I have never met anyone from this area or heard anything about it. What is it like? What happens there?

by AncestralSeeker

42 comments

  2. It’s quiet and mostly rural, not much happens there.

    It is a lovely part of the country to visit. Glad I’m not stuck there. But then some of the people from there are completely comfortable in a gentle, quiet part of the world. Maybe they have the correct attitude.

  3. K and an E and a T and a T

    E and an R and an I-N-G

    T and an O and a W-N

    Kettering Town FC

  4. The eastern side is mostly commuter belt for people who work in Cambridge but can’t afford to live in Cambridge

    (I used to live in St Ives, which is the little blob east of Huntingdon, just inside your boundary)

  6. Good collection-only eBay deals always pop up there, like they’re tryna get people in and then never let them leave

  7. Never heard of the Kettering Wars of 1712?

    Serious answer though. Market Harborough is a market town, so markets happen there, and it has some nice canals.

    I used to visit Corby as a kid because they have the Rockingham Motor Speedway where you can watch ASCAR racing (UK version of NASCAR). Corby itself was a bit grim though, not sure if it’s got better.

  8. You’ve never heard anything about it? Have you ever heard of Silverstone?

  9. That’s one of those places they put on a map, but it’s fake, to stop people copying their maps. It isn’t real and it doesn’t exist.

  11. In 1823 a boy invented a game and that was the last time anything happened here

  12. Come over to Kettfest next year (yes, that’s what they decided to call it)

  13. I live in that blob. It’s agricultural, pretty, aggressively bucolic, occasionally charming. It’s also classically urban in places (Peterborough, Northampton, Bedford). There are patches of socioeconomic hardship and patches of eye-watering old money, with stately homes and all. There are at least a handful of tony old boarding schools, and three of England’s cathedrals. There are dilapidated and down-at-heel high streets, and there are lovely gastropubs, small breweries, vinyards and boutiques. There are a lot of sheep, a fair number of cattle, and plenty of narrowboats and the odd airfield from the second war that’s now used for recreational parachutists and glider pilots.

    Come visit – I’ll take you around my adopted home, but can’t promise I won’t drop you off in Peterborough city center for some off the cuff cultural immersion.

  14. My mate Tridge at Uni was from Northampton. He was a pretty solid chap.

  16. lived in kettering for a few years. It’s a town like many others across the country but it’s surrounded by some lovely villages and countryside with decent road/rail links to the rest of the country

    fun fact: guy fawkes and co. used to frolic around those parts while planning the gunpowder plot

  17. A good mate of mine is from Northampton and I’ve been there a few times, we both think it’s boring.

    My mums wife is from St Neots, she thinks it’s boring.

    I’m going to assume the rest of that area may possibly be the same haha!

  18. There’s a fairly popular ball game that was invented there, but its name escapes me.

  20. Without clicking, I knew this would be Northamptonshire. Always described it as a small county below Leicester and above Luton. Used to have a thriving footwear industry until cheap imports reduced most of the input. Beautiful countryside with large old money estates, the towns have a lot of deprivation with minimal opportunities.

  21. Alan Moore lives in Northampton. If you want a weird take on what happens there try “voice of the fire”, or “Jerusalem” if you have the stamina.

  23. Wicksteed Park is about the only thing of note in that whole area.

  25. No one really knows, it’s surrounded by a massive bean-shaped wall as you can see.

  26. Chatteris lad here (not strictly in the circle) but nice to see my little home town famous! But no nothing exciting happens here or anywhere near here.. although b&m opened the other week 👌

  27. I can’t hear Kettering now without immediately thinking of James Acaster.

  28. Because of this thread OP now knows that this is where James Acaster plays rugby for Kettering at Silverstone.

    Good job guys.

  29. Corby … damn I knew an old neighbour from Glasgow whose sister lived there with her husband, Marion and Arthur, nice people.

  30. Couple of good festivals around Northampton and Kettering. I cant remember which ones but they were good. Shambala i think was near there.

  31. On that road from Huntingdon to Chatteris there’s a farm shop with a load of crocodiles.

  32. Oundle is incredibly beautiful. Looks like it belongs in the Cotswolds.

  33. I grew up in Corby and thought was normal for most of my friends to have Scottish accents despite being 3rd generation Scots. My dad would take us to the Rangers club ( biggest outside of Scotland) where I would drink Irn Bru. Even the McDonald’s served Irn Bru.

  34. Oundle is really nice. Northampton, not much going on there. I live just outside this circle in Peterborough.

  35. I live here. It’s got a bit of everything.

    Fairly quiet and generic overall, but as is most of the country…..

  36. Oundle is POSH. Market Harboro and Towcester full of Joules and hunter wellies wearing yummy mummies. Bedford is middle of the road.
    Northampton is a hole, Kettering too. Corby full of displaced and displeased Scottish. Rushden and Raunds are inbred and have webbed toes.

  39. A lot of big Hollywood blockbusters have been filmed in bedford – cardington to be exact

  40. Bedford is the centre of the universe.
    It’s the home of the Garden of Eden (google panacea society).
    Everyone there runs on BMT time zone, Bedford mean time, which is GMT minus 5 mins

  41. SHHHHHHH I’m not originally from the blob, but my husband is. I love this whole area, well except once you get in to Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire it goes to shit a bit but oh my good lord Northants is so bloody nice, Rutland is bloody gorgeous, and the east side of Leicestershire is the nicest bit of it. I love it so much, you’d have to drag me kicking and screaming back to the north west.

    Anyhoo, it’s a hidden gem, shush XD

  42. Am from there. Can confirm that this post is the only thing that has happened to Northants in years.

    Seriously though, Northampton is a dying dump with a dying high street that the council is pumping millions in trying to rejuvenate, and are currently making a third attempt in resuscitating the town centre and market square after embarrassing failures. Whilst many established names have disappeared such as M&S, BHS, Debenhams, and Wilcos.

    There seems to be Turkish barbers, betting shops, foreign food markets and discount stores, shitty take aways popping up everywhere in places where there where esteemed and traditional shops in the before times (don’t get me wrong here, not targeting any cultures, just pointing out Northants Councils blatant disregard of diversity in their planning strategies). Even charity shops have disappeared in place of vape shops ffs.

    Library’s are either closed or underfunded, no infrastructure for youth or adult entertainment, and every piece of land available is being developed into residential properties. Most people here go to Milton Keynes or Rushden Lakes if they want to shop, or have a glimpse of entertainment, and the rejuvenation of the “Shoe Quarter”, is suspiciously centred around Angel Square, the councils HQ, where they spent millions building, then went bankrupt and had to sell the building and then rent it out to the new property owners.

    The council is famous for being corrupt, being put into special measures from the government due to their shambolic management, and on top of that their childrens services have been in the news for the last 10 years as being woefully inadequate, and devastating to many lives.

    I could go on, but on the plus side, we have a half decent rugby team, and a little bit of national history, as apparently we where nearly made the capital of England. We’re famous for our shoe making (although there is only a handful of shoe factories left that are not now blocks of flats), the Kinky Boots film was about a shoe factory based in Northampton, which is 5 mins walk from mine. Walter Tull used to play for Northampton Town, and there’s a statue of him in our Guildhall, and Allan Moore lives up the road from me (probably our most favourite and famous Northamptonian, soz Alan Carr, but it’s true).

    Saying this, the county as a whole is a beautiful place, we have hundreds of wonderful, unique and historical villages, and a beautiful countryside. Worth a visit to them, just avoid Northampton.

    Oh, and we also have Silverstone, which is pretty cool.

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