1903 Kelly's Trade Directory - BILLINGTON

BILLINGTON is a scattered hamlet and civil parish, comprising Great and Little Billington, formed out of the civil parish of Leighton Buzzard, and is 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 ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1810. 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 1 bell: the chancel retains a trefoil-headed piscina. The existing register dates from the year 1653; the earlier registers form part of those of Leighton Buzzard. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £150, including 2.5 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the inhabitants, and held since 1903 by the Rev. Joseph Holden Stallard M.A. of Pembroke College, Cambridge. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels here. An estate of 150 acres was left many years back, which produces £190 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. and Lady Sophia Macnamara. J. T. Mills esq. of Husbands Bosworth, Rugby, is lord of the manor. The principal land-owners are Edward Bromley, esq. Arthur Macnamara, esq. and Leopold de Rothschild, esq. 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 1,209 acres; rateable value, £2,118; the population in 1901 was 263.

Parish Clerk, George King.

Post Office, Great Billington, - Mrs. Martha Ann Smith, sub-postmistress. Letters received through Leighton Buzzard at 7.30 a.m.; dispatched at 6.50 p.m. week days only. Postal Orders are issued here, but not paid. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Leighton Buzzard, 3 miles distant.

National School (mixed), built (with house for mistress) in 1863, for 80 children; average attendance, 45; Miss Rosey Finch, mistress.

Macnamara Arthur D.L., J.P. & Lady Sophia Macnamara, Billington manor
Stallard Rev. Joseph Holden M.A. (rector), The Rectory.

COMMERCIAL

Ashby, Ernest, gardener
Cox William, farmer, Little Billington
Eldridge Edward, farmer
Evans Joseph, baker
Gower James, hay binder
Griffin Elijah, Greyhound P.H.
Griffin John, farmer
Hopkins Jsph. jun. farmer, Little Billington
Lee Harry, poultry dealer
Pratt Eliezer, farmer, Manor farm
Robins Joseph, farmer
Smith Martha Ann (Mrs)., shopkeeper & post office
Sparks James Alfred, farmer
Symes William, farmer
Syrett William, coal dealer
Waters George, gardener to Arthur Macnamara esq. J.P.
Windmill William, Cock inn P.H.
Yirrell Samuel, farmer, Green farm.