Editing Northampton (section)

=== Early modern ===
[[File:Map of Northampton, 1610, John Speed.jpg|thumb|Map of Northampton by [[John Speed]] produced around 1610. Showing the [[Northampton Castle|castle]] and town walls.]]
The royal connection to Northampton Castle became less significant, and by the time of the [[English Civil War]], Northampton was decidedly pro-Parliament.<ref name=andrewmartin /> Though [[Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton|Spencer Compton]], Earl of Northampton, was a royalist ([[Cavalier]]) and backed King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], the people of Northampton supported Parliament and [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s republican [[Roundhead]] army. The town had a long history of religious dissent from the [[Lollardy|Lollards]] and [[Puritan]]ism gained a strong hold on the town. The corporation of the town, having already refused to provide troops to the King in 1632 or to pay the notorious [[ship money]] tax in 1636, petitioned Parliament in 1642 against [[papist]]s and [[bishop]]s.<ref name=andrewmartin />

When war broke out in 1642, the town willingly became the main Parliamentarian [[garrison]] for the south-east Midlands area with the former royal castle as its headquarters. In 1643, [[Prince Rupert of the Rhine|Prince Rupert]] attacked Northampton with approximately 2,000 men, but was beaten back at the North Gate of the town. Oliver Cromwell visited in 1645 and [[Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron|General Fairfax]] marched from the town to [[Naseby]], where Charles I's Royalist army was decisively defeated.<ref name=andrewmartin /> Over 4,000 pairs of leather shoes and 600 pairs of cavalry jack-boots for the Parliamentary armies were manufactured in Northampton during the Civil War, and a further 2,000 for Cromwell's [[New Model Army]] in 1648. Until well into the 19th century, the shoe industry boomed in and around the town with small manufacturing workshops set up in the surrounding areas.<ref name=andrewmartin />

The War ended with a Parliamentary victory, resulting in England becoming a [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]], which lasted a decade. Following the [[Restoration (1660)|restoration of King Charles II]] in 1660, he took revenge on the town by ordering the destruction of its walls and partial demolition of its castle in 1662, since it did not support his father Charles I and his cavaliers.<ref name="castle">{{cite web |url=http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/community/discover-northampton-s-own-lost-castle-1-2874922 |title=Discover Northampton's own 'lost' castle | date=18 July 2011 |website=www.northamptonchron.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603123806/http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/community/discover-northampton-s-own-lost-castle-1-2874922 |archive-date=3 June 2015}}</ref> From then on, the castle was used as a court and a jail, but its physical condition worsened.<ref name=castle /> The new council of the town had to pay £200 to have its charter renewed and also required all officials to swear the oath of allegiance and some confirmed by the Crown.<ref name=andrewmartin />

[[File:SessionsHouse.JPG|thumb|left|[[Sessions House, Northampton|Sessions House]] was one of the first buildings built after the [[Great Fire of Northampton]] (1675)]]
The town centre was further destroyed by the [[Great Fire of Northampton]] in 1675, caused by sparks from an open fire in a thatched cottage by the castle. The fire spread eastwards by strong westerly winds and consumed three-quarters of the town centre in 24 hours.<ref name=andrewmartin /><ref name="bhistory2">{{cite web |title=The borough of Northampton – Description &#124; A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 3 (pp. 30–40) |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66254 |access-date=29 August 2013 |publisher=British-history.ac.uk}}</ref> Matters were worsened because most buildings were chiefly made of wood and covered with thatch.<ref name=visionofbritain /> An estimated 600 buildings were destroyed, amounting to £150,000 lost.<ref name=bhistory2 /> Very little survived the fire, apart from buildings made of stone, like the Welsh House on Market Square, built in 1595, and Hazelrigg House in Mare Fair, built in 1662.<ref name=andrewmartin />
[[File:Northampton UK Market Sq 2008-06-08.jpg|thumb|Northampton Market Square]]
The devastation led to an Act of Parliament for the rebuilding the town.<ref name=visionofbritain /> Local people and businesses helped to raise around £25,000 towards the rebuilding of the town centre based around the Market Square.<ref name=bhistory2 /><ref>{{cite web |date=7 December 2011 |title=Timeline &#124; History of the Northampton Market Square &#124; Northampton Borough Council |url=http://www.northampton.gov.uk/info/200242/market/1144/history_of_the_northampton_market_square |access-date=29 August 2013 |publisher=Northampton.gov.uk |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224101804/http://www.northampton.gov.uk/info/200242/market/1144/history_of_the_northampton_market_square |url-status=dead }}</ref> Streets were widened and buildings made of brick and stone and tiled to prevent such devastation again.<ref name=andrewmartin /> In an act of reconciliation, King Charles II donated timber from the royal forests of Salcey and Whittlebury to help with the rebuild.<ref name=andrewmartin /><ref>{{cite web |title=More Information |url=http://www.northamptonshiretimeline.com/scene/1675reets-great-fire-of-northampton/ |access-date=29 August 2013 |publisher=The Northamptonshire Timeline |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224102957/http://www.northamptonshiretimeline.com/scene/1675reets-great-fire-of-northampton/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref> In 1678, the [[Sessions House, Northampton|Sessions House]] and what is now [[County Hall, Northampton|County Hall]] were amongst the first buildings to be completed.<ref>{{cite web |title=1678 AD: Sessions House and County Hall in George Row Completed – More Information &#124; Tudors & Stuarts |url=http://www.northamptonshiretimeline.com/scene/1678-sessions-house/ |access-date=29 August 2013 |publisher=The Northamptonshire Timeline |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224113758/http://www.northamptonshiretimeline.com/scene/1678-sessions-house/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref> A [[Georgian era|Georgian]] town with new houses, shops and workshops eventually grew out of the old medieval town destroyed by the fire.<ref name=andrewmartin /> In 1742<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.northants-fhs.org/northampton-home-of-the-first-water-driven-cotton-mill/ |title=Northampton: Home of the First Water-Driven Cotton Mill |publisher=Northamptonshire Family History Society |date=2017}}</ref> [[Edward Cave]] opened [[Marvel's Mill]], the world's first [[cotton mill]] to be driven by a [[water wheel]], on the River Nene.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wadsworth |first1=Alfred P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5NVRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA433 |title=The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780 |last2=Mann |first2=Julia De Lacy |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1931 |location=Manchester}}</ref>

A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of [[Gibraltar Barracks, Northampton|Gibraltar Barracks]] in 1797.<ref>{{cite web |date=23 July 1847 |title=Parliamentary accounts and papers |url=https://archive.org/stream/parliamentarypa98commgoog/parliamentarypa98commgoog_djvu.txt |access-date=9 December 2015 |publisher=UK Parliament}}</ref>

By the end of the 18th century, Northampton had become a major centre of footwear and leather manufacture. In 1801, the population was 7,020; it more than doubled to 15,351 in 1831, attributed to the fact that there was great demand for footwear caused by the [[Napoleonic Wars]] of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.<ref name=andrewmartin /> A third of the adult males alone were shoemakers at the time.<ref name=andrewmartin /> Northampton grew beyond the old town walls and industry grew rapidly with the mechanisation of factories by the middle of the 19th century.<ref name=andrewmartin />

[[File:Cole-roper northampton 1810.jpg|thumb|A map of Northampton in 1810]]
The Nene Navigation Company had previously made the River Nene navigable from King's Lynn as far up as Northampton in 1762, allowing cheap transportation of coal and other goods to the town, but in 1815, the [[Grand Union Canal]] reached the town, joining the River Nene, giving the town a direct link to the Midlands coalfields and to [[Birmingham]], [[Manchester]] and London.<ref name=britishhistory />

The first railway to be built into Northampton was the [[Northampton and Peterborough Railway]], a branch from the main [[London and Birmingham Railway]] from [[Blisworth]] to [[Peterborough]] through Northampton which opened in 1845 along with the town's first railway station, [[Northampton Bridge Street railway station|Bridge Street station]]. This was followed by the opening of Castle station in 1859 on the site of part of the historic Northampton Castle,<ref name=britishhistory />{{sfnp|Leleux|1984|p=54}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Harrison |first=Chaz |date=11 August 2009 |title=Ever wondered what lies beneath? |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northampton/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8195000/8195170.stm |access-date=30 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=[[Building Design Partnership]] |date=November 2006 |title=Northampton Central Area Design, development and movement framework (Final Report) |url=http://www.northampton.gov.uk/downloads/NPTONCentralArea1-21.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724050004/http://www.northampton.gov.uk/downloads/NPTONCentralArea1-21.pdf |archive-date=24 July 2011 |access-date=30 August 2010 |at=para. 2.15}}</ref>{{sfnp|Quick|2009|p=295}} and later [[Northampton St. John's Street railway station|St. John's Street station]] in 1872. The [[Northampton loop]] of the [[West Coast Main Line]] was built in the late 1870s. Castle station was rebuilt and expanded over the site of Northampton Castle, the remains of which were purchased and demolished in 1880 to make way for the [[goods shed]].{{sfnp|Leleux|1984|p=56}}  Bridge Street Station closed in 1964 and St John's Street closed in 1939,{{sfnp|Butt|1995|p=173}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Coleman and Rajczonek |first=Richard and Joe |title=Steaming into Northamptonshire |year=1988 |publisher=Northamptonshire Libraries |isbn=0-905391-1-2-8 |location=Northampton}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Coleman and Rajczonek |first=Richard and Joe |title=Steam Nostalgia around Northampton |publisher=Northamptonshire Libraries |year=1987 |isbn=0-905391-11X |location=Northampton}}</ref> leaving only Castle station serving the town.{{sfnp|Kingscott|2008|p=70}} It is now known simply as [[Northampton railway station]].

Tram lines were also laid down in the town in 1881 and electrified in 1903.<ref name=britishhistory /> An early omnibus service ran to Wellingborough, and since 1919 motor omnibus services ran to villages around the town which brought buyers and sellers to the market.<ref name=britishhistory />

There were iron ore quarries in the countryside around the town during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have left their mark on the landscape. Some of the quarries were in what is now the town area in an arc from Kingsthorpe through Duston and Hunsbury round to Hardingstone beginning in about 1860. Some have now been built over and not all lasted very long. The town area quarries that lasted the longest and closed last were at Hunsbury which began working in 1877 and closed in 1920. There are remains of some of these quarries at Hunsbury Hill. There was an iron works by the river to the west of the town next to the railway that then operated between Northampton and Blisworth. This was called the Hunsbury Ironworks and operated between about 1874 and January 1921 using ore from these quarries and elsewhere.<ref>{{Tonks ironstone |part=3 |page=90–153}}</ref>