Finedon is a town in North Northamptonshire, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 4,309. In 1086 when the Domesday Book was completed, Finedon (then known as Tingdene) was a large royal manor, previously held by Queen Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor. From the 1860s the parish was much excavated for its iron ore, which lay underneath a layer of limestone and was quarried over the course of 100 years or more. Local furnaces produced pig iron and later the quarries supplied ore for the steel works at Corby. A disused quarry face in the south of the parish is a geological SSSI. Finedon is situated to the north east of Wellingborough. Nearby towns and villages include Irthlingborough, Burton Latimer and Great Harrowden. History Domesday Book In 1086 when the Domesday Book was completed, Finedon was a large royal manor, previously held by Queen Edith. At this time the village (now a town) was known as Tingdene, which originates from the Old English words þing meaning assembly or meeting and Denu meaning valley or vale. Tingdene and the later version, Thingdon, were used until the early nineteenth century until finally Finedon became the commonly accepted version, both in written format as well as in pronunciation. At the time of the Domesday Book Finedon was one of only four towns listed with a population greater than 50 in Northamptonshire - the others being Northampton, Brackley and Rushton. The Bell Inn also claims to be listed in the Domesday Book, but the current building does not date back to this period, and there is evidence that the original inn was situated several hundred metres away. However, the main building was built around 1598, with the current façade added in 1872. St Mary's Church The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, is a mid-14th-century church with an aisled nave of four bays. The parish priest until 2022 was the Reverend Richard Coles, a broadcaster and former member of pop group The Communards. The tower houses a ring of eight bells in the key of D, with the tenor weighing just over 21 hundredweight (about 1.1 tonnes). The church also houses an organ which was probably originally built for St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in 1704. It was installed in 1717, rebuilt in 1872, and restored in 1960 and again in 2014, and it retains its tracker action. Finedon