Castor (St. Keneburgha)

CASTOR (St. Keneburgha), a parish, in the union and soke of Peterborough, N. division of the county of Northampton, 4½ miles (W.) from Peterborough; containing 1313 inhabitants. This village, and the opposite one of Chesterton, occupy the site of the Roman station Durobrivæ, by the Saxons called Dormancester; and a great quantity of coins from Trajan to Valens, fragments of urns, tiles, &c., have been discovered. The Roman Ermin-street commenced here, and, proceeding some distance, branched off into two divisions, the remains of which are still visible; one leading to Stamford, and the other, by Lolham-Bridges, through West Deeping, into Lincolnshire. Lady Keneburgha's way is supposed to have been a paved way from a fortress on the river Nene, which runs through the parish, to a castle on the hill, where the Roman governor resided. The place was destroyed by the Danes. The parish comprises about 3600 acres, and is considerably diversified in its surface, some parts being flat, and others very much elevated. The Northampton and Peterborough railway passes through. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £52. 12. 8½., and held in commendam with the see of Peterborough: there are about 150 acres of glebe, and a glebe-house. The church, dedicated in 1124 to St. Keneburgha, who founded a nunnery here, is a spacious cruciform edifice, with a beautiful Norman tower of two stages, rising from the intersection, and surmounted by a spire. There are chapels of ease at Sutton and Upton, in the parish; a day school, having a master and mistress, is supported by the Earl Fitzwilliam, and a Sunday school, in the same building, by the bishop. John Landen, an eminent mathematician, was born here in 1719. Some tessellated pavement dug up in the parish is now laid down in the dairy at Milton Hall, the residence of Lord Fitzwilliam.