Franklin’s Gardens: Northampton

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Confirmed · Northampton Saints: How To Find Us · Northampton Saints: Accessibility · Lightning Rugby: Matchday Info · Northampton Saints: Stadium tours · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Pleasure gardens before the rugby ground

The name Franklin’s Gardens preserves the history of a Victorian leisure attraction. Northamptonshire’s Historic Environment Record dates Melbourne Gardens on the south side of Weedon Road to 1864. Its 1885 map shows a bowling green, bear pit, pavilion and statues. Rugby arrived within an existing pleasure-ground landscape, which accounts for a stadium name that sounds more like a public park than a sports arena.

John Campbell Franklin bought the gardens in 1886, following Collier’s death, and expanded the original ten acres by adding another twenty. The historic record lists cycling and running facilities, a swimming tank, an ornamental lake and a zoological garden among the attractions. The Saints moved here during the 1880s, bringing organised rugby into a place already designed to draw Northampton crowds.

The Sturtridge Pavilion occupied the north end for nearly half a century before its replacement. Named for Gordon Sturtridge, it began as the part later forming the first floor, then accumulated extensions. By the time redevelopment was announced, it contained a Members’ Bar, three lounges, a hospitality suite and 21 boxes: a layered building whose functions had grown along with the club.

Clearing the old pavilion for the Barwell Stand uncovered a metal trunk containing scrapbooks of match reports from the 1890s, team pictures and programmes. Among the discoveries was a programme for Edgar Mobbs’s final rugby match, an England–Scotland encounter at Northampton’s County Ground in 1915. The stadium redevelopment therefore exposed material about rugby beyond Franklin’s Gardens as well as the Saints’ own home matches.

Confirmed · Northamptonshire Council: Franklins Gardens heritage record · Northampton Saints: The Sturtridge Pavilion - the end of an era · Northampton Saints: Saints unearth history while preparing for the future · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Cup celebrations and a final home stand for Lawes

Northampton won the 2019 Premiership Rugby Cup final at Franklin’s Gardens, beating Saracens 23–9 before a sold-out crowd. Teimana Harrison, Tom Wood and Ahsee Tuala scored in the first half. This was silverware secured on the Saints’ own pitch, giving supporters a home-ground trophy celebration distinct from the club’s championship finals played at Twickenham.

The Gardens staged another decisive Saracens match on 31 May 2024, when Northampton won their Premiership semi-final 22–20. Burger Odendaal scored the Saints’ try and Fin Smith’s kicking kept them ahead. Saracens reduced the gap to two points late on, leaving the crowd watching a final restart with a place in Northampton’s first league final for a decade still at stake.

Courtney Lawes supplied the final intervention in that 2024 semi-final by holding up an opposing player to end the contest. It was his last appearance at Franklin’s Gardens for Northampton. The moment joined a narrow knockout victory to the farewell of a long-serving Saints player, making the closing passage memorable for reasons extending beyond the two-point margin on the scoreboard.

The ground’s war memorial stands in front of the Barwell Stand overlooking the pitch. It commemorates Saints associated with both world wars, including Edgar Mobbs, Blair Swannell, Ernest White and Tom Collins. Its position makes remembrance part of the rugby ground itself, with the monument sharing the stadium setting rather than being confined to a separate town-centre memorial.

In 2018 the club added Fred Wright, Richard Crofts and Michael Cassy to the memorial after research by BBC journalist Graham McKechnie. Wright died on the Somme in 1916; Crofts and Cassy were killed in 1944. The additions show the memorial as an actively researched record of Saintsmen, including players whose service had previously been missing from its stonework.

Confirmed · Northampton Saints: Boyd believes confidence is building at the Gardens · Northampton Saints: Match Report: Northampton Saints 22 - 20 Saracens · Northampton Saints: Franklin’s Gardens war memorial updated ahead of Mobbs Match · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Northampton station, Weedon Road and match parking

The club gives Northampton railway station as approximately ten minutes’ walk from Franklin’s Gardens. Its directions follow Weedon Road, cross near the Thomas A Becket pub and bring the stadium into view on the left. The address is Franklin’s Gardens, Weedon Road, Northampton NN5 5BG, in the St James district about a mile from the town centre.

For road arrivals, Saints directs northbound M1 traffic off at Junction 15a and southbound traffic off at Junction 16. The signed approach passes Sixfields, joins the A5076 and continues onto Edgar Mobbs Way for the supporter car parks. These instructions lead to the parking side of the venue; the stadium’s Weedon Road postal address serves a different purpose from individual car-park postcodes.

The club lists more than 1,500 spaces across six car parks. Its match-day page names Claret Car Park and says Northampton Town’s West Car Park is also available when Saints fixtures do not clash with Cobblers home matches.

Confirmed · Northampton Saints: How To Find Us · Northampton Saints: Matchday information · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Rodber Bar, the Village and Lightning rugby

The Rodber Bar is named for Saints Hall of Fame player Tim Rodber and occupies the middle of the DPD Stand. The club describes it as the stadium’s largest bar, with television screens, high-speed dispensers and a pie-and-pasty outlet. Access is through pitchside doors after the turnstiles.

The Members’ Bar in the Barwell Stand welcomes all supporters. Members funded its construction; photographs of Saints internationals and the honours board decorate the interior.

Saints received planning permission in 2026 to redevelop the Supporter Village. The approved scheme included a permanent covered events area, lakeside seating, a big screen, a family and community zone, and reorganised food and drink space. Relocating the grounds compound and Foundation building was intended to enlarge the available area. These are the published plans, not a claim that every proposed feature has been completed.

Loughborough Lightning also stages home rugby at Franklin’s Gardens. Its match-day directions send visitors from Car Park D through Gate 2 at the south-east corner, then into the East Stand through the south-east passage. The Heroes Bar provides community activities and the Rodber Bar provides food and drink, giving Lightning fixtures their own operational layout within the larger Saints stadium.

Our pick (opinion): The Members’ Bar appeals to us for its photographs and honours board; its name reflects who helped build it, while all supporters are welcome.

Confirmed · Northampton Saints: Matchday information · Northampton Saints: Planning permission granted for redevelopment of Saints’ Supporter Village · Lightning Rugby: Matchday Info · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Four stands and the Barwell family’s legacy

Northampton’s current venue page lists a capacity of 15,153 and names the DPD, South, Church’s and Barwell stands. That is the club’s published present figure, rather than the approximate 15,500 quoted when the north-end development was proposed. The four named stands frame the modern ground, while sponsor changes explain why older tickets and match reports use different names for parts of it.

The Barwell Stand project replaced the Sturtridge Pavilion with 1,900 seats, an enlarged hospitality suite and ten boxes. The reduction in the number of individual boxes accompanied a much more substantial spectator stand at the north end. Its 2015 development announcement captures the change from an extended pavilion to a purpose-built structure serving seated spectators and hospitality guests together.

The stand’s formal opening ceremony took place in February 2016. Keith Barwell emphasised that the name recognised his family, including Ella and Leon, rather than his contribution alone. The club’s account places the ceremony within more than two decades of Barwell involvement, giving the north stand a personal and institutional history beyond its role as another bank of seats.

The members’ contribution to the north-end redevelopment included making 500,000 Northampton Saints plc shares available for sale, with proceeds directed towards the new stand. Those shares had been held in trust for the 1996 membership. The club linked that decision to Keith Barwell’s £1 million investment at the beginning of the professional era, connecting two stages in financing the Gardens.

The first match scheduled in front of the new Barwell Stand was the November 2015 Premiership meeting with Saracens. Building updates described work on the Members’ Bar and its internal facilities as the opening approached. The first use of the seating and the later formal ceremony were separate milestones, which accounts for both 2015 and 2016 appearing in accounts of the stand’s opening.

Confirmed · Northampton Saints: How To Find Us · Northampton Saints: The Sturtridge Pavilion - the end of an era · Northampton Saints: Barwell: It was a labour of love · Northampton Saints: Saints members support stadium redevelopment · Northampton Saints: Barwell Stand construction progress · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Wheelchair positions and the Lightning sensory room

Saints lists 85 wheelchair positions across all four stands, each paired with a companion seat. Accommodation is available both at pitch level and higher in the ground. The stadium is front-loading, with ground-level access to front-row areas in several stands. Accessible tickets are handled through the Ticket Office, which can discuss the particular position rather than simply issuing an unspecified accessible seat.

The Rodber Bar includes a lowered counter, and the club describes the Supporter Village and stadium bars as accessible. Each stand has at least one accessible toilet, with some requiring a Radar key. These named provisions add practical detail to the overall accessibility claim: the relevant facilities include a specific ordering point and toilets distributed among the stands.

On Lightning match days, Box 1 in the East Stand serves as a sensory room. The published equipment includes ear defenders, fidget toys, colouring activities, feelings cards and calming sound and lighting features. This is a defined room in a named stand, and its published availability is attached to Lightning fixtures rather than automatically extending to every event held at Franklin’s Gardens.

Confirmed · Northampton Saints: Accessibility · Lightning Rugby: Matchday Info · Checked on 14 October 2026.

The Thomas A Becket and St James

The Thomas A Becket gives its address as 52 St James’ Road, Northampton NN5 5HY. The pub describes its position between Northampton station, the town centre and the Saints ground, and it is also the landmark used in the club’s walking directions.

CAMRA describes the Thomas a’ Becket as a seventeenth-century pub and links its name to Thomas Becket’s imprisonment at Northampton Castle. Its entry places the pub in St James’ End, the same district as the stadium. The historical name and the rugby-route location give it two separate local associations, with a documented address that distinguishes it from other Becket-named establishments.

Confirmed · Thomas a Becket: Pub information · Reported · CAMRA: Thomas a Becket, Northampton · Checked on 14 October 2026.

Tours, archives and what the stadium name means

Northampton runs public stadium tours which visit the home and away changing rooms, Tunnel Club, gym, press room and players’ canteen. The published route offers a look at preparation and training spaces as well as the seating bowl. Tours are booked separately from match admission, with dated availability listed by the club rather than an assumption that visitors can enter those rooms before any game.

The club also offers tailored group tours for parties of at least ten people, including community groups, corporate visitors and birthday bookings. Individual tours run for more than an hour according to the current booking page. Group arrangements go through the community team, while smaller public bookings use the ticketing system, providing two distinct ways to arrange a visit behind the scenes.

Northampton Saints Foundation moved its heritage office and part of the club archive to Delapré Abbey as stadium redevelopment progressed. Heritage Lottery funding supported the relocation and a new heritage strategy. The Foundation reported 69 volunteers contributing over two years, including work on cataloguing, conservation and oral histories, showing that preserving the Gardens’ story extends beyond objects displayed inside the stadium.

The Foundation’s 2025 exhibition on Northampton’s golden era drew on research into 287 Saintsmen, together with photographs, shirts, programmes and recorded memories. Material included Jeff Butterfield’s home footage from the 1959 Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand. This was a time-limited exhibition at the stadium, not evidence of a permanently open museum with the same display available every day.

The cinch agreement announced in 2021 was described by Saints as the first stadium naming-rights deal in the club’s history. Current club visitor information now uses DPD Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens. Franklin’s Gardens remains the enduring geographical name through those commercial changes, while historical articles retain the sponsor wording used when their matches, ceremonies or announcements took place.

Our advice (opinion): Add a stadium tour if you want more than a match seat: it gives the Gardens’ history a separate place in the visit.

Confirmed · Northampton Saints: Stadium tours · Northampton Saints Foundation: Heritage lottery funding supports new heritage strategy and expansion of Saints archive · Northampton Saints Foundation: Northampton Saints’ golden era on display at exhibition · Northampton Saints: Cinch to drive Saints forward with unprecedented new six-year partnership deal · Northampton Saints: Matchday information · Checked on 14 October 2026.

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