​Northamptonshire County Council committed to developing a heritage website for the county in the Northamptonshire Heritage Strategy.

This bespoke heritage website has been created in partnership with a number of key stakeholders, including local heritage groups, charities, and societies.

The website has been designed to help residents and visitors discover the heritage of Northamptonshire. It aims to promote an enhanced sense of place and pride within the county.

The website supports students, heritage enthusiasts and members of the public wishing to learn more about their history, whilst also providing heritage experts with readily available information all in one place.

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Research identified a need for a website bringing together heritage information for the whole of Northamptonshire.

Website objectives

To create an awareness and understanding of key heritage features across Northamptonshire;

  • To be ‘the’ site to visit for all heritage needs
  • To provide an educational resource
  • To promote and utilise existing heritage websites rather than duplicate content
  • To enhance pride in Northamptonshire

The audience

The website is designed to attract multiple target audiences including:

  • Heritage tourists
  • Local residents and interest groups
  • Students, heritage enthusiasts, and members of the public wishing to learn more
  • Heritage experts that seek practical heritage information

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Northamptonshire Heritage Strategy

Heritage is one of Northamptonshire’s richest resources, in terms of its potential impact on people and place. This Strategy seeks to enable this potential to be developed in a shared and co-operative approach. The purpose of this Strategy is to provide a framework and context for how we should best care for and prioritise those assets most at risk or in need of urgent focus, and promote heritage in Northamptonshire.

The Strategy also seeks to ensure that the county’s history and heritage is valued and protected, promoted and made accessible to all, now and into the future, so that it becomes a cornerstone of Northamptonshire’s present and future economic and community development. In order to support these aims, a partnership action plan has also been incorporated into the Strategy.

We need to care for and prioritise heritage against other important county-wide issues, because once lost, it can never adequately be replaced. Too often we look back in regret at the heritage that has been destroyed in the past; we do not want future generations to do likewise and find fault in our approach. The Strategy is both a call to action and a reminder that everyone has a responsibility for preserving our county’s heritage and developing and capturing its contemporary relevance.

Northamptonshire is a fast growing county. Population growth brings with it a need for improved infrastructure, housing, schools, and other services crucial to the economic development of the county. However, Northamptonshire’s heritage is strong, diverse and full of character, and should be core to the offer the county can make to new residents, businesses and visitors.

Read the full strategy (PDF)