Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CROWLAND, or Croyland

CROWLAND, or Croyland, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district in the district of Peterborough; the town and the parish in Lincoln; the rest of the sub-district in Northampton. The town stands on the rivers Welland and Nen, adjacent to a station of its own name on the March and Spalding railway, 6n miles S by W of Spalding. Its site was anciently an island, in the tract of the east marsh lands. Its streets are united by a triangular bridge, of three pointed arches meeting in one, like the legs in the Manx arms, and built in 1360 90. Its origin was in a hermitage, founded in the 7th century, by a noble thane, called St. Guthloc; and its progress depended on an abbey founded in 714 by Ethelbald, burnt in 870 by the Danes, rebuilt by Ethelred II., burnt again in 1091, rebuilt again in 1112, and given by Edward VI. to the Clintons. The church of the abbey was originally cruciform; survives in portions which are now the parish church; shows interesting features, from Norman to perpendicular; was considerably restored in 1860; and has a fine front with seven tiers of statuary, a tower with five galleries, an ancient font, and a screen. Henry VI. was here in 1460, and Edward IV. in 1469. The town has a post office‡ under Peterborough, a banking-office, a hotel, two Methodist chapels, a national school, breweries, maltings, a small weekly market on Thursday, and a fair on 4 Sept. Pop., 2, 413. Houses, 554. The parish comprises 12, 780 acres. Real property, £36, 354. Pop., 3, 148. Houses, 687. The property is much subdivided. Crowland Abbey was the seat of the Hunters. Most of the land was at one time impassable marsh; but all has been well drained and highly improved. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £115. Patron, alternately the Marquis of Exeter and J. Whitsed, Esq. Charities, £126. Ingulphus, the historian, was abbot of Crowland. -The sub-district contains nine parishes and a ville. Acres, 31, 650. Pop., 8, 004. Houses, 1, 707.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Crowland AP/CP       Crowland SubD       Lincolnshire AncC       Northamptonshire AncC
Place names: CROWLAND     |     CROWLAND OR CROYLAND     |     CROYLAND
Place: Crowland

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