Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SPALDING

SPALDING, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Lincoln. The town stands on the Welland navigation, and on the Great Northern railway system, at a radiation of lines in five directions, 14¼ miles SSW of Boston; belonged to Morcar the Saxon; was given, by William the Conqueror, to Ivo Tailbois; acquired, in 1501, a Benedictine priory, some existing remains of which have been converted into dwelling-houses; gave the title of Baron to the family of Eardley; was the native place of M. Johnson, the founder of the Spalding Gentleman's society; is a seat of petty-sessions, quarter-sessions, and county courts; publishes a weekly newspaper; carries on extensive commerce in corn, meal, flour, timber, wool, and oil-cake, as a sub-port to Boston; sends off quantities of fruit and vegetables by railway; maintains coach-works, breweries, four large steam flour-mills, other flour-mills, a steam saw-mill, and a large bone-mill; is well-paved, and well supplied with water; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, three banking offices, three chief inns, a corn exchange in the Tudor style, built in 1856, at a cost of nearly £3,000, a sessions-house built at a cost of £6,000, a police station built at a cost of £1,400, a county-house of correction with capacity for 80 male and 15 female prisoners, a high bridge rebuilt in 1838, a grand and very spacious cruciform church, early English, with many additions and alterations, nine dissenting chapels, an ultra-mural cemetery formed at a cost of about £4,500, a mechanics' institute, three endowed schools with £200, £170, and £101 a year, two suites of alms houses, a dispensary, a workhouse, general charities £600, a weekly market on Tuesday, and fairs on 27 April, 29 June, 28 Aug., 25 Sept., and Dec. 6. Pop. in 1861, 7,032. Houses, 1,524.

The parish contains also Winsover, Wykeham, and Fulney hamlets, and part of Pinchbeck N fen. Acres, 12,070. Real property, £44,466; of which £500 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 8,829; in 1861, 8,723. Houses, 1,885. The manor belongs to M. Johnson's trustees andF. Bonner, Esq. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £950.* Patrons, Trustees.—The sub-district excludes the parts of Pinchbeck fen, but includes parts of two other parishes. Pop. in 1851, 9,412; in 1861, 9,253. Houses, 2,002.—The district comprehends also the sub-districts of Pinchbeck, Donington, Gosberton, and Moulton; and comprises 7,181 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £11,259. Pop. in 1851, 21,290; in 1861, 20,949. Houses, 4,517. Marriages in 1863, 148; births, 698,- of which 70 were illegitimate; deaths, 408,-of which 147 were at ages under 5 years, and 10 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,523; births, 6,955; deaths, 4,324. The places of worship, in 1851, were 13 of the Church of England, with 6,105 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1,056 s.; 7 of Baptists, with 1,910 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 300 s.; 14 of Wesleyans, with 2,128 s.; 7 of Primitive Methodists, with 982 s.; 1 undefined, with 40 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 100 s. The schools were 20 public day-schools, with 2,217 scholars; 56 private day-schools, with 916 s.; 38 Sunday schools, with 3,476 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 20 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Spalding AP/CP       Spalding SubD       Spalding RegD/PLU       Lincolnshire AncC
Place: Spalding

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