Barton upon Humber

BARTON-UPON-HUMBER is a small market town on the south border of the Humber: it is a polling-place for the Northern division of the county and head of a county court district, in the parts of Lindsey, north division of Yarborough wapentake, union of Glanford Brigg, rural deanery of Yarborough No. 1, archdeaconry of Stow and diocese of Lin¬coln, 10 miles north-east from Brigg and 20 north-west from Grimsby, 6 south-west from Hull by water, 34 north from Lincoln and 165 from -London. A branch of the Man¬chester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway, 3½ miles in length, was opened in 1849, and runs to New Holland station, and communication is had thence by steamboats to Hull; a new station was built in 1855 ; there are also horse and cattle boats to Hull-and Hessle.

The town is governed by a local board of 21 members. The road from Barton to Riseholme was constructed in 1765; gas works were erected in 1846, at a cost of upwards of, £3,000 and enlarged in 1856.

There are two churches in this town—St. Peter's and St. Mary's. St. Peter's, the mother church, is a spacious building," chiefly in the Decorated style, with some Per¬pendicular insertions and additions, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, vestry north and south porches and a western tower containing a clock and 6 bells, the oldest of which is dated 1666:'the sixth has this inscription “ Our sounding is, each man to call to serve the Lord, both great and small."

The clock, presented by the late Miss Tombleson, was placed in the tower in November, 1852, at a cost of £120. The great feature of this church is its celebrated tower, a short, massive structure, with very thick walls, and originally of three stages, and now 7 ft. high and 18 ft. square: the upper portion of the tower is certainly Nor¬man, of Early date, but the architectural construction of the lower stages is so entirely different from that above as to lead to the conclusion, supported by Rickman, that these remains are undoubtedly Saxon work, only comparable for its extreme simplicity to that of Clapham in Bedfordshire.

The two lower stages are ornamented by strips or ribs of stone projecting vertically from the walls and breaking into arches near the top of each stage : this part retains also the long and short quoin and rib stones, with the baluster window, for what appears to have been the original belfry; storey, before the addition of the Norman belfry: extend¬ing westward from the tower is a small building also ap-parently Saxon, with long and short work at the angle, and windows splayed on both sides : the east window on the south aisle is especially interesting from its centre mullion bearing in high relief, a figure of Our Lord upon the Cross, with the Virgin and St. John.

On either side; near this window is a mutilated piscina: the east window of the chancel retains some old glass, including two figures of a pilgrim with staff, wallet and book, and a knight in mail and plate armour, with surcoat and shield, each of the latter bearing across: these figures appear from the costume to belong to the time of Edward II. and they represent St. George of England and St. James the Great, rather than any conjectural member of the Beaumont family: there arc memorial windows to Mr. Marriott, erected in 1843 : to the Rev. George Uppleby, late vicar, placed in 1856 : to Mrs. Uppleby, erected by her children in 1858: and to Mr. Lunn, inserted in 1862: there is a mutilated brass 'effigy, with inscription, to Robert Barnetby, of Barton, Esq. 1440 r and other brasses to William Garton, of Burton, 1505; and Edward Tripple, yeoman, 1619: there are other memorials in the church to Jane, wife of John Shipsea, rector of Saxby, 1696: Anthony Empringham, yeoman, 1698, and to Mr. Cole, a former vicar : the organ, a memorial to the late Richard Eddie Esq. was erected in March. 1856, by W. H. Eddie Esq. and the Rev. R. Eddie: the building was extensively restored in 1858, under the direction of Mr. Broderick, at a cost of £1,400: when the nave was re-roofed and the interior reseated and generally re¬fitted, including the introduction of a new organ, pulpit and font: there are 760 sittings, all of which are free.

The church of St. Mary, which stands within 150 yards of St. Peter's, and was originally only a chapel of ease to that church, is a building in the Norman and Early English styles, with Perpendicular insertions, and consists of a chancel with a south aisle called St. James' aisle, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch, vestry, and a western tower, 74 feet in height, with plain parapet and six pinnacles, and containing 4 bells, the oldest of which was cast in 1666: the oldest portions of the church are the Transition Norman piers of the north aisle ; the tower, south arcade and south parch are .Early English : the chancel of St. James' aisle is Decorated and retains sedilia : in the church is a large slab of blue stone, with brass effigy standing on two butts or tuns, shields with merchants' marks, inscribed scroll, evangelistic symbols and marginal inscription to Simon Seinun, viutner and alderman and sheriff of London (1425), who died August 10, 1433 •. there are other inscribed stones to Richard Harbod, chaplain, 1470; and William Cannon, 1401, and one to Jacob Wymyrke, chaplain to John de Lynewide, merchant: the organ was erected by subscription in July, 1856, at a cost of £200: divine service was suspended in this church in 1816-18 in consequence of the precarious condition of thereof the roof ; this having been renewed and other repairs effected, at a cost of £1,200, the church was re¬opened in 1819: in 1883 the chancel was completely restored and refitted, at a, cost of about £600: a new pulpit, presented by Mr Hesaeltine, in memory of his son, and a brass lectern by Mrs. Eddie, in memory of her husband: the communion plate, which is common to both churches, includes a flagon, dated 1754, and a paten, 1764 ; that of St. Peter's was stolen about 1800. The register of St. Peter's dales from the year 1566, that of St. Mary's from the year 1569. St.Peter's and St. Mary's parishes are united in one living, a vicarage, yearly value ,£250, in the gift of the Bishop of Lincoln, and held by the Rev. George Hogarth M.A. of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Here is a Catholic chapel, dedicated to. St. Augustine, erected in 1840: the Wesleyan chapel was built in 1816, at a cost of upwards of ,£1,500, and was enlarged with schoolroom in 1839, at a cost of £1,500 ; it will seat about 800 persons : the Congregational chapel was built in 1806 ,and the Primitive Methodist chapel in 1833.

Barton Cemetery, covering a space of about 4¼ acres, was consecrated in 1867 there are two mortuary chapels. It is managed by a Burial Board, consisting of twelve members, six for the parish of St. Peter and six for the parish of St. Mary; the vicar is chairman.

The Corn Exchange was built in 1853, at a cost of about, £1,000; the police station, with magistrates' room, was built in 1847; and the Temperance hall in 1843, at a cost of £700

£ 20 a year is expended on the education of poor children by the trustees under Long and Fountain's charities. In 1870, William Trippe, of Barton, left an estate, consisting of 57A. 3R. 10p. the rents to be expended in clothing six poor people ; this devise' is known as' the Bluecoat charity; the income is now about £200 yearly, and 60 poor men and women are annually clothed out of this fund and as by a rule of the trustees, three years must intervene before the same recipient can again participate; 180 poor people are benefited by this charity every three years; 16 grey great coats are also annually distributed from the surplus rents of some land at Barrow, left by Magdalen George, of Barrow, in 1729; secretary and solicitor to the charity, H. E. Dix, Whitecross street. About £50 a year, derived from various charities, is distributed in coals to the poor and the interest of £300 left by Alice Ingle, of Chapel Allerton, in 1830 and of £100, left by Magdalen George, of Barrow, and £200 by G. Uppleby, of Leeds, is distributed monthly in bread, or coals annually.

In 1840 the late Joel Tombleson, of Barton, gave a yearly rent-charge of £$ to provide books for the Sunday schools, and in 1861 J. Gilby Uppleby Esq. of Leeds, left £200 for the benefit of the National schools, and a similar sum for distribution among the poor householders, at the vicar's discretion.
The interest of the proceeds of the sale of the " Town Houses," and of the old workhouse bequeathed by Thomas Benton, of Barton, in 1701, and the rents of Paradise close, and two acres of land near the Haven, the bequest of Thomas Holland, of Barton, 1669, produce about £15 yearly. By a, scheme of the Charity Commissioners, dated 3rd December, 1875, the churchwardens and overseers of the parishes of St. Peter and St. Mary were appointed trustees, and the net income is to be applied, for the benefit of the necessitous resident inhabitants, by providing them with clothes, bedding, fuel, medical aid, food, or pecuniary aid in special cases, but in no case to apply the same to the relief of the poor rates.

The chief trades of the town are tanning, which has long been a staple trade, malting, brick and tile making, and .the it manufacture of rope and whiting ; there are also several corn mills.

Barton is a town of great antiquity: in the Domesday Survey it is called "Bereton," and is stated to bare contained a church, a priest, two mills of 408, a market and a ferry of £4 value. It-was held at an early period by the family of de Gant, of whom Gilbert de Gant, son of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, accompanied his uncle, the Conqueror, to England, and had a grant of this lordship." In 1359, on the invasion of Brittany by Edward III. Barton furnished eight ships and 121 men; in 1730 the south side of the market place was burnt down, and in 1762, 1768, 1817 and 1821 there were violent storms, Hoods and very severe weather. The enclosure and allotment of the parish was affected by an Act of Parliament obtained in 1793, the area being then 5,920 acres, and the award of the Commissioners was made August 12, 1796.

Capt. JohnGraburn J.P. of Scarborough, Yorkshire, is lord of the manor of Barton, which is co-extensive with the parish: most of the copyholders have enfranchised their lands, and as Capt. Graburn offers every facility for their doing so, the whole of the copyholds, will probably soon be enfranchised.
The population in 1881 was—St. Mary parish, 3,180; St. Peter, 2,159; the area of the two parishes is 6,710 acres of land and 1,430 of water; rateable value, 21,431.

Parish Clerk, William Hilliart Goy. Deputy, John Newton.