BOROUGH OF HIGHAM FERRERS 



Hecham (xi cent.) ; Hehham, Hcicham, Hckham 

 (xii cent.) ; Hcgham, Hcighani, Hetham, Hecham 

 Fereres, Hegham Ferrers, Hcgham Fcrrars (xiii cent.) ; 

 Hecham Ferres, Higham Ferres, Hcgham Fercrs, 

 Higham Ferrers (xiv cent.). 



The parish of Higham Ferrers lies between Stan- 

 wick on the north, Chelveston cum Caldecote on 

 the east, and Rushdcn on the south, the river Nene 

 separating it from the parish of Irthlingborough on 

 the west. It has an area of 1,945 ^cres, 696 of which 

 are arable land, wheat, barley, beans being the chief 

 crops, 810 acres of permanent grass and 13 acres of 

 woods and plantations. The soil is mixed, the sub- 

 soil for the most part Great Oolite with streaks of 

 Cornbrash on the east and I'pper Lias on the 

 west. 



The parish is generally 200 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum, rising in the south-east to 300 ft. Open 

 fields called ' The Buscotts ' and ' No Man's Leys ' 

 were inclosed in 1800 and other waste lands in 1838.* 

 In 1921 the population was 2,850. 



The town stands on rising ground on the main 

 road from Bedford to Kettering ; the road from 

 Wellingborough to Kimbolton crosses it here, enter- 

 ing at the south end of the town and leaving at 

 the north end, in order to bring all the traffic 

 through the market place to pay toll. The southern 

 part of the main road is called the High Street, the 

 middle part College Street and northward Station 

 Road. Running parallel to this road on the west side 

 is a lane called Back Lane. The church is in the 

 middle of the town on the east side. South-west of 

 it is the Market Place or Market Stead, around which 

 and northward of it are the more important buildings. 



The late 13th-century market cross in the Market 

 Place consists of a stone shaft with foliated capital 

 surmounted by a modern square abacus and iron 

 weather vane. The shaft is octagonal for the greater 

 part of its height, but becomes circular near the top ; 

 it is now stayed up by three iron struts, which also 

 serve as supports for lamps, and the base consists of a 

 conical pile of masonry, probably formed by casing 

 round the original steps. The total height of the 

 cross is 14 ft. In Bridges' time the shaft terminated 

 in a small stone cube carved with a Crucifixion.* 



The cross in the churchyard, known in 1463 as 

 ' the VVardeyn Cross,' was restored in 1919 as a war 

 memorial. The Stump Cross and Spittle Cross, 

 which once marked the northern and southern 

 boundaries of the borough, have now long disappeared. 

 The town hall, a small plain detached building of 

 two stories in the Market Square, was erected in 

 1808, probably on the site of the Hall of the Burgesses 

 repaired in 1395.** 



On the south of the town hall and adjoining it, 

 there stood in the 17th century the town bakehouse 

 where leaseholders of the manor of Higliam Ferrers 

 were bound to bake all their bread, the custom of the 

 house being to ' backe ye bread well for Twoe 

 pence the bushell.'* The old manor house on the 

 east of the market, rebuilt before 1838, is supposed 

 to have been the dwelling place of the Rudd 

 family.* 



A few old stone houses remain in the town : No. 5 

 Market Square, with two-story muUioned bay win- 

 dows and four-centred middle doorway, is probably 

 of late 16th-century date, but has a modern eaved 

 roof in the place of former gables. Nos. 3 and 4 

 Wood Street, south of the church, now occupied by 

 the Post Office and a coflee tavern, is a building 

 apparently of 17th-century date, on the front of 

 which is a long strapwork plaster panel ; at the 

 north end of the town is a modernised block of 

 cottages with a panel inscribed ' N.K. Ano 1603,' and 

 another building at North End is dated 1728. On 

 the east side of College Street is a house with panel 

 inscribed 't^E '7°9>' ^"'J ^°5. 7 and 8 Market 

 Square is a well-designed 18th-century stone building 

 of two stories with drafted quoins, cornice and slightly 

 advanced pedimented centre. 



The Bedehouse, standing on the south side of and 

 parallel with the church, at a distance of about 

 28 yds., is a 15th-century structure consisting of a 

 hall 65 ft. 9 in. long by 24 ft. wide internally, with a 

 chapel 18 ft. 6 in. square at its east end. The build- 

 ing, which was restored in 1923, is faced on the north 

 and west sides with alternate courses of light free- 

 stone and red ironstone, but on the south and east 

 with rubble, and the hall is divided into six bays by 

 buttresses of two stages. There is a bell-cote over 

 the west gable and the eaved roof is covered with 

 modern tiles. The hall has a large projecting stone 

 fireplace in the middle of the south wall, with moulded 

 four-centred arch, and a pointed doorway with 

 crocketed hood at the west end ; there are also door- 

 ways at each end of the south wall, and one on the 

 north side in the third bay from the west. Above 

 the west doorway is a large window^ of five cinque- 

 foiled lights with slightly ogee head, crocketed label 

 with finial andheadstops, and modern vertical tracery, 

 and in the north and south walls two square-headed 

 windows of two cinquefoiled lights with transoms 

 and pointed rear arches. The hall was formerly 

 divided by screens and no doubt had a western 

 vestibule and space round the fire ; it contained 

 thirteen cubicles arranged round the walls, the 

 positions of which are indicated by lockers, five of 

 which in the north wall east of the doorway, long 



' /leu, Priv. and Lot. 40 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 36 ; I Vict. cap. 11. 



• Alloc. Arch. Soc. Reft, xxiii, 179. 



•• Hut. MSS. Com. Rep. lii, App. ix, 

 p. 551. • Pari. Surr. Northanti. 33. 



* Colt, Hisl. of Higham Ferrtrl, 91-3. 



* Some ttained glass remained in the 

 window in Bridges* time — in the southern 

 division the arms of the see of Canterbury, 

 in the middle France and England 



263 



quarterly, and in the northern division 

 the arms of Chichclcy. Above the arms 

 were ' miniature portraits of our Saviour, 

 the Virgin, and leveral bishops mitred.' : 

 Hilt, oj Northanti. ii, 178. 



