Defending Northamptonshire: The Military Landscape from Pre-history to the Present

Description

Settled by successive waves of incomers, Northamptonshire is a typical English shire county with prehistoric camps, Roman towns, Saxon burhs, castles and fortified houses, representing fortification over the centuries, a process punctuated by momentous events including the birth of Richard III and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, both at Fotheringhay Castle; King John's sieges at Northampton, Rockingham and Fotheringhay; the Battle of Northampton placing Edward IV on the throne; and the decisive defeat of Charles I at Naseby. The great ordnance depot at Weedon was (allegedly) chosen as a bolt-hole for George III in the place furthest from Napoleon's likely invasion. The Victorian period saw the army reorganized and the Volunteer Force develop. Both world wars mobilized the population and the county filled up with army camps, airfields and munitions plants. In the Cold War, nuclear missiles were pointed towards Russia. Many signs of all these events are still visible: Northampton's militia armoury in the guise of a mediaeval castle; the genuine castles of Barnwell and Rockingham: the launch-pads of Harrington's THOR missiles; the Ordnance Stores at Weedon Bec; and the banks and ditches of Hunsbury Camp or Little Houghton. This book illustrates and explains these sites.

Dr Mike Osborne's interest in fortification began with childhood visits to castles It has developed over the years to include all aspects of the topic from Iron-age forts to Cold War bunkers. He was a volunteer co-ordinator for the Defence of Britain Project recording twentieth-century military structures. After a thirty-year career in education he took early retirement to write, producing over twenty books to date. Topics include Civil War sieges and fortifications, drill halls, twentieth-century military structures, a series of county surveys of defences including the award-winning Defending Cambridgeshire, and the best-selling Defending Britain.