Welcome to Corby

Corby is located in the county of Northamptonshire, approximately 75 miles north of London and 22 miles north-east of Northampton.

The town has a population of around 49,600. Administratively it is within the local government district of the Borough of Corby which covers an area of approximately 80 sq kms.

Formerly renowned as a centre for the steel industry, it was a village until 1932 when the exploitation of local iron ore led to its development as a New Town. It is a thriving commercial and retail centre for the area and there are some notable historic buildings in the vicinity, including the 11th-century Rockingham Castle.  

In 1931 Corby was a small village with a population of around 1,500. Corby grew rapidly into a reasonable sized industrial town, when a Scottish steel firm located to the then village in the mid-1930s, bringing most of their Scottish employees with them. Due to this, 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 unavoidably on the A43, and 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.

Historically the town's economy was based upon steel production. Today, 40% of Corby's workforce is employed in manufacturing. The town is also a prime distribution and logistics centre for such companies as Argos, Comet, Matalan and Oxford University Press. Various leading names in the food and drink sector can be found here, including Weetabix, Golden Wonder and Allied Mills.

The name Corby dates back to the 8th century when Danish invaders arrived here. The settlement bcame known as 'Kori's by' meaning Kori's settlement. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the town is listed as Corbei.