| | |||
| Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Population: | 477 | ||
| Ordnance Survey | |||
| OS grid reference: | Maps for SP875605 | ||
| Administration | |||
| District: | Wellingborough | ||
| County: | Northamptonshire | ||
| Region: | East Midlands | ||
| Nation: | England | ||
| Other | |||
| Ceremonial county: | Northamptonshire | ||
| Traditional county: | Northamptonshire | ||
| Post office and telephone | |||
| Post town: | NORTHAMPTON | ||
| Postcode: | - style="vertical-align: top;" | Dialling code: | 01933 |
| Politics | |||
| UK Parliament: | Wellingborough | ||
| European Parliament: | East Midlands | ||
| [image] | |||
Grendon is a small Village in rural Northamptonshire, England on the borders of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire - with many houses made of the local Limestone; various older thatched houses still survive. The current population is about 464 (1991), and is popular with commuters to London or Milton Keynes. It is the site of the nineteenth century 'Battle of Grendon'. The village is in two parts, separated by the brook, the smaller part of the village is shown on maps as "Lower End". The higher (southern) part of the village is located at the top of a steep hill.
The village has a church (St Mary's) which dates in part back to Norman times, and a thatched pub, The Half Moon run by the Charles Wells brewery. There is village folklore about drunken revellers leaving the pub in olden days trying to fish the reflection of the moon from the brook; these characters became know as "Moonrakers". Like many villages it has suffered from the loss of its local shop/post office and its other pub The Crown - both of which have been sold on for development.
The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book when Grendon formed part of the hundred of Wymersley, which covered an area of 52 square miles.
The village is surrounded by land owned by three great land owners - The Queen at Strixton, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Castle Ashby Estate (Marquess of Northampton).
[image] The control of the living was transferred in 1926 to the Bishop of Peterborough.
The two eastern bays of the nave arcades and the chancel were rebuilt between 1368-80, with the clerestory being added in the 15th century along with the four storey tower. The gargoyles on the four corners of the tower represent the four evangelists:
The chancel was reroofed in around 1848.
Current priest: Father David Stokes
On the church, Sir Nicholas Pevsner says, "The first three bays on both sides are Lare Norman. Next in order of time the late 12th century doorway with one order of shafts carrying simple moulded capitals and an arch with a thick roll moulding. Early 13 century the simple north doorway close to a pair of lancets. Money was left to the campanile in 1453."
In the war the hall was used by the SOE as a training camp for the Free French.
Next to the present site of Grendon Hall but on the other side of the brook is the site of a much earlier medieval manor house owned by Richard de Harrington, whose fish ponds remain today as part of the grounds of the present hall.
In 1946, after the death of the then owner Miss Mundy, the hall was sold to the County Council. The hall was reopened by the then Princess Elizabeth in 1946.