Hingham in 1839
Hingham is in Forehoe hundred, about 100 miles from London. The area of the parish is 3,630 acres, with a population, in 1831, of 1,539, two-fifths agricultural. The town is irregularly laid out, but contains some good houses. The market-place is very neat.
The church is large and handsome, chiefly in the decorated English style, with very good details and fine tracery in the windows. The east window of the chancel is of fine stained glass, which was brought from a nunnery in the Netherlands and presented to the church by Lord Wodehouse, A.D. 1812. Trinity chapel, attached to this church, has a window of fine stained-glass on which was a mutilated inscription: Thys wyndow ys ye mayden cost of Hengham: from which it has been inferred that the window, if not the whole chapel, was erected by the contribution of the girls of Hingham. The tower is a very fine specimen of flint and stone work.
There are three yearly fairs, one chiefly for horses, the others for live stock generally. The market has been given up.
The living is a rectory, of the clear yearly value of £920, with a glebe-house. There were in 1833 one dame-school with 18 children ; an endowed grammar school with 97 children ; a school, partly supported by subscription, with 69 children ; two other day-schools, with 57 children ; and one Sunday-school, with 100 children. |