GRENDON

As you approach Grendon from the north, you realise why it obtained its name from the Anglo-Saxon gren Dun, which means green hill. The church stands at the centre of the hill in a commanding position, and the land falls away sharply to the north and west. The old stone houses and the newer brick buildings of the village blend together, and give the impression that they have stood side-by-side for many generations. Over the years, Grendon has lost its butcher, baker, wood and coal yards, and an off-license cum general store.

But it is a spirited and well-integrated community, and still boasts its church, a chapel, primary school, post office and general store, two public houses, and a water sports centre carefully landscaped from disused gravel pits. It has been an agricultural village for many generations, and still has four working farms and a cow buyer within yards of the old church. But most of the people who live here in the village now work in Wellington or Northampton, and some even commute to London daily.

Settlement in the area of Grendon dates back to prehistoric times. Archaeologists have identified Bronze Age barrows as well as remains from the Iron Age, and the Roman period, including an early Roman kiln for the making of pottery.

WAYSIDE CROSS

An interesting relic is the black stone by the side of the main road, north of the
bridge over the brook, which is the base stone of a medieval stone cross.

This may have been a wayside cross, erected by the side of the road for religious motives. "For this reason being, crosses buy y-way that when folk passing see ye crosses, they should think of Him above all things." Because the surviving stone is often mistaken for a milestone, it may have given rise to the name Black Milestone Lane, now known as Black Mile Lane.

MOONRAKERS

The people of Grendon are facetiously known as moon rakers. It is claimed that when they come out of the Half Moon Pub a little worse for wear and see the moon reflecting in the water of the Grendon Brook, they try to rake it out of the water believing it to be a large cheese that has fallen into the brook.

THE MIDDLE AGES

When King Edward the Elder, son of the heir of Alfred the Great, recaptured the East Midlands from the Danes after 917, he reconstituted the division of the newly-recaptured territory into hundreds, each of which was subdivided into a 100 hides for the purposes of collecting the geld, or land tax, for the fyrd, or compulsory military service.

The Anglo-Saxon hid was the holding which supported a peasant and his household. The area of a hide varied: It averaged 120 acres of arable land in Cambridgeshire, but it was much smaller further west. When the Shire of Northampton was re-established in the years following its reconquest, it was divided into 32 hundreds, each of 100 hides, but by the time the Doomsday Book was compiled in 1086, it had been reorganised into 29 hundreds, each made up of a varying number of hides, which ranged between 66 and 139 half-hides making 2,728 three-quarter hides in all.

 

WYMERSELY HUNDRED

The Domesday Book shows that Grendon formed part of the Wymersley Hundred, which covered an area of over 52 square miles south of the Nene between Northampton and Wellingborough. It obtained its name because the meetings of the hundred were held in a field called Wymersley Bush near Little Houghton.

The Countess Judith and niece of William the Conqueror was Lord of Wymersley and a substantial landowner in the county through marriage, particularly in Wymersley and the adjoining hundreds of High and Fair Hamfordshoe, (Ecton to Wellingborough) and Spelhoe, (Northampton).

COUNTESS JUDITH

Countess Judith was the wife of Waltheof, the only surviving son of the Danish Lord Siward, who was made the Earl of Northumberland by King Canute. His father died when he was very young. But about the year 1065, he was made Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton by Edward the Confessor. He did not take part in the Battle of Hastings, but afterwards fought valiantly against the Normans. He joined the Danes when they attacked York in 1069, and the Norse sagas credit him with killing a hundred of the followers of William the Conqueror. The following year, he submitted to William. He took the oath of fealty to the king, who restored his titles and lands, and married him to Judith, the daughter of his sister Adelaide. Two years later, he was made the Earl of Northumberland.

Waltheof restored to the Abbey of Crowland near Peterborough the five half acres of land in Barnack, Wellingborough, which had been granted to the abbey by King Edred in the year 948, and must have fallen into the hands of Waltheof's father in the confusion following the invasion by Canute in 1015. This enabled the abbey to pay for the building of a new church in the abbey. In 1075, Waltheof was implicated in a plot against William. And after trial, he was executed as a traitor under the old English law at Saint Giles Hill in Winchester on the 15th of May, 1076.

He was buried at Crowland. It is interesting to note that the Normans who were found guilty of taking part in the conspiracy were tried under Norman law, under which the maximum penalty was perpetual imprisonment.

As she had not taken part in the conspiracy, his widow, the Countess Judith,
inherited Waltheof's titles and land, including the manor of Yardley, which contains Grendon, Brayford, Denton, Hackleton, Hardingstone, Horton, Quinton, Whiston and Wollaston. She held three hides and two virgates in Grendon. A virgate is a measure of land which, like the hide, varied in extent, but averaged about 30 acres. The arable land she owned in the village was nine carucates.

Each carucate was about half a virgate, which were looked after by 12 sokemen, or free farmers. There were also three mills which paid a yearly rent of three shillings and 30 acres of meadow.

Judith's contemporaries accused her of having betrayed her husband in order to marry somebody else and Ingulphus, a monk of Crowland, termed her "an ungodly Jezebel". William the Conqueror then tried to marry her to Simon de St. Liz, but as he was not the man of her choice, she refused to do so. Annoyed at this, the king took her titles and land away and gave them to her daughter Maud, who did marry Simon. After the death of Simon shortly after, Maude married the Scottish Prince David in 1113. David thus became Earl of Huntingdon through his marriage before he ascended the throne of Scotland as David I in 1124. The earldom of Huntingdon and the lands associated with it were inherited by David's grandsons, Malcolm and William the Lyon, who successively became kings of Scotland. William the Lyon ceded the English earldom of Huntingdon and its lands to his younger brother David

ROBERT THE BRUCE

When David, Earl of Huntingdon, died in 1219 in his manor of Yardley, the inheritance went to his son John, who died without issue, and it was then divided among John's three sisters. Yardley went to the son of his youngest sister Ada, Henry Baron Hastings, and became known as Yardley-Hastings. There is no mention of Grendon, but the old church records show that in 1290, the living of the parish church was in gift of Robert de Bruce, Lord of Annandale, who was the son of the second sister Isabel, so he must have become lord of the manor of Grendon.

In 1315, the appointment of a new parish priest, Robert de Hurle, was ratified by King Edward II because the then lord, another Robert de Bruce, was abroad. This was an understatement, as this Robert the Bruce had become King of Scotland, and he was at war with England, and unable to perform feudal services to the King of England; he was subsequently deprived of his English lands and titles.

 

PAUNTON AND HARRINGTON

In the early 13th century, the manor of Grendon came into the possession of the Hastings family, who seemed to have been related to Baldwin de Paunton, who lived in Grendon. In 1255, the manor of Grendon was held by James de Paunton. Maud, the daughter of Baldwin's grandson, Philip of John de Hastings, married John de Harrington who, in 1316, was named Lord of Grendon and Cotes.

In 1325, John's son Richard died before his father, holding a small manor from John de Hastings. This included a dwelling house, 80 acres of arable land, and a mill, all of which were inherited by Richard's son John. When John died in 1376, he divided his estate between his two elder daughters.

 

NETHER GRENDON

Amy married John Carnell and received the manor of Nether Grendon, which some years later had passed into the possession of Sir Thomas Brownfleete, who was governor of the castle of York.

Some years later, it was owned by John Mortimer. Mortimer's daughter Agnes married Baldwin Willoughby, and possession of the estate passed to her son John. It remained in the Willoughby family until 1641 when the young Philip Willoughby sold it to Spencer Compton, second Earl of Northampton, together with a water-mill called 'Keep Mill' and a windmill.

 

OVER GRENDON

The part known as Over Grendon was inherited by Richard de Harrington's second daughter, Isabel, who married Hugh Fairfax. Some years later, the property was leased to the Salisbury family. In the middle of the 16th century, it came into the possession of Sir Thomas Tresham through marriage.

The Tresham family were staunch Roman Catholics from Rushton, and Sir Thomas was created Grand Prior of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem by Queen Mary I. His grandson, Francis Tresham, was one of the Gunpowder Plot conspiracies.

In 1587, the manor was sold to Louis, Lord Mordaunt, and it afterwards passed through several hands before it too was acquired by Lord Northampton in the early 18th century.

The present farmhouse is described by Pevsner as a handsome 17th-century gable building with mullion windows.

 

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

The advowson or proprietorship of the parish church, which includes 12 acres of glebe land with the common rights and most of the substantial tithes of the parish, was granted in 1342 by Edward III to King's Hall, which he founded in the University of Cambridge.

When Trinity College was founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, the advowson was transferred to the masters and fellows of that college. By an Enclosure Act passed in 1780, Trinity College commuted all the tithes it received in Grendon for cash.

The act mentions Thomas Meyer, Esquire, as the owner of Little Meadow and set aside two stone pits for the use of the inhabitants for the repairs to roads. The herbage from this area was reserved for the surveyor of the highways. In 1904, the college bought the lands attached to Grendon House from the Weatherall family. And in 1911, there were further purchases of Home Close, Paul's Close, Wetlands, East Hill, Thatch, and Thatch Meadows from the trustees of J.W. Watts. Control of the living of the church was transferred to the Bishop of Peterborough in 1926, but the college retained its 273 acres of land until fairly recently.

 

THE COMPTON FAMILY

The Compton family. The Compton family came into prominence when William Compton, 1482 to 1528, was left an orphan at a very young age and became a ward of Henry VII. At court, he became page to the King's second son, who ascended to the throne as Henry VIII in 1509.

William became an army officer, and in 1513, accompanied the king during his campaign in France, and was knighted for his services. He was granted many honours by the King, culminating in his appointment as Usher of the Black Rod at Windsor Castle. When he died of the plague in 1528, he was a very rich man with properties in 18 countries, among which were the lands of Castle Ashby, which
he bought in 1512 and contained the ruins of an old castle.

William's son, Peter, 1523 to 1544, was only six years old at his father's death, and became a ward of Cardinal Wolsey. Although he was still underage when he died some years later, he left an heir, Henry, 1544 to 1589, who was created Baron Compton by Elizabeth I, and started the construction of the present building of Castle Ashby, which was completed in 1624. It has been said that the front bears the hallmark of Inigo Jones, but this has been challenged. Lord Compton's son, William, 1568 to 1630, saw the completion of the building. He was created Earl of  Northampton by James I and a Knight of the Garter by Charles I. William's son, Spencer, the second earl, was a supporter of Charles I during the Civil War and was
killed at the Battle of Hopeton Heath in 1643. He was succeeded to the title by his son James. The Compton family have made Castle Ashby their main seat, bought up much of the surrounding lands as they could over the years. Sir Charles Compton, 1623 to 1661, the second son of the second earl, inherited Nether Grendon, known as Grendon Hall, which his father had bought in 1641. Another Charles, 1760 to 1828, the 9th Earl, bought the Easton Mortage Estate and was created as marquess in 1812.

Rose Hill from the bottom, the village hall was built on the plot behind the stone wall on the left.

The Old Bridge over the brook at Nether End at the bottom of Main Road, the church can be seen behind the trees; the bridge has since been widened to take two lanes of traffic.

 

THE LOST HAMLET OF COTTON

Excavations in 1970 and aerial photographs have produced evidence that the lost hamlet of Cotton was probably situated on a bend of Grendon Brook behind the hall, in the field known as Cotton Closes. There were references to this village in documents dated 1290, 1316, and 1355. Only a scatter of medieval pottery and a quantity of limestone, reputedly from building foundations, have been found on the site. The name Cotton is derived from cotes, which means cottages and suggests a small collection of dwellings. There is evidence elsewhere in the county of other settlements called Cotton, which have also disappeared.

 

WHELLAN'S 1874 SURVEY

The Industrial Revolution, which started in the 18th century, brought an increased demand for the agricultural produce of the village and farmers prospered. They sold their produce as far afield as London, and cattle used to be driven on foot all the way to Smithfield Market. The detailed survey of Northamptonshire by Francis Whellan, which was published in 1874, describes a self-contained and obviously affluent community of 538 souls. The population had increased in number from 480 at the beginning of the century. The principal landowners were the Marquess of Northampton, Borrett Bletsoe, who owned Grendon Hall, and Trinity College.

Others mentioned were the heirs of Reverend John Wetherall, Mr. James Robert Whitworth, and a few resident yeomen' but only Thomas Brawn, who was also a collector of taxes, and James Stephenson are listed as such. The substantial tenant farmers and graziers were Thomas and John Collier, James Longland of the Manor House, James Quincy, John Spencer of Grendon Hall, John Lovell Wright of Grendon House, and William Wright.

Village life was regulated by a number of officials. The vicar was Reverend Daniel Brent DD. The parish clerk was John Bailey. The assistant parish overseer was William Pulley. The sub-postmaster was James Brawn, and the police station was manned by PC John Muddiman. Edwin Fletcher was the master of the national school, and Charlotte Collier looked after a day school for younger children.

In addition to the Half Moon Pub kept by William Lovell Sears and the Crown kept by Joseph Partridge, who also doubled as a wheelwright, there was a station hotel kept by William Goodman, which must have been by the Castle Ashby railway station, now Dunkirk Leas Restaurant on the Wellingborough and Northampton line.

There were a number of tradesmen who catered for the village's needs. Thomas Brealey was the baker. Thomas Smith was the blacksmith. Thomas Rodwell, the butcher. Jonathan Wright, shoemaker, and Thomas Labrum was joiner and timber merchant. Other shops were kept by Thomas Driver and the Misses Lawton. Goods were transported by carrier George Brealey to and from Wellingborough on Wednesdays, and to and from Northampton on Saturdays

THE 20TH CENTURY

The Post Offices, Kelly Trade Directory of later years shows a similar picture, although there were changes in the people listed. But the population had declined as the younger people moved to larger towns from a high point of 610 in 1861 to 416 in 1911. The directories do not mention the number of people who worked in their own homes in the village as outworkers for the shoe factories in Earls Barton and Wollaston.

In 1930, the buildings of the village did not extend beyond Manor Road. The southernmost building was High Grendon, built just above the old vicarage. Eastern Way was a country road. Since the Second World War, a number of new buildings have been constructed along Eastern Way and on agricultural land along Main Road and Chequers and Black Mile Lanes. But families are now much smaller than they used to be and people no longer live in large family groups. In spite of the big increase in the number of houses in the village, the population is now only 477.

The introduction of labor-saving machinery has meant that fewer people are required to work on the land, and today many of the people of the village commute to nearby towns and London to find Grendon employment. Large shops and supermarkets have priced the local tradesmen out of existence. But Grendon is lucky to continue to have a flourishing village shop and sub post office. The village hall, run by volunteers, is a centre of village life and many social activities are organised there.

Until 30 years ago, public transport made it easy for people from the village to go into Northampton and Wellingborough as there were frequent bus services during the day, as well as trains run by the London and North Western Railway.

The closing down of the railway line and the cancellation of most of the bus services during the day, apart from school buses, make it difficult for those without their own cars to get into town. The Northampton County Council have provided a minibus since 1983, which gives a service to the villages of Grendon, Eastern Maudit, Castle Ashby, and Whiston. It is driven by volunteers and runs into Wellingborough on a Friday and into Northampton on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The running costs is covered by the fares collected.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin

The earliest part of this fine old building dates from the late Norman period in the 12th century, but there may have been an earlier building. The site, protected by steep slopes on two sides, seems to have been chosen to provide a place of refuge for the villagers in the troubled times of the early Middle Ages when the area was ravaged by the Angles and the Saxons, and later on by the Danes. The building is constructed of limestone rubble with ironstone dressings. The two western pillars with rounded arches of the nave are all that remains of the original 12th century building as the east end seems to have been considerably reconstructed in the 13th century and aisles widened.

The walls of the present south aisle and porch and eastern portion of the north aisle date from this period.

The two eastern bays of the nave arcade with their pointed arches and the chancel were rebuilt between 1360 and 1380, the clerestory erected in the 15th century, as was the very fine four-story embattled pinnacle tower of branded grey limestone and brown ironstone in which hang five bells. The gargoyles on the corners at the top of the tower represent the four evangelists: a man's head for Matthew, a lion for St. Mark, a bull for St. Luke and an eagle for St. John. The chancel was reroofed about 1848.

 

The Interior

The east window depicts the Good Shepherd with the Virgin Mary and on either side stands St. Stephen, the first Christian, and St. Alban, the first British martyr. This window and the repaving of the sanctuary in black and white marble in 1914 were paid for by the Reverend Arthur Woodhouse, who was vicar from 1911 to 1920, in the memory of his three children. The floor of the rest of the church is flagged. The sanctuary has an Easter sepulchre on the north wall where, in the days before the Reformation, the reserved sacrament would have been kept from Good Friday until Easter Day. On the wall above, there is a plaque commemorating Thomas Willoughby, who died in 1682. He belonged to the family who owned Nether Grendon for many years. On the opposite wall, there is a stone sedilia, medieval stone seats for the priest, deacon and subdeacon.

The chancel arch leading to the choir stalls is supported by two faces, modelled with great humour and originality by the medieval craftsman and most likely representing real people of their time. The face on the south side probably shows a scolding wife, and the one on the north side seems to be a jeering husband.

Behind the oak pulpit, which was installed in 1908, there is a medieval squint, an opening in the wall through which members of the congregation on the north side of the church could see the elevation of the host. As you enter the church, you see a large Victorian font on the left-hand side, and in the north aisle you will find an old framed clock which is of interest because it was not made by a clockmaker but by a local blacksmith in 1680 with stone weights and bell striker. Originally, it only chimed the hours, but in 1862 it was converted to drive the arms of the clock in the tower and the frame was cut to make room for the spindle and cogs. This old clock can still work, but it was taken out of service in 1960 because of the labor involved in winding it daily and because it had become very inaccurate.

On the wall above the clock are three framed coats of arms of members of the Compton family who resided at Grendon Hall. These hatchments were emblems of mourning and would have been displayed for some months outside the house of the deceased person. Further along the north wall is a book commemorating the members of the parish who died in the two world wars. The six who died in the First World War were Reuben Underwood, Frederick Lambron, Sidney Black, Douglas Bowers, William Brealey and Joseph Parker. In the Second World War, only two men of the parish were killed, Vernon Crawley and Frederick Pendred.

Their names are also engraved on the war memorial cross which stands in the corner of the churchyard by the roadside. On the south side wall, there is a fine 13th century piscina. That is a stone alcove with a basin in which the priest used to rinse his hands before and after the consecration of the bread and wine. On a floor slab in front of the pulpit are the 15th century figure brasses of an unnamed lady and her two husbands. Close by, there is a blue slab with a brass inscription to John Mortimer who died in 1446. There is an interesting anecdote relating to this gentleman, or perhaps his father

 

The Story of John Mortimer

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In 1413, John Mortimer of Grendon laid a complaint before King Henry V which was examined by a jury at Northampton Castle the Thursday before Christmas. Mortimer stated that while sitting in his mansion at Nether Grendon shaving his beard and clothed only in his doublet, he was attacked by William Trussell Junior of Eastern Maudit and his valets who were accompanied by other male factors of the counties of Chester and Stafford in great multitude and armed in force led by the conspiracy, confederacy-"... and malice prepense of the aforesaid William Trussell and others, to the terror and perturbation of our lord, the king's people, riding on horseback with force of arms and arrayed in warlike manner, viz, with coats of fence, jakkes, which is properly checkered armour (i.e. made of different pieces of material joined together), bows, arrows, swords, one-handed and two-handed, broke into the closes and mansion of the aforesaid John Mortimer against the peace of our lord, the king, and then and there insulted the said John Mortimer, beat and ill-treated him, some of the aforesaid malefactors shouting, 'Slay, slay, slay', and others of the aforesaid malefactors shouting, 'Hoc, sinew, hamstring him, let us hastily depart.'"

The unfortunate Mortimer was dragged off at dagger's point and imprisoned in East Maudit for four hours, fearing for his life, until he was rescued by the combined descent of the constables of the adjacent villages. The kidnappers, awed by this formidable force, allowed Mortimer to go free. Unfortunately, the reasons for this fracas has not been recorded.

 

St Mary... NOT  St James

In his otherwise excellent survey of Northamptonshire, Francis Whellan wrongly stated that the parish church of Grendon was dedicated to St James. And successive editions of the Kelly Directory and the ordinate survey maps call it the Church of St James to this day, although diocese records show that it was always been known as St Mary. There are two pieces of historical information that may have misled Whellan.

First, the convent of Saint James in Dunson, Northampton used to own land in the parish until the reformation. Second, the Reverend Robert Shelbourne, vicar from 1624 to 1655, left some nine acres of land to the parish in 1665, the rent of which was distributed among the poor. According to the historian Thomas Bridges, a wake used to be held on the Sunday after the feast of St James in his memory.

 

Charitable Bequests

The parish council now act as trustees for the land bequeathed to the poor of the parish by Reverend Robert Shelbourne. Another trust fund for the poor was set up in 1909 under the will of Richard Pipes Coles, who left £200 in trust to the vicar and church wardens, the income to be applied to the relief of the poor. In 1928, Major Anderson set up the Charles Markham Memorial with a donation of £125 under the same conditions. This fund now stands at 300 pounds. The church wardens act as trustees of these two funds.

 

The Bell of St Mary's

The third bell is the oldest of the bells in the tower, probably dating from the middle of the 15th century, and was made by John Sturdy of London. It bears the Latin legend, "Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum" - "the name of the Lord be praised." This ancient bell is still sound and is listed for preservation by the Council for the Care of the Churches.

The medieval tenor bell used to carry the legend, "Sum rosa pulsates mundi Maria vocata"- "When I am rung, I am called Maria, the rose of the world." But in 1761, a new bell was cast by the old established foundry of Thomas Eyre of Kettering, which bears the words, "Cum sono, sinon vis venire nunquam ad preces cupisere, intactum silo percute docicano" - A beautiful tone rings through the unbroken silence. You want to come and pray with gladness, not by compulsion."

A tenor bell was cast for Earls Barton by Thomas Eyre at the same time, and there is a tradition that the bells were mixed up and Grendon received the bell meant for Earls Barton. It is a fine bell, and still has a good sound. The treble, second and fourth bells were made by Hugh Watts of Leicester in 1618.

In the early days after the Reformation, bell founders were carrier of offending religious sentiments by placing ancient devotional phrases on the bells they cast which might smack of popishness. They were too illiterate to think of new ones, so they inscribed a portion of the alphabet instead. In this way, they could ornament their bells with fine Gothic lettering without offending anyone. Like many other bells of the period, the treble and the second therefore have the legends A B C D - E F G H - I K L M and A B C D - E F G - H I K L respectively.

The fourth bell solves the caster's problem by having, in English, the phrase, "Praise the Lord."  The fittings for ringing the bells are over a hundred years old and in bad condition, so a full peal is no longer rung. Only the light treble bell is now chimed upon the swing to call the congregation to prayer.

 

The Vicarage

The old vicarage, now known as The Grange, was built in 1850. The architect was Samuel Saunders Toulon, who was famous in his day for his neo-Gothic designs. It was built on an acre of ground donated by Lord Northampton, who also contributed £50 towards the building costs.

Other contributions were £600 pounds from Trinity College and £400 from the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, a fund set up in 1703 under the charter granted by Queen Anne from tithes and other income of the Church of England for the benefit of the lower clergy. And an additional £400 from the Reverend Daniel Brent, who was the vicar from 1835 to 1878.

There is a tradition that the house was built with stone from Odell Castle, which had been destroyed by fire. There are two crests on the building, one of the Marquess of Northampton, and the other of Trinity College. The building was sold in 1952 after another smaller house had been built close by. In 1990, the parish of Grendon was combined with the parishes of Denton, Yardley Hastings and Castle Ashby, and the incumbent now lives in the vicarage at Yardley Hastings.

Grendon Hall

Parts of the present hall date from the 16th century, but most of the present structure was probably constructed by Lieutenant-General Hatton Compton, who inherited the building after his father died in 1661.

An aerial survey made in 1970 shows that there was an older building on the other side of Grendon Brook, in the field behind the East Midland electricity transformer station, which was probably a messuage with ditch and garden owned by Richard de Harrington at Nether Grendon in 1325.

The earliest part of the house is the north side, probably built about 1570, and which may have been part of the larger structure that now no longer exists. The mullioned windows are of this date. The lounge, which may originally have been a parlour, has 16th century paneling around the north window and an Elizabethan fireplace. There has been some modernisation, particularly around the door, which appears to be Victorian. The east front dates from about 1685 to 1690, when the property was owned by Lieutenant General Hatton-Compton.

The masonry is of good workmanship and most likely the work of John Lumley of Northampton, the country's most prominent mason, who is famous for having built Burghley-on-the-Hill in Rutlandshire. The wooden paneling in the east section of the house is 16th century, both on the ground and first floors. The moulded stone fireplaces are all late 17th century, although some of the fireplaces are 19th century. One of the fireplaces is of Raunds marble. The doorway in the centre of the eastern front is 20th century, but in early 18th century style.

Frances Lady Hanmer says that the extension was added to the south side of the house between 1920 and 1928. General Hatton-Compton is probably the most famous name associated with the hall. He started his military service in the Royal Regiment of the Horse in 1685 and had a distinguished career, reaching the ranks of lieutenant general in 1707. For a time, he was Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and his arms incorporate the ravens with which the tower has long been associated, as may have been seen from the hatching in the parish church.

During World War II, the hall was taken over by the Free French and was used to train agents who were parachuted into France to help the Maquis' resistance movement. In 1946, after the death of Miss Mundy, the then owner, the property was sold to Northampton County Council. The old stables in the front of the house were converted into dormitories for people attending courses or staying at the hall on a country holiday. The hall was opened as a youth centre by Princess Elizabeth on the 29th of July, 1946.