Thorpe Malsor is a 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 of

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

, Northamptonshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 145.

History

The village's name means 'outlying farm/settlement'. The village was held by Fucher Malesoures ( Malesouveres) in the twelfth century. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

it was called 'Alida's outlying farm/settlement', potentially a shortening of the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

female individual name, 'Aethelgyth'. The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

of All Saints was built late in the 13th and early in the 14th centuries. In 1877 the Gothic Revival architect C.C. Rolfe restored the church, with

Harry Hems Harry Hems (12 June 1842 – 5 January 1916) was an English architectural and ecclesiastical sculptor who was particularly inspired by Gothic architecture and a practitioner of Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival. He founded and ran a la ...

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

undertaking the carving. All Saints parish is now part of a single

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

with the parishes of Broughton, Cransley and Loddington. The village well in the middle of the main street was sunk in 1589. Thorpe Malsor Hall is a Jacobean house that was refenestrated in the 18th century and enlarged in 1817.

Ironstone quarrying

Thorpe Malsor sits in the Northamptonshire ironstone field. Between 1903 and 1949,

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

was quarried from extensive, shallow pits on the north and west sides of the village. These pits were connected to the ironworks north of

, by branch of the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Kettering Ironstone Railway The Kettering Ironstone Railway was an industrial narrow gauge railway that served the ironstone quarries around Kettering. History Ironstone was discovered to the north of Kettering in 1858 when the Midland Railway mainline was driven thr ...

. The first pit was close to the village on the west side. The last was further west. The railway crossed the valley north-east of the village on a substantial viaduct. The branch was removed in 1949. The railway was worked by steam locomotives including an unusual double ended locomotive built by the Sentinel Company which had a central cab and a boiler and chimney at each end. This was mostly used on the Thorpe Malsor branch. Steam quarrying machines were introduced from 1918 and diesel ones from 1944.

References

External links

* Villages in Northamptonshire Civil parishes in Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire {{Northamptonshire-geo-stub

History

Ironstone quarrying

See also

References

Further reading

External links