Alford, a market-town and a parish in Lincolnshire. The town stands on a rivulet, 10 1/2 miles SSE of Louth, and 23 1/4 NNE of Boston, and has a station on the E Lincolnshire branch of the G.N.R. It took its name from an “old ford" on the rivulet, and gives the title of Baron to Earl Brownlow. It comprises three main streets and a market-place; is a seat of petty sessions; carries on agricultural implement making, brewing, tanning, rope-making, brick-making, and other employments; and has a head post, money order, and telegraph office, three banks, several good inns, a police station, a handsome corn-exchange, a neat mechanics' institute, with lecture hall and library, a grammar school with about £350 a year from endowment, six almshouses, some other charities, a weekly market on Tuesday, and stock fairs on Whit Tuesday and 8 Nov. In 1867 three additional fairs were instituted, one on 31 July for lambs; one on 24 Aug. for sheep; and one on 17 Sept. for cattle, sheep, and horses. The area of the parish is 1138 acres; population of the civil parish, 2843; of the ecclesiastical, with Rigsby, 2938. The living is a vicarage, united to the curacy of Rigsby, in the diocese of Lincoln; yearly value, £430 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Lincoln. The church is an ancient structure in the Decorated style, with a massive western tower. It was restored in 1869. There are also Congregational, Free Methodist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels.