In 1881 a 3ft 6in guage horse tramway was opened running from Northampton Town centre at the Parish Church of All Saints, east up Abington Street and along the Kettering Road to the Kingsley Park Hotel, and west, along Gold Street and out toward St James' End. There was also a northerly route to St Georges Terrace, Kingsthorpe Hollow, which was later extended to Kingsthorpe proper in 1883. Subsequently the St James' route was extended along the Weedon Road in 1884 with a new branch constructed in 1893 along the Wellingborough Road.
In 1897 the Town council decided to takeover the tramway undertaking and for the sum of £38,700, took delivery of 21 tramcars, 3 buses and 100 horses and associated land and buildings. By 1904 the four main routes had been electrified and short extensions at two of the termini had been established. The St James depot was also built at that time. A fifth route out to Far Cotton was opened in 1914 and the trams ran through to1934 having been steadily replaced by municipal motor buses from about 1929 onwards.