Future Events

The film, taken by Northampton businessman Bassett-Lowke, shows the Victory Parade in the town in 1945 and V.E. Day street parties in 1946.
We will also see another short film from their collection.

Margaret Bondfield was once one of the best known women in the trade union movement. From a poorly paid, overworked shop assistant she became a champion of women’s rights and a campaigner for world peace. Briefly MP for Northampton in 1924, she became the first woman cabinet minister in 1929. So why is she not better known today? This talk tells the story of her triumphs and her tragedy.

The Long and Surprising History of Grafton Regis and the Church of St Mary the Virgin

Jean Glanville, Churchwarden, will tell the story of the beautiful Church of St Mary the Virgin from its Anglo-Saxon beginnings through its medieval connections with the Woodville family up until the Victorian age, when major significant changes were carried out, and beyond. She will also point out major artefacts in the Church, including the Woodville tombs, the medieval painting of The Kiss of Judas, original tiles from the site of the Hermitage, and commemorations of the FitzRoy family, Dukes of Grafton.

Dr Keith Harry will present an illustrated account of the history of Grafton through its period of Norman ownership, the coming of the Woodvilles, the arrival of Henry VIII and the building of his palace, and visits by subsequent monarchs. The history of Grafton House prior to its destruction in a Civil War siege is also important both because of the powerful courtiers such as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Lennox, who were its tenants in Elizabethan and Jacobean times, and because of its connection with the Grafton Portrait, which may be the earliest likeness of William Shakespeare. After the major events of previous centuries, Grafton reverted to being a quiet rural Northamptonshire village, although the turn of the twenty first century saw another royal visit.

Join us for an evening to hear about the history of Deene Park in Corby.

For two centuries, The Knights Templar were an established order in England, then overnight it all came to an end, leading to legends of secret tunnels, treasure and intrigue.
This journey takes us around some of the buildings they have left behind and tells their story (without the fictitious embellishments.) Jackie has always had a passion for history and art and on retirement from a career in Education, took up researching local and medieval history and botanical painting (an interesting combination). The History Talks she gives raise money for local charities, currently for St. Martin’s Church in Welton.