Dogging in Northamptonshire: area guide

The lie of the land in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a long, narrow county running from the Cotswold edge in the south-west to the Fens edge in the north-east. Northampton is the biggest town by far, and it sits on the River Nene. Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Rushden, Daventry and Towcester are the other main centres, with Brackley and Oundle in the quieter corners.

There is no National Park and no AONB here, so the character comes from smaller things. Rolling fields, stone villages, old stands of woodland such as the Rockingham Forest area around Corby and Kettering, and the wide Nene valley with its lakes and old gravel pits. Corby grew as a steel town. Daventry and the south-west are higher, with views out over the Midlands.

The county sits in the middle of England, between London, Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge, so a lot of people pass through on the way to somewhere else. That is useful for getting here and a reason to plan a route carefully. Plenty of the roads that look quiet on a map are used by lorries and commuters at rush hour.

Getting about safely

The M1 cuts through the middle, passing Northampton and Daventry. The A14 crosses the north, linking Kettering to Cambridge and the M6. The A43 runs from the M1 near Northampton up to Kettering and Corby and on past Stamford. The A45 serves Daventry, Northampton, Wellingborough and Rushden, and the A5 follows the old Watling Street along the south-west edge past Towcester. Roadworks, lorries and accidents slow all of them down.

Northampton is on the West Coast line, with trains to London Euston in about an hour, plus services to Birmingham. Kettering and Wellingborough are on the Midland Main Line to London St Pancras, and Corby has direct trains to St Pancras via Kettering. Late trains thin out, and Corby and Wellingborough have fewer services in the evening than the big towns. Check the last train before you set off.

Away from the A roads, village lanes are narrow and winding, with high hedges and a lot of tractors and horses in daylight. Many have no street lighting. The Nene valley floods after heavy rain, closing low roads near Northampton, Wellingborough and Oundle. Mist collects in the river valleys on cold nights. Mobile signal is mostly good, but it falters in some of the folds of the south-west and the quieter villages.