TOWN HISTORY
Finedon, a large village or indeed small town of Saxon
origin, is situated in Northamptonshire, the county justly famed for its Spires
and Squires. Life in Finedon is characterized by intense community feeling and
local loyalties. Finedon is a place of deep roots and proud self-conscious
identity.
When does Finedon's history begin?
Obviously
the 3,661 acres of the earth's surface now known, as Finedon are just as ancient
as the rest of the earth and Finedon, like the rest of the earth, must have
passed through all the prehistoric ages. The earliest evidence of "Finedon
man" yet discovered is a Neolithic (or New Stone Age) axe head. This axe
head is mentioned in the Archaeological Journal of 1878 but is now, apparently,
lost. Neither was the exact location of the find recorded except that it was
found "in Finedon". Neolithic stone tools and weapons were smooth and
highly polished as opposed to those of the Early Stone Age which were rough
flints chipped to a point. The Neolithic Age spread from 4,000 B.C. to 2,000
B.C. so man has trod Finedon soil for at least 4,000 years. The skulls of
Neolithic men were long and narrow like the skulls of the small, dark-skinned,
curly-haired people, the Basques, who still live in parts of Spain. We can
picture these early men keeping their cattle, fashioning their weapons and rude
pots, living in caves with their wives and children, and burying their dead in
long chambers or barrows made of huge uncut stones covered with earth. We have
further evidence of Neolithic, or slightly later, occupation in the discovery of
worked flints and crop marks, showing ring ditches and an enclosure, south of
Hillside Farm (Mr. L. Chamberlain's). An arrowhead (made from bluish flint and
of perfect proportions), recently found in this area, may be seen in Kettering
Museum. It is to me remarkable that ditches and walls, removed thousands of
years ago, still cause certain crops to grow a slightly different color and,
whilst the effect is not noticeable from the ground, the sites of such workings
are rendered clearly visible from the air and aerial photographs.