HIGHAM FERRERS is a municipal borough and a market town, originally a borough by prescription, with a station on the Wellingborough and Higham Ferrers branch of the Midland Railway, and another station 1 mile north from the town, on the Northampton and Peterborough section of the London and North Western railway, 5 miles east from Wellingborough, 8 south-west from Thrapston, 10 south-east from Kettering, 16 east-north-east from Northampton and 65 from London.  Irchester station on the main line of the Midland railway is 3 miles south-west.  The parish is in the Eastern division of the county, petty sessional division, hundred, union and county court district of Wellingborough, rural deanery of Higham Ferrers (first portion), archdeaconry of Oakham and diocese of Peterborough.  The town chiefly consists of one street about a mile long with a market place, and is situated on a rocky height near the navigable river Nen or Nene, and on the road from Bedford to Kettering; in Domesday it is called “Higham,” and takes its after-name from the Earls Ferrers, who were its lords; Roman pottery and remains of buildings have been found here.  The town was first incorporated, 2 & 3 Philip and Mary (1555-6), and this charter was confirmed 36 Chas.II (1684-5).  The corporation formerly consisted of a mayor, 7 aldermen, 13 capital burgesses, a re3corder and deputy recorder, but under the provisions of the “Municipal Corporations Act, 1883” (46 & 47 Vict. c. 18), the corporation was dissolved and the borough received a new Charter of Incorporation, June, 1885, and is now governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors, who also act as the Urban Sanitary Authority. The town is lighted with gas by a company, there is no public water supply.  The mayor and corporation walk in procession to church twice a year, when a bidding prayer is used and a special sermon is preached by the vicar, who is also chaplain to the mayor.  The town formerly sent one member to Parliament, but was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832.  The church of St. Mary, a large and beautiful structure, formerly collegiate, and supposed to have been built between 1289 and 1337, is in the Early English and later styles, and consists of choir, double nave with clerestory on each os the outer sides, north and south aisles, south and west porches, several chapels and an embattled western tower with pinnacles and an octagonal crocketed spire rising to the height of 170 feet, and containing a clock and 8 bells: the carved work of the inner west doorway is much admired: the choir retains a screen of carved oak, some stalls and a double piscina: the eastern windows, one of which has a niche above it, are very fine: the font is of Early English date: in the north chantry chapel is an altar tomb with a fine canopy and super-canopy, and bearing on the slab a full-length brass effigy of an ecclesiastic and an invocatory inscription to Laurence St. Maur, rector, ob. 1337; at the sides of the canopy are niches with figures of saints, four of which on the north side are now lost: on the breast of the figure is the legend, “Fili Dei, Miserere mei:” on another marble slab is an elegant cross fleury, with the Deity in the centre, evangelistic symbols at the angles and an  inscription at the foot, to Thomas Chichele, ob. 25^th February, 1400, and Agnes (Pyncheon), his wife, the father and mother of Archbishop Chichele; near this are two fine effigies in brass of a man in a loose robe with his feet on a lion, and a woman in a mantle and veil, commemorating William Chichele, sheriff and alderman of London, ob. 1425, and Beatrice (Barret), his wife; there remain 12 English verses, but the other inscription, formerly below, is lost; there are also brass effigies with invocations from the Latin Litany, and an inscription in English to William Thorpe, mercer, ob. 5 Oct. 1504, and Maryon, his widow, with 12 children: in the choir is a large slab with the brass effigy of a man in a furred and ornamented robe, and below an invocatory inscription in Latin to Richard Wylleys, warden of Archbishop Chichele’s College here, ob.1523; north of this is the brass effigy of a female in a loose robe, with inscription in Latin to Edith, widow of John Chaunceler, merchant, of Kensham, c. 1435; near the entrance to the south chapel is the brass effigy of an ecclesiastic, with a Latin inscription to Henry Denton, chaplain of Chelston, ob. 18 Feb. 1498: in the north aisle is a brass effigy, representing Arthur Sotheryn, ob. 1518, and there are two other brass effigies of civilians, both c. 1540, but without inscriptions: the church is 119 feet in length by 69 feet wide and was thoroughly restored in 1864, at a cost of £6,000: the churchyard was enlarged in the year 1870, at a cost of £228 and new iron gates placed at the entrance at a further cost of £50: an organ was placed in the church in the year 1877, at a cost of £680: in 1884 a beautiful reredos of walnut was set up, and the chancel new floored; and in 1885 the east window was filled with stained glass by W. H. Pope esq. And Mrs. Pope: the register dates from the year 1573.  The living is a vicarage united to that of Chelveston, average tithe rent-charge £125, joint net yearly value £230, including 66 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of G. C. Wentworth-Fitzwilliam esq. And held since 1889 by the Rev. James Dun B.A. of University College, Durham.  The vicarage house has been rebuilt, but the room originally occupied by the warden of the Bede House, and containing some oak carving, still remains.  There is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel.  The Town Hall, erected in 1808, is a small building of stone, in a very plain style; and contains some armour and a breast plate popularly known as “John of Gaunt’s,” formerly kept in the lady chapel of the church.  The chief trade is shoe making.  The markets used to be held thrice a week, but were discontinued in the early part of the present century, until Oct. 1888, when a weekly market was established and is held every Monday.  Of the castle once standing here, only part of the earthworks now remains.  Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury 1414-43, and founder of All Souls College, Oxford, was born here about 1362, and in 1415 founded in this place a college for a master and 7 canons, dedicating it to SS. Mary and Thomas the Martyr, and St. Edward the Confessor, and the existing church then became collegiate, but the college and parish used distinct portions.  At the dissolution of the monasteries the college was suppressed, its revenues being then estimated at £156 yearly, but the property was regranted to the corporation; the remains of this college, consisting of portions of the court with the gateway, still stand in the main street of the town, and one of the walls bears a curious sun-dial.  The Bede House, an ancient building in the Perpendicular style, on the south side of the churchyard, restored in the year 1854, chiefly at the expense of Earl Fitzwilliam, was also founded by Archbishop Chichele; it is now used as a Sunday school and for lectures; the old Refectory, now the Grammar school, is also situated in the churchyard.  Of the ancient Hospital of St. James there are no remains.  There are two ancient crosses, one of stone carved with oak leaf foliage, in the churchyard, and a monolithic cross of stone in the Market square.  From Archbishop Chichele’s charity twelve poor men and one woman receive one penny per day and other gratuities.  Newman’s charity of about £160 yearly, founded in 1855 by William Newman of this place and derived from Consols, is for six old women, inhabitants of the parish, who occupy six houses erected by the corporation in accordance with his will; they receive £5  4s. Each quarterly.  A sum of £9 yearly, arising from Latham’s, Glazebrook’s, Sanders’ and Marshall’s charities, is distributed.  G. C. Wentworth-Fitzwilliam esq. Lord of the manor, and the vicar are the principal landowners.  The soil is mixed; subsoil, chiefly clay, limestone and ironstone.  The chief crops are wheat, barley and beans.  The parish contains 1,865 acres; rateable value, £6,005; had a population in 1891 of 1,810.

Parish Clerk, Thomas Parker.

POST, M. O. & T. O., S. B. & Annuity & Insurance & Stamp Office (Railway Sub-Office.  Letters should have R.S.O. Northants added). - Miss E. Shearn, postmistress.  Letters arrive from London & all parts at 5.45 a.m.; delivered at 7 a.m.; second mail arrives at 10.15 a.m.; delivered at 11 a.m.; third mail arrive 7.45 p.m.; dispatched at 7.25 a.m.; second dispatch at 11.30 a.m.; third dispatch at 4.15 p.m.; fourth dispatch at 6.15 p.m.; fifth dispatch at 7 p.m.; sixth dispatch at 8.55 p.m.  The North letters arrive at 5.45 a.m.; dispatched at 7 p.m.  LETTER BOX cleared at 7.15 a.m., 11.25 a.m.; 4.10, 6, 6.55 & 8.45 p.m.; Sundays, 6.5 p.m.  Letters arrive on Sundays at 5.45 a.m.; delivered at 7 a.m.; dispatched at 6.16 p.m.

Town Clerk & Clerk to the Urban Sanitary Authority, W. Hirst Simpson B.A.

Treasurer, J. W. Ashdown

Medical Officer of health, John Crew L.R.C.P.Lond

Borough Surveyor & Sanitary Inspector, George Hall

Collector, George Hall

Town Crier, James Draper

BOROUGH MAGISTRATES

The Mayor & Ex-Mayor

Clerk, William Hirst Simpson B.A.

Borough petty sessions are held at the Town hall the 1^st Monday in every month, at 10.30 a.m.

Town Hall, William Felce, keeper.

PUBLIC OFFICERS:-

Certifying Factory Surgeon, Medical Officer & Public Vaccinator, Higham Ferrers District, Wellingborough Union, John Crew L.R.C.P.Lond

Police Constable, William Slaughter

SCHOOLS:-

A School Board of 5 members was formed July 17, 1871; George S. Mason, clerk to the board

Grammar, founded by Archbishop Chichele in 1422; it will hold 50 boys; Percy M. Smith, master

Board, built with master’s residence, in 1873, at a cost of £2,500, for 250 children, & enlarged in 1886 at a further cost of about £1,200, to hold 400 children; average attendance, 320; George Hustwaite, master; Miss Elizabeth Ann Blackwell, infants’ mistress

Railway Station, Richard Woodward, station master

CONVEYANCE – The London & North Western Railway Company’s omnibus from the Green Dragon hotel meets most trains daily.

CARRIERS TO:-

IRTHLINGBOROUGH – George Hartwell, daily, except Thurs.

NORTHAMPTON – George Hartwell, Sat.

WELLINGBOROUGH – George Hartwell, daily, except Thurs.