I’m going to mention here that this is St Peter’s Church on Marefair in Northampton which mostly dates from around 1160 and it retains elaborate Norman arches and carved stonework. Its western tower was rebuilt in the early seventeenth century, while George Gilbert Scott restored the church in 1850–51. Now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust, it stands beside the buried remains of an Anglo-Saxon palace. Anyway, that isn’t the reason for this post.
I was looking at this church in Northampton feeling rather confused, as I hadn’t remembered seeing it and I like decadent Norman churches. Earlier on, I couldn’t picture where the town centre was from the railway station and I couldn’t remember what the JD Wetherspoon looked like. I often find that my memory comes back when I check my old Google photos or Untappd, but it has transpired that other than the railway station, I haven’t visited Northampton before. I accept that Untappd isn’t an officially recognised historical archive, but it does record the parts of a town that I tend to prioritise.
This has come as a slight surprise as I thought I had visited every town in the East Midlands, as well as in the West Midlands and in East Anglia. But, I’ve somehow got muddled up here. I only have a couple of hours here today waiting for Richard who is collecting me to go to the nearby LDWA weekend, but I sense a little trip coming up soon to explore the delights of Northampton. Until now I had been quietly crediting myself with a visit for which there appears to be no supporting evidence