Coordinates: 52°18′21″N 0°35′04″W / 52.3057°N 0.5844°W
| Higham Ferrers | |
 
Higham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers shown within Northamptonshire |
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| Population | 19,204 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| District | East Northamptonshire |
| Shire county | Northamptonshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WELLINGBOROUGH |
| Postcode district | NN10 |
| Dialling code | 01933 |
| Police | Northamptonshire |
| Fire | Northamptonshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Wellingborough |
| List of places: UK • England • Northamptonshire | |
Higham Ferrers is a market town in east Northamptonshire, England, adjacent to (and forming a single urban area with) Rushden to the south. It has an estimated population of 7,204. The de Ferrers family were former Lords of the Manor. The town was one of the rotten boroughs and sent one MP to the unreformed House of Commons until it was stripped of its representation by the Reform Act 1832.
Higham Ferrers is also the birthplace of Henry Chichele.
The town is unusual in the UK if not Europe in having been a centre of short-run footwear production along with its neighbours of Rushden and Northampton. This trade was much reduced in the 1980s-2000s by a high exchange rate, but specialised firms and individual trades people remain in the area.
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Higham Ferrers was the terminus of a short railway branch line on the Midland Railway from Wellingborough. There was an intermediate station at Rushden. Nowadays, the nearest operational railway station is at Wellingborough about four miles away, but there is no bus route connecting Higham Ferrers to Wellingborough Station. Historically, the town was at the crossroads of the A45 east-west route from Northampton to Cambridge, and the A6 north-south road from London to Leicester. It was a busy junction as both were long-distance transport corridors. The A45 bypassed the town in the early 1990s with a dual-carriageway, and the former route (through the narrow, but beautiful streets of Kimbolton) is now the B645, and the A5028 towards Wellingborough. As the A6 carried less traffic, a bypass came later and opened on 14 August 2003 for Rushden as well.
There is a cricket club in Higham Ferrers which was established in 1881 and also a bowls club. Rushden and Higham United Football Club, the successors to Higham Town and Rushden Rangers, are members of the Eagle Bitter United Counties League. The town is near Rushden and Diamonds football club, who play in Irthlingborough.
The Ferrers School is on Queensway. The library is on Midland Road. The Higham infants school 'Wharf Roadd.' Higham Juniors School on is situated on the junction of Wharf Road/Saffron rd.'
The present church was founded by the charter of Henry III in about
1220, with the tower being the last part of the first phase to be
completed in about 1250. A large proportion of the original church
survives to the present.
The next phase of building in about 1320, was the widening of the North Aisle and the replacement of the Nave arcade, to allow for the insertion of the Lady Chapel. Additional windows were added to the Chancel and the South Aisle.
The Clerestory and the low pitched roof, with parapets is of early 15th century, possibly under the auspices of Bishop Henry Chichele The Archbishop also had the screen and Choir Stalls with their misericords installed in about 1425. It is worth noting that Archbishop Chichele also had All Souls College, Oxford built, and there is a definite family resemblance between both sets of misericords, it is possible that the same carver (possibly Richard Tyllock) created both sets of misericords.
In 1631 the spire and part of the tower collapsed, and then repaired shortly afterwards. This was the last work performed on the fabric of the church.
Two restorations occurred during the 19th century, but both seem to have been sympathetically performed.
Chichele College, in Higham Ferrers, was founded by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1422 as a college for secular canons. The College had provision for 8 priests, 4 clerks and 6 choristers. Prayers were said for the King, the Queen, the Virgin Mary, St Thomas, St Edward, Henry Chichele’s parents and the souls of the faithful departed. In later times the college became an inn, and then later a farm. Only ruins survive today, save for one hall now used for artistic exhibitions.
About the year 1422, when planning his College at Higham Ferrers, Archbishop Henry Chichele founded "In a place adjoining the Vicarage and the Churchyard", his Bede House or Hospital to be a dwelling place for 12 men over 50 years old to live "in close company" with one woman to look after them.
It consisted of a common open Hall. Each man had his little cubicle with its locker, divided off by a screen from his fellows, and the rest of the Hall formed a common room with a fine open fireplace, itself a relic of even older times. On the South, a sheltered garden was added by taking part of the land of the Vicarage.
In those days, no old age pensions were provided by a welfare state, but Henry Chichele provided each old man and the woman with a pension of 1d per day, at a time when the working man’s wage was little more than 5 new pence a week, and the Bedesman’s silver penny was worth more than the modern pension.
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HIGHAM FERRERS, a market town and municipal borough in the Eastern parliamentary division of Northamptonshire, England, 63 m. N.N.W. from London, on branches of the London & North-Western and Midland railways. Pop. (1901), 2540. It is pleasantly situated on high ground above the south bank of the river Nene. The church of St Mary is among the most beautiful of the many fine churches in Northamptonshire. To the Early English chancel a very wide north aisle, resembling a second nave, was added in the Decorated period, and the general appearance of the chancel, with its north aisle and Lady-chapel, is Decorated. The tower with its fine spire and west front was partially but carefully rebuilt in the 17th century. Close to the church, but detached from it, stands a beautiful Perpendicular building, the school-house, founded by Archbishop Chichele in 1422. The Bede House, a somewhat similar structure by the same founder, completes a striking group of buildings. In the town are remains of Chichele's college. Higham Ferrers shares in the widespread local industry of shoemaking. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors, Area, 1 945 acres.
Higham (Hecham, Heccam, Hegham Ferers) was evidently a large village before the Domesday Survey. It was then held by William Peverel of the king, but on the forfeiture of the lordship by his son it was granted in 1199 to William Ferrers, earl of Derby. On the outlawry of Robert his grandson it passed to Edmund, earl of Lancaster, and, reverting to the crown in 1322, was granted to Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, but escheated to the crown in 1327, and was granted to Henry, earl of Lancaster. The castle, which may have been built before Henry III. visited Higham in 1229, is mentioned in 1322, but had been destroyed by 1J40. It appears by the confirmation of Henry III. in 1231 that the borough originated in the previous year when William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, manumitted by charter ninety-two, persons, granting they should have a free borough. A mayor was elected from the beginning of the reign of Richard II., while a town hall is mentioned in 1395. The revenues of Chichele's college were given to the corporation by the charter of 1566, whereby the borough returned one representative to parliament, a privilege enjoyed until 1832. James I. in 1604 gave the mayor the commission of the peace with other privileges which were confirmed by Charles II. in 1664. The old charters were surrendered in 1684 and a new grant obtained; a further charter was granted in 1887.
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   | Parish church - St Mary the Virgin Higham Ferrers |
| | Ferrers School - Ferrers Specialist Arts College web site |
| | photos of higham - Cranberry Cottage - Tour of Higham Ferrers |
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