Raunds
Raunds is a small market town situated in rural
Northamptonshire,
England. It has a population of 8,275(2001 census) and is part of the
East Northamptonshire district.
Raunds is best known as the home of the army boot, and played an important role in the local boot and shoe industry until its eventual decline in the 1950's and 60's.
Approximately 15 miles to the north-east of
Northampton the town is located on the edge of the
Nene valley, and surrounded on all sides by arable farming land. Raunds is home to the manufacturing plant of
RPC Containers and a large
Hotpoint distribution centre, and recently new depots for
Robert Wiseman Dairies and
Avery Dennison have been established.
In the mid-1980's, during major sand excavations in the nearby Nene valley, the remains of a Roman villa were discovered. Excavation of the area, near
Stanwick, Northamptonshire,was delayed by several years while
archaeologists studied the remains.
Raunds appears in many historical documents dating back to the
Doomsday Book of 1086.
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St Peter's
Church in Raunds, believed to have been built in the 15th century, has the second tallest spire in
Northamptonshire at 202 feet (61.5 metres). The church stands on the site of an earlier
Saxon place of worship. At a point during the 15th Century the patronage of the church is known to have been changed from that of
St Mary to
St Peter. The church also features a rare 'left-handed fiddler' decoration above the western entrance. A tombchest dedicated to John Wales, vicar from
1447 to
1496, proves that the building has been in use for more than five hundred-and-fifty years.
During the 1960's Raunds was one of the many settlements considered for expansion as part of the "
new town" development of south-eastern
England.
Ringstead,
Keyston,
Stanwick,
Rushden,
Higham Ferrers,
Thrapston,
Hargrave,
Wellingborough,
Irthlingborough,
Chelveston.
Hall, David;
Raunds: Picturing the past (F.W. March, 1988) ISBN 0950990833
*
Raunds Town Football Club*
RPC Containers*
Raunds Methodist Church*
MyBritishRoots A List of Headstone inscriptions in St Peters Churchyard.
