Chartered Surveyors Northampton Northamptonshire

Approximate Population: 189,474

Northampton’s oldest standing building, the Church of The Holy Sepulchre, is one of the largest and best-preserved round churches in England. It was built in 1100 on the orders of the first Earl of Northampton, Simon de Senlis, who had just returned from the first Crusade. It is based on a plan of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The current All Saints’ Church was built on the site of a great Norman church, All Hallows, which was almost completely destroyed by the Fire of Northampton in 1675. All that remained was the medieval tower and the fine vaulted crypt, but by 1680 All Saints had been rebuilt, with the help of donations from all over England, including 1,000 tons of timber from King Charles II, whose statue can be seen above the portico. Famously, the poet John Clare liked to sit beneath the portico of the church.

The Guildhall in Northampton was constructed mostly in the 1860s in Victorian Gothic architecture, and extended in the 1990s. It is built on the site of the old town hall.

The 127.45 m (418 ft 1.7 in) tall Express Lift Tower is a dominant feature in the area. Terry Wogan conducted a radio phone-in during the 1980s to come up with a name for it: “Northampton Lighthouse” was suggested as Northampton is one of the furthest places from the sea. It is also known as the “Cobblers’ Needle”. It was built to facilitate the testing of new lifts at the Express Lifts factory. It is visible from most of the town, but is now redundant. The tower has however been listed as being of architectural importance in the town.

Northampton Castle (now only remaining as a rebuilt postern gate in a wall outside the railway station and the hill on which it stood) was for many years one of the country’s most important castles. The country’s parliament sat here many times and Thomas Becket was imprisoned here until he escaped.