Great Brington
Coordinates: 52°16′45″N 1°01′35″W / 52.2791°N 1.0265°W
Great Brington is a village in the Daventry district of the county of Northamptonshire, England. The village, in the civil parish of Brington, has a population of about 200. At the 2011 Census the population is included in the civil parish of Brington. The parish church of Great Brington is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and St John.
In 1508, John Spencer from Wormleighton in Warwickshire purchased the estate of Althorp outside Great Brington with its moated house and several hundred acres of farmland.[1] He had grazed sheep here from the 1480s. In 1508, impressed by the quality of the land, he eventually bought it and rebuilt the house.[2] In 1511 he made further purchases to acquire much of the surrounding countryside, including the villages of Little Brington and Great Brington as well their parish church of St Mary the Virgin, from Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset.[1]
Just outside the village is Althorp, the home of the Spencer family and Diana, Princess of Wales. Several members of the Spencer family are buried at Great Brington church, including Diana's father the 8th Earl Spencer, who died in 1992.[3] The death of Diana had quite an effect on the village - the village pub was renamed from "The Fox and Hounds" to the "Althorp Coaching Inn" and the previously sleepy post office gained currency exchange facilities following the large increase in tourism to the area.
The Macmillan Way long distance footpath passes through Great Brington. The disc jockey and television presenter Jo Whiley is from the village.
Geography
Nearby settlements include Little Brington, Nobottle and Long Buckby
Notable people from Great Brington
- Lawrence Washington (1602–1653), the great-great-grandfather of George Washington, first president of the United States, is buried in the chancel of the Church at St Mary's in the village.[4]
- Betsy Baker (1842–1955), a supercentenarian who was born in Great Brington and recognized as the world's oldest living person until she died at the age of 113 on 24 October 1955.
References
- 1 2 H. Gawthorne/S. Mattingly/G. W. Shaeffer/M. Avery/B. Thomas/R. Barnard/M. Young, Revd. N.V. Knibbs/R. Horne: "The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Great Brington. 800 Years of English History", published as "Brington Church: A Popular History" in 1989 and printed by Peerless Press.
- ↑ Sir John Spencer 1455–1522 (access date 20 July 2013)
- ↑
- ↑ "St Mary's Church". Retrieved 22 February 2014.
External links
Media related to Great Brington at Wikimedia Commons
- BBC feature on Great Brington church
- Great Brington Parish Church website
- Map sources for Great Brington
