The Midlands - Northampton

We left Norwich last Monday bound for Northampton. It is in the central part of England known as "The Midlands".


Northampton is where my grandfather, Sidney Cox was born in 1887, the youngest of 4 children born to William and Harriet Oldham Cox. William Cox was born in the small hamlet south of Northampton by the name of Hartwell. William was one of 10 children born to Reuben and Maria Clarke Cox. All were born in Hartwell. Maria Clarke was from the nearby village of Brafield-On-The-Green.


My grandfather, Sidney left England in 1907 as a 19 year-old young man to immigrate to Canada. He never saw his parents again, and only visited England one time in his adult life in 1960 - an occasion where he saw his two older sisters, Louise and Clarice after 53 years.


Thus, our family knows relatively little about Northampton. It is a mid-sized town historically known as production center for leather goods, primarily shoes. Indeed, my great grandfather was a shoemaker. I pieced together a story while here that Sidney worked in a tanning and currying factory in the outlying suburb of Kettering as a 14 year-old boy. Kettering is 14 miles from city center where the family lived, so he didn't commute. He likely lived in Kettering in connection with that job - at 14! This historical background gives Northampton a bit of a stark, industrial feel as opposed to the other cities that we have visited. It lacks some of the charm we found elsewhere. But, we were here to learn about family history.


One important factor for learning about life in that era is to understand the church (of England) parishes, and the parish records that are available. We have certain clues that indicate that the William Cox family were active parishioners, but we're not sure in which parish. Searching parish records as opposed to civil records is a fruitful source of archival data. I spent a little time trying to break the code here, but time did not permit. Based upon the family's known addresses, we visited 2-3 churches that they likely attended. These massive churches, built 1000 years ago in many instances, are literally within a few blocks of each other because their parishioners in bygone eras all walked.


My next posts will share a few photographs from our visits in and around Northampton.