LOUTH, a market-town and parish, having separate
jurisdiction, though locally
in the Wold division of the
hundred of Louth-Eske,
parts of LINDSEY, county
of LINCOLN, 28 miles (E.
N.E.) from Lincoln, and 150
(N. by E.) from London,
containing, with the hamlet
of Louth-Park, 6055 inhabitants.
The ancient name
of this town was Luda, from
small stream formed by the
It was distinguished for the
number of its religious houses previously to the Reformation,
and the inhabitants were the first to resist the
measures enforced by Henry VIII. for their suppression.
In 1536 they took part in an insurrection called the
" Pilgrimage of Grace," and the prior of Barlings, their
leader, the vicar of Louth, four other priests, and seven
laymen, were executed at Tyburn in the following year.
A destructive plague, which raged here in the year 1631,
from April until the end of November, swept away seven
hundred and fifty-four persons. The town is pleasantly
situated in a fertile vale, eastward of the wolds, bounded
on the north and south by chalk hills, which command
beautiful and varied prospects; it is neat and well built,
the houses being chiefly of brick covered with tiles j the
streets are paved, and lighted with gas, under the authority
of an act passed in 1825; and the inhabitants
are supplied with excellent water from several springs
in the neighbourhood, some of which issuing from
the northern hills, form a rapid and overflowing stream
during the summer, and in winter are generally dry;
the air is considered to be highly salubrious. The
theatre is opened every alternate winter. Assemblies
and concerts are held in the mansion-house, which contains
an elegant suite of apartments, ornamented in the
Grecian style; and a public subscription library, billiard,
and news rooms, are always open. The vicarage
house, denominated the hermitage, is especially worthy
of notice, from the ingenious and rustic style in which
the garden is laid out; the walks are planted with
shrubs, interspersed with appropriate buildings, seats,
and cloisters, for the use of the supposed hermit, and
decorated with obelisks and vases, bearing numerous
devices and mottos; the principal building contains the
study, kitchen, chapel, and dormitory, and is adorned
with moss, flints, bark, bones, and other natural productions,
the whole producing a picturesque effect. The
mode of obtaining water for irrigating the land here,
or for domestic purposes, is somewhat unusual: the
stratum of argillaceous soil, which descends to a depth
of twenty-seven yards, is perforated, and a hollow tube
of tin or copper is inserted into the bed of gravel beneath,
through which the water rises, and thus a perpetual
fountain is formed, from which a copious supply
is readily obtained throughout a district of thirty
miles in length, and ten in breadth. A carpet and blanket
manufactory, established a few years ago, is conducted
on an extensive scale, and is in a very flourish-
ing condition; and a paper-mill and soap-house furnish
employment to a considerable number of persons; there
are likewise several worsted manufacturers and woolstaplers.
In 1761, an act of parliament was obtained
for cutting a canal between this town and the Humber,
which was completed at an expense of £ 12,000 "
by means of this mode of communication, vessels of
considerable burden regularly trade with London, Hull,
and several parts of Yorkshire, carrying out corn and
wool, and bringing back coal, timber, iron, grocery, and
other-articles of commerce. The wool market is a commodious
building, opened in June 1825. The general market
days are Wednesday and Saturday; there is a market
for cattle and sheep every Friday during the spring,
and fairs are held on the third Wednesday after Easter,
August 5th, and November 22nd. The government of
the town is vested in a warden and six assistants, who
were incorporated by charter of the 5th of Edward VIV
and are empowered to choose a high steward, town clerk,
and bailiff: to the corporation Elizabeth gave, by charter,
" the manor of Louth and divers lands there," the
annual value then being & 78. 14. 4.; their privileges
were subsequently confirmed and extended by James I.
The warden and one of the assistants, called the justice,
are elected annually, and are magistrates in and for the
town and parish j and an application has lately been
made for a charter, for the appointment of two additional
magistrates. Sessions for the town are held
quarterly, usually in January, April, July, and October.
The general quarter sessions for the southern parts of the
division of Lindsey are held here and at Spilsby alternately.
Petty sessions are held every Wednesday in the
guildhall; and there is a court of requests, under an act
passed in the 47th of George III., for the recovery of
debts not exceeding £ 5, the jurisdiction of which extends
over a considerable portion of the parts of Lindsey.
The sessions-house and prison is a handsome modern
pile, with a portico of Roman Doric architecture".
The tread-mill is used to grind corn for sale.
The living of St. James' is a discharged vicarage, with
the perpetual curacy of Louth St. Mary, in the peculiar
jurisdiction and patronage of the Prebendary of Louth
in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, rated in the king's
books at £ 12, and endowed with £200 royal bounty.
Here were formerly two churches, dedicated respectively
to St. Mary and St. James; of these, the latter only
remains, and it is one of the finest structures in
the county, consisting of a nave, aisles, and a chancel,
and exhibiting a remarkably good specimen of the
later style of English architecture; at the east end is
a window of seven lights, with very beautiful tracery,
and at the western extremity is a lofty tower, with
a rich crocketed spire, the building of which was completed
about 1516: the spire, having been blown down
some years ago, was rebuilt on the original plan. The
tower consists of three stories; at its summit are four
octagonal embattled turrets, with flying buttresses to
the spire, the height of which, to the cross by whidh it
is surmounted, is one hundred and forty-one feet, and
the total height, from the base of the tower, two hundred
and eighty-eight feet. The chancel is of later date than
the body of the church, and probably coeval with the
steeple. The burial-ground has not been used for upwards
of half a century, the churchyard formerly belonging
to the church of St. Mary being the general
place of interment. There are places of worship -tot
Baptists, Independents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists,
and a Roman Catholic chapel. The free grammar
school was founded and endowed by Edward VI., with
the property of some ancient guilds in this town, consisting
of about one hundred and sixty acres of land,
with several messuages and tenements, and the tolls of
markets and fairs; the trustees are the warden and six
assistants, with their successors, who are authorised to
make laws for the government of the school: the present
income is about £600 per annum, of which sum
half is directed to be given to the head master, a quarter
to the usher, and the remainder to be appropriated to
the maintenance of twelve poor women, who reside in
almshouses under the school-room. The school is open
for gratuitous classical instruction to the children of
all parishioners. A fund is raised from the terms of
admission on the annual "speech day," and from a subsequent
ball, out of which assistance is afforded to any
young man of superior abilities at either of the Universities,
who had been previously educated here. A free
school for poor boys was founded and endowed by
the will of Dr. Robert Mapletoft, Dean of Ely, in 1677,
with a rent-charge upon his estates, for the support of
a master to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and the
church catechism; the income is about A 5 per annum.
Thomas Espin, F.S.A., whose views of the cathedral,
churches, and ruins, in this county, are universally admired,
was master of this school for thirty years, and
on his death, in 1822, was interred in a mausoleum near
his late residence in the town.. A National school,
erected in 1818, and enlarged in 1820, is supported by
voluntary contributions, and contains about three hundred
children. A, dispensary for the relief of the sick
poor is also supported by subscription. About a mile
from the town is the hamlet of Louth-Park, where are
some slight vestiges of an abbey founded by Alexander,
Bishop of Lincoln, in 1139, for monks of the Cistercian
order, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary: it
was a cell subordinate to Fountain's abbey in Yorkshire,
and at the dissolution its revenue was estimated
at £169. 5. 6.