Redworks commissioned to update Food & Drink Guide

The second edition of ‘A Taste for all Seasons’, a local food guide for South Northamptonshire, has been produced by hospitality and heritage consultancy, Redworks PR & Marketing.

The original guide was commissioned from Redworks by South Northants Council (SNC) in 2011. The new edition includes an extended food and drink events section and fully updated details of the 200 plus food and drink businesses in the district. These include restaurants, cafes, pubs, farm shops, village shops, cookery schools, local food producers, as well as town, country and farmers’ markets.

The food and drink guide is one of a suite of family friendly tourism and heritage guides that Redworks has produced for SNC over the past five years. Others include Explore Heritage, Explore Canals and Explore Family Fun in South Northamptonshire. Together, they form part of SNC’s commitment to promote South Northamptonshire’s local economy and attract tourism.

‘A Taste for all Seasons’, will be launched at Towcester Food Festival at Towcester Racecourse on Saturday 7 June, 2014. It is available to the public free of charge and can be collected from local tourist information offices and at many of the venues included in the guide.

 

 

For further information, or to download a copy of the guide, go to: Visit South Northamptonshire

 

Images by Simon Murdoch Photography

Caroline Murdoch
Redworks PR & Marketing
caroline@redworks.co.uk
www.redworks.co.uk
@RedworksPR

Founded by Caroline Murdoch in 1998, Redworks PR & Marketing specialises in media relations, marketing services and social media for the hospitality, heritage and tourism sectors.

Gilbert Scott’s South Northants Connections

Towcester Workhouse

Towcester Workhouse

Towcester Workhouse

Sir Gilbert Scott is known as the architect of many public buildings, monuments and churches, including the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, Martyrs’ Memorial on St Giles in Oxford and the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station in London.

However, he also designed over 40 workhouses, including two in South Northamptonshire, at Brackley and Towcester.

Brackley Workhouse was built in the south west of the town in 1836/7 to accommodate 250 people at a cost of £5,500. It was demolished in the 1930s unlike Towcester workhouse, which still stands. It too was built in 1936/37 and cost over £5,000. It held up to 208 inmates. You can still see the building today, although it has been converted into residential apartments.

Further information about the architecture of South Northants can be found in a new ‘Heritage’ guide published by South Northants Council.

To download a copy, click on the image:

Northamptonshire’s Ancient Routes

Three Conies Thorpe Mandeville

Cattle Stance, near Sulgrave

Former Magpie Inn

 

We recently had the pleasure of producing a new heritage guide that was commissioned by South Northamptonshire Council to help spread the word about this beautiful but little known district. One of the many interesting things we discovered while researching the guide was that the area is known for its Drovers’ routes.

Positioned right at the centre of the country, it’s not surprising that over the millennia, South Northamptonshire has become associated with many ancient routes, from Watling Street built by the Romans (today, the busy A5), to the old long-distance walking routes, the Knightley Way, Macmillan Way, Midshires Way, Nene Way, Grafton Way and Jurassic Way. Its association with medieval Drovers’ routes dates from around the 13th century, when green lanes developed between settlements.

These were used by merchants, travellers and pilgrims and later became routes for driving cattle, sheep, geese and other livestock to markets in cities such as Northampton and London, to satisfy the growing population. Before the introduction of root vegetables like turnips and swedes, there wouldn’t have been sufficient food to keep animals through the winter, so only the breeding stock was kept alive and the rest slaughtered and the meat preserved. The decline of the routes came about with the arrival of the railway in the 19^th century.

Drovers’ routes are identifiable by the wide verges that accommodated large herds of cattle and the many inns that sprang up alongside the way. Often these had three stories, such as the Three Conies at Thorpe Mandeville and the former Magpie Inn on Banbury Lane, at the junction of the Culworth Road near Sulgrave. Opposite the Magpie Inn is evidence of a former ‘stance’, a rectangular field that would have been used to hold the cattle.

• Banbury Lane is one of the earliest routes and part of the old Jurassic Way, which ran from the Humber to the Avon. It arrives in South Northamptonshire at Thorpe Mandeville.
• Oxford Lane, which passes through Weedon Lois, brought meat from Leicester to the University at Oxford.
• The South Wales route from Lampeter passed through Chipping Norton, Adderbury and Aynho, on to Croughton, where the cattle would have been watered. They then passed on to Barley Mow, today a large roundabout on the A43, continuing east to Buckingham, Leighton Buzzard and the Essex markets.
• The North Wales route from Anglesey came via Birmingham, arriving on Welsh Lane between Middleton Cheney and Culworth, going on to Helmdon, Syresham, Biddlesden and Buckingham. The picturesque village of Culworth, which sits at the crossroads of Banbury Lane and Welsh Lane, once had a thriving market and fair.

For more information about Drovers’ routes and South Northamptonshire, download a copy of the brochure ‘Explore Heritage in South Northamptonshire’. Copies are also available to pick up around the district in shops, town and village halls and libraries.

If you found this of interest, you might also want to read, New Guides to Boost Local Economy.