Northamptonshire has its own River Jordan...but not quite as impressive as the one in the foothills of Mount Herman

Last Thursday was Ascension Day, one of the Red Letter days in the Western Christian tradition marking the physical departure of Christ from Earth into the presence of God in Heaven.

I do not want to tread on Fr Oliver Coss’s toes, but I am sure he will not mind if I concentrate on another topic with distinctly Christian associations!

Some years ago, on my travels round the county, I happened to pass through Braybrooke.

It is a village north of Northampton, close to the border with Leicestershire. As I drove into the village, I came upon a stone bridge, near which was a sign indicating the name of the stream below.

Sure enough, there it was, an official, brown county council sign proclaiming the River Jordan!

Now over the years, on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, I have baptised several people in the River Jordan in the foothills of Mount Hermon, so as you can imagine, on realising that we have our own eponymous river, that was enough to start me on a hunt to find out more.

Our River Jordan is, in fact, little more than a stream that often dries up in the summer months. It is a tributary of one of Northamptonshire’s great rivers, the Welland. The stream rises near Desborough and joins the main River Welland near Bowden Parva.

It seems that in centuries past, the Baptists, who had been meeting in Braybrooke since about 1790, held their services in a barn. Later, they converted the barn into the present dear little chapel.

However, it did not have a baptistry, the deep tank in which baptism by total immersion is performed.

In those days, since the stream ran very close to the chapel, the enterprising elders thought it would be sensible to capitalise on this.

So, about a week before they held their baptism services, they used to dam the stream at nearby Bowden Bridge.

The water in the stream would flood and form a pool deep enough for total immersion. Indeed, within living memory, there were still local members of the Baptist congregation whose grandparents had been baptised in the stream. It was not too long before the locals, knowing of the Baptists’ ceremonials, named the stream ‘The River Jordan’, and it has stuck.

The Braybrooke Bridge has crossed the River Jordan since 1400. It was built by Thomas Latimer, whose descendants – the Barons Braybrooke – lived in the vast castle nearby. It is a magnificent bridge and some years ago, as traffic volumes increased, it was due for demolition so that the road could be widened.

“Over my dead body!” said Miss Joan Wake, the noted Northamptonshire historian. And she meant it. Her efforts were not in vain, for the bridge is still there and so, I am happy to report, is the River Jordan.

What a wealth of goodies await visitors to Braybrooke: the little Baptist chapel and the magnificent Church of All Saints with such rarities inside. More of this when we are Covid-free!