Raunds
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Template:GBmap Raunds is a small market town situated in rural Northamptonshire, England. It has a population of 8,275 (2001 census) and is part of the East Northamptonshire district.
Raunds is best known as the home of the army boot, and played an important role in the local boot and shoe industry until its eventual decline in the 1950's and 60's.
Approximately 15 miles to the north-east of Northampton the town is located on the edge of the Nene valley, and surrounded on all sides by arable farming land. Raunds is home to the manufacturing plant of RPC Containers and a large Hotpoint distribution centre.
In the mid-1980's, during major sand excavations in the nearby Nene valley, the remains of a Roman villa were discovered. Excavation of the area, near Stanwick, was delayed by several years while archaeologists studied the remains.
Raunds appears in many historical documents dating back to the Doomsday Book of 1086.
St Peter's Church in Raunds, believed to have been built in the 15th century, has the second tallest spire in Northamptonshire at 202 feet (61.5 metres). The church stands on the site of an earlier Saxon place of worship. At a point during the 15th Century the patronage of the church is known to have been changed from that of St Mary to St Peter. The church also features a rare 'left-handed fiddler' decoration above the western entrance. A tombchest dedicated to John Wales, vicar from 1447 to 1496, proves that the building has been in use for more than five hundred-and-fifty years.
During the 1960's Raunds was one of the many settlements considered for expansion as part of the "new town" development of south-eastern England.
Nearby Settlements
Ringstead, Keystone, Stanwick, Rushden, Higham Ferrers, Thrapston, Hargrave, Wellingborough, Irthlingborough.
References
Hall, David; Raunds: Picturing the past (F.W. March, 1988) ISBN 0950990833
External Links
- Raunds Town Football Club (http://www.raundstownfc.co.uk)
- RPC Containers (http://www.rpc-containers.co.uk/)