Great Harrowden

Great Harrowden
All Saints Church
Great Harrowden  Great Harrowden shown within Northamptonshire
OS grid reference	SP879708
District	Wellingborough
Shire county	Northamptonshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WELLINGBOROUGH
Postcode district	NN9
Dialling code	01933
Police	Northamptonshire
Fire	Northamptonshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Wellingborough
List of places: UK • England • Northamptonshire

Great Harrowden is a village in Northamptonshire, near the town of Wellingborough - the population is approximately 70. The village sits astride the busy A509 running between Kettering and Wellingborough - although a bypass is due to be built shortly. The village forms part of the Orlingbury hundred.

Church

The church (All Saints) dates back to Norman times and is famous for its medieval Doom; at Great Harrowden, the Doom sits very high up - at clerestory level. The work is not sophisticated but is considered to be one of the best and most complete Dooms remaining in England.

The church is mainly made of ironstone apart from the tower, which is ashlar. The tower was rebuilt in 1822; there was formerly a spire, but this collapsed in the 18th century.

The church contains some 16th-century plate (Cup: 1695; Paten: 1698) and a brass to William Harrowden.

Great Harrowden Hall

Watson Wentworth built the Hall between 1716 and 1719. His son Thomas Wentworth (d.1750) who had become the 6th Lord Rockingham, was later made up to be the Marquess of Rockingham in 1746. The Hall is now Grade I (Ref GD1355) and still contains some early formal gardens and a landscape park of about 160 acres (650,000 m²) to the north and east of the hall, now used as a Championship golf course owned and run by Wellingborough Golf Club.

Kings Henry VIII and James I are both known to have visited the hall. There are formal gardens which are surrounded by brick walls and fine iron gates are notable features. The Hall has a surprisingly unaltered contemporary garden which contain a number of garden features including several statues by the Dutch sculptor John van Nost, of which one has recently been repaired.

The grounds also contain a chapel built by Lord Vaux in 1905 - being a copy of the school at Higham Ferrers and three groups of lead statuary.

• The house was also later owned by the Harrowden and Vaux families.
• The Hawaiian Princess, Victoria Kaiulani was educated at Great Harrowden Hall in the 1890s

Pictures

• 

  Great Harrowden Hall

• 

  Victoria Kaiulani

• 

  Doom picture in All Saints Church

External links

• Wellingborough Golf Club

Sources

• Pevsner - The Buildings of England - Northamptonshire. ISBN 0-300-09632-1