Kelly’s Directory 1903

Castle Thorpe 1903

Castle Thorpe is a village and parish separated from Northamptonshire by the river Tove, with a station on the main line of the London and North Western railway, 54½ miles from London, 8 miles west-north-west from Newport Pagnell, 3½ north from Stony Stratford, 11 from Northampton, and 2½ north from Wolverton, in the Northern division of the county, hundred petty sessional division, union, county court district of Newport Pagnell, rural deanery of Newport Pagnell, archdeaconry of Buckingham and diocese of Oxford. The church of S.S. Simon and Jude stands in an elevated position on the border of the old Castle yard, and is an ancient edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of three bays and aisles, west porch and a low embattled western tower with pinnacles containing one bell: the church has been restored: the font is large and ancient, with two human heads at the two western corners: there is a monument in the chancel to Sir Thomas Tyrrell, knt. a justice of the Common Pleas, who died March,1671 erected by his 3rd wife and widow Dame Bridget (Harrington): there are 180 sittings. The register dates from year 1530. The living is a chapelry, annexed to Hanslope, joint net yearly value £142, including 21 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford, and held since 1892 by the Rev. William Jardine Harkness M.A. of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who resides at the vicarage house, Hanslope. An inscription on the monument above mentioned records that Dame Bridget Tyrrell gave £10 yearly to the poor of the place, which has been invested in the purchase of 18 acres of land, producing £36 yearly, and by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners this sum is applied as follows: half for keeping in repair the nave of the church £1 for an annual sermon on March 8th in memory of Sir Thomas Tyrrell, and the remainder in doles for the poor. Here is a Wesleyan chapel restored in 1888.The estate of Castlethorpe, granted by Charles II in 1663 to Sir Thomas Tyrrell, is now held by Edward Hanslope Watts esq. of Hanslope Park, who is lord of the manor. Earl Carrington is the principal landowner and the Corporation of Lincoln are the tithe owners The parish was enclosed in 1793 by Act of Parliament . The soil is mixed; subsoil, stone and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and roots. The area is 1,361 acres; rateable value £9,457
Elementary School, built in 1891, for 140 children; average attendance 122; Harry H. Middleton, master; Mrs. Middleton, girls' mistress; Miss Annie Gregory, infants' mistress.

Surname Forename Occupation
DORMER
Mrs
WHITING Charles
COMMERCIAL

AMOS Elizabeth farmer & maltster (Mrs)
COMPTON Joseph butcher
GREGORY Susan shopkeeper (Mrs)
HALL John coal merchant
HARRIS Henry gardener
HOLT William Stephen farmer
RAINBOW William George sub-postmaster
MASTERMAN Arthur Carrington Arms P.H.
TOOTH Jane butcher (Mrs)
WHITING
millers (water) & farmers Bros.



MIDDLETON Harry school master
MIDDLETON
girls' mistress (Mrs)
GREGORY Annie infants' mistress (Miss)
ABBEY William Henry station master
PARISH CLERK. Joseph Compton
Post & M.O.O., S.B. & Anu. & Ins. Office. William George Rainbow, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Stony Stratford at 6.30 a.m.; dispatched at 12.55 & 8.15p.m. The nearest telegraph office is at Cosgrove, 2 miles distant.
POPULATION 1901 - 539