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A fortnight cattle market was established here a few years ago, but it was soon afterwards discontinued for want of support. A feast is held on October 11th. The manorial rights of the lordship of Barrow, with about 500 acres of ancient demesne, and 364 acres allotted in lieu of the rectorial tithes, at the enclosure in 1799, belong to the crown,and are held on lease by Charles Uppleby, Esq., of Barrow Hall, a neat mansion, pleasantly situated near the south side of the village. New Hall, Oxford; Mrs Hooper, and many small proprietors, have freehold and copyhold estates here. On the marsh, about a mile north of the village, is a large mound of earth, called the Castle, and supposed to have been an entrenched camp of the ancient Britons. Near it are several tumuli, or long barrows, in which human bones have been found. Some authors affirm that the battle of Brunnenburgh was fought here, on the banks of the Humber, in the reign of Athelstan. A little north of the village is the site of a monastery, said to have been founded by St. Chad, who, about the middle of the seventh century, obtained from Wulfere, King of Mercia, the land of fifty families at Barwe, for the foundation and endowment of a religious house. The pious founder is said to have lived and died here, and the monastery is supposed to have been afterwards the seat of a Saxon Bishop. In digging on the site some years ago, a stone coffin, a valuable gold ring, and an iron weapon in the form of a two pronged fork, were found.
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