Fotheringhay – The Little Village With Rather a Lot of History

Who was to know that this was such an interesting little village?

It’s situated not far from Peterborough on the other side of the Great North Road / AKA the A1(M), just down the road from Oundle.

On the face of it there is a lovely church, some very old castle ruins - pretty much only the hill remains, a pub and some quaint houses.

That’s about it.

Or so we thought.

Then you dig a little deeper and start to read the informational signage that pops up around the sleepy village - well it was sleepy on our Tuesday in late September.

We had initially gone for an enjoyable but short walk through the town of Oundle - very close by - same sort of old stone buildings etc, but a bit busier.

We drove on through to Fotheringhay and parked up on the main street. It is very wide, tree-lined and quiet. It turned out to be very surprising.

We settled down for a pub lunch at The Falcon Arms. It was pretty good - service was great.

We then went for a short walk visiting the church and the castle ruins.

It was then that the history started to emerge. And once it started, it flowed freely and wouldn’t stop…..

Richard III

He was born here in 1452. Yes that Richard III.

The same one that lost his head (and life, and crown) at the Battle of Bosworth.

Henry VIII

Well - he gave the castle initially to Catherine of Aragon, and then to each of his subsequent wives in turn.

Mary Queen of Scots

Yep - we’ve all heard of her. She was held prisoner and was later executed at Fotheringhay Castle / prison in 1587.

The castle was eventually dismantled in 1630 as it had been neglected for some time and was beyond repair. Much of the stone was used to build The Talbot Inn at Oundle - just up the road, and where we had started our day out.

What started out as a fairly casual date day - with a casual wander around a village turned into one of those unexpectedly interesting little days out.

Fotheringhay isn't large enough to spend more than an hour exploring  - it’s small and compact.

But that's sort of the point.

You can walk along the main street of this peaceful little village today and realise that you’re standing in the same spot as some extraordinary days of English history.

Places such as Fotheringhay don’t shout about their history. You have to go looking for it.

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  Richard III

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  Fotheringhay St Mary & All Saints

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  Fotheringhay Castle