Hellidon is a village and civil parish about south-west of Daventry in Northamptonshire, England. The parish area is about . It lies – above sea level on the north face of an ironstone ridge, its highest point, at Windmill Hill, being south-east of the village. The Leam and tributaries rise in the parish. The 2011 Census gave a population (with Lower and Upper Catesby) of 256, estimated at 286 in 2019. The long-distance Jurassic Way footpath linking Banbury, Oxfordshire, and Stamford, Lincolnshire, passes through. The origin of the name is unclear. "Holy Valley", "Haegla's Valley" and "Unstable valley" have been suggested, with the Old English "dun", meaning hill. Manors The Domesday Book of 1086 omits Hellidon. In the 12th century a manor of four hides (about 49 ha) at "Eliden" was recorded in the fee of Berkhamsted. From the 13th century Hellidon had two manors: Baskervilles and Giffords. The present manor house at the north-west end occupies the site of the Baskervilles. Giffords Manor was on the north-east side – there are substantial rectilinear earthworks where the house is said to have stood. It had been abandoned by the time of Hellidon's 18th-century land surveys. Church and chapel Church of England The Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist is Decorated Gothic in style, and so from late 13th or early 14th century. The west tower survives in its medieval condition, but in 1845–1847 the nave and chancel were heavily restored for the Rev C. S. Holthouse under the Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield. Twenty years later Butterfield designed the north aisle and the parish school, both were built in 1867. In 1897 a north aisle was added to the chancel, designed by Matthew Houlding. There is also a north transept. St John's is a Grade II* listed building. The west tower has a ring of five bells. Hugh II Watts, who had foundries at Bedford and Leicester, cast the fourth bell in 1615 and the second, third and tenor in 1635. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the treble bell in 1993. Nonconformist Hellidon had a Nonconformist chapel in Berry Lane. The building is now a private house. Economic and social history Until the 1770s an open field system of farming prevailed. There were five such fields, mapped in 1726 as Further Field, Lower Field, Middle Field, Upper Field and Short Attle Field. In 1774 Parliament passed