Northampton Abbey

St James Abbey, also called Northampton Abbey, stands in the Abbots Way area off Weedon Road. William Peverel founded it in 1104–05 as an Augustinian house dedicated to St James. He gave the canons forty acres in Duston, the church there, and the parish mill. Within a century the abbey held ten churches in Northamptonshire plus farms and rents from thirty parishes. Henry II later granted the manor of Duston to Walkelin de Duston, who became abbot after joining the community. The abbey church was rebuilt on a grand scale under Edward I and finished around 1310. By the Dissolution the monastery was well kept, respected, and active in charity. Yet in 1538 it was dissolved and Nicholas Giffard turned the buildings into a private mansion. Archaeologists later found the abbey precinct beneath a housing estate. Excavations revealed the main structures preserved under new homes and uncovered about three hundred graves. The cemetery showed orderly medieval burials with wooden coffins, tiled linings, and stone-lined graves. Some high-status individuals rested in a single stone coffin. Later graves were simple and shallow, wrapped only in shrouds. A stone building on the south side contained two mortuary chapels, one with a life-sized effigy fragment still wearing chain mail. Among those buried were Abbott de Flore, John Catesby, Sir John de Grey, and Richard Woodville. A decorated slab from 1970 and the remains of two skeletons were also found.