Harbury on Knol

Link: http://knol.google.com/k/bruce-everiss/harbury/2l81m4yln1pbt/2#


Harbury is an ancient, prehistoric village sitting on a hill which rises 100 feet (30 metres) above the surrounding countryside near the Fosse Way Roman road in Warwickshire. It is named after Hereburgh, a female tribal chieftan of about 500BC, but the immediate area was populated from 1,000 years earlier due to it's strategic position. The locality has a large number of old quarries that were used to extract lyas limestone used in the manufacture of cement. These are now used for recreational purposes or for landfill. When they were worked large numbers of Jurassic fossils were found including ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs remains which are now in the Warwickshire museum and the Natural History Museum in London.

In Roman times a town of 27 ha size was built straddling the Fosse Way near Harbury. Today the remains lie below fields and only small, explaratory, excavations have been attempted.

After the Norman conquest of England in 1066 the village of Harbury was given to Henry de Ferrers, an ancestor of Princess Diana.

The legends of Robin Hood may well be based on Robert Fitz Odo, a nobleman turned robber, who was living in Harbury in 1203.

A very well known poet from the mid 1700s, Richard Jago, was vicar of Harbury, living here for 8 years.

Harbury was known as Hungry Harbury for over 100 years in the 18th and 19th century because it was so poor. Residents of nearby villages sent charitable donations of food to keep the residents here fed in the winter.

In the late 1700s/early 1800s Harbury's 13th century church (All Saints) tower was leaning over so they built the large buttresses you see today to try and keep it up. This didn't work so they removed the stone top of the tower, planning to replace it with a stone steeple. You can still see the plan today in the bell ringing room at the church. However due to shortage of funds, in 1811-1815, they built a short brick top to the tower which was stepped in to keep it small.

The Chiltern Railway runs through Harbury in the deepest railway cutting in Europe (at over 100 feet) made purely by manual labour and opened in 1847. Some of the waste from this work is now an SSSI (site of special scientific interest) that is one of the top butterfly habitats in the UK.
Harbury has a current population of over 2,500 who are served by five vibrant village pubs, The Shakespeare, The Crown, The Dog Inn, The Old New Inn and The Gamecockand and by one club. There is a popular rugby club and the village hosts a large number of community events throughout the year as well as having a wide range of societies for hobby activities. The annual Harbury beer festival is well established and rightly popular.
Local employers include Codemasters, the video games company, and Aston Martin, the sports car manufacturer.
Harbury man Philip Bushill-Matthews is leader of the Conservatives in the European parliament and teenager, Jordan King, is a karting ace, following in the footsteps of Lewis Hamilton, his father Justin is the CEO of Sainsbury's. Harbury singing duo Danansooz recorded an album "At Last".

Links:
Harbury community forum and information.
Local Government. Parish Council website.
Hereburgh Morris, traditional dancing.