Great Brington

Great Brington
Great Brington Location within Northamptonshire
OS grid reference	SP665650
Civil parish	Brington
Unitary authority	West Northamptonshire
Ceremonial county	Northamptonshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Northampton
Postcode district	NN7
Dialling code	01604
Police	Northamptonshire
Fire	Northamptonshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Daventry

Great Brington is a village in Northamptonshire, England, in the civil parish of Brington, which at the 2011 Census had a population of about 200. St Mary the Virgin church is the parish church.

The village’s name means 'Farm/settlement connected with Bryni'.^[1]

In 1508, John Spencer from Wormleighton in Warwickshire purchased the estate of Althorp outside Great Brington with its moated house and several hundred acres of farmland.^[2] He had grazed sheep here from the 1480s. In 1508, impressed by the quality of the land, he eventually bought it and rebuilt the house.^[3] In 1511 he made further purchases to acquire much of the surrounding countryside, including the villages of Little Brington and Great Brington as well their parish church of St Mary the Virgin, from Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset.^[2]

Just outside the village is Althorp House, the home of the Spencer family where Diana, Princess of Wales grew up. Many generations of the Spencer family are buried at Great Brington church, including Diana's father the 8th Earl Spencer, who died in 1992.^[4] The death of Diana had an effect on the village – the pub was renamed from The Fox and Hounds to the Althorp Coaching Inn and the post office gained currency exchange facilities following the large increase in tourism to the area.^{[citation needed]}

The Macmillan Way long distance footpath passes through Great Brington.

Geography

St Mary the Virgin's Church

Nearby settlements include Little Brington, Nobottle and Long Buckby

Notable people from Great Brington

• Lawrence Washington (1565-1616), the great-great-great-grandfather of George Washington, first president of the United States, is buried in the chancel of the Church at St Mary's in the village.^[5] (reference link needs updating; his son, also called Lawrence Washington, is buried in the graveyard at All Saints’ Church, Maldon, Essex)
• Betsy Baker (1842–1955), a supercentenarian who was born in Great Brington and recognized as the world's oldest living person until she died aged 113, on 24 October 1955.
• The disc jockey and television presenter Jo Whiley is from the village.

References

1. "Key to English Place-names".
2. H. Gawthorne/S. Mattingly/G. W. Shaeffer/M. Avery/B. Thomas/R. Barnard/M. Young, Revd. N. V. Knibbs/R. Horne: "The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Great Brington. 800 Years of English History", published as "Brington Church: A Popular History" in 1989 and printed by Peerless Press.
3. Sir John Spencer 1455–1522 "Sir John Spencer » Spencer of Althorp". Archived from the original on 24 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013. (access date 20 July 2013)
4. "Diana Remembered: Althorp". BBC. 1997.
5. "St Mary's Church". Retrieved 22 February 2014.

External links

Media related to Great Brington at Wikimedia Commons

• BBC feature on Great Brington church
• Great Brington Parish Church website
• Great Brington Store and Post Office website
• Map sources for Great Brington