White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

Balderton

Balderton is a pleasant and well-built village and parish, 2 miles south-east of Newark, containing 1,048 inhabitants and 4,050 acres of land, at the annual value of £6,930. It was anciently famous for its Lords, the Bussey's, who lived in the Conqueror's time, and whose posterity held it till Queen Elizabeth's reign, after which it descended to the Meers and Lascels. It is now owned principally by the Duke of Newcastle, who is lord of the manor, which was soc to Newark. Matthew Harvey, William Withers and Thomas S. Godfrey Esqrs. also have estates here, the latter of whom built New Hall, a neat mansion, in 1840. The Great Northern Railway intersects the parish.

The church, dedicated to St Giles, is a very handsome edifice, principally in the latter style of the English architecture, with a lofty spire and five bells. It has a richly ornamented Norman porch of exceeding beauty, and in good preservation. The benefice is annexed to the vicarage of Farndon. The prebendary of Farndon, in Lincoln Cathedral, is the appropriator, but he and the incumbent received allotments at the enclosure, in 1768, in lieu of all the tithes, except those which are still paid on about 125 acres of crown land. A Methodist chapel was erected here in 1813. An annual feast is held on the first Sunday after September 12th.

The free school, founded in 1786 by William Alvey, was rebuilt on an enlarged scale in 1846, under the instigation of the Rev. William Smithson, capable of accommodating 230 children, who are educated at the cost of 1d per week, on the national principle. The master received £28 a year (exclusive of the children's pence), and the vicar £2, payable out of an estate in Fishtoft, in Lincolnshire, bequeathed to this parish and that of Sleaford, by the above William Alvey. The new schools were erected at a cost of £810.

The following rent charges are received yearly for the poor of this parish, viz. 40s left in 1724 by Gabriel Alvey, 6s 8d by Alice Newcombe, 20s out of land at Caythorpe, 10s out of land in Balderton, 8s out of T.S. Godfrey's estate, 1s 3d out of Steadfold's close, 10d out of Hunt's close, and 3s 4d out of 2½ acres belonging to Mr Harvey. Three closes in Scardale parish, now let for £12 12s, were bequeathed to them by a Mr Wigglesworth, also two cottages and gardens, let for £12, by Benjamin Gibson in 1727, and the poor's close, three acres, let for £8, by Francis Leek.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]