Earls Barton is a large village in Eastern Northamptonshire - it has a population of about 5,353.
The village is famous for:
* its Saxon church - which is one of the most famous remaining examples of its type in the country - another example being at nearby Brixworth.
* its shoe-making heritage.
* its pig farming which is regonised all over Enlgand for its bacon - Fieldy's farm.
The village was the inspiration for the film Kinky Boots and part of the film was shot here. It is based on the true story of a local boot maker who turns from traditional boots to producing fetish footwear in order to save the ailing family business and the jobs of his workers.
In The King's England: Northamptonshire, edited by Arthur Mee, we learn that "It was here when The Conqueror gave these lands to his niece the Countess Judith, and except for the clock and the battelements it looks today as it looked then... It is called Earls Barton because it was the Earl of Huntingdon's barley farm; his house stood where the church stands and the remains of its moat can be seen."
Pevsner however, seems to disagree with this assessment and describes it as "...a conspicuous and quite unmistakable Norman castle-motte. It is so close to the church that it stands partly in the church-yard; on this this side it appears to have been cut back to make more room. To the N it is protected by a particularly fine ditch."
He goes on to argue that the castle was founded at the time of the Norman conquest and its builder ignored the then existing church, leaving it in its bailey, for a later demolition that never happened. Ironically the church outlived the castle!
In the villages small market square is a pharmacy run by a member of the Jeyes the chemists family, who invented and manufactured Jeyes Fluid and the Philadelphus Jeyes chemist chain.
Earls Barton has it's own website at this address.
NOTE: Some of this text has been legally 'borrowed' from the Wikipedia website until further research can be completed and a fuller page/pages can be created. The full Wikipedia details can be found here