The land around Badby and Newnham changed hands frequently as the swirling forces of Mercia and the invading Danes ebbed and flowed across middle England.

To fund defence against the invading Danes around 871, Beorred seized it back and gave it to his army officers to secure their services.

In a charter dated 944, King Edmund I of England gave an estate comprising Dodford, Everdon and all of Badby with Newnham to Bishop Aelfric of Hereford.

After Edmund's murder in 946, the estate was returned in 948 to Croyland by his brother, King Edred (or Aedred, Ædred, Edric) on the advice of Turketul (or Turketulus), his chancellor.

Abbot Godric II[5] of Croyland, to buy protection against the threatening Danes, leased Badby in 1006 for 100 years to Norman (or Northman), son of Leofwine, Earl of Leicester[6] (and Chester), a great military officer under King Edred.

In turn, Earl Leofric gave the lordship of the manor of Badby and Newnham to the Benedictine Abbey of Evesham, for the remainder of the 100-year lease supposedly granted by Abbot Godric II of Croyland.

[10] In 1246 King Henry III granted free warren within Badby Wood and authorised the formation of a deer park[11] for hunting and food.

In 1316, there was no Abbot in post, so King Edward II appointed Thomas de Evesham, one of his Chancery clerks, as rector of the benefice.

The licence, which moved more control of, and finance from, Badby and Newnham to the Abbot of Evesham, was effected through Pope John XXII with Henry Berghersh, Bishop of Lincoln.

In the 9th century, the parish was in the Diocese of Dorchester (Oxon), a safer location adopted by an earlier Bishop of Leicester to avoid the invading Danes.

King Henry VIII granted the manors of Badby and Newnham in 1542 to Sir Edmund Knightley[12] and his wife Ursula and their heirs.

There was considerable unrest in the parish in the last 20 years of the 16th century, when Valentine Knightley attempted to transfer much area of arable to pasture and to restrict tenants’ rights to woodland.

Badby registers show: NOTE: Arthur Louis Finnell, CGRS, of the National Huguenot Society states this about Thomas and Ann Routes (Roote)'s son: "JOHN b.

Badby House> was built in 1826 by Charles William Watkins,[17] whose arms are listed in Burke's General Armory (1884) as: Azure, a fess vair between three leopard's faces jessant-de-lys or.

In 2009 the monastery additions were replaced with extensions suitable for its use as a care home, with comprehensive facilities dedicated to neurological illnesses and disorders.

[18] The Lantern House,[19] an early 19th century building[9] so named because of its octagonal tower shape, was completely restored and extended to provide modern living accommodation in 1981–82.

Originally built in 1686 in the same year as Stuart Cottage on the opposite side of the green overlooking the church, it is now a single-family residence and thatched again in 2012.

They were known as Sir Charles' Girls and were taught chiefly domestic work by a person from the village; this included the spinning and weaving of sheets.

The older girls went to Fawsley each day to be taught by the housekeeper how to cook and clean, make beds, set tables, feed fowl, etc.

Initially, Mrs Green gathered a number of church-going girls in the vicarage on Sunday afternoons to learn poetry and hymns.

Up to about the mid-19th century, a number of villages in south Northamptonshire had Morris dance teams who performed each spring and early summer as part of their local customs.

Journeys to Rugby were given a service number GA01 and to Banbury GA02 (Buses in Dunchurch, Onley, Braunston and between Byfield and Woodford Halse used the same road in the same direction to both termini!).

Lowland hazel-pedunculate woodland is the most common vegetation type present, with pedunculate oak-ash-hazel occurring locally in the wetter areas.

[31]Early 2007 saw the start of work undertaken by Fawsley Estate under a Forestry Commission Woodland Grant Scheme Agreement, running from 2006 to 2011.

From autumn 2014, thinning operations took place in Badby Wood to improve the health and quality of the habitat in addition to producing timber and firewood as a sustainable carbon lean product.

This is part of a carefully designed programme fully consulted with the Forestry Commission and Natural England and now approved within a long term Woodland Management Plan.

The thinning process removed predominantly sweet chestnut, sycamore, European larch and Scots pine and opened back around the mature oak.

It was carried out by competent and insured forestry contractors who were aware of the ecological importance of the woodland and have good experience of working on sensitive sites.

The proceeds of timber sales was invested into the long-term management of the valued woodland resource to ensure its sustainable upkeep for future generations.

Nene Way[34] is a more modern County Path extending 110 miles from Badby through Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and ending at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire.