CHELVESTON - cum – CALDECOTT is a small straggling village and parish on the borders of Bedfordshire and on the road from Higham Ferrers to Kimbolton, about 2¼ miles east-by-north from Higham Ferrers, 6 south from Thrapston, 8 north-east from Wellingborough and 67 from London, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Higham Ferrers, petty sessional division of Wellingborough, union and county court district of Thrapston, rural deanery of Higham Ferrers (first portion), archdeaconry of Oakham and diocese of Peterborough.  Higham Ferrers station on the Northampton and Peterborough branch of the London and North Western railway is in this parish, about 3 miles west from the village.  The church of St. John the Baptist, situated in a field quite away from the village, is an edifice of stone in the Norman and Early English styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower at the north-east angle containing 5 bells and a clock, erected in 1867 at a cost of £86: the exterior of the tower, the walls of which are five and a half feet thick, exhibits traces of Norman work: the pulpit and desks are richly carved and in the south wall, close to the pulpit, is a piscina: an interesting Early English window, discovered in the chancel, has been restored by Mrs. Wise, the lady of the manor: the church was restored about 1850.  The register, including Caldecott, dates from the year 1723.  The living is a vicarage, united to the vicarage of Higham Ferrers, average tithe rent-charge £125, joint net yearly value £230, in the gift of G. C. Wentworth-Fitzwilliam esq. And held since 1889 by the Rev. James Dun B.A. of University College, Durham.  There are four restored almshouses, founded under the wills of James and Thomas Sawyer, dated 1708, for four widows, each of whom receives 3s. weekly and coals.  Neale’s charity of 12s, is for bread.  The inhabitants are engaged in agriculture and shoe making.  The reading-room here is supplied with the daily and weekly papers, and has a lending library.  Mrs. Jane Harriet Wise, of Walton Hall, Derbyshire, who is lady of the manor, the Duchy of Lancaster, G. C. Wentworth-Fitzwilliam esq. Of Milton House, Castor; Lord Wantage V.C., K.C.B. and John Chettle esq. Are the principal landowners.  The soil is chiefly clayey; subsoil, chiefly clay.  The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley and seeds.  The area is 1,752 acres; rateable value, £2,128; the population in 1891 was 401.

Parish Clerk, Zeriah Newell.

LETTER BOX cleared at 5.20 p.m.  Letters through Higham Ferrers, which is the nearest money order & telegraph office.

Endowed School (mixed), erected in 1864 with materials presented by H. C. Wise esq. For 100 children; average attendance, 50; the endowment, derived from 23A 36P of land given in 1760, by Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. Levit, of Walton-upon-Trent, Derbyshire, now amounts to £30 a year; the school is otherwise supported by voluntary contributions, & there is a good house for the mistress; Miss Helena Annie Eady, mistress.

Higham Ferrers Railway Station, Richard Woodward, station master’s

CARRIER TO WELLINGBOROUGH – Ephraim Driver, Wed.