Earls Barton is a village and civil parish in eastern Northamptonshire, notable for its Saxon church and shoe-making heritage.
In The King's England: Northamptonshire, edited by Arthur Mee, it notes that:
It was here when The Conqueror gave these lands to his niece the Countess Judith, and except for the clock and the battlements it looks today as it looked then... It is called Earls Barton because it was the Earl of Huntingdon's barley farm; his house stood where the church stands and the remains of its moat can be seen.
Nikolaus Pevsner however, seems to disagree with this assessment and describes it as:
...a conspicuous and quite unmistakable Norman castle-motte. It is so close to the church that it stands partly in the church-yard; on this side it appears to have been cut back to make more room. To the N it is protected by a particularly fine ditch.
He goes on to argue that the castle was founded at the time of the Norman conquest of England and its builder ignored the then existing church, leaving it in its bailey, for a later demolition that never happened. Ironically the church outlived the castle.
Read more about Earls Barton: Miscellany, History, Parish Church, Local Sport, Community Life, The Earls Barton Methodist Church, Pictures
Famous quotes containing the words earls and/or barton:
“If the Christ were content with humble toilers for disciples, that wasn’t good enough for our Bert. He wanted dukes’ half sisters and belted earls wiping his feet with their hair; grand apotheosis of the snob, to humiliate the objects of his own awe by making them venerate him.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree;”
—Andrew Barton Peterson (1864–1941)