richard and his heirs may and hold the aforesaid market and the aforesaid fair of us and our heirs in perpetuity well and in peace, freely and quietly, rightly, fully and with honour, with all the liberties and free customs as aforesaid.''
''Witness the Lord H. Archbishop of Canterbury, J Norwich and W. London Bishops etc.''
''Given at Westminster the 26th day of January, in the fifth year''
The granting of the charter is celebrated annually by the week-long Rowell Fair. The fair is opened on the first Monday after Trinity Sunday each year by the Proclamation, which in 2016 took place on 23 May.
Starting at 6am at the west door of Holy Trinity church, the bailiff of the
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...
rides through the town accompanied by a guard of
halberdiers and the Rowell Fair Society Band. At each public house he pauses to read aloud the charter. At the conclusion of each reading the crowd cheers "God save the Queen and the Lord of the Manor" and the band plays the
National Anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...
. The proprietor of the public house then serves the bailiff and his guards with drinks including the traditional Rowell Fair rum and milk. The local townspeople then attempt to disarm the halberdiers before the party moves on to the next public house.
Pubs in the town traditionally remain open after the proclamation, and so much merriment is to be had all through the morning. It has been suggested, however, that the traditional route for the fair should be moved to avoid town-centre traffic congestion.
Religion
Holy Trinity Church
The church is a
Grade I 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 ...
.
Although the south chancel wall, with its
corbel
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...
table, complete with three round-headed windows date from the 11th century and the west tower dates from the 1170s, most of the church is 13th-century. The tower at one time had a spire, but in 1660 this collapsed, severely damaging the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
.
The church is long, making it the longest church in Northamptonshire.
The church organises events including, in June 2013, a concert by the accordionist
John Kirkpatrick.
The church has one of only two known bone crypts or "
charnel house
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves. The term can also be used more generally as a description of a plac ...
s" in the country; it contains the remains of around 1,500 people. The other surviving
ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
is in
St Leonard's Church in
Hythe, Kent
Hythe () is an old market town and civil parish on the edge of Romney Marsh in Kent, England. ''Hythe'' is an Old English word meaning haven or landing place.
History
The earliest reference to Hythe is in Domesday Book (1086) though there i ...
. Holy Trinity has seven late 15th-century
misericord
A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a p ...
s, along with one from the 1980s, which is a floral decoration in memory of Doris Willcox who died in 1974.
The United Reformed Church

Built in 1735, Rothwell
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...
has a simple facade but has a remarkable interior in a sophisticated classical style. The history of
Non-Conformism in Rothwell stretches as far back as 1655, making the town the birthplace of the movement in the
English Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshi ...
.
Ironstone quarrying
Rothwell sits in an area rich in
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...
. From 1920 until 1962, ironstone was quarried from large, shallow pits to the south east of the town. These were connected by the steam worked
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
Kettering Ironstone Railway to the ironworks north of Kettering. These quarries began north of the A6 but from 1925 production was focussed on an area bounded roughly by the A6 on the north,Loddingon Road on the west and Thorpe Malsor Reservoir on the south. There was also a quarry near Rothwell Grange on the north side of the A6 which operated between 1923 and 1946 which was connected to the same tramway.The Kettering Ironworks closed in 1959 and after that the ore was smelted at Corby or elsewhere. At first the quarries were worked by hand with the aid of explosives. From 1933 steam and from 1941 a diesel quarrying machine was introduced. The traces of the quarrying include a sunken field near the cemetery.
There were also quarries to the north of the town. These operated from 1900 to 1926 and again from 1959 to 1967. During the first period the quarries were on both sides of the Desborough Road (operating from 1906 to 1925 on the east side of the road.) During this period the ore was taken by 3 ft. gauge tramway to sidings at the main Leicester to London railway near what was then Desborough and Rothwell Station. At the quarry end there were steam locomotives but to cross the valley between Rothwell and Desborough there was a cable worked section, taking the wagons first down into the valley and then up to the main line. Steam quarrying machines were used from 1911 onwards. During the second period of operation the ore was obtained from the quarry on the west side only of Desborough Road. It was taken first by lorry to just west of the road and from there carried by a five and a quarter mile aerial ropeway to Oakley, thence by tramway to Corby Works for smelting. Two electric (and one diesel) quarrying machines were used during this period. There are traces of these quarries including
a gullett (a rock face area) which is now a nature reserve. Also a minor road was diverted.
Sport and leisure
Rothwell has a
Non-League football
Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...
team
Rothwell Corinthians F.C. who play at Seargeant's Lawn, Desborough Road.
Until the close of the 2011–2012 season, Rothwell had another football club,
Rothwell Town F.C. Having been as high up the football pyramid as
Southern Football League Premier Division, the team are currently without a home, due to ownership/rent issues at the ground on Cecil Street, close to Rothwell Junior School.
Twinning
Rothwell is twinned with the small French town of
Droué, near
Blois
Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours.
With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...
in central France.
Schools
Rothwell has three schools. Rothwell Victoria Infant School, Rothwell Junior School and
Montsaye Academy. Montsaye Academy is a secondary school with a sixth form.
Rothwell Victoria Infant School and Rothwell Junior School are partnered.
References
External links
Rothwell Arts & Heritage CentreBBC Coverage of 800th Rothwell FairRowell Fair SocietyRothwell Town WebsiteRothwell Holy TrinityRothwell at genuki.org.ukDesborough & Rothwell Photographic Society
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Charter fair
Civil parishes in Northamptonshire
North Northamptonshire
Market towns in Northamptonshire
Towns in Northamptonshire