Mildenhall, Wiltshire

Description
Mildenhall, a small market and union town, and a parish in Suffolk. The town stands on the river Lark, 3 miles E of the boundary with Cambridge, 4 1/2 NW of Icknield Street, 9 N by E of Newmarket, and 9 1/4 SW by S of Brandon, and has a terminal station on the G.E.R. It contains some good shops and inns; enjoys a good supply of excellent water; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place ; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (S.O.), two banks, a police station, an ultra-mural cemetery, a literary institute, a public hall erected in 1886, a cottage hospital, a workhouse, almshouses, and charities worth about £150 a year. The parish church is a large and interesting building of stone, chiefly in the Early English and Perpendicular styles. The roofs of the nave and aisles are richly and elaborately carved angels with outspread wings forming the hammer beams; and the church contains some ancient tombs and monuments. There are two small and modern churches at Beck Row and West Row, an iron church at Kenny Hill, two Baptist and one Wesleyan chapel in Mildenhall, Baptist and Wesleyan chapels at West Row, and a Wesleyan chapel at Beck Row. The cemetery is on the E side of the town, is about 2 acres in extent, and contains a neat small chapel. The workhouse is for the Mildenhall union, and is a building of brick with accommodation for 113 inmates. A weekly market is held on Friday, and there was formerly a fair for the sale of wood on 11 Oct. The market-cross is a good Perpendicular structure, built entirely of timber, hexagonal in form, and roofed with lead. There are extensive flour mills, and fruit and vegetables are largely grown for the London market. The parish contains also the hamlets of Beck Row, Holywell Row, West Row, Kenny Hill, Burnt Fen, Lindley Common, Weston Ditch, and Wilde Street. Acreage, 16,767; population of the civil parish, 3732; of the ecclesiastical, with Mildenhall Fen, 3573. The manor was given in part by Edward the Confessor to the monks of Bury St Edmunds to afford them wheaten bread, and with the manor house belongs now to the Bunbury family. The manor house was built in the time ofCharles I. by Sir Henry North, Bart.; is a picturesque Tudor .mansion with many quaint gables surmounted by balls, and .stands amid pleasant grounds. A large tract in the W and the N bears the name of Mildenhall Fen. The living is avicarage in the diocese of Ely; gross value, £702.