Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for POTTON

POTTON, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Biggleswade district, Beds. The town stands in a picturesque tract, near the Bedford and Cambridge railway, 1 mile S of the boundary with Cambridgeshire, and 4 N E of Biggleswade; was extensively destroyed by fire in 1783; carries on straw-plaiting; and has a post-office‡under St. Neots, a railway station, several inns, a market house with clock-turret, a church, three dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £30 a year, a national school, and charities £130. The church stands on an eminence, a short distance from the town; is Norman, ingood condition; and has an embattled tower. The Independent chapel is a neat edifice, and was built in 1848. A weekly market is held on Saturday; fairs are held on the third Tuesday of Jan., the last Tuesday of April, Easter Monday and Tuesday, and the Tuesday before 29 Oct.; and there are corn mills. The parish comprises 2, 200 acres. Real property, £7, 437. Pop., 1, 944. Houses, 377. The manor belonged to John of Gaunt, passed to the Burgoynes, and belongs now to S.Whitbread, Esq. P. Wood is a meet for the Cambridgeshire hounds. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £450.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor.—The sub-district contains also ten other parishes. Acres, 26, 125. Pop., 9, 280. Houses, 1, 919.


Linked entities:
Administrative units: Potton AP/CP       Biggleswade PLU/RegD       Bedfordshire AncC
Place: Potton
