ROADE, a village and a parish in Hardingstone district, Northamptonshire. The village stands near the North-western railway, 1½ mile E of the Grand junction canal, and 5½ S of Northampton; and has a station on the railway, and a post-office under Northampton. The parish comprises 1, 600 acres. Real property, £2, 840. Pop., 664. Houses, 172. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged to St. James' abbey; was given, at the dissolution, to R. Fermor, Esq.; passed, in the time of James II., to S. Hoe, Esq.; and belongs now to the Duke of Grafton. The manor-house is now a farm-house, called the Hyde. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £103.* Patrons, the Duke of Grafton and the Rector of Ashton. The church is mainly Norman, with a tower; and includes an aisle of 1850. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, a churchschool, four alms-houses, and charities £26.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))