Abington Park
Encyclopedia
Abington Park, in the Abington
Abington, Northamptonshire
Abington is a district of the town of Northampton to the east of the town centre.Originally a small village outside the borough boundary of Northampton, Abington is mentioned in The Domesday Book. In the 17th century the village was enclosed and depopulated...

 district of Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

, has lakes, aviaries, and a museum, as well as trees and grassy open spaces.

The park contains the ruins of the former village of Abington
Abington, Northamptonshire
Abington is a district of the town of Northampton to the east of the town centre.Originally a small village outside the borough boundary of Northampton, Abington is mentioned in The Domesday Book. In the 17th century the village was enclosed and depopulated...

, the site of a medieval manorhouse with a mill attached, mentioned in the Domesday book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 in 1086. The Abington gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...

 used for the five hangings in 1612 following the Northamptonshire witch trials
Northamptonshire Witch Trials
The Northamptonshire witch trials mainly refer to five executions carried out on July 22, 1612 at Abington Gallows, Northampton. In 1612 at the Lent Assizes held in Northampton Castle a number of women and a man were tried for witchcraft of various kinds, from murder to bewitching of pigs. There...

, amongst the first in England to use trial by ducking stool, are believed to have been situated at the crossroads in Abington Park. The village was enclosed and depopulated when the manor was enlarged and parklands created by the Thursby family in the late 17th century.

Abington Park Museum

Land for the park was given to the town by Lady Wantage in 1892 and the park was opened to the public in 1897. Two years later, in 1899, Abington Park Museum was opened in the centre of the park.

The museum was originally a manor house built at the turn of the 16th century. The Great Hall, now called the Oak Room because of its oak panelling, dates back to 1500. It was once home to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's granddaughter, Elizabeth Bernard née Elizabeth Hall, who was buried in 1670 in the adjacent late 12th century church of St Peter and St Paul. Her second marriage was to Sir John Bernard or Barnard, the MP for Huntingdon
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...

 from 1660, who successively enlarged the house in the 1660s. It passed to the Thursby family in 1669 and was further enlarged and remodelled in the classical Georgian style between 1738 and 1743 by William Thursby. While owned by the Thursbys, the actor David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...

 planted a mulberry tree in the grounds in 1778, in recognition of his friendship with Anne Thursby. In 1821, during repairs to the church, all but the main tower of the church was blown down in a storm; the Thursbys rebuilt the main body of the church, which retains few of its original features. In 1841 the manor was sold and its contents auctioned off. It was converted into a lunatic asylum in 1845, directed first by Thomas Octavius Prichard
Thomas Octavius Prichard
Thomas Octavius Prichard was an English psychiatrist, one of the earliest advocates of "moral management", the humane treatment of the mentally ill....

 and later his cousin Thomas Prichard. The asylum was closed in 1892, when the Manor House and grounds were donated by Lady Wantage to Northampton. Successively more and more parts of the house became open to the public. In 1994 the house was reopened as a museum after a complete restoration.

Today the museum features displays about the social and military history of Northampton and Northamptonshire. Exhibits include the Northamptonshire Regiment
Northamptonshire Regiment
The Northamptonshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1960. Its lineage is now continued by The Royal Anglian Regiment.-Formation:The regiment was formed as part of the reorganisation of the infantry by the Childers reforms...

, local history, and changing exhibits of clothing from its costume
Costume
The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...

 collection.

The museum also features displays of leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

 objects and artifacts from around the world from the collections of the Museum of Leathercraft, a separate organization.

Park features

Abington Park is home to the annual Green Festival, Kite Festival and occasional fairs. It used to be the venue for the annual 'Folk in the Park' festival until it moved to Delapré Park
Delapré Abbey
Delapré Abbey , or more properly, the Convent of St Mary De La Pré, was founded as a Cluniac nunnery about the year 1145, situated in the meadows of the River Nene to the south of Northampton ....

.

There is usually a selection of brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

, concert band
Concert band
A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...

, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 or jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

music to be heard on the bandstand on Sunday afternoons throughout the summer, provided by local groups.

The Park also hosts a small tearoom called The Park Café (formerly known as 'The Old Oak'), which has been under ownership of Tony Ansell since 1981.

The remains of the old village, including two old gate posts, can still be seen within the grounds.

External links

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