Stanwick Parish Council - A Brief History of Stanwick

The following information is included by kind permission of Janet Cutmore, resident and author of "Stanwick - A Retrospective Glance". Janet also maintains the local history website.

In the 10th Century, Stanwick was referred to as ‘Stan Wigga’, was later mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Stanwige’, and in 1137 in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle as ‘Stanwigga’.

It is generally believed that the name means ‘Stone dwellings’ ‘Stone farm’ or ‘Stone village’, possibly because the village was noted for its quarries and stone houses, or perhaps it may have derived its name from the Roman Villa which was built of local Limestone.

Roman settlement at Stanwick had been known since the 18th Century, but the site of the actual villa was not pinpointed until 1979. Trial trenching was carried out in 1984 by English Heritage, in advance of gravel quarrying, and major archaeological excavations followed, and continued until 1991.

Stanwick was described in the memoirs of Richard Cumberland as ‘that retired and tranquil spot’. He was the son of the Rev. Denison Cumberland, and was born a year after his father became Rector of Stanwick, in 1732. Richard went on to become a famous dramatist and is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

St. Laurence Church was built on the site of an earlier Church, of which virtually nothing remains. Many of the streets in Stanwick have been named after former Rectors, including Ralph of Collingham, the first recorded Rector at the Church in 1224.

Until the 18th Century, employment in Stanwick was mainly Agricultural, but then the village began to grow with the leather and boot industries. According to a statistical survey of shoemakers in Northamptonshire, Stanwick returned a larger than average proportion of shoemakers to all listed men between 1762-81. Census records tell us, also, that during the 10 years between 1841 and 1851, women had begun to be employed in the shoe trade. Shoemaking at this time was on an outwork basis, with the first shoe factory in Stanwick being built by Cave of Rushden in 1890.

The first National School in High Street, was funded by grants and contributions from local dignitaries and landowners, and was opened in 1841. Extra land was purchased in 1875 and the School was extended to provide better facilities for the children.

The current school was opened as an Infant School in 1899, and in 1931, following a period of remodelling, was reopened as the Stanwick Junior and Infants Council School. The old School was then closed, but was re-opened for a short time in 1940 to accommodate evacuee children and their teachers.

In 1998, a voluntary group, Stanwick MM, was formed to raise funds to erect a Village Sign in Spencer Parade as a permanent commemoration of the Millennium. The design of the sign, installed August 2000, includes St. Laurence Church; a Roman helmet (representing Stanwick’s Roman heritage); ears of wheat (representing agriculture); a boot (representing the boot and shoe industry and also the Duke of Wellington who, it is believed, had his boots made in Stanwick).