Long Buckby is a large village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

West Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. It contains the county town of Northampton, as wel ...

, England. In the 2021 census the parish of Long Buckby, which includes the hamlet of Long Buckby Wharf, was recorded as having a population of 4,511. Long Buckby is a hill top village, located around north-east of the town of

Daventry Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...

, and roughly midway between

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

and Rugby, with each being around to the south-east and north-west respectively. The west of the parish has the

A5 road A5 Road may refer to: ;Africa * A5 highway (Nigeria), a road connecting Lagos and Ibadan * A5 road (Zimbabwe), a road connecting Harare and Bulawayo ;Americas * Quebec Autoroute 5, a road in Quebec, Canada * County Route A5 (California) or Bowm ...

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the Canals of the United Kingdom, British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another to Birmi ...

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

railway and

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

all passing through the Watford Gap, with Watford, Northamptonshire being the next village to the north. Just south of the village is Long Buckby railway station on the Northampton Loop corollary of the

History

The origin of the name of the village is uncertain. 'Bukki's farm/settlement' or 'Bucca's farm/settlement'. Alternatively, 'billy-

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

farm/settlement'. Long Buckby has a history going back approximately 1,000 years to the

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

when all of northern, central and eastern England came under the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

. The village was recorded in

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as ''Buchebei'' and its prefix was first recorded in the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female ...

in reference to the length of the village. Near the centre of the village are the remaining earthworks of a medieval

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

, which was probably built by the lords of the manor, the de Quincy family, in the

12th century The 12th century is the period from 1101 to 1200 in accordance with the Julian calendar. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and overlaps with what is often called the Golden Age' of the ...

. The castle was likely an earth and timber construction, built by 1150 AD and occupied until some time after 1200 AD. The surviving earthworks, known locally as The Mounts, consist of an oval ring surrounded by a ditch. The tower of the parish church of St Lawrence dates to the 12th century, with the rest of the building added later. Long Buckby was once a thriving industrial village: In the 17th century a

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

len industry was established and Long Buckby became a centre of weaving and woolcombing. After 1800 this went into decline and was replaced by a thriving

shoemaking Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

industry. This was enhanced by the arrival of the

in the early 19th century, upon which Long Buckby had a busy wharf. The shoemaking industry went into gradual decline in the 20th century and had died out by 2000. Since the 1960s the construction of the nearby

has spurred expansion of the village from around 2,500 inhabitants to more 4,000 and has caused the nature of the village to change into a residential and commuter village. Nonconformity was a strong tradition in the village, with a chapel of the United Reform Church built here in 1707. The present building was built in 1771. The small hamlet of Long Buckby Wharf is separate from the main village but within the parish. It is located alongside the

and was once a thriving community with its own post office, church and village hall. The village offers a wide range of amenities and services, including a doctor's surgery, two dentists, four churches, two schools, a public library, a veterinary surgery, a boarding cattery, a post office, a community centre, Long Buckby Mill Park Nature Reserve and Cotton End Park. There are three pubs in the village (The Pigeon, Old King's Head & a micro-pub Badger's Arms). A fourth pub, The Admiral Rodney, is closed and now a hair salon and rented flats. Local shops include two grocery stores, a butcher’s, several hairdressers, a card and gift shop, a chemist and a wide range of restaurants and take-aways. The English comedian Stanley Unwin moved to Long Buckby in 1940 when he got a job with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

at the nearby Borough Hill transmitting station. He lived there until his death in 2002. Long Buckby railway station was opened in 1881 on the Northampton Loop Line. Until the mid-1960s Long Buckby boasted its own goods-marshalling yard, which played a very significant role in the once thriving village economy, providing for the import of fuel and consumables for local business and residents as well as delivering the mail and packages to the village post office and newspapers to the village newsagents. Local agricultural produce and to a lesser extent livestock were exported from the facility. Long Buckby railway station, as the nearest stop to Althorp, was the final stop on the rail journey by the then

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

, his two sons and others following the

funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, started on Saturday 6 September 1997 at 9:08am in London, when the tenor bell of Westminster Abbey started tolling to signal the departure of the cortège from Kensington Palace. Diana's coffin was ...

and as such it was seen on television across the world.

Notable buildings and monument

The Historic England website contains details of 37 listed buildings in the parish of Long Buckby. All of them are Grade II apart from the following, which are Grade II*. * St Lawrence's Church, Church Street *Holly House, 22 High Street There is also one

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

in the parish: *Long Buckby Castle, ringwork and bailey

Transport

The

and

run a short distance to the west of Long Buckby. The nearest motorway junctions on the M1 are numbers 16 and 18. In addition, the A428 trunk road runs a short distance to the east of Long Buckby. Long Buckby railway station is served by West Midlands Trains. It lies on the Northampton Loop of the

running between Birmingham New Street and London Euston. Regular local bus services connect Long Buckby to the nearby towns of Northampton, Rugby and Daventry.

Schools

Long Buckby has two schools, Long Buckby Infants School for reception, Year 1 and Year 2, and Long Buckby Junior School which takes pupils from Year 3 to Year 6, leading up to the

Key Stage 2 Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when the pupils are aged between 7 and 11 years. England and Wales Legal definition The ...

tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

. The village is within the catchment area of Guilsborough School, a secondary school which takes local pupils on to Key Stage 3 (Year 7 to Year 9), followed by Key Stage 4 for Years 10 and 11. Guilsborough School also offers a

Sixth Form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

centre for students wishing to take AS and A2 courses.

Sport

Long Buckby Rugby Football Club - geograph

Rugby Union

Long Buckby Rugby Football Club, the oldest continuously operating Rugby Union club in the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...

region, was founded in 1875 and is located on Station Road, next to the football and cricket clubs. fielding three senior sides, a colts team and several other junior teams, the club celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2025. The club has a licensed clubhouse which was opened for its previous major anniversary in 1975. The club's colours have historically been green and gold, though other colours have occasionally been used, navy blue has been incorporated significantly more in recent years. The club's emblem is a castle with an archway with a cross above.

Association Football

Long Buckby A.F.C. plays at Station Road. They are members of the

United Counties League The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''GCE Hire Fleet Ltd. United Counties League'') is an England, English association football, football league covering an area including the English Counties of the United Kingdom, ...

First Division. The club's highest achievement was reaching the 2nd round of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

in 1985–86. The club's most successful players include Gary Mills, Darren Harman, Alex McKenzie, Dan Holman and Richard Ryan. The football club on the same site as the rugby union club has its own clubhouse and a second pitch which the reserves and Sunday League sides use.

Tennis tournament

The Long Buckby Tennis Tournament is an event which started in 1907, and is played annually in mid-July on the sports ground. It is a doubles tournament with each team playing all the others in their section.

Economy

Maclaren, the pushchair manufacturer founded by Owen Finlay Maclaren, was based in the village until 2000 when the company went into receivership and manufacturing went to China.

Notable residents

* William Wadsworth (1594–1675), likely born in Long Buckby, emigrated to America and became a founder of

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. *The comedian and inventor of Unwinese, Stanley Unwin (1911–2002), lived in the village for many years and is buried in the local churchyard. * Marcia Williams (1932-2019), political secretary and head of political office to, UK Labour prime minister

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

References

External links

*
Long Buckby Infant School websiteLong Buckby Junior School websiteGuilsborough SchoolLong Buckby Rugby Football Club
{{authority control Villages in Northamptonshire Castles in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District Civil parishes in Northamptonshire