BLYTH, a parish comprising the chapelry of Austerfield
in the northern, and the chapelry of Bawtry
in the southern, division of the wapentake of
STRAFFORTH-and-TICKHILL, West riding of the county of
YORK, the township of Ranskill, within the liberty of
SOUTHWELL-and-SCROOBY, the market-town of Blyth,
the townships of Barnby-Moor with Bilby, Styrrup,
and Torworth, and the lordship of Hodsock, in the
Hatfield division of the wapentake of BASSETLAW,
county of NOTTINGHAM, 31 miles (N. by E.) from
Nottingham, and 151 (N. N. W.) from London, on the
old road to York, and containing 3456 inhabitants.
This place, anciently called Blia and Blida, was chiefly
noted in former times for its religious and charitable
establishments. In 1088, a priory was founded in honour
of the Blessed Virgin, by Roger de Builly and his
wife Muriel, for monks of the Benedictine order, which,
though considered as an Alien priory, being in some
respects subordinate to the abbey of the Holy Trinity,
near Rouen in Normandy, was spared at the suppression
of Alien priories, and subsisted till the general
dissolution, when its revenue was estimated at
£ 126.8. 2. An hospital for lepers, dedicated to St. John
the Evangelist, was founded by Hugh de Cressy, lord
of Hodsock, in the reign of John, for a warden, three
chaplains, and brethren, the revenue of which, at the dissolution,
was £8. 14.: of these buildings, as well as of
a strong castle which is said to have been anciently
erected here, there are not any remains. The town-is
clean, well built, pleasantly situated, and amply supplied
with water. The market is on Wednesday; and the fairs
are on Holy Thursday and October 20th. The living is a
discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Nottingham,
and diocese of York, rated in the king's books at
£ 14. 9.4., endowed with £220 private benefaction, and
£200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Master
and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church,
dedicated to St. Martin, is a lofty structure in the
Norman style, and once formed the ante-choir of the
splendid cruciform church of the priory; it has a
handsome tower, in the later style of English architecture,
with crocketed pinnacles. There are places of
worship for the Society of Friends and Wesleyan Methodists.
A school for ten poor children of the town, and
for two from each of the adjoining townships, is endowed
with land producing £18 per annum, to which £5 from
the parish funds is annually added as a salary to the
master, who is appointed by the vicar of the parish,
Almshouses for six aged people, who have a small allowance
of money and coal, have been lately rebuilt, and
are supposed to have been originally an appendage to
the hospital foxinded by Hugh de Cressy. There are
also almshouses for two aged women, endowed with £10
per annum, under the management of seven trustees,
chosen from the Society of Friends, besides other charitable
bequests for the relief of the poor.