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This bridge carries Banbury Lane over Swan Valley Way in the Pineham Park industrial estate, close to Junction 15A of the M1. The bridge is unusual in that it carries one unclassified road over another, the purpose being to keep residential and industrial traffic away from each other.

Northampton is near junctions 15, 15a and 16 of the M1 London to North Yorkshire motorway. The A45 and A43 can be accessed by a partially completed ring road. The A14 is close by to the north.

Northampton railway station is on the Northampton Loop of the West Coast Main Line, and has regular services to London and Birmingham provided by London Midland. Virgin Trains also provide some services to London and the north, with a small number of Pendolinos running each day

Sywell Aerodrome is the nearest airfield but only has a grass runway. A concrete runway for jet aircraft is due to open mid 2009. For international links, East Midlands Airport and Luton Airport are quickly accessible by the M1; Birmingham International Airport via the M1/M6 and also by train.

In the town, buses are operated by Stagecoach Northants, First Northampton and MK Metro (Arriva) from the Greyfriars bus station. Stagecoach provide travel to outlying villages and towns during the day. .

National Express cover routes between major towns. There are good local links to Daventry, Wellingborough, Oxford, Rushden, Kettering, Corby and Market Harborough.

Northampton is the terminus of an arm of the Grand Union Canal. The arm connects to the River Nene and from that to the River Great Ouse and the North Sea. No longer used for freight, the waterway is now popular with anglers and narrowboaters. Principal outlying villages on the canal include Gayton, Blisworth, Braunston and Stoke Bruerne.

Northampton had a horse-drawn tramway which opened in 1881. The system was extended in stages and taken over by the council in 1897 and named Northampton Corporation Tramways. It was electrified in 1904, but closed in 1934 mainly as a result of competition from motor buses which were introduced in 1929. Two of the original tram shelters are preserved: one at the Racecourse park and another in Kingsthorpe opposite the Cock Hotel.

Education

Until 2004 the county operated a three-tier system involving lower, middle and upper schools. In 2001 the move to a two-tier system began, aiming at improving educational standards.[16] A complete list of primary and secondary schools in the town and surrounding area is available on the County Council website.

University

    * University of Northampton

Primary and Secondary schools

Northampton School for Boys became the top performing comprehensive school in the country in 2007.

For a complete list see the NCC site.

Independent schools

Independent government reports on all schools can be obtained from the Ofsted website.

    * Great Houghton (co-educational, 1–13)
    * Maidwell Hall for boys aged 8–13
    * Northampton High School, girls 2-18
    * Northamptonshire Grammar School (co-educational, 3-18)
    * Overstone Park School (co-educational, 2–18)
    * Quinton House School (co-educational, 2-18)
    * St Peter's Independent School(co-educational, 5-18)
    * Spratton Hall School, co-educational, 4–13

Leisure

Market Square from top of the Grosvenor Centre in 2008

Formal parks include: Abington Park; The Racecourse, which used to be home in summer to the Balloon Festival and originally used for horse-racing until 1904 and also used as a cricket ground between 1844–1885; Delapré Park; Bradlaugh Fields; Becket's Park, named after Thomas Becket as are nearby Becket's Well and Thomas á Becket pub. There is a park around an Iron Age fort in West Hunsbury.

Billing Aquadrome leisure park is on the eastern outskirts with a caravan site, marina, funfair, bar, riverside restaurant and converted water mill with original workings. Other smaller ones are Thorntons Park and Victoria Park.

The main shopping centre is the Grosvenor Centre built in the 1970s. The town has one of Britain's largest market squares, dating from 1235. Outside the centre the Weston Favell Centre built in the 1970s is in the eastern district together with various out of town retail and leisure parks.

Contemporary culture

The Derngate and Royal theatres are in Guildhall Road, opposite Northampton Museum and Art Gallery. They were renovated and reopened in 2006, at a cost of £15 million. The Deco is a 900-seat theatre/conference centre based on the Grade-II listed former Cannon Cinema, in Abington Square used mainly by the voluntary and charitable sector. It was restored by the Jesus Army as part of their Jesus Centre project.

The Deco and the Northampton Jesus Centre share a Grade II listed Art Deco building, formerly the Cannon cinema Northampton Market

Northampton Museum and Art Gallery has a world-class collection of historical footwear, and also Italian art, glass and ceramics, plus visiting exhibitions and local history. There is also a smaller historical museum in a former mansion within Abington Park.

The old Fishmarket opposite the market square, was renovated by the Northampton Arts Collective. As it has three art gallery spaces, retail units, a cafe, and an arts studio and is host to exhibitions by leading artists and live music, community events and workshops.

An independent contemporary arts gallery, The Sanctuary, funded by the Arts Council has eight studios. The Avenue Gallery is at the Avenue campus of Northampton University. Northamptonshire runs an annual county-wide Open Studios event in which artists' studios are open to the public.

The university spent £3m on its Portfolio Innovation Centre, and in early 2009 it will housd up to 45 creative freelancers, digital media developers, and designers.

Two commercial cinemas are also in the town: Vue (formerly UCI) at Sol Central, Cineworld (formerly UGC, Virgin Cinema and MGM) at Sixfields. There is also the subsidised Forum Cinema at Lings Forum, whose film programme is widely varied and includes art-house and non-mainstream films.

Many local music venues provide events. One venue is The Roadmender, which used to be run and funded by the council and later bought by The Purplehaus group. It is host to mainstream touring bands and one off gigs.

Sport

The town is home to Premiership Rugby union club Northampton Saints, who play at Franklin's Gardens in the St James area. "The Saints" had their greatest moment when it won the Heineken Cup in 2000 at Twickenham, beating Munster 9-8. There are also a number of "Junior" rugby clubs in the area, the most successful of these at producing young players is Northampton Old Scouts RFC who have produced Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson amongst others.

League Two football club Northampton Town, known as "The Cobblers" from the town's shoemaking background, are based at Sixfields Stadium. Established in 1897, in their centenary season of 1997 they reached Wembley through the play-offs and beat Swansea City 1-0 with an injury time winning free kick from John Frain. It was the first club to set up a trust for supporters to work with the club as many have done. There is an athletics track adjacent to the ground. There are also three non-league clubs in the United Counties Football League: Northampton Spencer; Northampton Sileby Rangers; and Northampton Old Northamptonian Chenecks.

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, known in limited overs cricket as "The Steelbacks", play at the County Ground, in the Abington area.

Nene Whitewater Centre provides an artificial whitewater course for canoes, kayaks and rafts.

Northampton Swimming Club trained the young Olympic swimmer Caitlin McClatchey.

Collingtree Golf Club hosted the British Masters in 1995.

Northampton International Raceway near Brafield is a leading venue for stock-car racing and hosts the European Championships every July. Speedway racing has been staged at Brafield in the 1950s and again in the 1960s. In the 1950s the team was known as The Flying Foxes and in the 1960s they were known as The Badgers.

Speedway was also staged at the greyhound stadium in Northampton in the pioneer days of the late 1920s.

Notable buildings

Interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

    * Northampton's oldest standing building, the Church of The Holy Sepulchre, is one of the largest and best-preserved round churches in England. It was built in 1100 on the orders of the first Earl of Northampton, Simon de Senlis, who had just returned from the first Crusade. It is based on a plan of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

    * The current All Saints' Church was built on the site of a great Norman church, All Hallows, which was almost completely destroyed by the Fire of Northampton in 1675. All that remained was the medieval tower and the fine vaulted crypt, but by 1680 All Saints had been rebuilt, with the help of donations from all over England, including 1,000 tons of timber from King Charles II, whose statue can be seen above the portico. Famously, the poet John Clare liked to sit beneath the portico of the church.

All Saints' Church in central Northampton

    * The Guildhall in Northampton (see picture at top) was constructed mostly in the 1860s in Victorian Gothic architecture, and extended in the 1990s. It is built on the site of the old town hall.

    * 78 Derngate contains an interior designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke and is the only major domestic commission outside Scotland. It is open to the public.

    * The 127.45 m (418 ft 1.7 in) tall Express Lift Tower is a dominant feature in the area. Terry Wogan conducted a radio phone-in during the 1980s to come up with a name for it: "Northampton Lighthouse" was suggested as Northampton is one of the furthest places from the sea. It is also known as the "Cobblers' Needle". It was built to facilitate the testing of new lifts at the Express Lifts factory. It is visible from most of the town, but is now redundant. The tower has however been listed as being of architectural importance in the town.

Express Lift Tower

    * Northampton Castle (now only remaining as a rebuilt postern gate in a wall outside the railway station and the hill on which it stood) was for many years one of the country's most important castles. The country's parliament sat here many times and Thomas Becket was imprisoned here until he escaped.

    * The Carlsberg UK brewery is located in the town.

    * Delapre Abbey – former Cluniac nunnery, founded by Simon de Senlis - later the County Records Office and site of the second Battle of Northampton.

    * Queen Eleanor's body rested here on its way to London – and the nearby Eleanor cross at Hardingstone commemorates this. The Cross is also referred to in Daniel Defoe's a "Tour through the whole island of Great Britain" where he describes the Great Fire of Northampton, "...a townsman being at Queen's Croos upon a hill on the south side of the town, about two miles off, saw the fire at one end of the town then newly begun, and that before he could get to the town it was burning at the remotest end, opposite where he first saw it."

    * Greyfriars Bus Station, built in the 1970s to replace the old Derngate station, was featured on Channel 4's Demolition programme and, cited as the ugliest transport station in the UK, was suggested worthy of demolition.

Medieval cellars at Northampton & County Club see Northampton's tunnels

    * Northampton & County Club, established in 1873, was the old county hospital before becoming a private members' club; the cellars are medieval.

Other notable church buildings include: St Edmunds, closed 1978 and demolished 2007 with the bells now in Wellington Cathedral, New Zealand; St Giles; St Matthew's, built 1893; Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate & St Thomas of Canterbury, the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton and seat of the Bishop of Northampton.

Related towns

Twin Towns Flag of Germany.svg Marburg, in Hessen, Germany; 75,000 inhabitants. Has links with the brothers Grimm and one of the oldest universities in Germany; Flag of France.svg Poitiers, Vienne, south-west France 100,000 inhabitants.

US towns with the same name in several east coast states include: Maryland, Massachusetts, New York , North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.