Helmdon

{{Short description|Village in Northamptonshire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2014}} {{Use British English|date=March 2014}} {{Infobox UK place | country = England | official_name = Helmdon | static_image_name = Helmdon Church - geograph.org.uk - 1338375.jpg | static_image_caption = St Mary Magdalene parish church | coordinates = {{coord|52.089|-1.148|display=inline,title}} | os_grid_reference = SP5843 | london_distance = {{convert|72|mi|0}} | population = 899 | population_ref = (2011 Census)<ref name=ONS>{{cite web |url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11124450&c=Helmdon&d=16&e=62&g=6452234&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1385058309234&enc=1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131121183823/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11124450&c=Helmdon&d=16&e=62&g=6452234&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1385058309234&enc=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 November 2013 |title=Area: Helmdon (Parish); Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics |work=Neighbourhood Statistics |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=21 November 2013 }}</ref> | civil_parish = Helmdon | unitary_england = West Northamptonshire | lieutenancy_england = Northamptonshire | region = East Midlands | constituency_westminster = Northamptonshire South | post_town = Brackley | postcode_district = NN13 | postcode_area = NN | dial_code = 01295 | website = [http://www.helmdon.com/ Welcome to Helmdon] }}

'''Helmdon''' is a village and civil parish about {{convert|4|mi}} north of Brackley in West Northamptonshire, England. The village is on the River Tove, which is flanked by meadows that separate the village into two. The parish includes the hamlets of Astwell and Falcutt and covers more than {{convert|1550|acre}}.<ref name=RCHME>{{harvnb|RCHME|1982|pp=80–88}}</ref> The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 899.<ref name=ONS/>

The villages name means 'Helma's valley'. Alternatively, 'Helma (= helmet)' may be the name of a nearby hill. Early spellings also reflect confusion with Old English 'hamol' meaning, 'maimed'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Northamptonshire/Helmdon|title=Key to English Place-names}}</ref>

==Manor== Helmdon's toponym is probably derived from Old English ''Helman denu'' "Helma's valley"; ''Helma'' is an unrecorded Old English masculine name.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Watts |editor-first1=Victor |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, England |isbn=0-521-36209-1 |page=295}}</ref> In the reign of Edward the Confessor two Saxons, Alwin and Godwin, held the manor "freely", ''i.e.'' without a feudal overlord.<ref name=Adkins322>{{harvnb|Adkins|Serjeantson|1902|p=322}}</ref> They were dispossessed after the Norman Conquest of England and the Domesday Book of 1086 records that Robert, Count of Mortain held a manor at ''"Elmedene"''.<ref name=Adkins322/> In the 12th century on William de Torewelle (Turville) held the manor of ''"Helmendene"'' of the fee of Leicester.{{sfn|Adkins|Serjeantson|1902|p=369}} On both occasions the manor was assessed at four hides.<ref name=Adkins322/>{{sfn|Adkins|Serjeantson|1902|p=369}} The toponym continued to evolve: in about 1340 it was recorded as ''Helmydene''.<ref name=Parry/>

William's descendants continued as the lesser lords of Helmdon until the 16th century. In 1317 Nicholas de Turville granted 97{{fraction|1|2}} acres at Helmdon to his daughter Sarah and her husband Robert Lovett.<ref name=Mawson>{{harvnb|Mawson|Moody|2001|pp=177–184}}</ref> In 1562 George Lovett sold Helmdon to Lancelot Wilton of Brackley, who 16 months later sold it on to Magdalen College, Oxford.<ref name=Mawson/> The college remained Helmdon's largest landowner until at least the 18th century, by which time Worcester College, Oxford also held a significant estate in the parish.<ref name=Mawson/>

Helmdon's main manor house, Overbury, seems to have been at the southern end of the village, south of the parish church.<ref name=RCHME/> Slight earthworks suggest the position of not only the manor house but also other houses and three former ponds<ref name=RCHME/> that may have been manorial fish ponds.

==Church and chapel==

===Church of England=== The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary Magdalene is predominantly Decorated Gothic.<ref name=EH-church>{{NHLE |num= 1371508 |desc=Church of St Mary Magdalene |date=9 February 1969 |accessdate=22 November 2013}}</ref> English Heritage dates the earliest building work to the 14th century<ref name=EH-church/> but local opinion holds the nave and aisles to be 13th century.<ref name=Parry>{{harvnb|Parry|1986–87|pp=258–269}}</ref><ref name=Spendlove>{{cite web |last=Spendlove |first=Jean |year=2008 |orig-year=1988 |title=Saint Mary Magdalene, Helmdon – A History |url= http://www.helmdon.com/parishchurch/church_history.htm |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> It is a Grade II* listed building.<ref name=EH-church/>

Until the English Reformation the church was dedicated to Saint Nicholas.<ref name=Spendlove/> The oldest parts are the nave and three-bay<ref name=Pevsner>{{harvnb|Pevsner|Cherry|1973|p=253}}</ref> south aisle, which may be early 13th-century.<ref name=Spendlove/> The south aisle includes a tomb recess<ref name=Pevsner/> with a Purbeck Marble slab and foliated cross.<ref name=EH-church/> The arcade of the north aisle is of a different style that suggests a later date, possibly late 13th-century.<ref name=Spendlove/> Authorities agree that the chancel is 14th-century.<ref name=EH-church/><ref name=Spendlove/> It has an ornately cusped, ogeed and crocketted piscina and three-bay sedilia,<ref name=EH-church/> plus a low-side window on each side.<ref name=Pevsner/>

The clerestory of the nave was added later, possibly in the 15th century.<ref name=EH-church/><ref name=Spendlove/> The clerestory's timber roof ties and purlins may be 15th-century originals.<ref name=EH-church/> The original west tower was probably 14th-century,<ref name=Spendlove/> but was rebuilt in 1823<ref name=EH-church/><ref name=Pevsner/> reusing elements of the original Decorated Gothic masonry.<ref name=Spendlove/> The church was restored in 1841, and again under the direction of EF Law in 1876.<ref name=EH-church/> During the restoration an Early English Gothic piscina was found under some pews in the north aisle, and was set in the wall near the north door.<ref name=Spendlove/>

Small sections of Medieval stained glass survive in the heads of some of the windows.<ref name=Pevsner/> One in the north-east window of the north aisle depicts a stonemason at work.<ref name=EH-church/> It gives his name, William Campiun, and has been dated to 1313.<ref name=Spendlove/> This suggests that he was a benefactor, at least paying for the window and probably contributing to the building of the north aisle.<ref name=Spendlove/> Such a medieval representation of a craftsman or tradesman is unusual, and one giving his name and so precisely datable is particularly rare.<ref name=Spendlove/> However, stone-quarrying was by then a significant industry in Helmdon, it supplied most or all of the stone for the church, and leading local masons would have had considerable economic standing.<ref name=Parry/>

Taxation records show that in 1291 the Hospital of St John Baptist and St John Evangelist, Northampton held the rectory of Helmdon.{{sfn|Serjeantson|Adkins|1906|pp=156–159}} It is now part of the parish of St Mary Magdalene, Helmdon with Stuchbury and Radstone,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.achurchnearyou.com/helmdon-stuchbury-radstone-st-mary-magdalene/ |title=St Mary Magdalene, Helmdon w Stuchbury & Radstone |author=Archbishops' Council |author-link=Archbishops' Council |publisher=Church of England |year=2010 |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> which in turn is part of the Benefice of the Astwell Group of Parishes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=28/008BM |title=Benefice of The Astwell Group of Parishes |author=Archbishops' Council |author-link=Archbishops' Council |publisher=Church of England |year=2010 |access-date=22 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203012046/http://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice.php?B=28%2F008BM |archive-date=3 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The tower has a ring of six bells. Henry II Bagley of Chacombe<ref name=DoveFounders>{{cite web |url= http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/founders.php |author=Dovemaster |title=Bellfounders |date=31 October 2012 |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> cast the fourth, fifth and tenor bells in 1679.<ref name=Spendlove/><ref name=DoveDetails>{{cite web |url= http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Helmdon&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=HELMDON |last=Dawson |first=George |title=Helmdon S Mary Magd |date=11 December 2009 |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> John Briant of Hertford<ref name=DoveFounders/> cast the treble bell in 1797.<ref name=DoveDetails/> The Taylor family of bellfounders of Loughborough cast the third bell in 1834, the second bell in 1855 and recast the fourth bell in 1890. Gillett & Johnston of Croydon<ref name=DoveFounders/> recast the fifth bell in 1951.<ref name=DoveDetails/> The church has also a Sanctus bell that was cast by an unidentified founder in about 1816.<ref name=DoveDetails/>

The old Rectory may have been 16th-century or earlier. In 1856 the then Rector, Rev. Charles Milman Mount, had it demolished and replaced with a new one (now Helmdon House).{{sfn|Parry|2008}} In the porch of the 1856 rectory is the wooden lintel of a Tudor fireplace bearing a carved dragon, the year 1533 (or 35) and a set of initials.<ref name=Pevsner/>

===Baptist=== Helmdon Baptist chapel in Wappenham Road opened in 1841.<ref name=Baptist>{{cite web |url= http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier1/baptistchapel.html |title=Baptist Chapel |work=Helmdon Trail |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> In 1953 a schoolroom was added.<ref name=Baptist/> The building became unsafe and was closed as a place of worship in 2004.<ref name=Baptist/> Baptists from Helmdon now worship at Weston Baptist chapel,<ref name=Baptist/> about {{convert|2|mi|0}} away.

==Economic and social history== thumb|18th-century cottages in Wappenham Road

===Building stone=== Helmdon Stone is a pale limestone of the Middle Jurassic Taynton Limestone Formation.{{sfn|Anonymous|2011|p=16}} It is a freestone, ''i.e.'' it can be sawn in any direction to make ashlar.<ref name=Parry/> The quarries were on the north side of the Tove Valley, on the low ridge just beyond the northern edge of the village.{{sfn|Parry|1986–87|loc=Fig. 1}} There were either side of the minor roads to Weston and Sulgrave, extending about {{convert|1000|yd}} east–west from just east of the footpath to Weston Farm to the boundary of what became the course of the Great Central Main Line.{{sfn|Parry|1986–87|loc=Fig. 1}}

Stone may have been quarried in the parish since the late 13th century.<ref name=Parry/> Finely-carved stone used to build the Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone (started 1291) and to face the west front of the priory church of Canons Ashby Priory resembles that from Helmdon.{{sfn|Anonymous|2011|p=17}} In about 1340 ''Helmydene'' supplied stone to repair the Church of St James the Less, Sulgrave.<ref name=Parry/>

Helmdon stone gained fame in the late 17th century. For a century it was included in the building of some of the region's finest stately homes. The first was Stowe House, whose builders used Helmdon stone from 1677, and especially from 1710 to 1777.<ref name=Parry/> This was followed by Easton Neston House near Towcester, completed 1702; Blenheim Palace in the period 1705–10; and Woburn Abbey from 1749 to 1780.<ref name=Parry/> Helmdon may also have supplied stone to build Brackley Town Hall in 1705–06 and to remodel Canons Ashby House in 1708–10.<ref name=Parry/> In 1739 Helmdon supplied some of the stone for Shalstone House in Buckinghamshire.<ref name=Parry/>

Blenheim is {{convert|26|mi}} from Helmdon, and most of its stone was supplied by much nearer quarries in Oxfordshire: either Burford and Taynton<ref name=Parry/> or Cornbury Park and Glympton.{{sfn|Arkell|1948|p=53}} Woburn is {{convert|31|mi}} away and most of its stone was supplied by nearer quarries at Ketton and Totternhoe.<ref name=Parry/> The inclusion of Helmdon stone in these prestigious projects shows how highly it was regarded at the time.<ref name=Parry/> Early 18th-century writers praised it as some of the finest building stone in England.<ref name=Parry/> However, after 1780 Helmdon stone ceased to be of more than local importance.<ref name=Parry/>

===Lace=== thumb|18th-century barn at Priory Farm The trade of making lace by hand was a well-established cottage industry in the East Midlands by the late 16th century, and the earliest record of it in Helmdon dates from 1718.{{sfn|Harwood|1997}} Makers around Towcester and Buckingham had a reputation for the finest lace,{{sfn|Harwood|1997}} and although mechanised competition began with Heathcoat's bobbin net machine in 1808, quality lace-making by hand thrived for several more decades. Helmdon had lace-making schools that taught girls the trade from an early age.{{sfn|Harwood|1997}} Lace-making in the parish peaked in the middle of the 19th century, when the 1851 Census recorded that 94 women and girls — more than 30% of all Helmdon's female inhabitants — worked in the trade, and the youngest workers were under 10 years old.{{sfn|Harwood|1997}} Thereafter mechanical lace-making did reduce the market for hand-made lace. The 1891 Census recorded only six women in Helmdon employed in the trade, and only one of those was aged under 40.{{sfn|Harwood|1997}}

===Agriculture=== {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Helmdon Inclosure Act 1757 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of Great Britain | long_title = An Act for dividing and enclosing the Open and Common Fields, Common Meadows, Common Ground, and Waste Ground, in the Manor and Parish of Helmdon, in the County of Northampton. | year = 1758 | citation = 31 Geo. 2. c. ''33'' {{small|Pr.}} | territorial_extent = Great Britain | royal_assent = 9 June 1758 | commencement = 1 December 1757{{efn|Start of session.}} | expiry_date = | repeal_date = | repealing_legislation = | related_legislation = | status = Current | original_text = | collapsed = yes }} Traces of traditional ridge and furrow ploughing survive in much of the parish, and particularly in the south.<ref name=RCHME/> They are evidence of the open field system of farming that prevailed in the parish until 1758, when Parliament passed an inclosure act for Helmdon, the '''{{visible anchor|Helmdon Inclosure Act 1757}}''' (31 Geo. 2. c. ''33'' {{small|Pr.}}).<ref name=RCHME/>

===Leisure=== A few 17th-century records name Helmdon victuallers in 1630, 1673 and 1692, but none says where there alehouses were or what they were called.{{sfn|Harwood|1998}} Helmdon's earliest public house to be recorded by name was the Cross in Cross Lane.{{sfn|Harwood|1998}} It was built late in the 17th century,<ref name=EH-Cross>{{NHLE |num= 1371511 |desc=The Old Cross |date=22 June 1987 |accessdate=22 November 2013}}</ref> and takes its name from the Cross family that ran it from then until late in the 18th century.<ref name=Harwood-Cross>{{harv|Harwood|1998|loc=http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier2/THECROSS.HTM}}</ref> Early in the 19th century Hopcroft and Norris's brewery in Brackley acquired it as a tied house.<ref name=Harwood-Cross/> The Cross closed on 15 August 1914,<ref name=Harwood-Cross/> just a fortnight after the outbreak of the First World War. It is now a private house called the Old Cross.<ref name=EH-Cross/>

Publicans of the Cross included James Campin (in 1884–1909) and Edward Campin (in 1913),<ref name=EH-Cross/> who share the same local surname as the stonemason William Campiun commemorated in the parish church in 1313. The last Campin in Helmdon died in 1969.<ref name=Spendlove/>

The Chequers opposite the parish school was trading by 1758 and possibly much earlier.<ref name=Harwood-Chequers>{{harv|Harwood|1998|loc=http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier2/thechequers.htm}}</ref> In 1872 it was taken over by Hopcroft and Norris, which in 1945 merged with the Chesham Brewery to form the Chesham and Brackley Brewery.<ref name=Harwood-Chequers/> By 1960 it had passed to Phipps Northampton Brewery Company, which in 1970 sold it to Charles Wells Ltd of Bedford.<ref name=Harwood-Chequers/> It was closed in 1992, demolished and replaced by four new houses.<ref name=Harwood-Chequers/>

The King William IV was trading by 1841,<ref name=Harwood-Bell>{{harv|Harwood|1998|loc=http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier2/THEBELL.HTM}}</ref> just four years after the death of its namesake. In about 1884 it became a tied house of the Leamington Brewery Company and its name was changed to The Bell.<ref name=Harwood-Bell/> After 1934 a dance hall with a sprung floor was built behind the pub.<ref name=Harwood-Bell/> Also in the middle of the 20th century the Bell diversified as a filling station, with a single hand-operated petrol pump outside.<ref name=Harwood-Bell/> The dance hall was demolished and replaced with a bungalow before 1970 but the petrol pump remained well into the 1970s.<ref name=Harwood-Bell/> The Bell continues to trade today.<ref name=TheBell>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thebellhelmdon.co.uk/ |title=The Bell at Helmdon |access-date=23 November 2013 |archive-date=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203003843/http://www.thebellhelmdon.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Cock and Magpie in Wappenham Road opposite the Baptist chapel was trading by 1861.<ref name=Harwood-Magpie>{{harv|Harwood|1998|loc=http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier2/themagpie.htm}}</ref> Its name was later shortened to the Magpie.<ref name=Harwood-Magpie/> When the Great Central Main Line was being built in the second half of the 1890s, the landlord added a wooden building behind the pub in which he lodged some of the navvies.<ref name=Harwood-Magpie/> The Magpie closed down in 1909,<ref name=Harwood-Magpie/> giving it the shortest trading life of Helmdon's four known pubs. It is now a private house, Magpie Cottage.<ref name=Harwood-Magpie/>

thumb|Helmdon Reading Room, built in 1887 A Charles Fairbrother had the Reading Room built in 1887 as a men's meeting place as an alternative to the pubs.<ref name=Folgham>{{cite web |last1=Folgham |first1=Audrey |last2=Spendlove |first2=Jean |title=Reading Room |series=Helmdon Trail |url= http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier1/readingroom2.html |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref> Newspapers and magazines were donated and until 1930 a small annual subscription was charged.<ref name=Folgham/> Women were not admitted until 1921, when the local Women's Institute started meeting there.<ref name=Folgham/> It was run by the parish Rector and churchwardens until the 1970s, when it was transferred to the parish council.<ref name=Folgham/> Throughout its history the Reading Room has been the meeting place of many of Helmdon's activities, serving in effect as the village hall.<ref name=Folgham/>

===School=== Helmdon School was planned in 1852 as a National School and built and opened in 1853 on land given by Worcester College, Oxford.<ref name=Ipgrave>{{harvnb|Ipgrave|1999|pp=116–145}}</ref> The original building included a house for the schoolmaster, which was sold as a private house in 1970.<ref name=Ipgrave/> In 1872 more land was acquired and an additional classroom was built.<ref name=Ipgrave/>

After Parliament passed the Elementary Education Act 1870, control of the school was transferred from the Church of England parish to the local School Board.<ref name=Ipgrave/> The school was refurbished in 1933 and extended in 1975.<ref name=Ipgrave/> It is now a primary school.<ref name=School>[http://www.helmdonprimaryschool.com/ Helmdon Primary School]</ref>

===Railways=== [[File:Helmdon Station - geograph.org.uk - 1341903.jpg|thumb|Bridge carrying Station Road over the dismantled Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway next to the site of the former SMJR station]] [[File:Helmdon Viaduct - geograph.org.uk - 22122.jpg|thumb|Helmdon Viaduct, part of the dismantled Great Central Main Line]] In 1872 the Northampton and Banbury Junction Railway (from 1910 part of the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway (SMJR)) was opened between {{rws|Blisworth}} and {{rws|Farthinghoe}}. It passed roughly east–west along the Tove Valley through the middle of the village, where its Helmdon station was opened.

In the 1890s a civil engineering contractor, Walter Scott and Company of Newcastle upon Tyne, built the section of the Great Central Main Line (GCML) between {{rws|Woodford Halse}} and {{rws|Brackley Central}}.{{sfn|Boyd-Hope|Sargent|Newton|2007|p=10}} From 1894 to 1898 Scott had a construction yard in the Tove Valley at Helmdon with a network of sidings connected to the SMJR.<ref name=BoydHope>{{harvnb|Boyd-Hope|Sargent|Newton|2007|p=100}}</ref> It was next to where the company built Helmdon Viaduct, a nine-arch structure of Staffordshire blue brick that carried the GCML main line across the valley.<ref name=BoydHope/>

The main line linked northern England with {{rws|London Marylebone}} and opened in 1899. It ran roughly north–south through the parish, passing just west of the village. There the Great Central Railway (GCR) opened its own {{rws|Helmdon}} station, causing some confusion with the SMJR's existing Helmdon station. In the 1920s Sulgrave Manor House, about {{convert|2+1/4|mi|0}} from Helmdon, was restored as a museum to the family of George Washington, whose ancestors held that manor from 1540 to 1659.<ref>{{NHLE |num= 1001040 |desc=Sulgrave Manor |date=25 June 1984 |accessdate=11 November 2013}}</ref> In response the London and North Eastern Railway, which had succeeded the GCR in 1923, renamed its main line station "Helmdon for Sulgrave" from 1928.

British Railways closed the SMJR station and line in 1951, the GCML main line station in 1963 and the main line in 1966. Helmdon Viaduct survives.

===Shops=== In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Helmdon a dozen or more shops.<ref name=Vicars>{{harvnb|Vicars|2005|pp=202–210}} {{Dead link|date=May 2021}}</ref> By the 1930s they included a post office, three grocers, a butcher, an egg-dealer, a fruiterer, a baker, a newsagent, a tailor and a shoe repairer.<ref name=Vicars/> Other local tradesmen included two coal merchants, a wheelwright who also made coffins, a builder who was also the parish undertaker, and even a maker of boot polish.<ref name=Vicars/> Butchers from Brackley and Syresham delivered to customers in Helmdon, and some Helmdon traders sold their goods beyond the parish.<ref name=Vicars/> Helmdon's last village shop was Bungalow Stores in Station Road,<ref name=Vicars/> which closed in 2011.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

==Amenities== The Bell continues to trade as both a pub and an hotel.<ref name=TheBell/> Helmdon has a nursery school for children aged 2–4 years<ref>[http://www.helmdonacorns.org.uk/ Helmdon Acorns Pre-School]</ref> as well as the primary school for children aged 4–11 years.<ref name=School/> There are more than 30 community groups.<ref>[http://www.helmdon.com/Villagegroups.html Group Directory]</ref> The village has two ponds, and a public park with play equipment and benches. Helmdon won the Northamptonshire Village of the Year competition in 1969, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2011.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

[[File:Helmdon noticeboard and postbox - geograph.org.uk - 449374.jpg|thumb|Pillar box and community noticeboard in the part of the village north of the River Tove]]

== Notes == {{Notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources== *{{cite book |editor1-last=Adkins |editor1-first=W.R.D. |editor1-link=Ryland Adkins |editor2-last=Serjeantson |editor2-first=R.M. |year=1902 |title=A History of the County of Northampton |volume=1 |series=Victoria County History |location=Westminster |publisher=Archibald Constable & Co |pages=322, 369 }} *{{cite book |author=Anonymous |year=2011 |title=Strategic Stone Study; a Building Stone Atlas of Northamptonshire |publisher=English Heritage |url= http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=1614 |pages=16–17 }} *{{cite journal |last=Arkell |first=W.J. |author-link=William Joscelyn Arkell |year=1948 |title=The building-stones of Blenheim Palace, Cornbury Park, Glympton Park and Heythrop House, Oxfordshire |journal=Oxoniensia |publisher=Oxford Architectural and Historical Society |volume=XIII |issn=0308-5562 |pages=49–54}} *{{cite book |last1=Boyd-Hope |first1=Gary |last2=Sargent |first2=Andrew |last3=Newton |first3=Sydney |year=2007 |title=Railways and Rural Life: S W A Newton and the Great Central Railway |location=Swindon |publisher=English Heritage and Leicestershire County Council |isbn=978-185074-959-2 |pages=99–101 }} *{{cite journal |last=Harwood |first=Audrey |year=1997 |title=Lace Making in Helmdon |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=1 |url= http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier1/lacearticle.html }} *{{cite journal |last=Harwood |first=Audrey |year=1998 |title=The Public Houses Of Helmdon |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=2 |url= http://www.helmdon.com/trail/tier2/pubsintroduction.htm }} *{{cite journal |last=Ipgrave |first=Geoff |year=1999 |title=Helmdon School |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=3 |pages=116–145 |url= http://www.helmdon.com/ }} *{{cite journal |last1=Mawson |first1=Kate |last2=Moody |first2=Danny |year=2001 |title=The Manorial History of Helmdon |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=4 |pages=177–184 |url= http://www.helmdon.com/history/helmdon_parish_council_history.htm }} *{{cite journal |last=Moir |first=Valerie |year=1998 |title=Helmdon Enclosure Act |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=2 |url= http://www.helmdon.com/ }} *{{cite journal |last=Parry |first=Edward |year=1986–87 |title=Helmdon Stone |journal=Northamptonshire Past and Present |volume=VII |issue=4 |publisher=Northamptonshire Record Society |pages=258–269 |url= http://www.helmdon.com/history/stone_article.htm }} *{{cite journal |last=Parry |first=Edward |year=2008 |title=Helmdon Buildings - Continuity And Change |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=6 |url= http://www.helmdon.com }} *{{cite book |last1=Pevsner |first1=Nikolaus |author-link1=Nikolaus Pevsner |last2=Cherry |first2=Bridget |orig-year=1961 |year=1973 |title=Northamptonshire |series=The Buildings of England |location=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-071022-1 |page=253 }} *{{cite book |editor=RCHME |year=1982 |chapter=Helmdon |title=An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire |volume=4 – Archaeological sites in South-West Northamptonshire |location=London |publisher=Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England |pages=80–88 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=126560 }} *{{cite book |editor1-last=Serjeantson |editor1-first=R.M. |editor2-last=Adkins |editor2-first=W.R.D. |editor2-link=Ryland Adkins |year=1906 |chapter=The Hospital of St. John Baptist and St. John Evangelist, Northampton |title=A History of the County of Northampton |volume=2 |series=Victoria County History |location=Westminster |publisher=Archibald Constable & Co |pages=156–159 |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40249 }} *{{cite journal |url= http://www.helmdon.com/history/shops_in_helmdon.htm |last=Vicars |first=Ross |year=2005 |title=Shops in Helmdon |journal=Aspects of Helmdon |volume=5 |access-date=22 November 2013}}

{{commons category|Helmdon}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Civil parishes in Northamptonshire Category:Villages in Northamptonshire Category:West Northamptonshire District