1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Towcester

TOWCESTER, a market town in the southern parliamentary division of Northamptonshire, England, 8 m. S.S.W. of Northampton, on the East & West Junction and the Northampton & Banbury Junction railways. Pop. (1901), 2371. It is pleasantly situated on the small river Tove, a left-bank affluent of the Ouse. The church of St Lawrence is a good Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular building, with a fine western Perpendicular tower. There are a considerable agricultural trade and a manufacture of boots and shoes.

Here was a Roman town or village situated on Watling Street. The site has yielded a considerable number of relics. In the 10th century a fortress was maintained here against the invading Danes. The site of both this and the Roman station is marked by an artificial mound known as Burg Hill, not far from the church, above the river. Towcester, with the whole of this district, witnessed a large part of the operations during the Civil War of the 17th century.