Higham Ferrers is both one of the oldest and smallest boroughs in Northamptonshire.

As a Saxon burgh Hecham had strategic importance because of its high and commanding position above a crossing of the Nene.  Being the centre of much commerce it had rough fortifications and these were later developed when William the Conqueror handed the town to William Peverel, an able general, who crowned the hill top with a castle.

Although there may have been two castles at different times, the accent is on peaceful progress with hunting as one of the chief diversions, deer being plentiful in the adjacent forest.  The Ferrers family succeeded to the heritage and the freeing of serfs and their families by William de Ferrers in 1251 High Ham took on the name of Ferrers and the dignity of a seignorial borough.

In or about 1371 was born Henry Chichele whose father, a draper, was several times mayor of the borough.  Henry Chichele became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1413, holding the office for thirty years.

The Archbishop, a “much enduring , solid and competent” man, was buried in Canterbury Cathedral but for Higham Ferrers people the precious memorials are in the town of his birth where out of his affection for the old place he founded a college and a Bede House.

The borough’s first royal charter has been lost but several others have been preserved and the oldest is that of Philip and Mary, granted in 1556.  At that time Higham was granted the right to send one member to Parliament and this right was enjoyed until the Reform Act of 1832

In the Lancastrian era Higham Ferrers was one of the headquarters for the administration of the Duchy of Lancaster.  The manor and some of the farmland still belong to the Monarch in the right of the Duchy but other estates passed successively to the Dacres and Fitzwilliams before returning to local ownership within the last century.

The conservative policy of its landowners is the reason why Higham Ferrers, despite its distinctions and privileges, has made but little material growth leaving the adjoining town of Rushden to outstrip it in nineteenth and twentieth century development.

Some institutions, it is true, have faded or changed and the chief loss is that of the markets and fairs.  Through several centuries the town took pride in and profit from its markets and there was a time when as many as seven fairs would be held within a year.  Cattle and general markets have been held on the market square within living memory of the previous generation and inside the same span of time In the old sense, the fair is extinct but in happy compensation the town has developed and made locally famous an annual Market Day.

On very special days there will be an invitation to the Town Hall and a proud review of th beautifully illuminated Charters, together with the Rolls of the Court of Burgesses.  The Rolls are packed with history and date back to 1275.  They show that of sixty persons involved in the business of the Hundred court on April 26 1349, one third were victims of the black death within the next fortnight.  They record the mayoralties of Thomas Chichele and the admission of Henry Chichele to a burgage on the payment of the usual fee.

High Street c1900 Some of the old buildings that have been rebuilt since, and the garden has also been built on.

High Street 1965 There are some new buildings and some old buildings have been rebuilt

Industrial Development & Distribution

Land Utilisation

The three fields in the southern most tip of the boundary between grids 982 and 988, south of the 670 east west line, were bought when Chelveston air base was built.  Landing lights were erected in these fields which otherwise contained rough scrub like vegetation.

The Church Yard Group

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary		The tower itself belongs to the thirteenth century but the spire which exceeds 170 feet was rebuilt in 1631-32 after having fallen down bringing with it the south side of the tower. The west front has magnificent features and the recessed double door way is one of the richest examples of old-time craftsmanship in the county.  Iron work on the doors is wrought into scrolls, leaves and flowers.  There are roundels with scenes from the life of Christ carved in bas relief and inside the porch can be seen a curious carving of a man playing a stringed instrument while held in the stocks.  Other odd carvings appear high up on the three-stage tower.  The tower is topped with a parapet of open quatrefoils and flying buttresses pierced with quatrefoils reach towards the octagonal spire.  Battlements, pinnacles and a tracery of windows are also found around the exterior. The church is of fine proportions and the scene as one stands beneath the tall tower arch is of exquisite carvings in wood, of chapels spaced out beyond pillars of arches and screens There are seven screens and four of them are very old – as old as the twenty Miserere seats which flank the chancel.
One of the fine east windows is in memory of Chichele but the chief historical records are in brass.  The antiquity of the church is conveyed on a canopied altar tomb upon which the brass has the effigy of an ecclesiastic and the name of Laurence St. Maur, a rector who died in 1337.  Over a large slab in the choir another bras, inscribed in Latin, tells of Richard Wylleys who was warden of Archbishop Chichele’s college in the early part of the sixteenth century.  The church also contains two suits of Cromwellian armour.
The Bede House		Double nave viewed from the tower arch

Built in layers of light and dark stone, Chichele’s Bede House has long ceased to hold the twelve poor men and their woman attendant for whose comfort it was bestowed round about 1423.  Soime of the old lockers remain, the impressive roof has been preserved and the fireplace is the original one.  Extensive repairs were made to the Bede House in 1956.  The Bedesmen of olden times did not get the advantage of living in an alms house without giving something in return and according to the regulations they were perhaps too often at church or praying for their benefactor.  Something brighter would be demanded today, even in tradition loving Higham Ferrers.  Bedesmen, however, are still elected and a Bedeswoman still prepares meals for them on St Thomas’s day when they go to church and smoke their pipes in the town hall.  They are all veterans nowadays and their grant is at the old rate of one penny per day with an occasional red starred overcoat and extras at Christmas.