Midsummer Music

   Northampton   

About   Northampton  where our live musicians perform

   Covering Party Bands, String Quartets, Barn Dance / Ceilidh and Jazz   

Towns, cities and regions, such as   Northampton  have an influence on the style of music, whether it is the 'English Countryside' feel of Vaughan Williams, the strength of Elgar's Victorian Malvern, or the skirl of Northumbrian Pipe tune.

About  Northampton   

Northampton began life as a Saxon village. It was called Hamm tun, which means the village by the well-watered meadow. Later it was called North Hamm tun, probably to distinguish it from Southampton. The name Northampton first appears in 914. When they occupied Eastern England in the late 9th century the Danes turned the Northampton into a stronghold called a burh. They dug a ditch around the settlement and erected an earth rampart with a wooden palisade on top. Northampton was not just a stronghold it was also a place of trade where craftsmen worked and where goods were bought and sold at a market. Despite the fact that it was a fortified settlement Northampton was captured and burned by the Danes in 1010. However Northampton soon recovered from this disaster and by the time of the Domesday Book (1086) it probably had a population of about 1,500. That seems tiny to us but settlements were very small in those days. Northampton grew in size in the 12th and 13th centuries and may have reached a population of 2,500 or 3,000 by 1300. Early in the 12th century the first Earl of Northampton built the church of the sepulchre when he returned home from the crusades. This was supposed to be a copy of a church in Jerusalem. He also fortified Northampton by building stone walls around it. The earl also built a castle to safeguard the town. Northampton gained its first charter in 1189. (A charter was a document granting the townspeople certain rights). Richard I gave the charter in return for money. In 1215 Northampton was given its first mayor. In Northampton there was a market. By the early 13th century it was held in the present Market Place. There were also fairs. A fair was like a market but it was held only once a year for a few days and it would attract buyers and sellers from all over the Midlands. The main industry in Northampton was the manufacture of wool. It was woven and dyed in Northampton. The importance of the wool industry is shown by street names such Mercers Row (a mercer was a dealer in fine cloth), The Drapery and Woolmonger Street. The first shoemaker was mentioned in the early 13th century but there were shoemakers in all medieval towns. There is no evidence that shoemaking was a major industry in Northampton till much later.

string quartets in northampton   jazz bands in northampton   ceilidh bands in northampton   barn dance bands in northampton   wedding quartets in northampton