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MARKET TOWNS OF DORSET (from SDUK Penny Cyclopedia)

Stalbridge in 1837

Stalbridge is in the hundred of Brownshal, about two miles from the Cale (which falls into the Stour), 112 miles from London. The parish contains 4,900 acres (including the tithings of Gomershay, Thornhill and Weston), and had in 1831 a population of 1,773, of which rather more than a third was agricultural. The market is on Tuesday, and there are two cattle fairs in the year. The cattle market is held in alternate weeks. According to Hutchins’s History of Dorsetshire (2nd edit. 1813, vol. iii., p. 239), the stocking manufacture is carried on here.

The town is irregularly laid out : in the market-place is an ancient cross twenty-two feet high, or, including the base of three steps, thirty feet. There is a dissenting meeting house. The church is a large ancient structure, with a high embattled tower at the west end. The living is a rectory of the yearly value of £888, with a glebe-house. There were in the parish in 1833, one ‘national’ day-school, supported by subscription, with 115 children, three Sunday-schools, with 308 children, besides several dame schools. Stone is quarried in the parish, and used for building and roofing.