Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire

Description
Higham Ferrers, an ancient borough and a market-town in Northamptonshire. The town is very clean and healthy; it is situated on a rocky elevation E of the river Nene, 15 miles NE from Northampton, and the same distance NW from Bedford. It was known in Saxon times as Hecham Gitda. A Saxon thane held Hecham, with its nine Berwicks, in the reign of Edward the Confessor; it took its second name from William Ferrers, Earl of Derby, who came into possession of the hundred and manor of Hecham in 1199. Formerly a castle stood at the junction of two main roads, from the N and the E, and from the extent of ground and the position it occupied, it must have been of great strength and importance. Leiand says it had lately fallen-in his time. Roman baths and many Roman coins and other relics were found on its site when taking down the ruins in the 18th century. Nothing now remains except parts of the foundations and a deep moat about 300 yards long and 50 feet wide, which serves as a reservoir for the sanitary purposes of the town. The High Street is wide and spacious, and about a mile in length; it contains many 15th and 16th century houses. An ancient market-cross of good elevation stands in the centre of the market-square, surrounded by shops and genteel, well-built houses, some of them of very considerable antiquity. The shaft of another ancient cross stands in the churchyard, near the grammar school. The parish church of St Mary, formerly collegiate, is one of the finest in a district remarkable for the splendour of its ecclesiastical buildings. It measures 119 feet by 69; has a double nave, N and S aisles, double chancel, and two chapels with finely carved oak screens and choir stalls in excellent preservation, a double piscina, and an altar-tomb bearing the royal arms, which tradition says was built for John o' Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who was lord of the manor. In the Chapel of Our Lady are many fine monumental brasses-those of Laurance de St Maure and the Chichele family are very fine indeed. The tower contains eight bells, and with its spire is 170 feet high. Archbishop Chichele, who was a native, did much to enrich and beautify the church and town. He founded a college in 1422 for eight canons, four clerks, and six choristers; this he largely and amply endowed. The college was suppressed and the property confiscated in the thirty-fourth year of Henry VIII. Some interesting portions of the ruins still remain in the High Street, NW of the church. He also founded a grammar school for the free education of the children of the town, and a bede-house for the residence of twelve old men, and one woman to attend on them, and allowed each a penny a day; they receive the same stipend at the present time. The bede-house is on the S of the churchyard, and is now used as a Sunday school, also for lectures and concerts. Thomas Britton, the originator of orchestral concerts, was also a native. An ancient hospital, dedicated to St James, was founded by the Countess of Derby in 1255, but is now extinct. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The town-hall is a small edifice of 1808. Formerly three markets a week were held, but they died out in the early part of the 19th century. In 1888 a new weekly market was established and is held on Mondays. Currying and shoemaking are the principal industries. The town has a head post office, and a station on the L. & N.W.R., also on the WeUingborough and Higham Ferrers branch of the M.R., of which it is the terminus. It was formerly a borough by prescription. By the charter of Philip and Mary, of 1556, it sent a member to Parliament until the Reform Act of 1832. The old corporation was dissolved in 1885, and a new charter granted under the Municipal Act of 1883. It is now governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors, who are also the urban sanitary authority. The parish contains 1945 acres; population, 1810. The living is a vicarage, with that of Chelveston-cum-Caldicott, in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £290. The Queen is lady of the manor.