Weedon Bec

The 2001 census the village had a population of 2,485, 1,248 male and 1,237 female, 1,237 households and average age 38.34 years.[3] The population at the 2011 Census was 2,706.

Radar memorial on the road between the A5 and Litchborough south of Weedon Bec

Arnold Frederic Wilkins demonstrated radar, from radio waves from the Borough Hill transmitter on 26 February 1935. It is often stated as taking place near Weedon Bec, but actually took place in a field just off the A5, towards Litchborough, in the parish of Stowe Nine Churches (Upper Stowe).

A memorial to the event is located off the A5 just south of Weedon on the Litchborough Road (NGR SP650557).

On 26 February 2010, the event was re-enacted 75 years after the event by radio amateurs from the Coventry Amateur Radio Society and the Northampton Radio Club. A working RADAR set was constructed using the two-metre amateur radio band. As with the original experiment the source signal was transmitted from Borough Hill in Daventry. The four target aircraft were flown by pilots with amateur radio licences.

Weedon has been the site of two serious rail crashes in 1915 and 1951 in which a total of 25 people were killed.

The parish church, St Peter and St Paul's, is at the south of the village, overlooked from both the Grand Union Canal embankment and the West Coast Main Line viaduct.[2] According to Pevsner, it has a Norman west tower, with the main body 1825 (chancel rebuilt 1863 by Edmund Francis Law). This church is a Grade II* listed building.[9] There is a United Reformed Church (former Congregational Chapel) of 1792: this is also a listed building, Grade II.[10]

Richard Bate was named as the vicar of "Wedon Beke", in 1452. [11]

Weedon Bec Primary school on West Street and is part of Innovate Multi Academy Trust with Badby, Kilsby and Woodford Halse Primary School.

The Priory in Oak Street is all that remains of a larger house. The Firs on Queen Street is a house dated 1692.

At the crossroads there are a number of pubs, cafés and shops. It is now growing as a centre for the antique trade and more specialist shops.

Ordnance depot: former canal gateway

Ordnance buildings flanking the canal arm

Next to the canal is the former Napoleonic War era Military Ordnance Depot, established by Act of Parliament in 1803, as part of the British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–05.[12] Designed by Colonel Pilkington of the Royal Engineers, the depot was largely built between 1805 and 1806. It was the central small arms depot for the British Army and was originally served by a branch off the canal that entered through a portcullis. When the railway was built, it also had a branch into the depot.

The depot had eight large storehouses built either side of the central canal and was surrounded by a high stone wall. The upper floors were used for storage of small arms and the ground floors for larger items such as field artillery. There were canal gatehouses at each end of the precinct; beyond which, at a safe distance, the canal entered a further walled area, gated at either end, which contained a row of four gunpowder magazines, each separated from the next by a 'blast house' filled with earth as a precaution against explosions. Later, another magazine was added as was a large clothing store between the precincts in 1902. All the buildings survive and together with the enclosure walls are listed Grade II*.[13]

There was a barracks in the village, holding a standing battalion, a troop of cavalry and a troop of horse artillery. The barracks were demolished in the 1950s. Three large pavilions were built between the depot and barracks to house senior civilian officers of the depot. These were demolished in the 1970s. Next door to the barracks was the Army School of Equitation, also demolished in the 1960s. The depot became redundant in 1965 and was sold by the Ministry of Defence in 1984. It is now used for storage, office accommodation and light industry.

Ordnance Depot Ltd is working with volunteers to interpret the site’s history and in 2018 a visitor centre was opened in the Eastern Gatehouse.[14] The project received a £66,300 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15]

The Fire Services National Museum collection was stored at the former ordnance depot and the trust had been working for many years to secure planning approval for the museum to be an integral part of the depot's redevelopment as an out-of-town shopping centre.[16] Following its rejection in 2017 the collection was moved to Hampshire.[17]