Corby
- For other uses of "Corby" see Corby (disambiguation)
| Borough of Corby | ||
|---|---|---|
| Template:GBdot-small |  Shown within Northamptonshire | |
| Geography | ||
| Status: | Borough | |
| Region: | East Midlands | |
| Admin. County: | Northamptonshire | |
| Area: - Total |
Ranked 263rd 80.28 km² | |
| Admin. HQ: | Corby | |
| Grid reference: | SP882885 | |
| ONS code: | 34UB | |
| Demographics | ||
| Population: - Total (2003 est.) - Density |
Ranked 336th 53,083 661 / km² | |
| Ethnicity: | 98.3% White | |
| Politics | ||
| Corby Borough Council http://www.corby.gov.uk/ | ||
| Leadership: | Alternative - Sec.31 | |
| Control: | Labour | |
| MP: | Phil Hope | |
Corby is an industrial town and a local government district located 8 miles north of Kettering in Northamptonshire, England. It has a population of 53,174 (2001 Census).
In 1931 Corby was a small village with a population of around 1,500. It grew rapidly into a reasonably-sized industrial town, when a Scottish steel firm (Stewarts and Lloyds) located to the then village in the mid-1930s, bringing most of their Scottish employees with them.
To this day, many Corby residents today speak with a Scottish accent, despite being in the English Midlands. Steel production was for many years the town's main industry. The steel works complex at Corby grew to be the second largest of its type in Europe, and was larger than the works at Sheffield. The town is located along the A43, A427, A6003 and is ten miles from the A14.
Corby was designated a new town in the 1950s and the town grew further. The steel industry went into decline in the 1980s, and the steel works complex, then run by British Steel, was forced to close in 1981.
One of Weetabix's factories is based in the town on the Earlstrees Industrial Estate. Golden Wonder Crisps have a factory too. Just north of Corby is the village of Rockingham, home of Rockingham Castle. Despite its name, the Rockingham Motor Speedway is located in Corby - partially on the site of the old steelworks, a US-style banked elliptical track (the only such kind in the UK) which holds a 210mph speed record in a Ford Cosworth.
During the recent property boom, Corby was named as a town where the average house price had risen by the smallest amount throughout the period 2001 - 2004. However, due to the now active regeneration ongoing in the town, plus continual rumours about the train station reopening have led to house prices more-or-less following regional trends.
It is claimed[1] that Corby is the largest town in Europe without a passenger rail service. However, the town of Gosport in Hampshire is also without a passenger rail facility - but it should be noted that Gosport is part of the larger Portsmouth urban conurbation, and there is easy, direct access to trains from Portsmouth and Fareham - both within 2 miles of Gosport town centre.
In the 1970s Corby won an award for the Local Authority Kingswood and Danesholme estates that were built, for their excellent use of space. These esates have since proven themselves to be crime and drug hotspots and in Autumn 2005, a large area of the Kingswood estate was demolished. Other areas will be demolished in the future in a bid to allieviate the crime and negative stigma attached to the area.
The tagline was 'For everyone, everything wonderful in a world of its own.' In the early 1980's the New Town of Corby in the northern reaches of Northamptonshire was faced with a sense of despair. The thriving steel industry that had been the backbone of the town's economy was massively scaled back, following a national trend, whereby a multitude of other plants across the country were also closed. Unemployment soared and Corby was faced with an uncertain future. Then came the dream of WonderWorld....
WonderWorld, a US-style theme park and resort promised a massive development over a decade or more of development, starting in early 1983. There was land clearance, construction, services, utilities, staff and more besides. The whole project would only use leading specialists in all required fields guaranteeing the highest possible standards. It would involve schools, old people, families, local companies - the whole community - in a project that would not only benefit Corby, but the whole of Northamptonshire.
The tagline for WonderWorld amongst locals became,
"WonderWorld, Wonder When?"
The Wonderworld site has since been sold and the Priors Hall housing development is due to commence on site in 2006.
Corby crater on Mars is named after Corby. The web site below has images of the crater.
The town appears in Boxtree publishing's "Crap Towns 2: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK" series. It came 9th.
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