IRCHESTER is a parish and village on the borders of Bedfordshire and bounded on the north by the river Nene, with a station about half a mile east from the village on the main line of the Midland railway, 2 miles south-east from Wellingborough station, on the Northampton and Peterborough section of the London and North Western railway and 3 south-west from Higham Ferrers.  The parish is in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Higham Ferrers, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Wellingborough, rural deanery of Higham Ferrers (first portion), archdeaconry of Oakham and diocese of Peterborough.  The church of St. Catherine, standing on high ground, is an edifice of stone, consisting of spacious chancel with north chapel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a western tower with lofty octagonal spire, 152 feet high, containing a clock and 5 bells: the spire was rebuilt, new doors erected, and one of the bells rehung in 1881: the spire lights and the south and west belfry windows contain reticulated tracery: the west window and doorway of the tower and the chancel windows are Perpendicular: the windows of the aisles Decorated; and the north and south doorways and the priests’ door in the south wall of the chancel are elegant examples of Early English: on the south side of the chancel are aumbries, and a piscina and sedile of the same date: the south porch is of the transition period from Decorated to Perpendicular; in the north wall of the chapel is a plain sepulchral niche: the pulpit of oak, with elaborate carvings of cinque-cento character, dates from the 15^th century, and there are some good decorated benches: the font is Early English: in the chancel is an incised slab to Thomas Jenyson, dated 1681, and there are some remains of ancient glass: the church was restored in 1889, under the direction of Mr. J. L. Pearson R.A. at a cost of £3,500, of which £1,000, expended in the chancel, was defrayed by Lord Wantage, as lay rector, who also contributed £500 towards the restoration fund: the work included the renewal of the roof in oak, the relaying of the floors, restoration of the carved oak benches, with additions, the re-opening of three previously blocked windows and a priest’s doorway kon the south side of the chancel, and the refitting of the chancel with some other details: in the course of the work several wall paintings of pre-Reformation date were discovered, one of which, above the chancel arch, has been allowed to remain, but is very much faded: there are sittings for 550 persons.  The register dates from the year 1622.  The living is a discharged vicarage separated from that of Wollaston, June 21, 1880, tithe rent-charge £43, average £31, gross yearly value £344, including 95 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of and held since 1893 by the Rev. John George Gibson, of University College, Durham & M.A. & L.L.D. of the University of Chicago.  There is a Mission church at Little Irchester.  The Wesleyan chapel, erected in 1869, will seat 400 persons; the Primitive Methodist chapel, built in 1877, has 150 sittings.  There are three charities: Sharwood’s charity consists of £182, vested in railway debentures, the interest being apportioned annually by the vicar and churchwardens as follows, £2 to Irchester National school and remainder in sums of 5s. Or 10s. To the industrious poor of the parish; Jenyson’s charity consists of £5 4s. To be distributed weekly in twopenny loaves of bread among such poor of the parish as attend church regularly; the Feoffee estate, consisting of land and cottages of the value of upwards of £100 a year, is distributed in gifts to the poor of the parish and expended in repairing the parish bridges.  The inhabitants are to some extent employed in agriculture, but principally in making shoes for the manufacturers in Higham Ferrers and Wellingborough.  Chester House, about half a mile from the church and now occupied by William Hirst Simpson esq. Is an ancient Elizabethan mansion of stone, and obtained its name from the Roman encampment here, Irchester having been a Roman station; and adjacent are earth-works.   1874 a Roman burial ground was discovered on an estate about half a mile from Chester House; about 400 skeletons were found, all facing eastwards, a number of stone coffins, and one of lead containing skeletons, besides eight bronze vessels packed in a ninth; some of the vessels were in an excellent state of preservation; two being perforated at the bottom and partly up the sides with elegant patterns; many coins and Roman pottery have also been found, and, in a field adjoining the workings, iron slag has been met with: one of the stone coffins mentioned above, now in a field abutting on Chester House, is roughly hewn out of a solid block of Northamptonshire freestone, with a huge slab of the same for lid, secured by strong iron cramps; a similar stone coffin, together with the leaden one and the bronze vessels or bowls, are in the possession of H. R. Arkwright esq. of Knuston Hall.  Coins, with other relics, are still occasionally met with.  The Queen is lady of the manor.  The principal landowners are Lord Wantage V.C., K.C.B., J.P. (the lay rector), Herbert Robert Arkwright esq. J.P. of Knuston, the Rev. G. F. Whidborn M.A., of St. George’s vicarage, Battersea, Surrey, Mr. George Young and Mr. Edward Parsons.  The soil is of a fertile mixed character; substratum, oolite limestone, and sand and ironstone.  Iron ore abounds here.  The chief crops are cereals.  The area is 2,680 acres; rateable value, £12,035; the population in 1881 was 1,699 and in 1891 1,824.

  LITTLE IRCHESTER is a hamlet about 1½ miles west-north-west.  Here is the (Wellingborough) London and North Western railway station.

  KNUSTON hamlet, forming the eastern portion of this parish, is the property of Herbert Robert Arkwright esq. J.P. whose seat, Knuston Hall, is a large mansion standing on an elevated spot in the centre of a well-wooded park overlooking a vast area of country: to the south-east of the mansion a stream of water traverses the park and forms into a lake; the stream is crossed by a light bridge.

Parish Clerk & Sexton, William Ward.

POST & M. O. 0.. S. B. & Insurance & Annuity Office. - John Ward, sub-postmaster.  Letters arrive from Wellingborough at 7 a.m. & 12.20 p.m.; dispatched at 5.40 & 7.30 p.m. Sundays, 11.50 a.m.  The nearest telegraph office is at Little Irchester.

POST & TELEGRAPH OFFICE, Little Irchester. - Elijah Freeman, sub-postmaster.  Letters are delivered through Wellingborough; letter box cleared at 9.45 a.m.  12.15, 5.55, 7.15 & 8.30 p.m.; Sundays, 12.10 p.m.  Wellingborough is the nearest money order office.

WALL LETTER BOX cleared weed days at 5.45 p.m.; Sundays, 11.55 a.m.

Police Station, Joseph Cross, constable in charge.

National School (mixed), built in 1848 & enlarged in 1873, 1888 & 1893, for 310 children; average attendance, 280, & supported in part by the small endowment above mentioned; William Grange, master.

RAILWAY STATIONS – Wellingborough London & North Western railway), John Green, station master; Irchester (Midland), Knuston, John J. Shrives, station master.

CARRIER – Arthur Toms, to Wellingborough, daily; Wm. Payne, Wellingborough, daily