BILLINGTON is a scattered hamlet and ecclesiastical parish, comprising Great and Little Billlington, formed out of the civil parish of Leighton Buzzard, situated on the Buckinghamshire border, 1.5 miles west from Stanbridge Ford station on the London and North Western railway, 2 miles south-east from Leighton Buzzard, 6 miles west from Dunstable and 13 miles from Hemel Hempstead, in the Southern division of the county, hundred of Manshead, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Leighton Buzzard, rural deanery of Dunstable, archdeaconry of Bedford and diocese of Ely. The church of St. Michael is a small oblong building, of the Late Decorated period, with some Perpendicular portions, and consists of chancel, nave and a western turret containing one bell: the chancel retains a trefoil-headed piscina. The existing register dates from the year [ ]; and earlier registers form part of those of Leighton Buzzard. The living is a rectory, tithe rent-charge £288, net yearly value £340, including 3 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the inhabitants, and held since 1858 by the Rev. Edward Bradshaw M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels here.

An estate of 150 acres was left many years back, which produces £160 yearly, one moiety of which is appropriated to the rector, and the other is divided between the poor, the repairs of the church, rectory house and buildings on the estate. Billington Manor is the seat of Arthur Macnamara esq. D.L., J.P. Sir Wyndham Hammer bart. of Weston Hall, Towcester, Northants, is lord of the manor. The principal landowners are Edward Bromley esq. Arthur Macnamara esq. D.L., J.P. and Leopold de Rothschild, of Ascott, Leighton Buzzard. The soil is sand, clay and marl; subsoil, clay. Coprolites are found here. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and peas. The area is 1,400 acres; rateable value, £2,091; the population in 1881 was 426.

Letters received through Leighton Buzzard at 7.30 a.m. Wall Letter Box cleared at 6.50 p.m. week days only. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Leighton Buzzard.

National School [mixed], built [with house for mistress] in 1863, for 80 children; average attendance, 70; supported by government grant, voluntary contributions & school fees; Miss Emily Louisa Weston, mistress.

Bradshaw Rev. Edward M.A. [rector]
Macnamara Arthur D.L., J.P.
Commercial
Evans William, bailiff to Arthur Macnamara esq. D.L., J.P.
Andrews Abraham, farmer
Griffin Elijah, Greyhound P.H.
Griffin John, farmer
Hull Harriet [Miss], farmer
Olney John, cattle dealer
Potts Jemima [Mrs.], shopkeeper
Pratt John, Cock P.H.
Purrett Richard, farmer
Rodwell William, Manor farm
Ruff Mary Ann [Mrs.], farmer
Symes William, farmer
Thompson Elizabeth [Mrs.], shopkeeper
White William, shopkeeper
Yirrel Samuel, farmer