At the time it was a frontier town protected by a garrison fort erected on a hill close to Canterbury Center and commanded by Capt.

Additionally, dams along the Winnipesaukee and Merrimack rivers and several brooks powered early sawmills and gristmills.

By 1780 the residents of the north fields found it increasingly difficult to travel to the center of Canterbury to attend to town business.

[4] In 1848, the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad opened to Northfield, helping it develop symbiotically with Tilton across the river as a mill town.

[5] Northfield continued to combine a strong industrial base with a healthy agricultural community throughout the 19th and most of the 20th centuries.

The village of Northfield is located in the northern part of the town on the south bank of the Winnipesaukee River.

Manufacturers including Eptam Plastics, Blouin Steel Fabricators, Freudenberg NOK, and PCC Structurals form the backbone of the town's manufacturing/industrial base.

[6] Although many of the town's residents travel to nearby commercial and business centers in Tilton, Concord or Manchester for employment, nearly a thousand people work in Northfield, according to the NH Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.

Northfield is located in central New Hampshire and is served by several state and federal transportation routes.

A full I-93 interchange, exit 20, is located less than a mile north of Northfield, in the neighboring town of Tilton.

Northfield is also crossed by New Hampshire Route 132, which provides north–south local access parallel to Interstate 93.

New Hampshire Route 140 runs east–west and crosses the northern tip of town, connecting Tilton with Belmont, Gilmanton, and Alton.

Northfield is also home to Spaulding Youth Center, a provider of educational, residential, therapeutic and foster care programs and services for children and youth with neurological, emotional, behavioral, learning or developmental challenges, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and those who have experienced significant trauma, abuse or neglect.