DAVENTRY (pronounced dan'tri or dav'en-tri), a market, town and municipal borough in the Daventry parliamentary di vision of Northamptonshire, England, 73a m. N.W. from London on a branch of the L.M.S.R. from Weedon. Pop. (i93i) 3,6o8. Daventry is situated on a sloping site in a rich undulating country. The parish church of Holy Cross was rebuilt in 1752. Borough hill, adjoining Daventry, is the site of a vast ancient earthwork, and other remains have been found at Burnt Walls in the vicinity; Watling street passes close by. Daventry grammar school (1576), enlarged and modernized, is now a mixed secondary school under the county council. The chief industry of the town is the manu facture of boots and shoes. In 1925 the British Broadcasting Corporation established a high-power wireless station (5 XX) on Borough hill, and in 1927 installed a second station (5 GB). The first station took over the functions formerly performed through Chelmsford, and allows for two-valve reception throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the area for which the B.B.C. is responsible; while 5 GB is in the nature of an experimental station for broadcasting alternative programmes, and takes the place of the earlier Birmingham (IT) station. Connection with London is by special lines laid by the Post Office Engineering Department. Owing to the elevation of Borough hill, the masts (5oo ft. high) are -1,156 ft. above sea-level. The power of the two stations is, respectively: 5XX-25 kw., transmitting on long wave (1.554.4 metres; 193 kc.) ; 5 GB-3o kw., medium wave (479.2 metres; 626 kc.). Power derived from Northampton also lights the town of Daventry, and is transformed locally. The large com mercial post office station at Hillmorton, near Rugby, is visible from Borough hill. The borough of Daventry is under a mayor, 4 aldermen, 12 councillors, and has a court of summary juris diction.
Nothing is known of Daventry itself until the time of the Domesday Survey, when the manor consisting of eight hides was held by the countess Judith, the Conqueror's niece, as the widow of Waltheof, the last native earl of Northumbria, who at the Conquest held the great midland earldom of Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire. Before the end of the century it had passed to Simon de St. Liz, whose grandson, Walter Fitz-Robert, held "of the fee of the king of Scotland," who had become possessed of the earldom of Huntingdon (see HUNTINGDONSHIRE and NORTHAMPTONSHIRE). Daventry was created a borough by King John, who granted to Simon, son of Walter, a market on Wednes day and a fair on St. Augustine's day. But there is no extant charter before that of Elizabeth in 1576, by which the town was incorporated under the name of the bailiff, burgesses and com monalty of the borough of Daventry. James I. confirmed this charter in 16o5-06, and Charles II. in 1674-75 granted a new charter. During the civil wars Daventry was the headquarters of Charles I. immediately before the battle of Naseby. The last remains of the Cluniac priory endowed by Simon de St. Liz were removed during the last century.
The pronunciation of Daventry as "Dane-tree," which is sanc tioned by ancient local usage (cf. Shakespeare's "Daintry," Henry VI., pt. iii., act V.), is referred by tradition to the building of the town by the Danes. Though the written element affords no definite proof of early pronunciation, the spelling "Daventrei" in Domesday is explicit, and in the legend of a seal of the Prior Nicholas (1231-64) reads "Davintre" (Victoria County Histom Northampton, vol. ii.).