Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SLEAFORD

SLEAFORD, a town, two parishes, a sub-district, and a district, in Lincolnshire. The town stands on the river Slea, and on the Grantham and Boston railway, near a branch of Ermine-street, 18 miles SSE of Lincoln; is supposed, by some antiquaries, to occupy the site of a Roman town; had a palatial castle of the Bishops of Lincoln, in which King John sickened after his losses at the Wash, and which is now represented by only a fragment of wall; had also a house of Lord Hussey, who was beheaded for high treason; gave lodging for a night to Henry VIII., when on his way to York to meet the king of Scotland; is now a seat of quarter-sessions, petty-sessions, and county courts, and a polling place; publishes a weekly newspaper; consists chiefly of four good streets, crossing at right angles; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a modern town hall in the pointed style, a police station, a corn exchange, a monument of 1850 in form of an Eleanor cross to H. Handley, Esq., a fine church of 1271, restored in 1854, a handsome Wesleyan chapel of 1848, three other dissenting chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £80 a year, an endowed national school with £106, an alms-house hospital for 24 men with £950, other charities £60, and a workhouse with accommodation for 265 inmates. A weekly market is held on Monday; and fairs on Plough-Monday, Easter Monday, Whit-Monday, 12 Aug., and 1 and 20 Oct. The town's limits include New S. township, Old S. parish, and part of Quarrington parish. Pop. in 1861, 3,745. Houses, 800.

New S. parish consists of New S. township and Hold- ingham hamlet, and comprises 3,1 60 acres. Real property, £12,166; of which £1,280 are in the Slea canal, and £350 in gasworks. Pop., 3,467. Houses, 732. The manor belongs to the Marquis of Bristol. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £216.* Patron, the Rev. R. Yerburgh.-Old S. parish comprises 1,150 acres. Real property, £2,155. Pop., 372. Houses, 86. The living is a vicarage. Value, not reported. Patron, the Marquis of Bristol. There is no church.-- The sub-district contains also 13 other parishes, part of another, and two extra-parochial tracts. Pop., 8,131. Houses, 1,697.—The district comprehends also four other sub-districts, containing 30 parishes, 2 parts, and an extra-parochial tract; and comprises 131,777 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £10,703. . Pop. in 1851, 24,557; in 1861, 24,919. Houses, 5,133. Marriages in 1863, 175; births, 894,-of which 95 were illegitimate; deaths, 502,-of which 186 were at ages under 5 years, and 16 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,880; births, 8,183; deaths, 4,657. The places of worship, in 1851, were 48 of the Church of England, with 7,372 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 520 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 688 s.; 22 of Wesleyans, with 3,758 s.; 10 of Primitive Methodists, with 890 s.; and 2 undefined, with 110 attendants. The schools were 30 public day schools, with 1,539 scholars; 57 private day schools, with 1,249 s.; 58 Sunday schools, with 3,954 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 14 s.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, two parishes, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Sleaford SubD       Sleaford RegD/PLU       Lincolnshire AncC
Place: Sleaford

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