NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. (KELLY's Screen with Rood Loft Separates the Chancel from the Hall, Is Lord of the Manor and Principal Landowner
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28 BEN.bFIEIID. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. (KELLY'S screen with rood loft separates the chancel from the Hall, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The nave: the pulpit and font are of stone and there are soil is clayey ; subsoil, rock and sand. The chief crops several stained windows: the Bible, which cost 8o are hay, barley and wheat, which have largely given guineas, was presented by the patron on the rebuilding plaee to stock raising. The area is 5,664 acre.s; l'ate of the church r the organ has been enlarged at a cost of able value, £4,883; the population in 1901 was 392 in £2·3o: the chancel, <lriginally of the ·14th century, was the civil and 369 in the ecclesiastical parish. restored in x·842 and decorated in x-Bg7, and at the entrance, above the rood loft, is a richly carved rood Biggin and Churchfield, formerly hamlets in the parish with the usual figures modelled in plaster, the whole of Oundle, were, under the "Local Government Act, being colored and gilt : return .stalls of <lak have been 1€94," transferred to Benefield. By Local Governmen~t added to the choir stalls and there is a large and fine Board Order 17,763, dated March 25, 1885, two detached altar ta·ble of stone and a reredos of wood, panelled and parts of Oundle known as North and South Frindshaw and can<lpied and displaying the principal scenes in the life the Tottenhaws were added to Benefield from Oundle. of Our Lord, executed in high relief and als<l colored . Biggin Hall, an ancient mansion, enlall'ged at differePt' and gilt: ·here also is a !brass to Elizabeth Grant, ob. t::mes, stands in a. ·small park and is approached through x6o8: the remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1846-7 a long avenue of trees. The mansion is the property of at the expense of the late Jesse Watts-Russell esq. then· A. E. Watts-Russell e~;q. and is at present occupied by patron, at a. cost of £13,000. The register dates from Col. John Kinder Spilling. the year 1570. The living is a rectory, net yearly value By Local Government Board Order No. 33,586, dated £340, derived ·from 470 acres of land, with residence, in Oct. I, 1895. the Rural part of Oundle civil parish was. the gift of A. E. Watts-Ru8sell esq. and held since 1876 annexed to Benefi.eld civil parish. by the Rev. Edward Marsham •Moore M.A. of Christ Parish Clerk, John Jinks. Church, Oxford, hon. canon of Peterborough, and rural Post & iM. 0., T. 0. 0., S. B. & A. & I. 0.-Mrs. Sarah. dean of Oundle, first portion, The rectory house, close Ann Plowright, sub-postmistress. Letters arrive to the church, was partially rebuilt in 1877-8. The charities for distribution, derived from the poor's land through Oundle at 7 a. m. & 12 noon; dispatched ali and Broade's gift, amount to about £9 yearly: Banning g.3o a.m. & 5-•15 p.m. ; sundays, arrive at 7.30 a.m.; ton's endowment of £2o yearly, derived from the rent of dispatched at 10.45 a.m 13 acres of land and 2 cottaR"es situated in· Upper Bene Post Office, Upper Benefield. James Pywell, sub-post field, is for the repairs of the church: Broade's charity master. Letters arrive from Oundle at 8. IS a. m. ; also provides £8 ss. for educational purposes, The dispatched at 9·35 a.m. & 5 p.m. ; sundays, 10.40 wake is kept on the Sunday after the Assumption of the a.m. Bene.field, 'I mile distant, is the nearest tele Blessed Virgin (Aug. 15). The "Wheat Sheaf" inn. graph & money order office now in the <lCCupation of 'Mr. H. A. ·Carley, is a good Police Station, Upper Benefi.eld, Bernard Weston, con hostelry, and pleasantly situated. In thie parish are a stable in eharge number of holes called "The Swallow Holes," through which the land floods occasionally flow and disappear. Public Elementary School (mixed), :built in 1820 for IIO children ; average attendance, 59 ; there is a house On a moated mound near the west end of the church is the site of Benefield Castle. A portion of the ancient for the master ; Algernon Pike, master; Miss Lucy manor house of Lyveden, situated in this parish, still Dol by, mistress remains. Arthur Egerton Watts-Russell eeq. of Biggin Carrier.-Swann, passes through to Oundle, thurs. & sa~ LOWER BENEFIELD. Meadows Henry, sub-agent for A. E. Carter M. .A. (Mrs.), farmer & Watts-Russell esq grazier, Benefield grange Carley Mrs Plowright Edgar, brewers' agent Currall Charles, shopkeeper & hawker Griffiths Miss, Berkeley house Plowright Sarah Ann (Mrs.), shpkpr Davis .Alfre-d, farmer Meadows Misses Selby Harry, farmer & grazier, Rec- Dixon Elizabeth (Mrs.) & William. Moore Rev. Canon Edward Marsham torv farm farmers, Langley Hill farm M.A. (rector & rural dean), Rectry Singlehurst SI. B. farmer, Brook frm Hunt William, farmer, Middle farm Spilling Col. John Kinder,Biggin hall Julyan John, farmer Chambers Rowland, farmer & grazier, Knapp Richard, slater & tiler Churchfi.eld farm UPPER BENEFIELD. Os bond Elizabeth (Mrs.), farmer Chapman Samuel, butcher, grazier & Barratt Emma (Mrs.), baker Parker Charles, wheelwright, coacb rate collector Bosworth Samuel (Mrs.), grazier builder & undertaker Cheney Wm. farmer, Manor farm Bosworth Thomas (Mrs.), grazier Plowright Alfred, grazier D~wson James, farmer, _Lyveden farm Carley Henry A. Wheat Sheaf P.H. & , Pywell Charles, grazier G1lby Samuel, blacksmith grazier I Smith Edward, farmer Maddocks E. A. farmer,Blackthorne lo J Streather John Thos. farmer & mason GREAT BILLING is a parish, a little to the soutlJ d. 1812; and there are various other memorials to of the road from Northampton to Wellingborough, 1 members of this family, dating from rBso to 1868: at mile north lfrom Billing station on the Peterborough the west end is a.n inscribed tablet to the Rev. George branch of tlie London and North Western railway and 4 Buckley Bower M.A. a former rector, d. 26 Dec. 1800: miles north-east from Northampton, in the Mid division the interior of the church was restored, the nave and of the county, hundred of Spelhoe, petty sessional chancel re-seated with open sittings and an organ sup division, union and county court district of Northampton, plied in IB67, at a total cost of about £r,ooo, defrayed rural deanery of Haddon (second portion), archdeaconry principally by the lord of the manor and the rector,. of Northampton and diocese of Peterborough. A feeder aided by subscriptions: there are 200 sittings. The of the river Nene ·bounds the parish. The· church of register of baptisms and burials dates from the yea:r St. ~ndrew is a building of st-one, in the Early English 1662; marriages, 1664. The living is a recwry, yearly and Decorated style, with some remains of Norman value from 223 acres of glebe £460, with residence, in W<lrk apd Perpendicular insertions, and consists of the gift of the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose Col chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south lege, Oxford, and held since 1899 by the Rev. George porch and a western tower containing 3 bells: the tower Henry Mullins M. A. of that college. The CatholiC' was originally surmounted by a spire, but this was chapel, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of .Mary, and destroyed by lightning, April 12, 1759, and in its fall formerly a school, built 'by the late Robert Cary-Elwelf greatly damaged the church: both the tower and nave esq. wa.s converted to its present purp~>se about 1873, are adorned with incongruous parapets and other orna- by V. D. H. Cary-Elwes esq. ; the Very Rev. Provost mental work, transferred here from the mansion of the Blackman is priest in charge. There is also a small Earls of Thomond at Billing, when that structure was We.sleyan chapel. An almshouse was founded here oy taken down by Lord John Cavendish in 1776: the font John Freeman esq. in the reign of James I. for four is Late Perpendicular: the chancel is separated from the women, each <lf whom receives £7 1os. during the year; nave by a. wooden screen: the east window and one in the church land produces about £4 yearly and LovelJrs the tower are stained: in the north chapel is a large charity about £4 a year, which is distributed at and costly monument, erected by Sarah (Russell), . Christmas in meat. Billing Hall, the seat of Valentine Countess of Thomond, to her husband, Henry, 7th Earl Dudley Henry Cary-Elwes esq. D.iL., J.P., F.S.A. is a of Thomond, ob. 'May, ·16gr, and their children: it con- mansion of Duston stone, erected about 1757 by Lord sists of a table tomb of marble, at the back of which are John Cavendish, from the designs of John Carr, a di~ kneeling effigie.s of the earl and countess, and in front I tinguished arehitect and twice Lord Mayor of York: it figures of children; above the monument is a shield stands on a eommanding position close to the village, 'of arms and other decorative additions: there is also a nearly on the site of the old mansion of the O'Briens, marble tablet, with a female figure in relief, by Fla-x- Earls of Thomond, and has a Catholic chapel adjoining man, and an inscription to Carolina, wife of R. C. Elwes, it; -on the lawn, 10 acres in extent, are three trees .