Northamptonshire Hookups: Northamptonshire Women Want to Meet

Why Northants is easy to reach for a hookup

In the middle of the 1800s Northamptonshire had more than 2,000 shoemakers. Today only a little over 30 are left, though one famous bootmaker still keeps its UK base at Wollaston, near Wellingborough. The big employers now run from Weetabix at Burton Latimer to the Carlsberg brewery in Northampton, but the county hasn't lost its other old asset: its position. Watford Gap, a break in the hills, funnelled the routes from the south-east to the north-west through here, first Watling Street, now part of the A5, then the canals, the railways and the big roads.

Around 814,000 people live here. Northampton, the largest town, sits in the centre on the River Nene, which rises in the south-west and runs north-east past Wellingborough. Kettering and Corby share the north-east, the low hills of the west climb to 225 metres at Arbury Hill near Daventry, and the east and south-west are mostly countryside.

A plan for meeting up across Northants

1. Start in the middle. Northampton is central and the largest town, and the University of Northampton adds 10,000 students across two campuses two and a half miles apart.
2. Let the train do the driving. Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough have a train every half hour south to London Luton Airport, over the border in Bedfordshire, so a car isn't essential for meeting someone along that line.
3. Pick a big day out. Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix, sits on the Buckinghamshire border, and a race weekend brings a crowd.
4. Keep the first meeting public. Choose somewhere with people around, tell a friend where you'll be, and get yourself home under your own steam.

Every town in the county with its own page is listed below, and the locations page covers the rest of the country.