Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for TOWCESTER

TOWCESTER, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Northamptonshire. The town stands on Watling.street and the river Tove, at the termination of a branch railway 8¼ miles SSW of Northampton; occupies the site of the Roman station Lactodurum; was known, in the Saxon times, as Tof-ceastre,-at Domesday, as Tovecestre; suffered much in the Saxon times, from frequent attacks of the Danes; was refortified, in the time of Edward the Elder, by walls and other works, of which but faint traces remain; belonged, in the time of Henry VII., to the lawyer Sir R. Empson, a native, the son of a sieve-maker, raised to the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster, and eventually beheaded: is now a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; consists chiefly of one long well built street; and has a head post-office,‡ a banking office, two chief inns, a town hall and corn exchange, in the classic style, with dome, tower, and spire, built in 1866, a police station, erected in 1852, a theological library and reading room, a church of various periods, repaired in 1836, four dissenting chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £65 a year, national schools, a workhouse with capacity for 208 inmates, alms houses with £91 a year, and other charities £251. A weekly market is held on Tuesday; fairs are held on 12 May and 29 Oct.; and malting, brewing, shoe-making, and pillow-lace manufacture, are carried on. Pop. in 1861, 2,417. Houses, 546.—The parish includes, three hamlets, and comprises 2,790 acres. Real property, £11,880; of which £30 are in quarries, and £90 in gasworks. Pop., 2,715. Houses, 610. The manor belongs to Sir T. F. Hesketh, Bart. An artificial mound, called Bury Mount, is on the NW side of the town; appears to have been anciently fortified; and has yielded many Roman relics. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £300.* Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield.—The sub-district contains nine parishes. Acres, 19,893. Pop., 7,531. Houses, 1,669.—The district includes Abthorpe sub-district, and comprises 42,216 acres. Poor rates, in 1863, £6,939. Pop. in 1851, 12,806; in 1861, 13,004. Houses, 2,956. Marriages in 1863, 82: births, 457,-of which 32 were illegitimate; deaths, 234, -of which 75 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,022; births, 4,361; deaths, 2,927. The places of worship, in 1851, were 20 of the Church of England, with 3,184 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 390 s.; 13 of Baptists, with 2,271 s.; 12 of Wesleyans, with 1,864 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 170 s.; 1 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 60 s.; and 1 undefined, with 70 s. The schools were 17 public day-schools, with 1,053 scholars; 17 private day-schools, with 295 s.; and 32 Sunday schools, with 2,466 s.-The hundred contains six parishes. Acres, 27,490. Pop., 5,163. Houses, 1,139.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Towcester AP/CP       Towcester Hundred       Towcester SubD       Towcester RegD/PLU       Northamptonshire AncC
Place names: TOF CEASTRE     |     TOVECESTRE     |     TOWCESTER
Place: Towcester

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