Badby is a village and a rural parish of about in West Northamptonshire, England. Location Badby is about 2 miles (3 km) south of Daventry, on the A361 Daventry to Banbury road, which still follows the route of the Lutterworth-Daventry-Banbury turnpike as approved in 1765. The parish is bisected west to east, at about above sea level, by the upper reaches of the River Nene. The village is mainly south of the river, where the land rises to Badby Down at . Demographics Its population has fluctuated between 450 and 625 from 1801 to 1971, with a low point of 410 in 1901, then to a high of 720 in 1991. It was 645 in 2001, 632 in 2011 and up to 701 in the 2021 census. Name The village's name means 'Badda's fortification'. the second element was replaced with early Old Norse 'by', meaning 'farm/settlement'. Badby is spelt in various ways since Saxon times, through the Norman period, until printing stabilised it in the present form. Badby, Badbye, Baddebi, Baddeby, Badebi and Badeby are all found. Baddanbyrg or Baddan Byrig were used in the 944 AD charter, but these more likely refer specifically to Arbury Hill (see below). History There are several mediaeval charters referring to the area around Badby, but some are suspect. The land around Badby and Newnham changed hands frequently as the swirling forces of Mercia and the invading Danes ebbed and flowed across middle England. Badby and Newnham manors were treated as one until the Knightleys sold Newnham manor to the Thorntons of Brockhall in 1634. The church benefice has always been Badby with Newnham (or Badby-cum-Newnham), Newnham being a chapel of the parent church at Badby in the initial times, but for a few years was recorded as the main church. The shared rector or vicar arrangement goes back 750 years. Saxon Charters record that the land was given by a Saxon sheriff (or shire reeve), Norman, to the Abbey of Croyland (or Crowland) around the year 726. To fund defence against the invading Danes around 871, Beorred seized it back and gave it to his army officers to secure their services. In a charter dated 944, King Edmund I of England gave an estate comprising Dodford, Everdon and all of Badby with Newnham to Bishop Aelfric of Hereford. After Edmund's murder in 946, the estate was returned in 948 to Croyland by his