Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CASTOR

CASTOR. a village and a parish in Peterborough district, Northampton. The village stands on Ermine-street, adjacent to the river Nen, and to the Peterborough and Northampton railway, 5 miles W of Peterborough; and has a station on the railway and a post office under Peterborough. It occupies part of the site of the Roman station Durobrivæ; and was known to the Saxons as Castra or Kyneburgceastre. Numerous Roman relics, including a Jupiter Terminalis, pavements, urns, and coins from Trajan to Valens, have been found around it. A nunnery was founded at it in the 7th century, by a daughter of King Penda; and destroyed, in 1010, by the Danes.—The parish contains also the hamlet of Ailesworth, and the chapelries of Sutton and Upton. Acres, 7,020. Rated property, £8,519. Pop., 1,323. Houses, 272. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £528. Patron, the Bishop of Peterborough. The church is Norman, with early English tower and spire; exhibits curiously the features and decorations of the Norman period; and underwent recently a thorough renovation. The vicarages of Sutton and Upton are separate charges. Bishop Madan was rector. There are an Independent chapel and a national school.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Castor AP/CP       Peterborough RegD/PLU       Northamptonshire AncC
Place names: CASTOR     |     CASTRA     |     KYNEBURGCEASTRE
Place: Castor

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