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White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

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Misterton and West Stockwith

Misterton Parish is situated at the north-east angle of the county, where the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal terminate in the Trent. It contains 1,743 inhabitants and 4,746 acres of land, of which about 636 acres are in West Stockwith township, and 654 inhabitants, which maintains its poor separately from Misterton. A great part of it was formerly a swampy bog, but it is now drained and improved. In the higher parts of the parish are found both foliated and fibrous gypsum or plaster, used both for floors and ornamental work.

Misterton is a large village on the north side of the Chesterfield Canal, where there are several wharfs, within one mile of the Trent, five miles north-north-west of Gainsborough, and nine miles east of Bawtry. Its township, in which there are the farms of Cornley, Fountain Hill, Grovewood and Haxey Gate (a public house) contains about 1,100 inhabitants and 4,109a 3r of land, at the rateable value of £4,745 6s.

The church is a large ancient structure dedicated to All Saints, with a nave, chancel and side aisles. It has recently undergone extensive repairs, by the rebuilding of the north aisle and tower, to which has been added a beautiful broach spire, with the order of architecture (early English) in which the church was originally built, at a cost of £1,335. The Dean and Chapter of York are the appropriators and patrons of the benefice, which is a discharged vicarage, valued in the King's books at £10 5s, now £100, and is now enjoyed by the Rev. Henry Stockdale. At the enclosure, the appropriators had allotted to them in lieu of the rectorial tithes 797a 2r 23p in Misterton and 102a 1r 8p in West Stockwith. The Methodists, Baptists and Primitive Methodists have each a chapel in the village.

The parish forms one of the members of the manor of Gringley-on-the Hill, of which the Duke of Portland is lord paramount. In Domesday Book it is called Munstretton, of the King's soc of Mansfield, and in the 9th year of Edward II it "answered for an entire villa, and the King, the prior of Newstead, and Thomas de Hayton were returned lords of it". Its present lord is the Duke of Portland. The soil belongs to several proprietors, the principal of whom are the Dean and Chapter of York, the Duke of Portland, Mrs Peart, Mr Thomas Raven, and Messrs John and Joseph Hickson Hill of Hull. The principal and resident owners are J.H. and G.F. Corringham, James Gamson, William Wilkinson, Joseph Carter, John and Thomas Gaggs, and William Wells of Stockwith. Near the village is an extensive bone mill and ropery.

The village school was built in 1805, and the master receives for teaching 12 poor children an annuity of £12, arising from property belonging to the township, which has also the benefits of the following charities: 3a 1r 32p, let for £10 a year, and bequesthed in 1706 by Gregory Standering, to provide clothing for the poor; 20s yearly from William Clark's benefactions (see West Burton) for one poor aged person; and 12s yearly out of an estate at Laceby in Lincolnshire, left in 1729 by Thomas Edlington, to be distributed in 12 penny loaves on the first Sunday in every month, amongst 12 poor people. The two last mentioned donors also made similar bequests to the poor of West Stockwith.

West Stockwith village, the south end of which is in Misterton township, forms a long line of buildings on the west bank of the Trent, at the point where the Idle and the Chesterfield Canal fall into the river, four miles north-north-west of Gainsborough. It has risen from the rank of a small hamlet to that of a flourishing river port, or creek.

The township contains about 700 inhabitants, and 660 acres of land, bounded on the south by the Idle, and on the north by the Heck Dike, a small beck which divides it from Loncolnshire, and gives name to three of its farms. The Duke of Portland is lord of the manor, but the land belongs to various owners, and is tithe free. The Chapel of East was built in 1722, pursuant ti the will of William Huntington, who in 1715, bequesthed £740 for the erection of a chapel and ten almshouses in his shipyard. The chapel he endowed with a house and six acres of land, now occupied by the incumbent, and a farm at Gunhouse, consisting of 78a 2r 27p, and now let for £215 per annum. The benefice is a donative in the gift of the trustees, and is now enjoyed by teh Rev. H. Christopher Barker. The chapel contains the remains of the founder, who was first interred at Misterton, but was removed here after the chapel was completed. The almshouses, for the reception of poor widows of mariners and ship carpenters, were endowed by the benelovent founder with the rents of land and buildings in West Stockwith and Misterton (now let for £110 per annum), subject to the following charitable payments, viz.: an annuity of £10 for a schoolmaster to teach the poor children of seamen and shipwrights to read; and 3s 6d weekly to be distributed every Sunday at the chapel, in penny and twopenny loaves, amongst the poor of the township, who also partake of Clarke's and Edlington's charities, as is already noticed with Misterton. In 1788, £34 was received as the arrears of Edlington's charity, and is now vested with Mrs Pearson, who pays for it 34s yearly, which with the rent of part of Crabtree Close, held by Huntington's trustees, and purchased with £100 left in 1777 by William Hall, is included in the weekly distribution of bread at the chapel. The almshouses, which consist of five rooms on the first, and five rooms on the second floor, are now only occupied by ten pensioners, who have each £8 per annum. A small Methodist chapel was built here in 1803. A fair for horses and cattle is held in the village annually on September 4th, but in the 8th year of Henry III, it is noticed as having both a market and a fair.

The Cars belonging to the townships of Misterton, Everton, Scaftworth, Gringley-on-the-Hill and Walkeringham, form an extensive tract of low, marshy land, which some years ago was a swampy unproductive bog, but is now drained and cultivated under acts of parliament passed in 1796, 1801 and 1813, at an immense expense to the proprietors, who have, hosever, been amply remunerated by the improved value of the soil.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]