YELDEN is a parish, in a valley, on the borders of Northamptonshire, 5½ miles east-south-east from Higham Ferrers station on the Northampton and Peterborough section of the London and North Western railway and about the same distance north from Sharnbrook station on the main line of the Midland railway, 14 north from Bedford and 6½ west from Kimbolton, in the Northern division of the county, hundred of Stodden, Sharnbrook petty sessional division, union and county court district of Bedford, rural deanery of Riseley, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of ely.  The church of St. Mary, an almost perfect example of a Decorated church, is a building of stone, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, south aisle, south porch and a western tower with enriched cornice and low octagonal spire, containing a clock and 4 bells, restored in 1886 by Messrs. Taylor, of Loughborough: the chancel retains piscina and sedilia, and on the north side is a late Perpendicular vestry, between which and the chancel is a curious small recess in the wall: in the aisle is a large canopied recess with crocketed pinnacles of rich finials, and near a piscina and a bracket; on the north side of the church is a flat arched recess, with hood moulding and finial, inclosing an altar tomb with a recumbent figure supposed to represent the founder: the front of the tomb displays five quatrefoils inclosing shields; there are also three brasses, one of which has the effigy of a man in trunk hose, cloak and ruff, and is inscribed to Christopher Stickland gent. 1628, a benefactor to the parish; another, of a priest richly vested, has an inscription in Latin to John Heyne, rector, 1433; the third is a kneeling effigy, with ruff representing Thomas Barker, rector, 1617; on the south side of the chancel is a stained window to John Fernie M.A. rector, ob. 1870: there are 220 sittings, 60 of which are free.  The register dates from the year 1653.  The living is a rectory, tithes commuted at £363; average £274; net yearly value £264, with 52 acres of glebe, and residence, in the gift of and held since 1888 by the Rev. Charles Howes Smith B.A. of Clare College, Cambridge.  The Wesleyan chapel here was rebuilt in 1884 on the site of the former chapel.  A charity of about £11 10s. a year, the produce of a piece of land called “Constable’s Land,” devised 9^th February, 1628, is distributed to the poor in coals.  John Sambrooke Crawley equ. J.P. of Stockwood park, Luton, who is lord of the manor, and Henry Seymour Hoare esq. Are the chief landowners.  The soil is strong clay; subsoil, clay.  The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and peas.  The area is 1,912 acres; rateable value, £1,572; the population in 1891 was 220.

Sexton, Josiah Holyoak.

Letters received through Higham Ferrers at 8.30 a.m.; WALL BOX cleared at 4.40 p.m. on week days only.

Melchbourne is the nearest telegraph & Higham Ferrers the nearest money order office

National Endowed School (mixed), built in 1845, for 72 children; average attendance, 32; the endowment, amounting to £15 a year, was given by the Rev. E. S. Bunting, late rector, who died in 1849; Mrs. Barhurst, mistress

CARRIER TO WELLINGBOROUGH – Josiah Twelvetree, Wed.