Kettering
This is an article about Kettering in England. For other uses see Kettering (disambiguation).Kettering is an
East Midlands town in north
Northamptonshire,
England, situated on the River Ise, a tributary of the Nene with a population of approximately 47,000. [
1] Kettering's economy is largely based upon
service and
distribution industries, after the decline of the boot and shoe industry in the latter part of the 20th century, and due to its central location and good transport links. There is a large and growing base of commuters, who take advantage of Kettering's position on a main line railway.
Kettering can trace its origins back to an early
Roman British settlement. The local Roman industry is represented by the pottery kilns at Barton Seagrave and Boughton.
The first historical reference to Kettering is found in a charter of 956 AD in which King Edwy granted ten "cassati" of land to his then Aelfsige the Goldsmith. The boundaries delineated in this charter would have been recognisable to most inhabitants of Kettering for the last thousand years and can still be walked today. It is possible that Aelfsige the Goldsmith gave Kettering to the monastery of
Peterborough as King Edgar in a charter dated 972 confirmed it to that monastery. Certainly at the time of the
Domesday survey in 1086, Kettering manor is listed as a property held by the Abbey of Peterborough. Words and names ending with 'ing' usually derive from the early Saxon word inga or ingas meaning 'the people of the' or 'tribe'. Kettering has its roots in literary spellings used in the 10th century â€" Cytringan, Kyteringas and Keteiringan.
The hamlet of
Pipewell was the holder of England's third biggest
abbey, which was knocked down by
Henry VIII in 1538.
Pipewell nowadays only has 70 inhabitants, but still some of the remains remain, although they are on private grounds.
The charter for its market was granted by
Henry III in
1227. By the
17th century the town was a centre for the production of woollen cloth. The present town mostly grew up in the
19th century with the development of the boot and shoe industry, which had seriously declined by the middle of the
1990s.
Victorian Kettering was the centre of the 19th century religious non-conformity and the missionary movement, and this has been preserved in many of the names. William Carey was the first of the great and good men associated with the town. He was born in 1761 at Paulerspury and spent much of his young life in Kettering before leaving for India as a missionary in 1793. The Carey Mission House and Carey Street was named after him. Andrew Fuller helped Carey found the Baptist Missionary Society and he is remembered in the Fuller Church and Fuller Street. In 1803 William Knibb was born in Market Street and he grew up to continue the missionary work of Carey; he is commemorated by the Knibb Centre and Knibb Street. The Toller Chapel and Toller Place are named after two ministers, father and son, who preached in Kettering for a total of 100 years. The chapel was built in 1723 for those independents who since 1662 had been worshipping in secret.
In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Kettering like this:"Kettering, market town and parish with railway. station, Northamptonshire, 8 miles N. of Wellingborough and 75 miles from London, 2840 ac., pop. 11,095; P.O., T.O.; 3 Banks, 2 newspapers. Market-day, Friday. Kettering is an ancient place, and was called by the Saxons Kateringes. It is a fairly prosperous town, with tanning and currying, mfrs. of boots and shoes, stays, brushes, agricultural implements, and some articles of clothing. It has a handsome town hall, a cattle market, a corn exchange, and a grammar school. Many Roman relics have been found in the vicinity."
In
1801 Kettering's population was 12,734. In
1901 it was 41,770. By mid-
2003 the population of the Borough was 84,300. This is expected to rise significantly over the next 15 years. Kettering is due to see 13,100 new houses built during that period, with several thousands of houses thereafter. That will increase the number of houses and people in the borough by more than a third by 2021.
Kettering has excellent transport links and lies on the
Midland Main Line roughly halfway between
Sheffield and
London, and on the A14 East - West trunk road, approximately midway between the M1 and the A1. The town benefits from its "Heart of England" location on the busy A14 and is said to be within two hours drive of 75% of the UK's population.
Kettering's unemployment rate is amongst the lowest in the UK. A healthy 80% of its adults are in full time employment. It is home to a wide range of companies including
Weetabix Limited, SATRA Technology Centre,
Pegasus Software,
RCI Europe as well as
Wicksteed Park, the
United Kingdom's oldest
theme park, which now plays host to one and a quarter million visitors every season.
It is the home of Kettering General Hospital, which provides Acute and Accident & Emergency services for the whole of North Northamptonshire. With almost 800 staff at 5 campuses, the
Tresham Institute of Further and Higher Education is a significant employer as well as a seat of learning for local students of all ages. A new £20 million campus is under construction and due to open in
2007.
Kettering Business Park, a recent and current commercial property development undertaken by Buccleuch Property is situated on the A43/A6003, on the north side of Kettering. Many office buildings are being built as part of the project as well as a leisure sector with a new hotel. Several large ProLogis distribution warehouses are being constructed in the area also, creating hundreds of jobs for the local economy.
Kettering's Heritage Quarter houses the Manor House Museum and the Alfred East Gallery. The magnificent
Boughton House,
Queen Eleanor Cross and the 1597
Triangular Lodge are local landmarks within the Borough. Sir Thomas Tresham was a devout catholic who was imprisoned for his beliefs. When he was released he built Triangular Lodge to defy his prosecutors and secretly declare his faith. The construction's 'three of everything' - sides, floors, windows and gables - represent the Holy Trinity.
Kettering is home to
Kettering Town F.C.. The club currently play in the
Conference North, which is in the second tier of the English non-league football structure.
In the book
The Meaning of Liff by
Douglas Adams &
John Lloyd, described in a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet", that Kettering is descriptive of
the marks on one's bottom caused by sunbathing in a wicker chair.
In
Parliament, Kettering falls wholly within the
parliamentary constituency of the same name, which is currently represented by
Conservative MP
Philip Hollobone, who gained the marginal constituency from former
Labour MP
Phil Sawford in the
2005 general election.
In the
European Parliament, Kettering falls within the
East Midlands European Parliament constituency and is represented by 6
MEPs (elected
June 2004):-
Derek Clark (
UKIP /
ID)-
Chris Heaton-Harris (
Conservaitve /
EPP-ED)-
Roger Helmer (
Conservative /
Independent (formerly
EPP-ED))-
Bill Newton Dunn (
Liberal Democrat /
ALDE-
Robert Kilroy-Silk (
Independent (formerly
UKIP and
Veritas) /
Independent (formerly
ID)-
Glenis Willmott (
Labour /
PES) - replacing former
Labour MEP
In
local government, Kettering falls within the areas of
Northamptonshire County Council and
Kettering Borough Council, which incorporates the towns of
Burton Latimer,
Desborough and
Rothwell.
A key local issue relates to plans to construct at least 145,000 new homes within
Northamptonshire, increasing the population by 50%, including significant development for the
Borough of Kettering. A protest group entitled STOP ("Stop the Over-development Plans for Northamptonshire") has been established, which is officially non-partisan but incorporates several senior figures within the local
Conservatives, which campaigns against what it fears will be the creation of a "linear city" blurring the boundaries between Kettering and the neighbouring towns of
Corby and
Wellingborough.
*
William Knibb*
Alfred East*
Richard Coles*
Thomas Cooper Gotch*
Kettering,
OhioLahnstein, Germany
*
BBC Northamptonshire*
The Kettering Evening Telegraph, a daily local newspaper*
Kettering Borough Council*
Kettering Business Park
