|
Remains
of a settlement near the parish church show that people lived in
the town in Roman times.
An
order of monks established a priory next to the church in the 12th
Century and the town got its market charter in 1255.
Burton
memorial. |
The
priory fell into disrepair during the next three hundred years -
and the stone from it was used to make houses in the town.
Red-nosed
innkeepers
In
1576, Queen Elizabeth I gave the town a charter to turn it into
a borough.
During
the industrial revolution, Daventry's prosperity grew as it became
an important stopping-off point for travellers.
| Daventry
People
|
| Joseph
Priestly (1733 - 1804) The first person to identify oxygen.
He lived and was educated in Daventry. |
| Stanley
Unwin (1911 - 2002) Entertainer and inventor of the strange
language 'unwinese'. He worked at the BBC transmitting station
in Daventry and lived in the town for a time. |
| Reg
Prentice (1923
- 2001) MP
for Daventry. He was a Labour minister who "swapped sides"
to the Conservatives in 1977 and went on to be a minister under
Margaret Thatcher. |
As
early as 1598, Shakespeare had recognised the town's importance
by referring to the "red-nosed innkeeper of Daventry" in Henry IV
part 1. Two hundred years later, a directory talks about the town's
fine houses and excellent inns.
Daventry
established itself as a centre for making whips and saddles - but
it wasn't until 1925 that the town became world-famous as the home
of the BBC's World Service Transmitting Station. The callsign 5XX
was known across the globe and most old radios had the town marked
on their tuning dials.
Daventry
mast. |
Growing
town
The
engineering firm British Timken set up a base in Daventry and the
Ford motor company built a huge warehouse on the outskirts.
Today,
the town is home to more than twenty thousand people and is still
growing.
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