South Northamptonshire

Towcester

South Northamptonshire, district, administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, south-central England. It occupies an area characterized by rolling hills in the west of the county. The old market town of Towcester, in the centre of the district, is the administrative headquarters, and Brackley, in the extreme south, is the largest town.

In the north this predominantly agricultural district is bordered by the upper reaches of the River Nene and the town of Northampton and is crossed by the (disused) Grand Union Canal. Clay uplands at elevations of 300 to 500 feet (60 to 90 metres) in the centre and south ascend to above 700 feet (210 metres) in the extreme west. Covered by fertile glacial drift, the land is predominantly used for pasture, but cereals (wheat and barley) are also grown. Brackley and Towcester have light industrial bases.

Conspicuous village churches, stone and thatched cottages, and distinctive country manors typify the architecture of the district. The latter are perhaps best exemplified by the Baroque Easton Neston House (1700), designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor; and Sulgrave Manor, an Elizabethan building completed about 1560 by Lawrence Washington, a direct ancestor of George Washington, first president of the United States. The Talbot Inn in Towcester was immortalized in Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers. The Waterways Museum (1963) on the Grand Union Canal near Towcester commemorates two centuries of canal history. The former airfield south of Towcester has become Silverstone racecourse and is on the international motor-racing circuit. Area 245 square miles (634 square km). Pop. (2001) 79,293; (2011) 85,189.