Finedon / Thingdon

"FINEDON, (or Thingdon), a parish in the hundred of Huxloe, county Northampton, 3½ miles N.E. of Wellingborough, and 4 N. W. of Higham Ferrers, its post town. The Midland railway has a station here. Most of the people are employed in agriculture, but the manufacture of boots and shoes, and lace making, occupy some of the inhabitants. Stone is extensively quarried for building purposes, forming into lime, and repairing of roads. The river Nen, which is navigable from Northampton to Lynn, is within 3 miles of the village. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough, value £843. The church, a commodious stone edifice, with handsome tower and spire, is dedicated to St. Mary, and contains a very old organ and an octagonal font, carved out of a large cubical mass of stone, with the angles sloped off. The parochial charities include Walker's endowment of £60 per annum for the boys' free school, another of £78 for the girls' school, and other bequests for the poor producing about £55 yearly. The Independents, Wesleyans, and Reformed Wesleyans have each a chapel, and the Society of Friends a meetinghouse. Finedon Hall is the seat of W. M. Dolben, Esq., who is lord of the manor."[From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868). Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]