In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Rothwell like this:
ROTHWELL, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred, in Northamptonshire. The town stands 2¼ miles S S E of Desborough r. station, and 4 N W of Kettering; had anciently an Augustinian nunnery, founded by the Clare family; carries on some silk plush and shoemanufacture; and has a post-office‡ under Kettering, anancient market house, a church, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school, with £29 a year, national and British schools, a well-endowed hospital for26 widowers, a small charity for widows, and a stockfair on Trinity Monday. ...
The market house was commenced in 1507, by Sir Thomas Tresham; was neverfinished; and bears the coats of arms of many nobility. The church is early English, with a tower; and the chancel was recently restored. A crypt beneath the S aisle was discovered about the middle of last century; and contains human bones stacked in order and computed to have belonged to at least about 3, 800 persons. These bones, as to whence they came, or whosethey were, have been the subject of much discussion, but are now supposed to have been merely a clearance from an old burial-ground. The parish contains also the hamlet of Thorpe-Underwood, and the chapelry of Orton. Acres, 4, 430. Real property, £10, 560. Pop., 2, 350. Houses, 512. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to B. Maunsell Tibbits, Esq. There is a petrifying spring. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Orton, in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £160. Patrons, the Governors of Rothwell Hospital and others.—The sub-district contains also 8 other parishes, and is in Kettering district. Acres, 20, 783. Pop., 6, 179. Houses, 1, 327. The hundred contains 21 parishes and part of another. Acres, 39, 877. Pop., 9, 231. Houses, 1, 977.
Rothwell through time
Rothwell is now part of Kettering district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kettering has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Rothwell itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Rothwell, in Kettering and Northamptonshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/84
Date accessed: 26th April 2024
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