Wootton is a former village about south of Northampton town centre that is now part of Northampton. Wootton is separated from Hardingstone by the Newport Pagnell Road the B526, formerly part of the A50 road. Part of Wootton is alongside the A45 dual carriageway from the M1 to Wellingborough which is seen and heard from that part of the area. History Domesday Book In the Domesday Book of 1086, Wootton is described as "Wetone". It later became Weton, Wutton and then Witton. "Wootton" appeared in the 14th century. The names probably have the Saxon origin of "Wudutun" and mean settlement or farmstead in, or by, a wood, which may have been Salcey Forest. Church The thirteenth-century Parish Church of St George the Martyr stands in the High Street in a conservation area, and is a Grade 1 listed building. It was restored in 1865. It was again restored and re-dedicated in 1991 after a £93,000 restoration programme had been successfully completed. The Rectory, west of the church is dated 1630. A memorial in the south wall is to the wife of John Harris – the Lord of the Manor in the eighteenth century. 17th and 18th centuries Little of Wootton dates from earlier than Stuart times. Most of the stone houses are late 17th or early 18th century. Many of these houses were originally thatched, as can be seen from the steep pitch of the roof. Many brick cottages are at least as old with those in Church Hill, at least 1770s, as they are mentioned in the Enclosure Act of 1779. Wootton had its own brick works along Berry Lane. A nearby field was known as Clay Pit field as late as 1932, but even in 1899, it was known as the "Old" Brick Works and used for many years as an ash tip. The Department of the Environment listed Carey's Cottage in Berry Lane as 16th century. 19th century There is some documentary evidence that there was a short-lived attempt to extract iron ore at Wootton in a field "at the back of the workhouse." The ore was probably taken to Bridge Street Station at Northampton by horse and cart. The report is in the Northampton Mercury for 24 January 1852. It implies that the quarrying began some time in 1851 (the same year that quarrying for iron began at Blisworth). It is likely that this was a