Creaton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

West Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire is a unitary authority area covering part of the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, created in 2021. By far the largest settlement in West Northamptonshire is the county town of Northampton. Its other signific ...

, England.

Location

The village is north-west of the town of

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

and south-east of the city of Leicester, along the A5199, formerly designated as the A50 trunk road. The road is known as Welford Road in the village and runs along the top of the ridge on which the village stands giving it extensive views east and west. About north on the road the A5199 connects with the A14 trunk road, a dual carriageway connecting the M1 and

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 motorway, M1 and the western end of t ...

s from the Catthorpe Interchange with

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

and the port of

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London. H ...

Governance

The village has its own Parish Council and is part of Daventry Parliamentary Constituency. The Daventry constituency has been represented by a member of the Conservative Party since 1974. The village is currently governed by

council. Before local government changes the local district council was Daventry District Council where Creaton was in

Spratton Spratton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northamptonshire. The local government authority is West Northamptonshire. Before changes in 2021 it was governed by Daventry District Council. At the time of the 2001 census, ...

ward together with the villages of Cottesbrooke,

itself and surrounding rural areas. The village was in the

Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council that governed the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, recreated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 19 ...

area.

History

The village is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as 'Creaton Magna' (now the main part of the village) and 'Creaton Parva' (now Little Creaton). In the centre of the village, across Grooms Lane, are the foundations of the house where Amphylis Twigden, great-great grandmother of George Washington, first President of the United States was born and lived. Twigden married the Revd Lawrence Washington, son of Lawrence Washington (1602–1652). Their son, John Washington, emigrated to America and was the father of George. On 22 July 1944 at 22:53hrs, 92 Group RAF informed Flying Control at RAF Husbands Bosworth that a V1 Flying Bomb was heading in their direction. However, at 22.57hrs a message was received that the bomb had crashed on Creaton. Severe damage was done to houses in the village but nobody was killed.

Demographics

The 2001

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

showed that there were 488 people living in the village, 243 male, 245 female, with average age 39.18 years. The 2011 census showed an increase in population to 503. There were 196 dwellings of which 7 unoccupied, 182 of them with central heating and 155 being owner occupied.

Buildings

Creaton has a typical English village green which is a large focal point with a number of interesting buildings including the Manor House, built in 1604. Also overlooking the green are a terrace of

almshouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

which were founded in 1825 and rebuilt in 1897. There a brick-built

United Reformed The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resul ...

chapel, originally erected as a non-conformist chapel in 1604, though the current building dates from 1793. A number of houses are

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

and built of the local sandstone. One of the cottages, Moringside, has a doorway from Holdenby Palace. Traditional

hunt Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

meets were frequently held on the green; hunting in the area is now run within the bounds of the current legislation. Creaton also has a village park which has a full sized football pitch. The village has a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

church, dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels (

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

) with a low stone tower. The church dates from the 12th century. The village

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

is the Bricklayers Arms, on Welford Road. On the southern edge of the village is

Highgate House Highgate House was an important Northamptonshire coaching inn and Royal Mail posting station at the village of Creaton, on the Northampton to Leicester road, dating from 1663. The building, much expanded and adapted, is now used as a country house ...

, a conference centre and former 17th century

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

. The village won village of the year 2008 and the now-closed local shop won an award. The village has a new village shop which was erected on the Welford Road and opened in August 2018 after a successful community fundraiser. Although in fact within the boundaries of the parochial parish of Hollowell, Creaton Hospital (formally the Northampton County Sanatorium) stood at the bottom of the hill on the other side of the Welford Road. This was a tuberculosis hospital in operation between 1910-1979, converted to 13 private houses in the early 1980s and now called Highfield Park. Nearby historic buildings include Cottesbrooke Hall and estate ca. north; Holdenby House and Althorp ca. and south respectively; Coton Manor Garden and Ravensthorpe Reservoir both ca. west; the 7th Century

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

church at Brixworth ca. east.

Other facilities

* Ducklings Pre-School operates out of the site of the old primary school which was closed in December 2018. * There are two small industrial and business estates: one is off Grooms Lane, near Highgate House; the other is along the Brixworth Road on the outskirts of Creaton, known as Twigden Barns. * It also boasts a playing field with many walks around it and a small children's par
Creatons Children's Park
Slide n swing

References

External links

Northamptonshire County Council

Highgate House
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District Civil parishes in Northamptonshire