Great Weldon / Weldon

"GREAT WELDON, a parish in the hundred of Corby, county Northampton, 8 miles N.W. of Oundle, and 4 E. of Rockingham. The parish includes the hamlet of Little Weldon. The village was formerly a market town, but the market-house, erected by Viscount Hatton, over which were the sessions chambers, was pulled down at the beginning of the present century. On a hill, at a little distance from a branch of the river Nene, are the remains of an ancient town. There are some freestone quarries. Weldon gives name to a deanery. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough, value £209. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. The Independents have a chapel. There are National schools. The parochial charities produce about £8 per annum. In an enclosure called Chapel-Field were found in 1738 the pavements of a Roman villa, forming a double square, measuring 100 feet by 50, with the foundations of a stone wall and numerous coins of the lower empire. A fair is held on the Thursday following the second Sunday in July. The Earl of Winchelsea is lord of the manor." [Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]