Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WEEDON, W.-Beck, or W.-on-the-Street

WEEDON, W.-Beck, or W.-on-the-Street, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Daventry district, Northampton. The village stands on Watling-Street, the Grand Junction canal, and the Northwestern railway, 4 miles SE of Daventry; is a scattered place; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, extensive military barracks, a military prison, and a police station. The parish comprises 1,710 acres. Real property, £6,430; of which £100 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 2,833; in 1861, 2,189,-of whom 390 were in the barracks, and 130 in the prison. The decrease of pop. was caused by the removal of soldiers and the closing of Government stores. The property is subdivided. A nunnery was founded here in 680, by Werburgh, daughter of Wulfere of Mercia; was burnt by the Danes; was refounded as a cell to Bec abbey, in France; and was given, by Henry VI., to Eton College. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £300.* Patron, the Rev. T.Thornton. The church was rebuilt in 1825, but has a Norman tower. There are Independent and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school with £101 a year, and charities £52.—The sub-district contains ten parishes. Acres, 18,496. Pop., 5,926. Houses, 1,271.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Weedon SubD       Northamptonshire AncC
Place names: W. BECK     |     WEEDON     |     WEEDON W. BECK OR W. ON THE STREET     |     W. ON THE STREET
Place: Weedon Bec

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