Talk:Northampton

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I seem to remember that Northampton applied unsuccesfully to become one of the "millenium cities" but lost out to Wolverhampton, am I right? G-Man 21:16, 2 May 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps. I think that it also lost out to swindon. It is also mentioned that Milton Keynes is not a city, I always thought that it was even if not 'officially',Andham2000
Milton Keynes likes to pretend that it is a city. I think its population is smaller than that of Northampton. John Campbell 13:57, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
Irrespective, Reading (232,662) and Dudley (194,919) are still larger towns by population than Northampton (189,474). Medway Towns (which, whilst grouped together by National Statistics actually comprises the settlements of Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester etc, has a total population of 231,659) is larger in total for the conurbation, but Milton Keynes (pop 184,506) is definitely smaller. - Census 2001 [1] DWaterson 23:54, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
City status isn't usually granted to urban areas or to urban sub-areas, but to boroughs, though. I haven't reverted, but I've clarified that the claim relies upon several very dodgy definitions. Morwen - Talk 16:23, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
OK, I'm happy to accept this change; it's certainly correct, and better than the original version. You're right that city status is usually applied to a Local Authority (whether it be called a Borough, Metropolitan Borough, London Borough, or District) rather than a settlement itself. DWaterson 21:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure about parts of the Leisure and Culture section, such as: "...to follow in the footsteps of giants like Deep Purple, Madness and My cat dillion." Deep Purple didnt play at the Racehorse, right? --Jeffthejiff 20:03, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yep, Deep Purple did many moons ago in the Back room, it was a venue similar to the Irish Centre back in the early 90's or the Roadmender previously (remember?). I wondered if I was a bit 'chatty' in that section though Andham2000 23:40, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC) Madness played in the 90's on their incognito tour.

Alright then, i just couldnt find anything else about them playing there. Maybe you might have been a bit too chatty and vague. I also cleaned up your My Cat Dillion article and renamed it with capital letters. jeffthejiff 11:43, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I couldn't agree more Jeff, This section is just name-dropping famous music acts that have absolutely no connection with Northampton other than they have played gig's there!! I suggest this paragraph is removed, possibly just leaving in reference to the genuine Northampton but not very famous My Car Dillion (sic). --80.177.124.44 13:59, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC) Ade_myers. So removed paragraph for now, --80.177.124.44 18:15, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) ade_myers

Contents

[edit] Roadmender

Has the roadmender actually shut now? It's a shame if it has. Mattyw 10:53 2 Dec 2005

Funding pulled by the Council last week - liquidation before Xmas :) Brookie: A collector of little round things 14:11, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
It was on the front of the chron and echo - it was shut down immediately yesterday. ---- jeffthejiff (talk) 14:35, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
That's shame. I moved out to go to uni a few years back. I loved that place. have the council said what they plan on doing with the building? --Mattyw 14:11, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Roadmender Reopened in october, Trust me I live here.

[edit] Northants TV

Is anyone sure that Northants TV was ever on terrestrial? It seems highly unlikely to me. John Campbell 13:57, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

It was, yes, I think only for a year or so. Oxford had a similar local terrestrial channel too I believe. Tom- 14:48, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
*a bit late in commenting* but it definetly was. I remember the excitement. Aah. But then they tried to make the reception better and ended up making it worse. Then it mysteriously closed down. Anyone know what the hell happened to it? That sentence i wrote in this article seems to be the largest source of information about Northants TV on the web. Has anyone got any other information about it? -- jeffthejiff (talk) 14:33, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
Aha, after a bit of delving, I can bring you... the Northants TV website! Or an archived version, at least. Ah... the memories of really quite crap local TV.
I heard they had plans to launch a full news operation with bulletins, but then they vanished off the face of the Earth. have a contact for someone who used to do some presenting there, so I may try to find out :) Tom- 21:06, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
Oooh, i think i found a version on archive.org quite a while ago, but i could only get to the front page. ta. Although, there isnt much of worth there anyway, being a "temporary site". i tried to find the former HQ of Northants TV once, and nothing related to it was there. I wonder if that telephone number still works... Ooh, I found the logo though, hurrah. -- jeffthejiff (talk) 21:55, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm guessing they had a Restricted service licence, as do/did about 30 other local TV stations across the UK. --Kiand 16:25, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Peter Purves

He is listed as living in Cogenhoe. However, the Peter Purves article says he lives in Suffolk. Does he have two homes? Or is there a mistake somewhere? --A bit iffy 12:35, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Not sure - I thought that he was still at Cogenhoe - will look into it. 08:15, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Kinky Boots

Is it worth mentioning this film, to my knowlege it is the only mainstream film ever to be made in the town, so perhaps worth a mention.andham2000

There have been some that use rural Northants - who can forget 'Clockwise' starring John Cleese ? I seem to remember bits of the Goldeneye James Bond film were filmed near Harlestone ? --195.137.93.171 (talk) 05:56, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New town

For some reason it was specifically claiming Northampton was never designated a new town. This is not actually true, and so I've changed it. Morwen - Talk 17:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

My recollection was that the New Town Commission set up the Northampton Development Corporation, which was responsible for the expansion in the Eastern District, as well as planned expansion in the West and South. However Northampton Borough Council continued, and the town as a whole did not receive the central funding that it would have it it had been designated as New Town. Milton Keynes in contrast was a New Town and gained a fully developed infrastructure. However I can't verify this, and the web references seem to indicate the contrary. I do wonder though if Northampton was gazetted as a New Town, but then never came fully on stream. Or was it that the expansion area under Northamton Development Corporation counted as a New Town? Can anyone help? John Campbell 13:40, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] In East Anglia?

Surely this is incorrect, particularly when you click on the East Anglia link. It shows a completely different area of the country.

Well spotted - Ive changed it Jameswilson 03:09, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
Northampton is in the very edge of the East Midlands but has East Anglia TV

[edit] Layout

I recently made some changes to the layout which were reverted with a "No that doesn't work". The changes I made and reasoning behind them were as follows:

  • Put infobox at top of article - that is where I would expect (and have seen) infoboxes for all other articles.
  • Moved Guildhall Building image to section that mentions it.
  • Removed "See picture left/on top" as I don't think this reads well, and there is the extra problem of keeping the image layout and text in sync.

Comments on why this doesn't work welcome. MartinRe 19:52, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Well the problems with it was that It squashed all the images into one small area, which didn't fit very well. Also many articles have images at the top such as Birmingham or Leicester for example, personaly I think It's good to have an introductory picture at the top of an article (my personal preference). The see picture thing could be turned into a link to the image perhaps. G-Man * 20:08, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Abington park

From Abington park...

The Park also hosts a high-class tearoom/restaurant "The Park Cafe" (formerly known as the 'The Old Oak'). It serves a menu of specialty coffees, a very wide selection of meals, and a special childrens menu. It has been under ownership of Tony Ansell since 1981.

Seems more like an advert to me. Not sure what makes it high-class, why we need to know it has achildrens menu or who runs it. Perhaps something that could be removed????

80.5.196.32 21:01, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Should this be deleted? A-Nottingham16:36, 16 July 2007 (UTC)