Corby
Corby is a town and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Corby; at the 2021 Census, the former borough had a population of 75,571.
Corby was once known as "Little Scotland" due to the large number of Scottish workers who came to work in its steelworks. Corby has undergone regeneration with the opening of Corby railway station and Corby International Pool in 2009 and the Corby Cube in 2010. The Cube houses a 450-seat theatre, public library and other community amenities.
History
Early history
and Neolithic artefacts have been found in the area surrounding Corby and human remains dating to the Bronze Age were found in 1970 at Cowthick. The first evidence of permanent settlement comes from the 8th century when Danish invaders arrived and the settlement became known as "Kori's by" – Kori's settlement. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Corbei". Corby's emblem, the raven, derives from an alternative meaning of this word. These Danish roots were recognised in the naming of the most southern of the town's housing estates, Danesholme, around which one of the Danish settlements was located.Corby was granted the right to hold two fairs and a market by Henry III in 1226. In 1568 Corby was granted a charter by Elizabeth I that exempted local landowners from tolls, dues and gave all men the right to refuse to serve in the local militia. A popular legend is that the Queen was hunting in Rockingham Forest when she either fell from her horse or became trapped in a bog whilst riding. Upon being rescued by villagers from Corby she granted the charter in gratitude for her rescue. Another popular explanation is that it was granted as a favour to her alleged lover Sir Christopher Hatton.
Corby Pole Fair
The Corby Pole Fair is an event that has taken place every 20 years since 1862 in celebration of the charter. The 1942 fair was not held due to the Second World War; it took place five years later. According to a newspaper report dated 14 June 1862 which focuses on the extravagances of the fair, the fugitive slave John Anderson was described as being educated in the Corby British School, giving the town an unusual link to slavery in the United States.The most recent pole fair was held on Friday, 3 June 2022, to coincide with The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
From rural village to industrial town
The local area has been worked for iron ore since Roman times. An ironstone industry developed in the 19th century with the coming of the railways and the discovery of extensive ironstone beds. By 1910 an ironstone works had been established. In 1931 Corby was a small village with a population of around 1,500. It grew rapidly into a reasonably sized industrial town, when the owners of the ironstone works, the steel firm Stewarts & Lloyds, decided to build a large integrated ironstone and steel works on the site. The start of construction in 1934 drew an inflow of population, including Scottish and Irish labourers. The first steel was produced in October 1935 and for decades afterwards the steel works dominated the town. By 1939 the population had grown to around 12,000, at which time Corby was thought to be the largest "village" in the country, but it was at that point that Corby was re-designated an urban district.1940s and 1950s
During the Second World War the Corby steelworks were expected to be a target for German bombers but in the event there were only a few bombs dropped by solitary planes and there were no casualties. This may be because the whole area was blanketed in huge dense black, low-lying clouds created artificially by the intentional burning of oil and latex to hide the glowing Bessemer converter furnaces at the steelworks from German bomber crews. The only known remaining scars from German attacks can be found in the form of bullet holes visible on the front fascia of the old post office in Corby village. The Corby steelworks made a notable contribution to the war effort by manufacturing the steel tubes used in Operation Pluto to supply fuel to Allied forces on the European continent.In 1950, with a population of 18,000, Corby was designated a New Town with William Holford as its architect. By 1951, he prepared the development plan with a car oriented layout and many areas of open space and woodland. In 1952, Holford produced the town centre plan and in 1954 the layout for the first 500 houses. The town now underwent its second wave of expansion, mainly from Scotland. Corby is famous for its Scottish heritage based on decades of incoming steel workers and was for a time known locally as "Little Scotland".
Decline of the steel industry
In 1967 the British steel industry was nationalised and the Stewarts & Lloyds steel tube works at Corby became part of British Steel Corporation. The Government approved a ten-year development strategy with expenditure of £3,000 million from 1973 onwards, the objective of which was to convert BSC from a large number of small scale works, using largely obsolete equipment, to a far more compact organisation with highly competitive plant.Steelmaking was to be concentrated in five main areas: South Wales, Sheffield, Scunthorpe, Teesside and Scotland, most of which are coastal sites with access to economic supplies of iron rich imported ores.
It was not until 1975 that a closure programme was agreed after a 14-month review by Lord Beswick, the then Minister of State for Industry. Corby was not one of the Beswick Plants that were to close in the review. By this time BSC was plunging into loss and important parts of the investment programme was held back. The European Union's Davignon Plan, had also asked for Steel Capacity in Europe to be significantly reduced.
In May 1979, the new Conservative government minister, Sir Keith Joseph announced the closure of Corby Steelworks. By the end of 1981 more than 5,000 jobs had been lost from British Steel in Corby, and further cuts took the total loss to 11,000, leading to an unemployment rate of over 30%. Steel tube making continued, however, initially being supplied with steel by rail from Teesside and later from South Wales.
The title track of Steeltown by Big Country is about the loss of jobs in Corby.
Downside of the ensuing redevelopment of the location of the former steel works was the Corby toxic waste case.
Redevelopment
Corby was designated as a new town in 1950. Most of the housing in the town has been built since this date. The first new street completed was Bessemer Grove, about the same time that the re-built blast furnace was lit. New industry was subsequently attracted to the town when the Thatcher government designated it as an Enterprise Zone. By 1991 unemployment had returned to the national average. The recovery of Corby was explained in 1990 by John Redwood, then a junior minister in the Department of Trade and Industry, as being a result of the establishment of the Enterprise Zone, the promotion of Corby by the Thatcher government, the work of private investors and the skills of the work force. Others believe the town's recovery was significantly assisted by its central location and substantial grants from the EU. The enterprise zone was promoted by the Corby Industrial Development Centre through a prospectus that parodied The Economist, titled The Ecorbyist; publication continued at least as late as 1994.To the north of Corby, on the industrial estates, is a 350MW power station built in 1994; and the Rockingham Motor Speedway built in 2001.
Politics
From 1894 until 1939 Corby was a parish in Kettering Rural District, in 1939 Corby became an urban district, on 1 April 1974 the urban district and parish were abolished and Corby became an unparished area in Corby non-metropolitan district.The town of Corby is entirely within the Corby and East Northamptonshire Westminster constituency. This contains parts of traditionally Conservative East Northamptonshire that balance the traditionally Labour town of Corby, leading to a marginal constituency that has gone to the party forming the UK Government at every general election since the creation of the constituency in 1983.
From 1983 to 1997 the seat was narrowly held for the Conservatives by William Powell. Phil Hope then won the seat for Labour and held it until 2010 when he lost to the writer Louise Bagshawe, the Conservative Party candidate, who became Louise Mensch after her marriage the following year.
In 2012, Mensch resigned as an MP and the resulting by-election was won by Labour's Andy Sawford with a majority of 7,791 votes over the Conservatives. UKIP finished in third place whilst the Liberal Democrats finished in fourth place, losing their deposit. The by-election was of national and international media interest due to the constituency being a marginal seat. During the wait for the results announcement, "Corby" briefly trended worldwide on Twitter.
Tom Pursglove regained the seat for the Conservatives in the 2015 general election, outpolling Sawford by a majority of 2,412. Pursglove retained the seat in 2017 with a majority of 2,690 and then by 10,268 in 2019, ahead of Labour candidate Beth Miller on both occasions. Following slight boundary changes, and with the seat now officially referred to as Corby and East Northamptonshire, the 2024 general election saw Pursglove lose the seat to Labour's Lee Barron whose majority was 6,331.
In the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, Corby voted 64% in favour of leaving whilst only 36% voted to remain in the EU. The turnout was 74.1% with the leave vote winning with a majority of 9,141 votes. The constituency's MP at the time, Tom Pursglove, had also been in favour of the UK leaving the European Union being one of the founders of Grassroots Out, the pro-Brexit organisation largely supported by Conservative and UKIP politicians.
Between 1979 and its abolition in 2021, Corby Borough Council was controlled by the Labour Party.
On 8 December 2014, Northamptonshire Police began an investigation into financial dealings by Corby Borough Council. In July 2013, Conservative councillors Rob McKellar and David Sims handed the "suspicious" findings of an audit report to the police to see if a crime had been committed. The audit report examined four major projects, including the Corby Cube, the cost of which went from £35m to £47m. It was reported in 2016 that the investigation had concluded and no prosecutions would be brought.
In March 2018, following Northamptonshire County Council becoming insolvent, due to financial and cultural mismanagement by the cabinet and officers, the then Secretary of State for Local Government, Sajid Javid, sent commissioner Max Caller into the council, who recommended the county council and all district and borough councils in the county be abolished, and replaced by two unitary authorities, one covering the West, and one the North of the county. These proposals were approved in April 2019. It meant that the districts of Daventry, Northampton and South Northamptonshire were merged to form a new unitary authority called West Northamptonshire, whilst the second unitary authority North Northamptonshire consists of the former Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough districts. These new authorities came into being on 1 April 2021. Elections for the new authorities were due to be held on 7 May 2020, but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and were instead held on 6 May 2021. On 1 April 2021 a civil parish called Corby Town was formed. On 1 January 2024 the parish was renamed to "Corby".
In the local elections of 6 May 2021, for North Northamptonshire Council Corby returned 12 Labour Councillors and 3 Conservative Councillors across 5 wards, with the Conservatives only being elected in the Corby Rural Ward. The newly created Corby Town Council returned 17 Labour Councillors across 4 Wards. In 2022, Corby Town Councillor Tafadzwa Chikoto became the first black mayor of Corby, and in 2023 Leanne Buckingham became the town's first openly lesbian mayor.
In the local elections of 1 May 2025, 9 Reform UK and 2 Labour councillors were returned to North Northamptonshire Council from wards in the Corby parish, as Reform UK won overall control of the council from the Conservatives. In the election to Corby Town Council, Labour retained overall control of the parish-level authority.