19th century. It was also the site of the last robbery attempted by the infamous highwayman George Catherall (or ‘Captain Slash’) who was caught, tried and hanged in Northampton in 1826. In the centre of Boughton stands the chapel of St John the Baptist which now serves as the parish church. The tower, dating from the 15th century, is the oldest surviving structural element of the chapel and the village core. The church was extended and restored during the 19th century. The church has a monument to Mary Tillemont (d.1706). The oldest surviving non-ecclesiastical buildings in Boughton date from the 17th century. These properties are grouped around Butchers Lane and Church Street; The Old Bakehouse and Obelisk Farm are described in their listing descriptions as early-17th century whilst Merewater, formerly the Lion Pub, has a date-stone giving the year 1634. There are three other examples of 17th century buildings on Church Street: the Old Griffin (numbers 3 and 4), Griffin Cottage and Number 15 were all built in the mid- to late 17th century. Boughton Hall, Park and Follies A manor has been recorded in Boughton since at least the Norman period. The de Boughton family held the manor under Edward I, which passed through to Sir John Briscoe and Lord Ashburnham in the late 17th century. References to the latter manor stipulate that it was situated near the current Boughton Hall. In the 1720s, the Hall was described as 'pleasantly situated upon rising ground which commands a very extensive prospect'. However, by 1808, the Hall lay deserted and ruined. In 1844, it was demolished and rebuilt by Gen. R. W. H. Howard-Vyse to the west of the old site in a Victorian style. Recently, the Hall was subdivided into two units and the associated stables and coach houses act as private dwellings. The gardens to the south west of the Hall are surrounded by a large stone retaining wall that dates from the early 18th century. These formal gardens are presumed to have been laid out in their current form by Sir John Briscoe in the 1690s and form the oldest surviving element of the Hall and Park. The parkland, which lies mainly to the north of the village, but previously stretched eastwards also, was largely redesigned in the 18th century by William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722–1791), a friend of Horace Walpole. Wentworth also installed a collection