Alfrick - Allerston

Alfrick

ALFRICK, a hamlet, in the parish of Suckley, union of Martley, Upper division of the hundred of Doddingtree, Worcester and W. divisions of the county of Worcester, 7 miles (W. by S.) from Worcester; containing 434 inhabitants. This place is bounded on the north by the river Teme, and comprises 1542a. 1r. 17p., whereof 83 acres are common or waste; the surface is undulated, the land in good cultivation, and the scenery, enriched with wood, is generally of pleasing character, and in some parts picturesque. The heights of Old Storage command fine views. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits, and many of the females in making gloves for the manufacturers in Worcester. The road from Bromyard to Worcester passes through the hamlet. The tithes have been commuted for £240. 10.: the glebe land here consists of about four acres and a half. There is a chapel of ease, dedicated to St. Mary, in which marriages, baptisms, and burials are solemnized. A school for the instruction of ten poor children has an endowment of £3 per annum, arising from a bequest of £100 left by Richard Lloyd, Esq., in 1729, and which has been vested in the schoolhouse and land.

Alfriston (St. Andrew)

ALFRISTON (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Eastbourne, hundred of Alceston, rape of Pevensey, E. division of Sussex, 9 miles (S. E.) from Lewes; containing 668 inhabitants. It is bounded on the east by the Cuchmere river, and comprises about 2000 acres, of which 600 are common or waste; the soil is rich and fertile, and the produce of the orchards and gardens is remarkable for quality and exuberance. The village, beautifully situated in a valley near the river, was formerly of much greater extent than at present, and in the centre is an ancient cross, where probably a market was held. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £11. 16. 0½., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £135; impropriators, the Trustees of "Smith's Charity." The church is an ancient cruciform structure, in the decorated and later English styles, with a central tower surmounted by a spire. There is a place of worship for Independents. On the neighbouring downs are several barrows, in some of which urns, spear-heads, and other relics of antiquity have been found.

Algarkirk (St. Peter and St. Paul)

ALGARKIRK (St. Peter and St. Paul), a parish, in the union of Boston, wapentake of Kirton, parts of Holland, county of Lincoln, 6 miles (S.) from Boston; containing 754 inhabitants. This place derives its name from the Saxon Earl Algar, who in 870, aided by his seneschals Wibert and Leofric, obtained a victory over the Danes in this neighbourhood, but was defeated and slain on the day following: a statue of stone in the churchyard is said to have been erected to his memory. The parish comprises by admeasurement 5041 acres. The living is a rectory, with the living of Fosdyke annexed, valued in the king's books at £50. 18. 1½.; patron and incumbent, the Rev. Basil Beridge. The tithes have been commuted for £990, and the glebe, including that of Fosdyke, comprises 500 acres. The church, which is partly in the Norman and partly in the early English style, is rich in its details, and contains monuments to the Beridge family since the time of James I. The parsonage-house has a very picturesque appearance. About £38 per annum, the amount of various bequests, are distributed among the poor, who are also eligible to the benefit of Sir Thomas Middlecott's hospital at Fosdyke.

Alhampton

ALHAMPTON, a tything, in the parish of Ditcheat, hundred of Whitstone, E. division of Somerset, 2¾ miles (N. W. by N.) from Castle-Cary; containing 386 inhabitants. There was formerly a chapel.

Alkerton

ALKERTON, a tything, in the parish of Eastington, union of Wheatenhurst, Lower division of the hundred of Whitstone, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 3 miles (W.) from Stroud; containing 1108 inhabitants.

Alkerton (St. Michael)

ALKERTON (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Banbury, hundred of Bloxham, county of Oxford, 6 miles (W. N. W.) from Banbury; comprising 691a. 24p., and containing 190 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £6. 3. 9.; net income, £153; patron, J. Dent, Esq. The tithes were commuted for land and a money payment, by an inclosure act, in 1776. The church is beautifully situated on elevated ground; the tower rises from between the nave and the chancel, and the building has some sculpture in the mouldings of the outer walls. Thomas Lydiat, the learned mathematician and chronologer, was born at Alkerton in the year 1572; he became its rector, and was interred here.

Alkham (St. Anthony)

ALKHAM (St. Anthony), a parish, in the union of Dovor, hundred of Folkestone, lathe of Shepway, E. division of Kent, 5 miles (W. by N.) from Dovor; containing 595 inhabitants. It comprises 3145a. 2r. 28p., including 300 acres of woodland, and 100 of common; the surface is hilly, and the soil chalky, except at the tops of the hills, where it is a stiff clay. The living is a vicarage, with the living of Capel-le-Ferne annexed, valued in the king's books at £11; patron and appropriator, the Archbishop of Canterbury: the appropriate tithes have been commuted for £500, and the vicarial for £213. 10.; there are 9½ acres of appropriate glebe, and about 3 of vicarial. The church is partly Norman, and partly early English: the interior, which has been much improved of late years, has a venerable and interesting aspect, and there are some ancient monumental stones. According to Domesday book, a church existed here in the time of Edward the Confessor.

Alkington

ALKINGTON, a tything, in the parish, and Upper division of the hundred, of Berkeley, union of Thornbury, W. division of the county of Gloucester, 1¼ mile (S. E.) from Berkeley; containing 1175 inhabitants. The village of Newport, on the great road from Gloucester to Bristol, is situated in this tything, and is the central posting-place between those cities; it contains several inns. There is a place of worship for Independents.

Alkington

ALKINGTON, a township, in the parish of Whitchurch, Whitchurch division of the hundred of North Bradford, N. division of Salop, 2 miles (S. by W.) from Whitchurch.

Alkmonton

ALKMONTON, a township, in the parish of Longford, hundred of Appletree, S. division of the county of Derby, 5¾ miles (S. by E.) from Ashbourn; containing 102 inhabitants. There was anciently an hospital dedicated to St. Leonard, between this place and HungryBentley, in the same parish, to which Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was a benefactor, in 1474. The hospital shared the fate of most other similar establishments, whose constitutions were mingled with religious observances, at the time of the Reformation, and was abolished in 1547. The manor of Alkmonton afterwards belonged successively to the Barnesley, Browne, Stanhope, and Evans families. A chapel of ease has recently been erected, containing 120 sittings. The tithes have been commuted for £28. 15. payable to the rector, and £26 to the vicar, of Longford.

Alkrington

ALKRINGTON, a township, in the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, union of Oldham, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 4½ miles (N. N. E.) from Manchester; containing 338 inhabitants. The Levers were seated here from the middle of the seventeenth century; and in Alkrington Hall was collected by Sir Ashton Lever the celebrated Leverian museum of rare productions of nature and art, for the sale of which, by lottery, Sir Ashton obtained an act of parliament, in 1785. The holder of the successful ticket was Mr. Parkinson, who exhibited the museum in London for some time, but eventually sold it by auction, and it was thus dispersed. Alkrington comprises 788 acres, of which 74 are common or waste land: the population is chiefly agricultural. The Messrs. Lees are the proprietors of nearly the whole township. It is included in the ecclesiastical district of Tongue, which see. The tithes have been commuted for £40.

Allcannings (St. Anne)

ALLCANNINGS (St. Anne), a parish, in the union of Devizes, hundred of Swanborough, Devizes and N. divisions of Wilts, 5¾ miles (E.) from Devizes; comprising the chapelry of Etchilhampton and the tythings of Allington and Fullaway, and containing 851 inhabitants. On the downs is St. Anne's hill, on which a large fair for sheep and horses is held on the 6th of August. The Kennet and Avon canal affords facility for the conveyance of goods. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £31. 16. 10½., and in the gift of Lord Ashburton: the tithes, including those of Etchilhampton, have been commuted for £1204. 5., and the glebe comprises 36 acres. The church is an ancient structure in the Norman style. There is a chapel of ease at Etchilhampton. Miss Anne Lavington, in 1828, bequeathed £500, the interest to be distributed among the poor at Christmas.

Allen, St. (St. Alleyn)

ALLEN, ST. (St. Alleyn), a parish, in the union of Truro, W. division of the hundred of Powder and of Cornwall, 4 miles (N. by W.) from Truro; containing 652 inhabitants. It comprises 3061 acres, of which 216 are common or waste. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 13. 4.; patron, the Bishop of Exeter; impropriator, the Earl of Falmouth. The great tithes have been commuted for £265, and the vicarial for £147; there are 95 acres of glebe. The parish contains a Danish encampment.

Allendale

ALLENDALE, a market-town and parish, in the union of Hexham, S. division of Tindale ward and of Northumberland, 7 miles (S.) from Haydon-Bridge, 9¾ miles (S. W. by W.) from Hexham, and 286 (N. N. W.) from London; comprising the grieveships of Allendale town, Broadside, Catton, High and Low Forest, Keenly Park, and West Allen High and Low; and containing 5729 inhabitants. The Town, which includes 1217 persons, is irregularly built on an acclivity gradually rising from the eastern bank of the river Allen, over which a bridge was erected in 1825. The market is on Friday: fairs are held on the Friday before the 11th of May, on the 22nd of August, and the first Friday after the festival of St. Luke, for horses, cattle, and sheep; and a cattle show, which has been established within the last few years, is annually held. In the market-place are the ruins of a cross. The Parish derives its name from the river Allen, a small but rapid stream which rises in the hamlet of Allenheads, in East Allen, and Coalcleugh, in West Allen, and falls into the river Tyne about three miles to the west of Haydon-Bridge, where is a station of the Newcastle and Carlisle railway. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the lead-mines, which are on a large scale, producing upwards of 3500 tons of lead annually. There are several works for grinding and washing the ore, and two extensive smelting-houses, one having an horizontal chimney 2½ miles long, with a terminus upwards of 780 feet above the ground-floor of the mill, and the other a chimney 1½ mile in length, and 700 feet above the ground-floor; in one of these smelting-houses twenty-one tons pass through the furnace weekly, and a considerable quantity of silver is separated. Limestone is extensively quarried, and there are also numerous quarries of stone of good quality for building.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £130; patron, T. W. Beaumont, Esq. The church is of stone, rebuilt in 1807. Within the parish also are four chapels, in the gift of the incumbent of Allendale, viz. St. Peter's, rebuilt in 1825, a perpetual curacy, of which the net income is £120; the chapel at Nine-Banks, partially rebuilt about 1816, a perpetual curacy, with an income of £124; the chapel at the Carr Shield, or West Allen High chapel, built in 1822, also a perpetual curacy, of which the income is £109; and that of Allenheads, described under its proper head. There are places of worship for the Society of Friends and Wesleyans. A free school for the children of parishioners is endowed with two tenements, bequeathed by William Hutchinson in 1692, producing a rental of £24; and with other premises and thirty-two acres of land, in Broadside, purchased with a legacy of Christopher Wilkinson in 1700, and yielding £38 per annum. Various other schools are connected with the different places of worship in the parish; and some small sums, the principal of which is an annuity of £10 from Shield's charity, are distributed annually among the poor. There are several chalybeate springs; and at a place called Old Town, about three miles to the north-west, are vestiges of an ancient intrenchment, of a square form, supposed to be Roman.

Allenheads

ALLENHEADS, a hamlet (formerly a distinct parish) in the parish of Allendale, S. division of Tindale ward and of Northumberland, 17 miles (S. S. W.) from Hexham. The chapel here was built by Col. Beaumont, in 1826, on the site of one erected in 1701 by Sir William Blackett, for the religious duties of the miners, who at that time attended prayers every morning at six o'clock; it is now considered a domestic chapel, and near it is a good house for the minister, occupied by the incumbent of St. Peter's, described in the preceding article, who officiates in both chapels. There are several veins of lead-ore in the neighbourhood, which are worked to a considerable extent.

Allensford

ALLENSFORD, a hamlet, in the parish of Shotley, union of Hexham, E. division of Tindale ward, S. division of Northumberland, 13 miles (S. E.) from Hexham. This place is on the north side of the river Derwent, over which is a stone bridge.

Allensmore (St. Andrew)

ALLENSMORE (St. Andrew), a parish, in the hundred of Webtree, union and county of Hereford, 4 miles (S. W.) from Hereford; containing 668 inhabitants. The parish is intersected by the road from Hereford to Monmouth, and consists of 1820 acres, the surface being generally level, with an ample proportion of timber. The living is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £5. 12. 6., and endowed with £400 royal bounty; patron, the Dean of Hereford. The appropriate tithes have been commuted for two rentcharges, each of £125, one payable to the Dean, and the other to the Dean and Chapter; the vicarial tithes have been commuted for £175, and a rent-charge of £7. 6. is paid to impropriators. There are 30 acres of glebe.

Allenton, or Allwinton (St. Michael)

ALLENTON, or Allwinton (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Rothbury, W. division of Coquetdale ward, N. division of Northumberland; comprising the townships of Allenton, Biddleston, Borrowdon, Clennell, Fairhaugh, Farnham, Linbriggs, Netherton, North and South Sides, Peals, and Sharperton; and containing 1255 inhabitants, of whom 78 are in the township of Allenton, 19 miles (W. by S.) from Alnwick. The parish is of great extent, stretching from the parish of Rothbury to Scotland, and 20 miles from east to west; and consists almost entirely of porphyritic mountains, presenting very abrupt elevations, covered with short thick grass, valuable for rearing sheep. The river Coquet rises within its limits, and here pursues a winding course through a very narrow valley, the mountains rising in many parts almost perpendicularly from its bed; it is joined by the Alwine, which gives name to the parish. The living is a vicarage not in charge, with the curacy of Hallystone annexed; net income, £130, with a glebe-house lately built; patron, the Duke of Northumberland; impropriators, Thomas Clennell, Esq., and others. The church is an ancient edifice, greatly disfigured by repairs. Here was formerly an hospital belonging to the convent at Hallystone; and on the south side of the Coquet are vestiges of an old structure, called Barrow Peel, to the west of which is Ridlee-Cairn Hill, supposed to have been a burial-place of the ancient Britons. Throughout the district are numerous other remains of the Britons, consisting of encampments, cromlechs, &c.; and at Chew green, near the Scottish border, are the remains of a very extensive Roman station, the next to the north from Bremenium, High Rochester.

Aller

ALLER, a hamlet, in the parish of Hilton, union of Blandford, hundred of Whiteway, Blandford division of Dorset; containing 91 inhabitants.

Aller (St. Andrew)

ALLER (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Langford, hundred of Somerton, W. division of Somerset, 6¼ miles (W.) from Somerton; containing 559 inhabitants. Guthrum, the Danish chief, received baptism at this place, under the sponsorship of Alfred the Great, after the victory obtained by that monarch over the Danes at Ethandune. Aller Moor was the scene of a battle between the royalists and the parliamentarians in 1644. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £36. 15., and in the gift of Emanuel College, Cambridge; the tithes have been commuted for £590, and the glebe comprises 66 acres. Dr. Ralph Cudworth, author of The Intellectual System of the Universe, was born here in 1617.

Allerby, or Alwardby.—See Oughterside.

ALLERBY, or Alwardby.—See Oughterside.

Allerford

ALLERFORD, a tything, in the parish of Selworthy, union of Williton, hundred of Carhampton, W. division of Somerset; containing 181 inhabitants.

Allerston (St. Mary)

ALLERSTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union and lythe of Pickering, N. riding of the county of York, 5 miles (E. by S.) from Pickering; containing 414 inhabitants. The parish comprises by measurement 9110 acres, of which about 4800 are arable and pasture, 240 wood and plantations, and the remainder large tracts of moor abounding with peat and turf: the surface is varied, in some parts mountainous, and the lands on the south side, which are low, are frequently overflowed by the Derwent. Coal is supposed to exist, but has not been wrought. The village is situated at the foot of the moors of Pickering forest, and on the northern verge of the fertile marshes of the vale of Derwent. The living has been united to the vicarage of Ebberston since 1242: the church is an ancient edifice, with a lofty square tower.