Growing Corby; A Great Place to Invest

• Over 60 years Corby, Northamptonshire grown from a village of c1,500 to a new town with a population rise of 100,000 in the next 30 years This will also create thousands of new jobs.


• 1086; The Domesday Book recorded the village of "Corbei"


• William the Conquer built Rockingham Castle.


• 1568; A popular legend; the Queen was hunting in Rockingham Forest & fell into difficulty whilst riding. Rescued by villagers from Corby in gratitude she granted the charter giving them the right to decline to join local militia.


• 1934; Stewarts and Lloyds decided to build a large steel works in Corby & drew workers from all over the country including many workers from the depressed West of Scotland and Irish labourers giving Corby its nickname ‘Little Scotland’ The first steel was produced in October 1935 and for many years the steel works dominated the town.


• 1939/45; During World War II the Corby steel works were expected to be a target for German bombers and 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 from German bomber crews and only a few bombs were dropped.


• 1980 British Steel decided to close the steel works and the effect was devastating with 6,000 people being made redundant.
  
  
• Within 15 months of the closure, 15,000 new jobs were created by 1,500 new businesses occupying 1.5 million square feet of new business units.


• Now new developments in the Public and private sectors are working to deliver projects worth more than a quarter of a billion pounds. This means new houses, schools and shops. It means new roads, better transport infrastructure and miles of safe cycle paths. A new arts centre, library and leisure facilities including a state-of-the-art 50 metre swimming pool complex. In all, there are 23 key projects underway that are making Corby a great place to live, work and visit.


• Corby has hundreds of new homes for everyone from first-time-buyers through to families looking for large executive-style houses. The surrounding villages have more traditional houses and thatched cottages. New homes are being built including Priors Hall which has been planned to include up to 5,100 high-quality homes, Little Stanion Village, a new 970 home, high quality community development as well as Oakley Vale a 436-acre site which began four years ago.


• The Parkland Gateway Scheme, which was started in the spring of 2007 will also include: Performing Arts Centre, 500-seat Theatre Olympic-size Swimming Pool, Civic Suite and Council Chamber and a new library


• Corby’s stunning new £40 million shopping centre, Willow Place, is now open with top name retailers. And Land Securities is already working on the next phase of regeneration for Corby town centre and will shortly be submitting a planning application for a further 25 shops, a department store and 250 apartments.


• The regeneration of Corby is also evident in its transport links, work has already started on a train line from Corby to St. Pancras, London getting to you London in 65 minutes and opening up links to the Eurostar, Heathrow and Gatwick.