Badby
Encyclopedia
Badby is a village
and a rural parish of about 220 acres (89 ha) in the Daventry district
of the county of Northamptonshire
, England
.
Daventry to Banbury
road. It is bisected west to east, at about 395 feet (120.4 m) above sea level, by the upper reaches of the River Nene
. The village is mainly south of the river, where the land rises to Badby Down at 610 feet (185.9 m).
period, until printing stabilised it in the present form. Badby, Badbye, Baddebi, Baddeby, Badebi and Badeby are all found. Baddanbyrg or Baddan Byrig were used in the 944 AD charter, but these more likely refer specifically to Arbury Hill (see below).
changed hands frequently as the swirling forces of Mercia
and the invading Danes
ebbed and flowed across middle England.
Badby and Newnham manors were treated as one until the Knightleys sold Newnham manor to the Thorntons of Brockhall
in 1634. The church benefice has always been Badby with Newnham (or Badby-cum-Newnham), Newnham being a chapel of the parent church at Badby in the initial times, but for a few years was recorded as the main church. The shared rector or vicar arrangement goes back 750 years.
sheriff (or shire reeve), Norman, to the Abbey of Croyland around the year 726. To fund defence against the invading Danes around 871, Beorred seized it back and gave it to his army officers to secure their services.
In a charter dated 944, King Edmund I of England gave an estate comprising Dodford, Everdon and all of Badby with Newnham to Bishop Aelfric of Hereford. After Edmund's murder in 946, the estate was returned in 948 to Croyland by his brother, King Edred
(or Aedred, Ædred, Edric) on the advice of Turketul (or Turketulus), his chancellor. Abbot Godric II of Croyland, to buy protection against the threatening Danes, leased Badby in 1006 for 100 years to Norman, son of Leofwine, Earl of Leicester (or Chester), a great military officer under King Edred.
The Danes attacked and prevailed in 1013 under their King Sweyn (or Sveyn), who died in 1014. He was eventually succeeded by his son Canute (or Cnut, Knud, Knut). In 1016 Norman was killed and in 1017 Edred was executed by King Canute. Canute thus acquired Badby and later transferred it to Norman's brother, the Earl Leofric of Mercia
, who had supported Canute and was married to the famous Godiva (or Godgifu). In turn, Earl Leofric gave the lordship of the manor of Badby and Newnham to the Benedictine Abbey of Evesham, for the remainder of the 100-year lease supposedly granted by Abbot Godric II of Croyland. This was ratified by King Canute in 1018. The Anglo-Saxons and the Danes began to settle together.
of 1086, Badby is listed under the lands owned by Croyland Abbey, ignoring the lease to Evesham. Around 1124, as the lease had ended, elderly Abbot Joffrid of Croyland set about resolving with Evesham the ownership of Badby. The fire that burned down Croyland Abbey in 1091 destroyed any deeds, if they existed. Abbot Reginald of Evesham convinced Joffrid that Croyland had no claim. The retention by Evesham was confirmed in 1246 in a charter by King Henry III and again in 1330 by King Edward III after a court hearing.
Evesham Abbey
built a moat
ed grange or farm headquarters 500 yards north-east of the church. The house was built by the notorious Abbot Roger Norreys in 1189. He was a well known womaniser who was exiled to the small and distant priory of Penwortham in 1213. In 1246 King Henry III
granted free warren within Badby Wood and authorised the formation of a deer park for hunting and food. The enclosing embankments and ditches of the deer park still exist to the east of the village. Three bakehouses were added to the grange in the 1350s; its hall and chapel were renovated in the 1380s. It continued in a variety of uses after the dissolution
of the Abbey during the Protestant Reformation
. The abbey's ruins finally tumbled down in 1722. Its remains lie hidden in a thicket at . Archeological excavations in the mid-1960s showed work from the 13th to 16th centuries.
In 1316, King Edward II
appointed Thomas de Evesham, one of his Chancery clerks, as rector of the benefice. The licence, which moved more control of, and finance from, Badby and Newnham to the Abbot of Evesham, was effected through Pope John XXII
with Henry Berghersh, Bishop of Lincoln
. It was in 1343 that the endowment for a vicar was laid down in a Lincoln diocesan document Ordinacio Vicarie in Ecclesia de Baddeby; 1343, and Reginald Musard became the first vicar.
.
In the ninth century, the parish was in the Diocese of Dorchester
(Oxon), a safer location adopted by an earlier Bishop of Leicester to avoid the invading Danes. The seat was moved to Lincoln in 1073 by Bishop Remigius. Lincoln Diocese was itself split on 4 September 1541 and Badby church, in Daventry deanery, came within the new but poorly-endowed Diocese of Peterborough, in which it remains. It is now closer to six other cathedrals of the Church of England
, which are, in order of distance: Coventry
, Leicester
, Oxford
, Birmingham, Lichfield
and Worcester
.
granted the manors of Badby and Newnham in 1542 to Sir Edmund Knightley and his wife Ursula and their heirs. The dower house in Fawsley
Park, last inhabited in 1704 is now in ruins. It was built for Lady Ursula after Sir Edmund died. There was considerable unrest in the parish in the last 20 years of the 16th century, when Valentine Knightley attempted to transfer much area of arable to pasture and to restrict tenants’ rights to woodland. Several tenant families, despite being Puritans like Knightley, used aggressive action as well as national legal arbitration to protect their rights. The manor lands and courts were dissolved in the early 20th century.
In 1546 the rectorship and patronage of Badby and Newnham were passed to Christ Church, Oxford
. It remained with Christ Church, Oxford, except for disruption by the Commonwealth, until 1919, when the Bishop of Peterborough
became the patron.
.
There were 29 houses listed in 1988 under the Town and Country Planning Acts as having special architectural or historic importance. Many very valuable features in other buildings went unrecorded. The core of the village was designated a Conservation Area in 1993 by Daventry District Council.
One of the 17th-century cottages in the village was the only thatched Youth Hostel
in England and Wales. After being closed in 2005, it was modernised. It is now a single-family residence. The adjacent former warden's cottage was sold separately. Its old corrugated iron
roof was replaced by thatch in 2009.
Badby House and the Lantern House are early 19th century. The Lantern House was completely restored and extended to provide modern living accommodation in 1981-2. Badby House had extensions carried out for use by nuns. These extensions have now been removed. In 2009 they were replaced with extensions suitable for its use as a care home, with comprehensive facilities dedicated to neurological illnesses and disorders. It is listed as Badby Park.
teams who performed each spring and early summer as part of their local customs. This ancient English tradition, considered to be very old even at the time of Elizabeth I, was common throughout the area of the Cotswolds and into Northamptonshire. The changes brought about by the enclosure
s, industrialisation and the railways all changed rural life dramatically. Many of the traditional Morris dance teams just stopped dancing, and their dances were forgotten and lost for ever.
Badby had a tradition of Morris dancing, and village men still danced till about the 1870s. They too broke up about then, some moving off to find work. Without new recruits, the dancing stopped. The dances of Badby might have been lost too, but about 1911 a folk song and dance collector called Cecil Sharp visited the Daventry area with George Butterworth, a fellow collector. They sought older villagers who could remember the Morris and the names of those men involved in it. The team costume was described as all white with pleated shirts with epaulettes and decorated with red, white and blue rosettes
, two white silk scarves were worn crossed over shoulders to opposite waist side over the shirts. They wore bells on their legs and a "scotch" glengarry
type of hat with ribbons at the back. The dances they did were named: First Morris; Second Morris; Balance the Straw; Beauxs of London City (stick dance); Broad Cupid; Shepherds Hey (stick dance); Cuckoo's Nest; Shepherds Hey (hand clapping dance); Flowers of Edinburgh; Bobbing Joe; Old Black Joe; Trunkles; and Saturday Night.
The dances are particularly energetic and flowing in style, with beautiful tunes. Most current Morris teams dance at least one Badby dance, usually "Beauxs of London City". The local team Moulton Morris Men have revived the whole Badby dance tradition, as they specialise in Northamptonshire Morris dances. Badby is fortunate to have such a valuable history of local folklore and its own village folk music tunes.
in spring. The woods are owned by the Fawsley Estate. This estate belonged to the Knightley family from 1416 and passed through the female line to the Gage family of Firle, Sussex
in 1938 when the male line died out. There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI) within the woods, originally designated in 1955 and repeated under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The citation states:
Early 2007 saw the start of work undertaken by Fawsley Estate under a Forestry Commission
Woodland Grant Scheme Agreement, running from 2006-2011. Natural England
was involved and supports the works undertaken. A large number of sycamore and some larch
were felled and removed to allow for native species, and the edges of the rides cleared in the first stage. In the second stage, more and larger larch were removed. A ring of horse chestnut trees, marking the start of the path to the stone arch into the cherry tree
avenue, declined over ten years. The last ones fell over or were felled by the end of 2008. Fawsley Estate erected new gates and fencing here in 2009.
at 738 ft (224.9 m) is the highest point in Northamptonshire and a mile west. There is a single-rampart Iron Age
square-shaped Hill Fort
with sides about 600 ft (182.9 m) long.
A Barrow
is about 1 miles (1.61 km) north along the Daventry road and damaged by ploughing.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
and a rural parish of about 220 acres (89 ha) in the Daventry district
Daventry (district)
The Daventry district is the largest local government district of western Northamptonshire, England. The district is named after the town of Daventry which is the administrative headquarters and largest town...
of the county of Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Location
Badby is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Daventry, on the A361A361 road
The A361 is a major road in England and at is the longest 3 digit A road in the UK. It runs south from Ilfracombe on the north Devon coast to Barnstaple, turning south-east to Tiverton then, after a break , north east from Taunton in Somerset through Street and Glastonbury, past Frome and then...
Daventry to Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
road. It is bisected west to east, at about 395 feet (120.4 m) above sea level, by the upper reaches of the River Nene
River Nene
The River Nene is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in the county of Northamptonshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about . It is the tenth longest river in the United Kingdom, and is navigable for from Northampton to The...
. The village is mainly south of the river, where the land rises to Badby Down at 610 feet (185.9 m).
Demographics
Its population has fluctuated between 450 and 625 from 1801 to 1971, with a low point of 410 in 1901, then to a high of 720 in 1991 and back to 645 in 2001 as average occupancy fell.Name
Badby is spelt in various ways since Saxon times, through the NormanNorman dynasty
Norman dynasty is the usual designation for the family that were the Dukes of Normandy and the English monarchs which immediately followed the Norman conquest and lasted until the Plantagenet dynasty came to power in 1154. It included Rollo and his descendants, and from William the Conqueror and...
period, until printing stabilised it in the present form. Badby, Badbye, Baddebi, Baddeby, Badebi and Badeby are all found. Baddanbyrg or Baddan Byrig were used in the 944 AD charter, but these more likely refer specifically to Arbury Hill (see below).
History
There are several mediaeval charters referring to the area around Badby, but some are suspect. The land around Badby and NewnhamNewnham, Northamptonshire
Newnham is a village in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire in England. The village is south of Daventry, west from Weedon Bec, west of junction 16 of the M1 motorway and west of Northampton. The A45 road runs a mile northwest of the village...
changed hands frequently as the swirling forces of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
and the invading Danes
Danes
Danish people or Danes are the nation and ethnic group that is native to Denmark, and who speak Danish.The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century...
ebbed and flowed across middle England.
Badby and Newnham manors were treated as one until the Knightleys sold Newnham manor to the Thorntons of Brockhall
Brockhall, Northamptonshire
Brockhall is a civil parish and village in the Daventry district of Northamptonshire in England. Brockhall, like many estate villages, is a small settlement based around the hall...
in 1634. The church benefice has always been Badby with Newnham (or Badby-cum-Newnham), Newnham being a chapel of the parent church at Badby in the initial times, but for a few years was recorded as the main church. The shared rector or vicar arrangement goes back 750 years.
Saxon
Charters record that the land was given by a SaxonAnglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
sheriff (or shire reeve), Norman, to the Abbey of Croyland around the year 726. To fund defence against the invading Danes around 871, Beorred seized it back and gave it to his army officers to secure their services.
In a charter dated 944, King Edmund I of England gave an estate comprising Dodford, Everdon and all of Badby with Newnham to Bishop Aelfric of Hereford. After Edmund's murder in 946, the estate was returned in 948 to Croyland by his brother, King Edred
Edred of England
Eadred was the king of England from 946 until his death in 955, in succession to his elder brother Edmund I.-Background and succession:...
(or Aedred, Ædred, Edric) on the advice of Turketul (or Turketulus), his chancellor. Abbot Godric II of Croyland, to buy protection against the threatening Danes, leased Badby in 1006 for 100 years to Norman, son of Leofwine, Earl of Leicester (or Chester), a great military officer under King Edred.
The Danes attacked and prevailed in 1013 under their King Sweyn (or Sveyn), who died in 1014. He was eventually succeeded by his son Canute (or Cnut, Knud, Knut). In 1016 Norman was killed and in 1017 Edred was executed by King Canute. Canute thus acquired Badby and later transferred it to Norman's brother, the Earl Leofric of Mercia
Leofric, Earl of Mercia
Leofric was the Earl of Mercia and founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock. Leofric is remembered as the husband of Lady Godiva.-Life and political influence:...
, who had supported Canute and was married to the famous Godiva (or Godgifu). In turn, Earl Leofric gave the lordship of the manor of Badby and Newnham to the Benedictine Abbey of Evesham, for the remainder of the 100-year lease supposedly granted by Abbot Godric II of Croyland. This was ratified by King Canute in 1018. The Anglo-Saxons and the Danes began to settle together.
Norman
Then the Normans arrived. In their Domesday BookDomesday 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...
of 1086, Badby is listed under the lands owned by Croyland Abbey, ignoring the lease to Evesham. Around 1124, as the lease had ended, elderly Abbot Joffrid of Croyland set about resolving with Evesham the ownership of Badby. The fire that burned down Croyland Abbey in 1091 destroyed any deeds, if they existed. Abbot Reginald of Evesham convinced Joffrid that Croyland had no claim. The retention by Evesham was confirmed in 1246 in a charter by King Henry III and again in 1330 by King Edward III after a court hearing.
Evesham Abbey
Evesham Abbey
Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in England between 700 and 710 A.D. following a vision of the Virgin Mary by Eof.According to the monastic history, Evesham came through the Norman Conquest unusually well, because of a quick approach by Abbot Æthelwig to William the Conqueror...
built a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
ed grange or farm headquarters 500 yards north-east of the church. The house was built by the notorious Abbot Roger Norreys in 1189. He was a well known womaniser who was exiled to the small and distant priory of Penwortham in 1213. In 1246 King Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
granted free warren within Badby Wood and authorised the formation of a deer park for hunting and food. The enclosing embankments and ditches of the deer park still exist to the east of the village. Three bakehouses were added to the grange in the 1350s; its hall and chapel were renovated in the 1380s. It continued in a variety of uses after the dissolution
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
of the Abbey during the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. The abbey's ruins finally tumbled down in 1722. Its remains lie hidden in a thicket at . Archeological excavations in the mid-1960s showed work from the 13th to 16th centuries.
In 1316, King Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
appointed Thomas de Evesham, one of his Chancery clerks, as rector of the benefice. The licence, which moved more control of, and finance from, Badby and Newnham to the Abbot of Evesham, was effected through Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...
with Henry Berghersh, Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
. It was in 1343 that the endowment for a vicar was laid down in a Lincoln diocesan document Ordinacio Vicarie in Ecclesia de Baddeby; 1343, and Reginald Musard became the first vicar.
Ecclesiastical
Since its foundation in 709, Evesham Abbey had successfully developed an independent existence. It could not avoid being dissolved in November 1539, during the Protestant Reformation and founding of the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
.
In the ninth century, the parish was in the Diocese of Dorchester
Diocese of Dorchester
The Diocese of Dorchester was an Anglo-Saxon Roman Catholic diocese in southern and eastern England.The Bishop of Dorchester had his seat, or cathedra, at Dorchester Abbey in Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The Wessex diocese covered most of Hampshire, Berkshire, parts of Oxfordshire and...
(Oxon), a safer location adopted by an earlier Bishop of Leicester to avoid the invading Danes. The seat was moved to Lincoln in 1073 by Bishop Remigius. Lincoln Diocese was itself split on 4 September 1541 and Badby church, in Daventry deanery, came within the new but poorly-endowed Diocese of Peterborough, in which it remains. It is now closer to six other cathedrals of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, which are, in order of distance: Coventry
Coventry Cathedral
Coventry Cathedral, also known as St Michael's Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry, in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The current bishop is the Right Revd Christopher Cocksworth....
, Leicester
Leicester Cathedral
Leicester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Martin, Leicester is a Church of England cathedral in the English city of Leicester, and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester...
, Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also, uniquely, the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford.-History:...
, Birmingham, Lichfield
Lichfield Cathedral
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires. The Diocese of Lichfield covers all of Staffordshire, much of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands...
and Worcester
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester...
.
Later times
King Henry VIIIHenry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
granted the manors of Badby and Newnham in 1542 to Sir Edmund Knightley and his wife Ursula and their heirs. The dower house in Fawsley
Fawsley
Fawsley is a hamlet and civil parish in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire, England. The population at the 2001 census was 32....
Park, last inhabited in 1704 is now in ruins. It was built for Lady Ursula after Sir Edmund died. There was considerable unrest in the parish in the last 20 years of the 16th century, when Valentine Knightley attempted to transfer much area of arable to pasture and to restrict tenants’ rights to woodland. Several tenant families, despite being Puritans like Knightley, used aggressive action as well as national legal arbitration to protect their rights. The manor lands and courts were dissolved in the early 20th century.
In 1546 the rectorship and patronage of Badby and Newnham were passed to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
. It remained with Christ Church, Oxford, except for disruption by the Commonwealth, until 1919, when the Bishop of Peterborough
Bishop of Peterborough
The Bishop of Peterborough is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...
became the patron.
Notable buildings
The church dedicated to St Mary has a tower rebuilt in 1707-9 and some windows of about 1300. The building was restored in 1880-1. A fuller description of this grade 2 star, listed building is available in A History of Badby Church, by Geoff Pullin and published 2006. Copies are available from Chris Nelson at The Cottage, Vicarage Hill, Badby, Daventry NN11 3AR. The revised Pevsner will include appropriate up-dates. The parish is part of the united benefice of The Knightley Parishes Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
.
There were 29 houses listed in 1988 under the Town and Country Planning Acts as having special architectural or historic importance. Many very valuable features in other buildings went unrecorded. The core of the village was designated a Conservation Area in 1993 by Daventry District Council.
One of the 17th-century cottages in the village was the only thatched Youth Hostel
Hostel
Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...
in England and Wales. After being closed in 2005, it was modernised. It is now a single-family residence. The adjacent former warden's cottage was sold separately. Its old corrugated iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
roof was replaced by thatch in 2009.
Badby House and the Lantern House are early 19th century. The Lantern House was completely restored and extended to provide modern living accommodation in 1981-2. Badby House had extensions carried out for use by nuns. These extensions have now been removed. In 2009 they were replaced with extensions suitable for its use as a care home, with comprehensive facilities dedicated to neurological illnesses and disorders. It is listed as Badby Park.
Morris dancing
Up to about the mid-19th century, a number of villages in south Northamptonshire had Morris danceMorris dance
Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, handkerchiefs and bells may also be wielded by the dancers...
teams who performed each spring and early summer as part of their local customs. This ancient English tradition, considered to be very old even at the time of Elizabeth I, was common throughout the area of the Cotswolds and into Northamptonshire. The changes brought about by the enclosure
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
s, industrialisation and the railways all changed rural life dramatically. Many of the traditional Morris dance teams just stopped dancing, and their dances were forgotten and lost for ever.
Badby had a tradition of Morris dancing, and village men still danced till about the 1870s. They too broke up about then, some moving off to find work. Without new recruits, the dancing stopped. The dances of Badby might have been lost too, but about 1911 a folk song and dance collector called Cecil Sharp visited the Daventry area with George Butterworth, a fellow collector. They sought older villagers who could remember the Morris and the names of those men involved in it. The team costume was described as all white with pleated shirts with epaulettes and decorated with red, white and blue rosettes
Rosette (decoration)
A rosette is a small, circular device that is presented with a medal. The rosettes are primarily for situations where wearing the medal is deemed inappropriate. Rosettes are issued in nations such as France, Italy and Japan...
, two white silk scarves were worn crossed over shoulders to opposite waist side over the shirts. They wore bells on their legs and a "scotch" glengarry
Glengarry
The glengarry bonnet is a traditional boat-shaped hat without a peak made of thick-milled woollen material with a toorie on top, a rosette cockade on the left, and ribbons hanging down behind...
type of hat with ribbons at the back. The dances they did were named: First Morris; Second Morris; Balance the Straw; Beauxs of London City (stick dance); Broad Cupid; Shepherds Hey (stick dance); Cuckoo's Nest; Shepherds Hey (hand clapping dance); Flowers of Edinburgh; Bobbing Joe; Old Black Joe; Trunkles; and Saturday Night.
The dances are particularly energetic and flowing in style, with beautiful tunes. Most current Morris teams dance at least one Badby dance, usually "Beauxs of London City". The local team Moulton Morris Men have revived the whole Badby dance tradition, as they specialise in Northamptonshire Morris dances. Badby is fortunate to have such a valuable history of local folklore and its own village folk music tunes.
Badby Woods
The nearby Badby Woods are famous for their bluebellsBluebell wood
A bluebell wood is a woodland that in spring-time has a carpet of bluebells underneath a newly forming leaf canopy...
in spring. The woods are owned by the Fawsley Estate. This estate belonged to the Knightley family from 1416 and passed through the female line to the Gage family of Firle, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
in 1938 when the male line died out. There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
(SSSI) within the woods, originally designated in 1955 and repeated under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The citation states:
Early 2007 saw the start of work undertaken by Fawsley Estate under a Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
Woodland Grant Scheme Agreement, running from 2006-2011. Natural England
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
was involved and supports the works undertaken. A large number of sycamore and some larch
European Larch
Larix decidua, common name European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathians, with disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland and southern Lithuania.-Description:...
were felled and removed to allow for native species, and the edges of the rides cleared in the first stage. In the second stage, more and larger larch were removed. A ring of horse chestnut trees, marking the start of the path to the stone arch into the cherry tree
Cherry Tree
Cherry Tree may refer to:* A tree that produces cherries* An ornamental cherry tree that produces cherry blossomsPlaces* Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania, a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States* Cherry Tree, Oklahoma...
avenue, declined over ten years. The last ones fell over or were felled by the end of 2008. Fawsley Estate erected new gates and fencing here in 2009.
Arbury Hill and earthworks
Arbury HillArbury Hill
Arbury Hill, at 225 m , is the highest point in the English county of Northamptonshire.It is southwest of the town of Daventry. The River Nene rises nearby.-Earthworks:...
at 738 ft (224.9 m) is the highest point in Northamptonshire and a mile west. There is a single-rampart Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
square-shaped Hill Fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
with sides about 600 ft (182.9 m) long.
A Barrow
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
is about 1 miles (1.61 km) north along the Daventry road and damaged by ploughing.