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Stow (St. Mary)

STOW (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Gainsborough, wapentake of Well, parts of Lindsey, county of Lincoln, 8 miles (S. E.) from Gainsborough; containing, with the townships of Bransby, Normanby, and Sturton, 943 inhabitants, of whom 418 are in Stow township. This place is generally supposed to have been the Sidnacester of the Romans, and the seat of a Saxon bishopric from about 678 to 959. The ancient Watlingstreet passes near. A nunnery was founded by Godiva, wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who also, with her husband, greatly augmented the revenue of Stow church, which had been built and endowed for secular priests by Eadnorth, Bishop of Dorchester. These religious, after the Conquest, became Benedictine monks, under the government of an abbot, and Bishop Remigius obtained for them, from William Rufus, the then desolate abbey of Eynsham, in Oxfordshire, where they soon settled. King Henry III. passed the night at Stow, previously to his engagement, under the walls of Lincoln Castle, with the forces of Louis and the turbulent barons. The parish comprises 4737a. 3r. 11p., and is intersected by the middle road from Lincoln to Gainsborough. A fair for horses is held on the 10th of October. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £102, with a house; patron, the Bishop of Lincoln. The tithes have been commuted for £936. The church is a spacious and massive structure, principally in the Norman style, with a central tower; the south and west sides of the nave have each a highly-ornamented doorway, and the chancel contains some fine details, especially in the mouldings of the arches. There is a meeting-house for Wesleyans. A school is endowed with £12 per annum.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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