Sovereign state United Kingdom Region East Midlands Founded 1974 Area 634 km² | Constituent country England Administrative county Northamptonshire Admin. HQ Towcester | |
Points of interest Silverstone Circuit, The Towcester Museum, Iron Trunk Aqueduct, Piddington Roman Villa, Evenley Wood Garden Destinations Banbury, Towcester, Brackley, Stony Stratford, Croughton | ||
South Northamptonshire is a district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Towcester, first established as a settlement in Roman Britain. The population of the Local Authority District Council in 2011 was 85,189.
Contents
- Map of South Northamptonshire District UK
- Elevations and shape
- Soil and geology
- Whittlewood Forest
- Demography and human geography
- History
- Settlements and parishes
- Museum
- References
Map of South Northamptonshire District, UK
The largest town in the district is Brackley, which had a population of 14,000 in 2008 followed by Towcester which has a population of nearly 10,000. Other significant settlements in size include Deanshanger, Bugbrooke, Roade, King's Sutton, Silverstone and Middleton Cheney. Many of the villages listed have populations exceeding 1000.
Elevations and shape
The northern half of the district is generally higher than the south, reaching 192m northeast of the centre of Aston-le-Walls AOD and 182m on the road east of Culworth, a village which also rests on top of the ridge following the general WSW line of the county and of the district but except for this is north of the district. This ridge is part of the Jurassic Way. Lower parts are at 85m AOD (above mean sea level) in the southwest corner and 50 m (160 ft) AOD in the northeast.
The district is shaped approximately like the Christian cross in an ENE orientation extending from its top at the southeast of Northampton and reaching to a north-south line south-by-southeast of Banbury, Oxfordshire. An additional arm near its foot reaches north through the large village of Chipping Warden to Upper Boddington.
Soil and geology
Land is taken up with for the most part with arable agriculture peppered by villages, however allows space for two towns of significant size. Supporting this is a regular interspersion of two high fertility types of soil for most plants and crops: freely draining slightly acid but base-rich; and lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage soils, on a default (generally slightly lower) soil of slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils (of medium fertility). The district in terms of watercourses has sources and headwaters of the rivers Cherwell, Great Ouse and Nene.
Whittlewood Forest
Whittlewood Forest occupies a modest area for a forest and is broken up by fields (in the southern arm close to Milton Keynes which reaches to the Great Ouse) and this surrounds Whittlebury, the fields south of the upland village of Paulerspury on straight, Roman Watling Street which passes through the forest. This lies between Silverstone and Potterspury (also with a conservation area on Watling Street) or equally between Deanshanger and Towcester.
Demography and human geography
With just over 79,293 people in 2000 and 91,000 in 2008, a 14.8% increase.
The growth in population between 2001 and 2007 was the third largest of all districts in the country and consisted of 35,700 households.
The district is notable for the proportion of and growth in detached houses, and the district was one of a tiny proportion to have seen a growth in the proportion of this type of home relative to other types between 2001 and 2011.
History
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the municipal borough of Brackley, along with Brackley Rural District, Towcester Rural District, and part of Northampton Rural District.
Settlements and parishes
For a county-wide list for Northamptonshire see List of places in Northamptonshire
Museum
Towcester Museum