For the past 200 years life in the village has been affected by the building of the canal and then later by the railway, now the West Coast Main Line. For a while the village was a very busy trading centre, with iron tracks at the canal wharf still evident, but in more recent years, with the advent of motorways and other means of transportation, life and business in the village has slowed down again. The traders have gone, and the village has returned to its natural, rural charm like much of Northamptonshire life.