Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. It is ca. 67 miles (108 km) northwest of London on the River Nene, and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The district's population is 200,100 and the urban area's 189,474, making Northampton the 21st-largest settlement in England and the UK's 3rd-largest town without official city status, after Reading and Dudley. Northampton is the most populous district in England not a unitary authority, a status it failed to obtain in the 1990s local government reform. Northampton's population has increased greatly since the 1960s, largely due to planned expansion under the New Towns Commission in the early-1960s. It was a major centre of shoemaking and other leather industries; only specialist shoemaking companies such as Church's and Trickers, formerly in nearby Earls Barton, survive. A large number of old shoe factories remain, now coverted to offices or accommodation, surrounded by terraced houses built for factory workers. Northampton's main private-sector employers are now in distribution and finance rather than manufacturing, and include Barclaycard, Nationwide Building Society, Panasonic, Travis Perkins, Coca Cola Schweppes Beverages Ltd, National Grid plc and Carlsberg.