Wellingborough

"WELLINGBOROUGH, a parish and market town in the hundred of Hamfordshoe, county Northampton, 10 miles N.E. of Northampton, and 7½ from Kettering. It is a junction station on the Peterborough branch of the London and North-Western and Leicester section of the Midland railways. The town, which stands on the slope of a hill about a mile to the N. of the navigable river Nene, consists of four principal streets diverging from the market-place, which is in the centre of the town. The houses are built of red-sandstone, which abounds in the vicinity, and the streets are well-paved and lighted. It has two bridges, a townhall, union poor-house, two branch banks, and corn-exchange. The population in 1851 was 5,298, and in 1861, 6,067, and of the parish, 6,382. The woollen trade was formerly extensively carried on, and subsequently lace-making, but both these industries have declined. The principal manufacture is now that of boots and shoes for the London market. Ironstone has recently been discovered here, and blast furnaces are being erected for smelting the ore. Many improvements have of late years been made in the town, which has been brought under the government of the Health of Towns Act. A promenade has been formed by the Feoffees from the town to the railway station, which is about a mile distant. Petty sessions for the division are held in the new police-station fortnightly, and manorial courts yearly in October. It is also a polling-place for the county elections, and the seat of new county court and superintendent registry districts. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough, value £400. The church, dedicated to All Saints, contains some ancient screen-work and stalls. The E. window is ornamented with sculpture and tracery. There are numerous Dissenting chapels, and a meeting-house for the Society of Friends. A free grammar school adjoining the churchyard was founded by Edward VT., and endowed with the revenue of a guild of Our Lady the Virgin, once attached to the church, and subsequently augmented by a bequest of Richard Fisher in 1711. There are besides National, British, and infant schools, and a literary institute. The local charities produce about £900 per annum, including the school endowment and the town estate, which latter yields £700, appropriated to school and general purposes. The Poor-law Union comprises 3 parishes in Bedfordshire and 24 in Northamptonshire. Market-day is on Wednesday. Fairs are held on the Wednesday in Easter and Whitsun weeks, and on the 29th of October for cattle." [Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]