Before the Romans, the area, like much of Northamptonshire's prehistoric countryside, appears to have remained somewhat intractable with regards to early human occupation, resulting in an apparently sparse population and relatively few finds from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.

Iron age finds have been discovered there including the Desborough Mirror but the existence of that fort cannot be proved because the probable site has been quarried away.

An archaeological investigation there found early iron age pottery and showed that a wooden structure there with a stockade was burnt down at some stage.

[9] Along with the Forest of Dean and the Weald of Kent and Sussex, this area of Northamptonshire "was one of the three great centres of iron-working in Roman Britain".

[10] Excavations have revealed that the site at Weekly had been used for agriculture during the later iron age and a fortified enclosure had been constructed during the first century BC.

"[9] This was established imperial policy, which the Romano-British continued after Rome withdrew from Britain around 410, with disastrous consequences for the Romano-Britons.

[13] From about 889 the Kettering area, along with much of Northamptonshire (and at one point almost all of England except for Athelney marsh in Somerset), was conquered by the Danes and became part of the Danelaw, with the ancient trackway of Watling Street serving as the border, until being recaptured by the English under the Wessex king Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, in 917.

[9] The first historical reference of Kettering is in a charter of 956 in which King Edwy granted ten "cassati" of land to Ælfsige the Goldsmith.

At the Domesday survey in 1086, Kettering manor is listed as held by the Abbey of Peterborough, the church owning 10 hides of land.

Many large homes in both the Headlands and Rockingham Road were built for factory owners, while terraced streets provided accommodation for the workers.

The industry has markedly declined since the 1970s,[24] large footwear-manufacturers such as Dolcis, Freeman, Hardy and Willis, Frank Wright and Timpsons, having left the town or closed down in the face of stiff overseas competition, while others have outsourced their production to lower-cost countries.

[20] William Carey, born in 1761 at Paulerspury, spent his early life in Kettering before leaving for India as a missionary in 1793.

Politics in Kettering has not always been a sedate affair: in 1835, a horrified Charles Dickens, then a young reporter for the Morning Chronicle, watched aghast as a Tory supporter on horseback, intent (along with others) on taking control of by-election proceedings, produced a loaded pistol and had to be restrained by his friends from committing murder.

The ensuing riot between Tory and Whig supporters led Dickens in his article to form various opinions of Kettering and its voters, none of them complimentary.

The Kettering Ironworks, on the west side of the main railway to the north of Rothwell Road, began smelting iron in 1878 and ceased production in 1959, though ore quarrying continued until 1961.

From 1942 to 1945 the town witnessed a large influx of American servicemen (including on several occasions Clark Gable), mainly from the US 8th Air Force at RAF Grafton Underwood, 3.7 miles (6.0 km) away.

[35][36] The board subsequently held its meetings at the Town Hall, which was the main assembly room at the Corn Exchange in the Market Place, which had been built by a private company in 1853 to the designs of Edmund Francis Law.

[40] The council relocated in 1966 to the Municipal Offices in Bowling Green Road, which had previously been Kettering Grammar School, having been completed in 1913 to the designs of John Alfred Gotch, in the Neoclassical style.

[45] Concurrent with these changes, the unparished area of Kettering became a civil parish which also gained some land from Cranford and Barton Seagrave, which enabled it to establish a new town council.

Kettering's economy is now based on service and distribution industries due to its central location and transport links.

[49] Kettering General Hospital[50] provides Acute and Accident & Emergency department services for north Northamptonshire including Corby and Wellingborough.

With its new £20 million campus,[51] 16,000 students and 800 staff, Tresham College of Further and Higher Education is a significant employer in the region.

[55] The magnificent Boughton House, Queen Eleanor cross and the 1597 Triangular Lodge are local landmarks within the borough.

In March 2007, a project was revealed to refurbish and bring new leisure and shopping to the town centre, including water features, public art, sculptures, street furniture, trees, plants and an innovative pavement lighting scheme.

[citation needed] Latimer Arts College is also in the area and is located in the nearby village of Barton Seagrave.

Tresham allows full and part-time students over the age of 16 to study a range of vocational courses such as Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy, ICT, Hospitality and Catering and Motor Vehicle Technology.

In the early days games were played on a number of sites including farmers' fields and council-owned grounds.

In the BBC soap opera EastEnders, the character Sonia Fowler moved to Kettering between 2016 and 2017 for a new job, whilst actress Natalie Cassidy was on maternity leave.

The town is served by bus services operated by Stagecoach Midlands with the following routes: EMR Connect Rail services operated by East Midlands Railway depart every 30 minutes from Kettering to London St Pancras, with an average journey time of 59 minutes.

[67] With its good rail links, a large and growing commuter population takes advantage of Kettering's position on the Midland Main Line railway.