BINGHAM, a market-town and parish in the north-
ern division of the wapentake of BINGHAM, county
of NOTTINGHAM, 10 miles (E.) from Nottingham, and
123 (N.W. by N.) from London/containing, with part of
the township of Newton, 1574 inhabitants. This place,
which, previously to the Conquest, was possessed by
two Saxon chieftains, appears to have been anciently
more extensive than at present: it had a college,
or guild, founded in honour of St. Mary. The town
is. pleasantly situated in the fertile vale of Belvoir,
and consists .principally of two parallel streets, one of
which leads .directly into a spacious market-place;
some smaller streets have been formed within the last
twenty years. The houses,, though irregularly built,
are neat, and several of them are of handsome appear
ance: the town is well .paved, and amply supplied with
water. The market is on Thursday: fairs are held on
February 13th and 14th, for draught horses, on Whit-
Monday for toys, and November 8th and 9th for young
horses and hogs. The living is a rectory, in the arch-
deaconry of Nottingham, and diocese of York, rated
in the king's books at £44. 7- H-, and in the patronage
of the Earl of Chesterfield. The church, dedicated to
All Saints, is an ancient and spacious cruciform structure,
partaking of the early and decorated styles of
English architecture, with' a square embattled and
highly enriched tower, crowned with the remains of
B I N 168 B I N
statues, which have been substituted for pinnacles, and
surmo\mted by a lofty spire, which, with the upper
stage of the tower, is of later erection: within the
church are some beautiful specimens of foliage and
sculpture, of elegant design and elaborate execution.
There are places of worship for Primitive and Wesleyan
Methodists. An endowment of £8 per annum, for a
free school, has been augmented with a dividend of £10
per annum, payable on the sum of £150, raised by the
performance of plays, and invested in the Nottingham
and Grantham canal, by a few individuals of the town.
The Roman Fosse-way, in its course through the parish,
passes by a large mound, called Castle Hill, the site of
an ancient fortress. Mr. Robert White, the astronomer,
and editor of the Ephemeris which bears his name,
was a native of this -parish, and is interred here; a
mural tablet in the church has been inscribed to his
memory. Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury; Wren,
Bishop of Ely; and Hanmer, Bishop of Bangor; were
successively rectors of this parish, from which they
were promoted to their respective sees, in the seventeenth
century.