Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LINTON

LINTON, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Cambridgeshire. The town stands on the river Granta, and on the Cambridge and Haverhill railway, at the boundary with Essex, 2 miles S of the Roman road from Cambridge, and 10½ SE of Cambridge; is supposed, from the discovery of varions Roman coins at it, to occupy the site of a Roman settlement; comprises a principal street about ½ a mile long, and several other streets, mostly irregular and not well edificed; and has a post office‡ under Cambridge, a railway station, a police station, a hotel, a church, Independent and Primitive Methodist chapels, a large national school, a British school, a workhouse, and charities £10. The police station was recently erected, and is used for petty sessions. The church is a handsome edifice; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with embattled tower; and contains moonments of the Parises, the Stanleys, the Flacks, and the Millecents. The workhouse stands a short distance from the town; is a neat brick structure; can accommodate 300 inmates; and is connected with two detached, but not much used, fever-wards. A weekly market used to be held on Thursday, but has been discontinued; a sheep fair, largely attended, is held on 30 July; a fair for small wares is held on Holy Thursday; and some small manufactures were formerly carried on, but are now extinct. The neighbourhood is much diversified with hill and dale. The parish comprises 3,775 acres. Real property, £7,439. Pop. in 1851,2,061; in 1861,1,833. Houses, 372. The manor belongs to the Rev.E. R. Keene; and some of the land to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Barham Hall was a priory of crutched friars, established as early as 1292, and subject to the monastery of Welnetham; went, at the dissolution, to the Millecents; and is now a farmhouse. An alien priory, a cell to the abbey of St. Jacutus-de-Insula in Brittany, was founded in the parish in the time of Henry III., and was given, by Henry VI., to Pembroke College, Cambridge. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £267.. Patron, the Bishop of Ely.

The sub-district contains also the parishes of Great Abington, Little Abington, Hildersham, Great Bartlow, Castle-Camps, Shudy-Camps, and Hadstock, and part of that of Ashdon, the two latter electorally in Essex. Acres, 15,169. Pop., 4,813. Houses, 1,008.—The district comprehends also the sub-district of Balsham, containing the parishes of Balsham, West Wickham, Horseheath, West Wratting, Weston-Colville, and Carlton-cum-Willingham; and the sub-district of Duxford, containing the parishes of Duxford, Ickleton, Hinxton, Babraham, Pampisford, Sawston, and Whittlesford. Acres, 47,869. Poor rates, in 1863, £10,498. Pop. in 1851,14,148; in 1861,13,510. Houses, 2,889. Marriages, in 1863,100; births, 463,-of which 39 were illegitimate; deaths, 249,-of which 102 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,898; births, 4,549; deaths, 2,562. The places of worship, in 1851, were 20 of the Church of England, with 6,639 sittings; 9 of Independents, with 2,110 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 451 s.; 5 of PrimitiVe Methodists, with 550 s.; 3 undefined, with 548 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 60 s. The schools were 22 public day schools, with 1,276 scholars; 45 private day schools, with 774 s.; 27 Sunday schools, with 2,086 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 35 s.


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

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

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