Billing, Great (St. Andrew)
BILLING, GREAT (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Northampton, hundred of Spelhoe, S. division of the county of Northampton, 4 miles (E. N. E.) from Northampton; containing 401 inhabitants. This parish comprises 1334 acres, whereof two-thirds are arable, and the remainder pasture; it is bordered on the south by the river Nene, and intersected by the road from Northampton to Wellingborough. The manufacture of shoes by men, and of lace by women, is carried on; and stone is quarried for the repair of roads. At Billing Bridge is a station on the Peterborough railway. Billing Lings, an area of wood nearly a mile in circumference, is famous for ling or fern. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £19, and in the patronage of Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1778, 291 acres of land, now valued at £436 per annum, and a money payment, were assigned in lieu of tithes; and there is a good glebe-house. The church is an ancient building with a square tower; it contains a north chancel, built by the Thomonds, who resided in the parish for several years, and beneath it is a sepulchre in which many members of that family are interred. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. Sir Isaac Wake, a distinguished scholar and diplomatist, was born here in 1575.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.