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| Blisworth | |
|---|---|
 | |
.svg)  Blisworth Location withinNorthamptonshire | |
| Population | 1,786 (2001 Census) 2,867 (2011 Census) |
| OS grid reference | SP727534 |
| • London | 66 mi (106 km) |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NORTHAMPTON |
| Postcode district | NN7 |
| Dialling code | 01604 |
| Police | Northamptonshire |
| Fire | Northamptonshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Blisworth is a village andcivil parish inWest Northamptonshire, England. TheWest Coast Main Line, from LondonEuston toManchester and Scotland, runs alongside the village partly hidden and partly on an embankment. TheGrand Union Canal passes through the village and the north portal of theBlisworth Tunnel is near Stoke Road.
The village's name means 'Blith's enclosure'.[1]
It is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south ofNorthampton, 4 miles (6.4 km) north ofTowcester and 10 miles (16 km) north ofMilton Keynes. TheM1 motorway junction 15 is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north east.
The1961 census showed a population of 1,192. By the2001 census[2] there were 1,786 people in the parish (the 2010 estimated population is 1,870[3]), 880 male and 906 female, and 792 dwellings. There are also a few small businesses in and around the village. Just to the north of the village on Northampton Road there is a large derelict site, the location of a formerabattoir, a garage and smallindustrial estate.
The local council is currently governed byWest Northamptonshire council. Beforelocal government reform in 2021 the local district council wasSouth Northamptonshire Council (SNC)[4] where Blisworth was in Blisworth andRoadeward together with the smallhamlet ofCourteenhall. The ward elected two members, the last ones being from theConservative Party. From the 2013 election until its abolition, the parish was in the division ofBugbrook ofNorthamptonshire County Council (NCC) with one member, who was also Conservative. There is also a local Parish Council with eleven elected members.
The parliamentaryconstituency wasDaventry before the 2010 general election, when theBoundary Commission put the village in the new parliamentary constituency ofSouth Northamptonshire.
The village has its ownprimary school, Blisworth Community Primary School,[5] with around 200 children. The school takes in a number of children from surrounding areas including the southern outskirts ofNorthampton. The localsecondary school isElizabeth Woodville School with sites in Roade andDeanshanger. Apart from Blisworth, the catchment area includesCollingtree,Hardingstone,Hackleton,Stoke Bruerne and several other villages.
There is a small supermarket/post-office/newsagent, being the only shop. There is a modern well-equipped doctor's surgery in Stoke Road serving several surrounding villages as well as Blisworth itself.
The village has a pub, The Royal Oak. A second pub, The Sun, Moon and Stars, near the canal closed at least 50 years ago. A third pub, the Grafton Arms, is now a private dwelling. After several years of neglect thelisted building was the subject of acompulsory purchase order by South Northants Council in 2007 and may now be restored partly for accommodation and perhaps some community use.[6] There is also a hotel – The Walnut Tree Inn – which was the originalBlisworth Station Hotel. It is opposite the site of the former station.
The village has two churches, oneChurch of England, where the church parish includesStoke Bruerne and the other aBaptist Chapel. The Baptist Chapel was enlarged in 1871.[7]
Blisworth also has afootball club,Blisworth F.C.
There is an annual Canal Festival held in the village every August, held to help celebrate the part that the canal has played in Blisworth's history. This festival is organised by the Blisworth Canal Partnership whose aims are to promote, maintain and improve Blisworth's Canal environment.
The village is the site of theBlisworth Tunnel of theGrand Union Canal and one of the longest on the English canal system. The tunnel runs south to the nearby village ofStoke Bruerne. The canal runs to the south-west side of the village and there is a bridge over it in the village which carries the main road . The bridge is partly original, partly widened, as the main road carried theA43 trunk road until aby-pass was constructed.
The A43 (Northampton-Oxford M1 to M40 link road)Milton Malsor and Blisworthby-pass was opened on 21 May 1991. The by-pass runs to the west of the two villages, now following a newly created route fromTiffield. The road joins theM1London toYorkshiremotorway at a new junction created at that time, 15A, at WestHunsbury,Northampton. From Northampton to Blisworth the by-pass closely follows the trackbed of the Blisworth to Northampton railway, long since closed. The new road makes a slight detour near the Northampton arm of the canal at the 'staircase' of locks nearRothersthorpe. The road's construction followed many years of long campaigns in the two villages.
TheLondon and Birmingham Railway, under the surveying and construction control ofRobert Stephenson, bypassedNorthampton and opened a station in Blisworth in 1839. In 1842, after much discussion,Lord Grafton agreed to fund a new station as long as it was a "first class" station - i.e., all trains stopped at it. Ford Lane became Station Road, the location of Blisworth station. In 1845 abranch line on to Peterborough was completed viaNorthampton, and in 1866 a single-track line was built toBanbury.Blisworth station closed in January 1960 and both branch lines have also long since gone. The main railway line remains. It was electrified in the 1960s and is now part of theWest Coast Main Line running 125 mph trains fromLondon Euston toGlasgow. TheNorthampton Loop of the line leaves the main line atRoade, north ofRoade cutting[9] and just south of Blisworth, taking trains on intoNorthampton and further north to re-join the main line atRugby.TheStratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway[10] ran from Blisworth station south toTowcester,Banbury andStratford upon Avon but closed in the 1960s. Much of the infrastructure such as cuttings and bridges remain along the route.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, iron ore and limestone were quarried at Blisworth. A limestone quarry began in 1821 north east of the canal tunnel and was connected to a canal wharf at the west end of the tunnel by horse-drawn tramway. The tramway ran from the quarry, across the Stoke Bruerne Road and above the west end of the tunnel. Trains of loaded wagons descended by gravity and empty ones were pulled up by a horse. There was a chute for filling the canal boats from the stone wagons. The quarry was closed in 1912 or 1913.
A trial iron ore quarry operated in 1852, probably close to the east side of the Towcester road. The ore was sent to an ironworks in Staffordshire. The ore was probably taken by horse and cart to the canal for despatch to the ironworks. Quarrying began seriously in 1853 or 1855 to the north of the road to Stoke Bruerne near the west end of the canal tunnel. The quarry was connected to the canal wharf by a tramway worked probably by hand and with a cable worked incline running through a bridge beneath the road and over a wooden bridge over the canal. At the canal, the ore was loaded by hand into canal boats for transport to Staffordshire. This quarry closed in 1855 but was reopened in 1859 closed again in 1861 and reopened in 1863. At this time the ore was taken by horse and cart through the village to be loaded into railway wagons at Blisworth Station. In 1863 however, the tramway was reopened and canal boats took the ore to Blisworth Station for transshipment to railway wagons. Steam cranes were installed at the canal wharf and at the station. The ore was now taken to South Wales. In 1903 the ore was taken by canal to furnaces at Hunsbury, near Northampton later by canal and railway. The iron ore workings were extended northwards and a further quarry opened north of the Courteenhall Road. the tramway was extended to cater for these quarry extensions and was worked by horses upwards and gravity downwards above the incline. These quarries closed in 1921. Part is still visible in some allotments. Part has been filled in and built on. Part has been smoothed over for agriculture. On Courteenhall Road the level of the fields is lower than the road. Traces of the tramway route remain.
Further iron ore quarries were opened to the west of the village in about 1873, operating to the north of the Gayton Road until 1895 and south of the road from 1895 to about 1913. Horse Tramways connected these quarries eastwards to the canal and westwards to the railway. A new quarry operated to the south of these in 1942 and 1943 and between 1954 and 1967. This was the only iron quarry at Blisworth to use mechanical diggers. They were electric and diesel-powered. The quarry was connected by standard gauge steam-operated tramway to sidings on the railway at Gayton south of Blisworth Junction on the line to Towcester. The ore was taken to Scunthorpe and South Wales for smelting. A few traces of all of these quarries remain mainly in the form of depressed field levels and some buildings connected with the later quarry.
Lastly, another limestone quarry was opened near Rectory Farm west of the Towcester Road to provide stone for use in connection with construction of the M1 motorway. This remains and is now a nature reserve.[12]
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