Early History
Once believed obscure, the placename Kettering is now taken to mean 'the place (or territory) of Ketter's people (or kinsfolk)'. Spelt variously Cytringan, Kyteringas and Keteiringan in the 10th century, although the origin of the name appears to have baffled place-name scholars in the 1930s, words and place-names ending with 'ing' usually derive from the Anglo-Saxon or Old English word inga or ingas meaning 'the people of the' or 'tribe'.
Before the Romans the Kettering area, like much of Northamptonshire’s prehistoric countryside, appears to have remained somewhat intractable with regards to early human occupation, resulting in an apparently sparse population and relatively few finds from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. About 500 BC the Iron Age was introduced into the area by a continental people in the form of the Hallstatt culture, and over the next century a series of hillforts was constructed, the closest to Kettering being at nearby Irthlingborough.
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