page_title: Abthorpe
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Abthorpe / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Abthorpe Village Hall, Abthorpe, South-Northants Northamptonshire England UK
context_page_description: Abthorpe is a village and civil parish in the valley of the River Tove in South Northamptonshire, England, about 4 miles west of Towcester, 2 miles northwest of Silverstone and approximately midway between London and Birmingham.
  The 2001 census recorded 285 people living in the village: 144 male, 141 female in 123 dwellings with a further 3 homes empty and further 3 second or holiday homes. At the 2011 census the population was recorded as 311.
context_section_description: Abthorpe was part of the Church of England parish of Towcester and had a chapel of ease from at least the 14th century. Abthorpe was made a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1737, after which the parish church was restored. In 1869 it was demolished and the present Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist, designed by Ewan Christian, was built in 1869-71. It is now a member of the Whittlewood Parishes, a Church of England Benefice that includes also the parishes of Paulerspury, Silverstone, Slapton and Whittlebury.
  Abthorpe had a medieval deer park. This is likely to have been Bucknell Wood, which has the rounded outline characteristic of such a park. On 20 December 1537 Sir William Parr reported to Thomas Cromwell that:
  On Monday night last about 30 persons, 20 of whom were well horsed, came to Lord Mountjoy's park at Abthorpe, killed almost all the deer and took and bound one of Ric. Cecile's servants dwelling in Abthorpe. As Abthorpe is 24 miles from Parre's house, Sir Humfrey Stafford, who sent him word of it, caused his son to follow them. Such a thing was never done in these parts since he knew them. In his opinion it deserves great punishment. Asks whether he shall search in the adjoining shires for the procurers.
  The next day Parr updated Cromwell:
  According to his letter, dated 21st inst., has endeavoured to find out the persons who made the spoil in Lord Mountjoy's park at Abthorpe. Can get no perfect knowledge but that Sir John St. John, Sir John Parkar, and Sir Robt. Kirkham are suspected. Sends the confession of one Thos. Bright, who was sent to gaol at Northampton on St. Thomas day before Christmas.
  The oldest part of the village school was built in 1642 during the English Civil War. It is now the village hall.
  Abthorpe was part of the Grafton Estate. Charlock Farmhouse, Foscote House and Hill House were all built for the estate in about 1840.
caption: Abthorpe village hall
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S2 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:03:15 14:36:45", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4043", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:03:15 14:36:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:03:15 14:36:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "149/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2048", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1536", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2174", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "81920/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "64000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}