Bawtry, West Riding

Description
Bawtry, a small market-town and a township, forming with Austerfield an ecclesiastical parish, in the W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the verge of the county, on the great North road, on the river Idle, and on the G.N.R., 8 miles SE of Doncaster. Part of it is low, and used to be subject to inundation; but part is high, and contains a market-place. It has a station on the railway, a head post office, a bank, a hotel, a good supply of water, two churches, and two dissenting chapels, and is lighted with gas. The Church of St Nicholas is partly Norman, consists of Boche abbey limestone, was built in the 12th century, and has a tower, added in 1712. A weekly market is held on Thursday, and fairs on Holy Thursday and 22 November. The Church of St Mary Magdalen and Bawtry Hospital, founded by the Morton family about 1316, was restored for divine service in 1839. A farmhouse, a mile distant, occupies the site, and was formed of the materials of a palace of the Archbishops of York, inhabited by Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Sandis. Bawtry Hall is a seat of Lord Houghton, who is lord of the manor. Acreage of the town, 259 ; population of the township, 947; of the ecclesiastical parish, 1288. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £370 with residence. Patron, Trinity College, Cambridge. There are two almshouses and a Mutual Improvement Society.