Earls Barton - History

History

The first Saxon settlement at Earls Barton was one of various settlements built on a spring-line on the Northern bank of the River Nene. The site is to be found on a spur above the flood plain. Originally (i.e. before 600 AD) the Saxon village was known as Bere-tun - which means "a place for growing Barley. Following the Norman invasion, the Domesday Book records the village as being called Buarton(e), with Countess Judith, the King's niece is listed as both the land and mill owner. She married Waltheof, Son of Siward, Earl of Northumbria who in 1065 AD became Earl of Northampton - it was from these links and with another Earl - the Earl of Huntingdon, that gave the village its prefix "Erles" from 1261 AD.

Later, in the 14th and 15th centuries a major change took place in the local economy, when sheep rearing gave prominence to the manufacture of woollen cloth, which remained a major cottage industry until the shift to the newly industrialised north several centuries later. With the wool industry, it is thought there would also have been:

• Basket making,
• Chair bodging
• Rush mat weaving,

Another change took place in the 13th century when shoes began to be made from leather bought in nearby Northampton. At this time the village had its own tanyard, which remained in operation until 1984. The census of 1801 shows that the population had by then grown to 729. By 1850 the population had trebled.

Between 1913 and 1921 ironstone was quarried locally with the ore being removed either by train or by an aerial ropeway.