The county has an area of 2,364 km 2 (913 sq mi) and a population of 747,622. The latter is concentrated in the centre of the county, which contains the county's largest towns: Northampton (243,511), Corby (68,164), Kettering (63,144), and Wellingborough (54,412). The northeast and southwest are rural. The county contains two local government districts, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire, which are both unitary authority areas. The county historically included Market Harborough and the Soke of Peterborough.

The route of the planned High Speed 2 railway line (between London and Birmingham) will go through the southern part of the county but without any stations. [ citation needed] Buses edit The county's music and performing arts trust provides peripatetic music teaching to schools. It also supports 15 local Saturday morning music and performing arts centres around the county and provides a range of county-level music groups. Johnston, Neil (2 August 2018). " 'Bankrupt' Northamptonshire county council may cut to legal minimum". The Times . Retrieved 9 September 2018. Hundreds of jobs are also at risk Towcester: Famous mostly for its horse racing course, Towcester is an ancient town which was originally the Roman Lactodorum, getting its current name from the River Tove. In the 1st century BC, most of what later became Northamptonshire became part of the territory of the Catuvellauni, a Belgic tribe, the Northamptonshire area forming their most northerly possession. [8] The Catuvellauni were in turn conquered by the Romans in 43 AD. [9]Kinky Boots, the 2005 British-American film and subsequent stage musical adaptation, was based on the true story of a traditional Northamptonshire shoe factory which, to stay afloat, entered the market for fetish footwear. George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, was born into the Washington family who had migrated to America from Northamptonshire in 1656. George Washington's ancestor, Lawrence Washington, was Mayor of Northampton on several occasions and it was he who bought Sulgrave Manor from Henry VIII in 1539. It was George Washington's great-grandfather, John Washington, who emigrated in 1656 from Northamptonshire to Virginia. Before Washington's ancestors moved to Sulgrave, they lived in Warton, Lancashire. [17] Northamptonshire County Council previously operated a comprehensive system of state-funded secondary schools. [71] From May 2021 compulsory education in the county is administered by North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council. The county is home to private schools Oundle, Quinton House School, Wellingborough School, Spratton Hall School, Northampton High School. Northamptonshire Chamber :: Milton Keynes & South Midlands Growth Plan". 7 December 2009. Archived from the original on 7 December 2009 . Retrieved 20 January 2018. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link) Connecting Communities – Expanding Access to the Rail Network" (PDF). London: Association of Train Operating Companies. June 2009. p. 19 . Retrieved 7 September 2018.

Nine years later, the county was described as "a county enjoying the reputation of being one of the healthiest and pleasantest parts of England" although the towns were "of small importance" with the exceptions of Peterborough and Northampton. In summer, the county hosted "a great number of wealthy families... country seats and villas are to be seen at every step." [20] Northamptonshire is still referred to as the county of "spires and squires" because of the numbers of stately homes and ancient churches. [21] The gap in the hills at Watford Gap meant that many south-east to north-west routes passed through Northamptonshire. Watling Street, a Roman Road which is now part of the A5, passes through here, as did canals, railways and major roads in later years. The two main newspapers in the county are the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph and the Northampton Chronicle & Echo. [ citation needed] Television edit BBC regions Rushden: A town and civil parish located east of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, Rushden has a population of about 28,000, it grew as a town around the farming, lacemaking and shoemaking industries. Railway services in Northamptonshire were reduced by the Beeching cuts in the 1960s. [85] Closure of the line connecting Northampton to Peterborough by way of Wellingborough, Thrapston, and Oundle left eastern Northamptonshire devoid of railways. Part of this route was reopened in 1977 as the Nene Valley Railway. A section of one of the closed lines, the Northampton to Market Harborough line, is now the Northampton & Lamport heritage railway, while the route as a whole forms a part of the National Cycle Network, as the Brampton Valley Way.

Most of Northamptonshire is served by the BBC's East region which is based in Norwich. The regional news television programme, BBC Look East, provides local news across the East of England, Milton Keynes and most of Northamptonshire. An opt-out in Look East covers the west part of the region only, broadcast from Cambridge. This area also is covered by the BBC's The Politics Show: East and Inside Out: East. A small part of the north of the county is covered by BBC East Midlands's regional news BBC East Midlands Today, while a small part of South Northamptonshire is covered by BBC Oxford's regional news BBC Oxford News which is part of the BBC South Today programme. [ citation needed] ITV regions Northamptonshire County Council 'should be split up', finds damning report". ITV News. 15 March 2018. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018 . Retrieved 30 May 2018. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link) From 1993 until 2005, Northamptonshire County Council, [42] for which each of the 73 electoral divisions in the county elect a single councillor, had been held by the Labour Party; it had been under no overall control since 1981. The councils of the rural districts – Daventry, East Northamptonshire, and South Northamptonshire – are strongly Conservative, whereas the political composition of the urban districts is more mixed. At the 2003 local elections, Labour lost control of Kettering, Northampton, and Wellingborough, retaining only Corby. Elections for the entire County Council are held every four years – the last were held on 5 May 2005 when control of the County Council changed from the Labour Party to the Conservatives. The County Council uses a leader and cabinet executive system and abolished its area committees in April 2006.

In February 2011 a new satellite out-patient centre opened at Nene Park, Irthlingborough to provide over 40,000 appointments a year, as well as a minor injury unit to serve Eastern Northamptonshire. This was opened to relieve pressure off Kettering General Hospital, and has also replaced the dated Rushden Memorial Clinic which provided at the time about 8,000 appointments a year, when open. [77] Water contamination edit Northamptonshire has one university, the University of Northampton. It has two campuses 2.5 miles (4.0 km) apart and 10,000 students. [75] It offers courses for needs and interests from foundation and undergraduate level to postgraduate, professional and doctoral qualifications. Subjects include traditional arts, humanities and sciences subjects, as well as entrepreneurship, product design and advertising. [76] Healthcare edit Hospitals editNorthamptonshire has many rugby union clubs. Its premier team Northampton Saints, competes in the Aviva Premiership and won the European championship in 2000 by defeating Munster for the Heineken Cup, 9–8. Saints are based at the 15,249 capacity [90] Franklin's Gardens ground. In 2014 the club won the Aviva Premiership as well as the Challenge Cup. For the 2014/15 campaign the team finished top of the table for the first time in the premiership, eventually losing 24–29 to Saracens in the playoff semi-final. Midland Championships". midlandchampionships.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014 . Retrieved 12 July 2014. The Corby Radio Story". corbyradio.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016 . Retrieved 5 March 2016.