Whitchurch in 1838
Whitchurch is a borough in the hundred of Evingar, 56 miles from London on the great Western road, between Basingstoke and Andover, near the head of the river Anton. The parish comprehends 7,330 acres, with a population in 1831 of 1,673, about half agricultural. Shalloons and serges are manufactured : also paper for the exclusive use of the Bank of England. The market, held on Friday, is said in some of our authorities to be now disused. Whitchurch is a borough by prescription, and returned two members to parliament until disfranchised by the Reform Act. The living is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the bishop of Winchester ; of the yearly value of £140. There were in 1833 seven day or boarding and day-schools, with about 230 children, and three Sunday-schools with above 300 children.
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