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4 miles north of Corby
Stocks and a whipping post stand on Gretton’s placid green, as they have done for centuries. According to local lore, the stocks were last used in 1858 when a drunken churchgoer was put in them to sober up. A twisting maze of narrow ~tYe~ts jammeh wifh ~ironstone cottages - one of which has an old sun-dial in its gable end -surrounds the green.
Gretton is built on a steep slope marking the edge of the Northamptonshire uplands. There are spectacular views across the WelJ VaU.~~ and what used to be the tiny county of Rutland (today part of Leicestershire). The village came into prominence in the 19th century, when it was
the headquarters of the men who built the now disused Manton to Kettering railway. The workers also constructed the nearby Harringworth railway viaduct across the Welland Valley. It has 82 arches, is three-quarters of a mile long, and carries the railway 60 ft above the river.
The early-Norman Church of St James, with one of the highest towers in the county, is near the village centre. In the High Street are two imposing old buildings: the Georgian Gretton House - now a rehabilitation centre - and the 17th-century Manor Farm, which faces it.
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