Wymington, Bedfordshire
Historical Description
Wymington, Wimington, or Winnington, a village and a parish in Bedfordshire, 2½ miles SE of Irchester station on the M.R., and 3½ S of Higham Ferrers. Post town, and money order and telegraph office, Rushden. Acreage, 1760; population, 336. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor belongs to the Goosey family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. The church, which dates from about 1377, is a fine building of stone in the Late Decorated style. It has some very fine brasses, and some ancient tombs and memorials.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Bedfordshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Wymington St. Lawrence | |
Hundred | Willey |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from 1662.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS) hold the registers for Wymington: Baptisms 1662-1983, Marriages 1662-1986, Burials 1662-1992, Banns 1755-1975. Transcripts in either book or microfiche form for registers prior to 1813 can be purchased from the BLARS (see website for details).
Churches
Church of England
St. Lawrence (parish church)
The church of St. Lawrence is an elegant building of stone in the Late Decorated style, rebuilt about 1377 by John Curteys, whose tomb is in the church, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch with parvise and a western embattled tower with clock and crocketed spire, containing 6 bells: the spire is singular and very beautiful, rising from eight arches with open Decorated tracery and pedimental canopies, and the angles are richly crocketed: at the east end of the church are two octagonal turrets, and the whole is embattled to a height of four feet: the chancel retains very rich canopied sedilia and a piscina of similar character: the original octagonal font also remains: in the window sill of the south chapel are remains of a once magnificent altar, with a niche and piscina, and in the vestry, anciently the chapel of St. John the Evangelist, is another piscina: much of the old pavement, consisting of squares of polished Purbeck marble, still remains: the church contains some fine brasses, one of which, to Sir Thomas Bromflete, who was cup-bearer to King Henry V. is considered to be the finest brass in existence of a knight in plate armour; the head of the knight rests on a crested helm; on either side of the figure are shields of arms, and overhead a reversed inscription on brass in two columns with the date 1430: alongside, on a similar slab, is a much smaller brass of his wife Margaret (Seynt Jon) 1407, with an inscription on a brass fillet surrounding the slab, and inclosing four shields: on the floor under the chancel arch is a brass 22 inches long, to John Stokys, rector, who died about 1520, clad in eucharistic vestments, and holding the chalice in his hands: under the arch between the lady chapel and the chancel is a fine altar tomb, in good preservation, to the memory of John and Albreda Curteys, who entirely rebuilt the church: the upper slab of Purbeck marble has perfect brass effigies of both, under 3 crocketed canopy, with a shield above; surrounding the whole is an inscribed brass fillet, with the date of the founder's death, 1391, and that of his wife in 1396: there is another altar tomb in the north aisle, with inscription on brass, to William Bhitsoe, dated 1609; and there are later memorials to Richard Newcome M.A. rector (1655-1698), Richard Newcome M.A., his son, rector (1698-1732), and the families of Scriven, Clark, Kent, Chapman and Kemshead. The church was partly restored in 1910, and affords 70 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Wymington was in Wellingborough Registration District from 1837 to 1935 and Bedford Registration District from 1935 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Wymington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wymington (St. Lawrence))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Bedfordshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Wymington are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Bedfordshire papers online:
- Bedfordshire Times and Independent
- Biggleswade Chronicle
- Luton Times and Advertiser
- Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitations of Bedfordshire 1566, 1582, and 1634 is available online.