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It is located roughly 25 miles (40 km) west of Northampton. The town comprises a historic market centre surrounded by much modern housing and light industrial development. Daventry's amenities include a popular country park and reservoir, located just outside the town centre. Until recently Daventry had a small Battle of Naseby museum although this is currently (2004) being mothballed.
Daventry is near the M1 motorway and is served by the A45 road. The town lost its rail links in the 1960s, and now the nearest railway station is at Long Buckby
Due to its good transport links, Daventry is now a warehousing and distribution centre.
On the 653 foot (199 metre) high 'Borough Hill' overlooking the town, remains have been found of an iron age hill fort - one of the largest found in Britain. Remains have also been found on the hill, of later Roman buildings.
Daventy town was incorporated under a royal charter in 1606, and a new Royal charter was granted in 1674. During the English Civil War Daventry was the headquarters of king Charles ICharles I ( 19 November 1600 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625, until his death. He famously engaged in a struggle for power with Parliament; he was an advocate of the divine right of kings, but his foes in Parl before the Battle of Naseby which occurred nearby in 1645Events February 15 New Model Army is founded officially June 14 English Civil War: Battle of Naseby 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers June 28 English Civil War the Royalists lose Carlisle July 2: Fight at Alford, Aberdee between RoyalistThe noun or adjective, Royalist can have several shades of meaning. At its simplest, it refers to an adherent of a monarch or royal family. It can mean a person who wishes to change the political system of his country into a monarchy, thus a monarchist. and ParliamentarianA parliamentarian is a specialist in parliamentary procedure. The adjective parliamentarian refers to any person or thing especially associated with a parliament (see parliamentary system). A Parliamentarian (as an upper-cased noun) often labels a Member forces.
In 1923Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 Events January 1 Grouping of all UK railway companies into four larg a BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation BBC is primarily a national publicly-funded broadcaster based in the United Kingdom, which also has some international services. Some of the international services (such as BBC cable TV in America, Canada and elsewhere broadcasting station was built on the Borough Hill outside the town, which until recently had a large antenna farm. In 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo the radio station at Daventry was used for the first ever practical demonstration of radarThis article is about the device. For the fictional character in M A S H see Corporal Walter (Radar) O'Reilly. antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. Radar is an acronym for ra dio d etec, by its inventor Robert Watson-Watt. The station closed in 1992 and only one of the radio masts now remains and is used as a radio beacon for aircraft.
Until the 1950s Daventry was a small rural town, with a population of around 6,000. Real growth started in the town in 1954 when the ball bearing manufacturer British Timken located a large factory in the town.
In the early 1960s the town was chosen as an overspill for people displaced by slum clearances in Birmingham. The town grew rapidly as a result: between 1955 and 1975 Daventry's population tripled to around 20,000.