An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire, Volume 1, West Cambridgshire. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1968.
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'Haslingfield', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire, Volume 1, West Cambridgshire( London, 1968), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/vol1/pp136-145 [accessed 26 December 2024].
'Haslingfield', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire, Volume 1, West Cambridgshire( London, 1968), British History Online, accessed December 26, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/vol1/pp136-145.
"Haslingfield". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire, Volume 1, West Cambridgshire. (London, 1968), , British History Online. Web. 26 December 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/vol1/pp136-145.
In this section
23 HASLINGFIELD
(O.S. 6 ins. aTL 35 S.E., bTL 45 S.W.)
Haslingfield is a village on the N.W. bank of the Rhee 5 m. S.W. of Cambridge. The parish of 2948 acres is a large one, although nearly 400 acres of this total were transferred from Trumpington in 1934. Apart from this addition, which includes Monument (3 5 (b)), the area is fairly compact. The Bourn Brook and the Rhee, forming respectively the N. and E. boundaries, meet at a point about 1000 yds. N.E. of the confluence of the Cam and the Rhee some 25ft. above O.D. To the W. the boundary with Harlton reflects the divisions of the open fields; the S. boundary, especially on the higher ground of Chapel Hill, 216 ft., is comparatively straight. The soil varies from lower chalk, covered with boulder clay on the hill tops, through gault to river gravel, the last occupying a substantial area in the angle between the Bourn Brook and the river.
The village, on a spring line at the foot of the chalk, occupies an E. and W. oval area of about 100 acres, the perimeter of which is outlined by lanes; further lanes and paths intersect the area apparently haphazardly but include the High Street immediately E. of the church. The E. extremity of the village rests against the left bank of the river, which here makes a sharp turn to the E. The lay-out may derive from an oval green similar to, but larger than, that partly surviving in the neighbouring village of Barrington. If so, enclosure must have begun at an early period, for the position and history of Haslingfield Hall (Monument (2)) connote a comparatively late stage in the supposed process, yet one which cannot have taken place later than the 16th century. The initial siting and subsequent enlargement of the church on a somewhat awkward site are also of interest in this context.
The S.E. bank of the river is now reached by road from Haslingfield via Harston. The enclosure map of Harston, dated 1799, shows no corresponding bridge, and this route would appear to have supplanted an earlier crossing immediately E. of Haslingfield. Today only a footbridge (N.G. TL 41485228) links the village with a decayed road to Hauxton in continuation of that from Harlton and the Eversdens. About this point the Harston parish boundary takes in a small enclave on the N.W. bank evidently the site of a mill or mills. The enclosure map of Haslingfield shows that this old river crossing was already obsolete in 1810.
At Domesday 7 hides and 1 virgate were held by the king, and land in the parish had been royal demesne from an early date. The family of Scales had the manor during the 14th century. Their successors by female inheritance sold it to Thomas Wendy, physician to Henry VIII, in whose family it remained until the 18th century. Haslingfield Hall, with its park and ancillary buildings, seems by then already to have fallen into decay and subsequently became ruinous. Fittings probably from the house, reused or loose, have come to light in two houses in the village (Monuments (6) and (16)); the De La Warrs, who acquired the manor apparently during the first decade of the 19th century, moved the staircase and a chimney piece to Bourn Hall (see Bourn (2)); they also re-erected one of the barns and incorporated much other material at Cantelupe Farm (Monument (21)).
In the late mediaeval period Haslingfield was a place of pilgrimage. The cult of Our Lady of White Hill attracted many offerings including a pair of gyves offered by one of the Lord Scales in thanksgiving for deliverance from French captivity (C.A.S. 8vo. Publs. LIII (1935), 103–5). The site of the chapel is preserved in the name Chapel Bush (N.G. TL 402516) but there are no visible remains.
General enclosure in Haslingfield was by act of 1810, the award being made in 1820. Prior to this time a number of houses, mostly 17th-century and of Class-J design, had been put up in the village, many in or on the edge of the central oval. Some of these 17th-century dwellings as well as a number of the 18th-century and later houses were no doubt encroachments; Monument (9) is a documented example. Houses not listed and built after 1715, most of which are subsequent to parliamentary enclosure, exhibit a variety of materials including clay bat, clunch, and boarding as well as white brick. The outsize red bricks described at the end of the introduction to the parish of Bourn are also to be seen in Haslingfield and were presumably a product of the De La Warr estate. Detached houses predominate in this comparatively busy post-enclosure building phase but there are also some small terraces.
Ecclesiastical
b(1) Parish Church of All Saints (Plate 70) stands near the S.W. edge of the village. A lane in continuation of High Street, now reduced to a footpath, passes hard by on the N. and, except for a few very recent graves, burials are confined to the E., S. and W. of the church. The irregularly shaped churchyard is bounded by low walls of clunch and white brick except to the N. The fabric consists of a Chancel, Nave with Aisles and Porches, and West Tower. The walls are mostly of clunch ashlar but the chancel is of field stones and the plinth of the tower is faced with carstone rubble; the dressings are clunch and freestone. The chancel roof is tiled; the remainder, including a short octagonal spire, is leaded. The side walls of the chancel are substantially of the 12th century; they are presumably those of a Norman chancel or nave. Some dressings, apparently of the 12th century, have been reused in the tower. A general rebuilding, begun towards the end of the 13th century and proceeding slowly at first, gathered momentum during the first half of the 14th century. This rebuilding involved enlargement to the W.; a line of subsidence at right angles to the axis of the church in the last bay of the nave may indicate suppression of a N. prolongation of the Barrington road, which now stops in a T-junction immediately S. of the churchyard.
The most important patrons of the new work were probably the Scales family: initially Robert, first Lord Scales (d. 1305), and his wife Isabel (d. before 1335), who had been a Burnel by birth (The Complete Peerage XI (1949), 500, and see Glass (1) below); followed by Robert, second Lord (d. 1324), and Robert, third Lord with his wife Catherine, born de Ufford, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk (see Roof of S. aisle described below). A consecration was carried out by Thomas de Lisle, bishop of Ely, in November 1352, by which time the nave with its aisles, including their roofs, was presumably complete. The tower was added later in the century or c. 1400. A chapel of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mentioned in the will of William Skelman (d. 1494) as being in the churchyard, served a guild of the same name founded 1343–4. It is not shown on the enclosure map of 1810 and its exact site is unknown. After the Reformation the most influential family in the parish was that of Wendy. In or about 1619 the chancel, described in a visitation of 1593 as being 'in great decaye', was refurbished by them. There was a general restoration under the direction of William Fawcett in 1875–9, when the E. wall was rebuilt, the vestry added and the nave re-roofed. The tower was repaired 1898–1900.
Architectural Description—The Chancel (36½ ft. by 17½ ft. E. to 17 ft. W.) has a rebuilt E. wall with a modern window but retains at either end restored lateral buttresses, some 2½ ft. in width. These features, which are not uniform, are partly faced with clunch and other ashlar in situ and conceivably represent the western extremities of a building which stood E. of the present chancel. The E. half of the N. wall is without openings and part at least is of the 12th century; an original pilaster buttress survives some 4 ft. from the present E. end. W. of this buttress, continuing as far as the E. wall of the vestry, is a length of three-sided original external string-course carved with saw-tooth ornament. The W. half of the wall with modern openings to the vestry has been extensively rebuilt. The 12th-century S. wall has an external string-course, interrupted at the S. door, uniform with that described. A buttresslike projection at the E. end of the wall is similar to but wider than the corresponding feature on the N. side and may have been enlarged. W. of it are three windows: the first is of two trefoiled ogee lights with reticulated tracery and a moulded label; the second, over the S. door, is of a single trefoiled light; the third resembles but is not quite uniform with the first. The blocked S. door is of two continuous chamfered orders. All the openings are of the early 14th century or c. 1300, somewhat restored. The chancel arch is of two moulded orders with a moulded label to the nave enriched with dog-tooth; it is of the early to mid 13th century but may have been rebuiltandrises off apparently later 13th-century responds which are half piers, of similar section to the nave arcades described below, with moulded caps enriched with nail-head, and holdwater bases.
Reset in the E. wall of the modern vestry is a heavily restored window, late 13th-century or early 14th-century, of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head; Cole's notes (B.M. Add. MS. 5803, 59) make it clear that this window was in the W. half of the N. wall of the chancel.
The Nave (67½ ft. by 23½ ft.) has similar but not uniform arcades of five bays each. The late 13th- or early 14th-century N. arcade has arches of two orders, each with a double hollow chamfer, and moulded labels with small head stops on the nave side. The piers are of quatrefoil design with filleted half shafts, attached to a square central block, with moulded caps and bases; the responds are half piers but their moulded caps and bases have earlier profiles. The superficial resemblance between the S. and the N. arcades is close, the piers being of the same design, but on the S. side the profiles of the caps and bases are more advanced and the arches, though their labels are uniform with those on the N. side, are in two chamfered orders with a hollow in each chamfer, suggesting a somewhat later date. The responds resemble those of the N. arcade except that the moulded base of the restored E. respond is of part-octagonal plan. The clearstorey has four windows on either side placed over the piers, each of two ogee trefoiled lights with cusped spandrels in a square head and a moulded label; those on the N. side have been heavily restored and the mullions and tracery of those on the S. side are modern. At the apex of the E. gable of the nave is an original pierced and foliated gable cross.
The North Aisle (11 ft. wide) is of the first half of the 14th century and has a moulded plinth of two stages and angle buttresses of three stages finished with gables below a plain parapet. There are four windows in the long wall and one at either end, uniformly designed with three trefoiled ogee lights and reticulated tracery; the W. window has been heavily restored; their external labels are returned against the buttresses, while the internal labels form part of a moulded string, broken by corbels carved as heads beneath the wall posts of the aisle roof. The N. doorway has an arch of two moulded orders, the outer continuous, the inner dying into a chamfer in the jambs, a segmental-pointed rear arch and moulded external and internal labels.
The South Aisle (12 ft. wide; Plate 95) generally resembles the N. aisle but may be of slightly later date; the tracery of the windows, which has been entirely though correctly restored, is of a flowing type, and their external labels, also completely restored, are stopped at the springing. The S. doorway is larger than the N. doorway but is otherwise uniform with it.
The 14th-century North Porch has been much restored externally. The entrance is in two continuous orders, chamfered in the jambs, which are modern, and moulded in the head; it has a moulded label. The side windows are of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a depressed head. Inside, reset at the N. end of the E. wall, is a quatre-foiled panel in a rectangular splayed recess. The South Porch, also 14th-century, has an entrance of two continuous orders, moulded in the head; the jambs are eroded. The square-headed side windows, each of two trefoiled lights, are partially blocked. At the S. end of the E. wall is a third window consisting of a single quatrefoil light, much weathered and blocked. The stone benches may be original.
The West Tower (15 ft. by 14 ft.; Plate 94) is of three architectural stages and is supported by clasping buttresses which rise to the embattled parapet where they terminate in octagonal embattled pinnacles; at the W. corners there are additional angle buttresses of three stages. The S.W. buttressing has additional canted faces to the N.W. and S.E., carried on squinches, in which are set the small lights of the lower vice; beneath the N.W. squinch is a carved head, much weathered. The tower has a moulded plinth panelled with quatrefoils and moulded string-courses between each stage and below the parapet, the last broken by a gargoyle in each face. The W. doorway, set beneath a moulded and embattled cornice, has continuous moulded jambs and inner head and moulded square outer head with a label carried on small attached shafts which have moulded caps; the mouldings of the outer head, and the attached shafts intersect with those of the plinth (Plate 8); the spandrels between the inner and the outer head are filled with blind tracery. The W. window (Plate 10) occupies the upper part of the bottom stage: it has a bold weathered sill and is divided by a central primary and two side mullions into four cinque-foiled lights, with tracery in the head composed of three oblong quatrefoils, flanked by vertical bars which rise from the apices of the lights and intersect with the twin forks of the primary mullion; its moulded square label forms an outer head with cusped spandrels and is made up of two vertical side-pieces with head stops which die against the first-stage string. The intermediate stage has in each of the N., W. and S. faces a circular window in a square outer frame, sub-divided into three vertical cinque-foiled lights; that to the S. is obscured by the clock dial. In each face of the top stage is a pair of lofty windows under a common square label with cusped spandrels, each window divided by a mullion and transom into two cinque-foiled lights with a quatrefoil flanked by short vertical bars in the head. The windows have boldly weathered sills which intrude into the intermediate stage, the string-course between the stages being lowered to admit them. The W. window of the top stage and the entire parapet with its pinnacles have been restored in freestone. The floor of the tower is raised above that of the nave and is reached by a narrow flight of three steps under the tower arch. The arch, which is lofty, thus gains in impressiveness; it is of three large moulded orders to the E., the two outer continuous with the responds and stopped at the base, the inmost, with the uniform inmost order on the W. face, rising off part-circular shafts with moulded caps and bases. There are two outer chamfered orders to the W., considerably smaller than those on the E. side and merging into a single chamfer in the respond. The ascent of the tower is by two successive vices; the lower one in the S.W. corner is entered by a square-headed doorway, the jambs of which are worked with chamfers which are carried up into a rectangular over-door consisting of an arched and trefoiled panel and two sunk spandrels. The stair is reached through a small lobby with four-centred ceiling and rear arch. On the underside of the lower treads is a four-centred relieving arch framing a mutilated boss carved as a clown's head. The lower vice issues at the S. end of the W. wall into the ringing chamber which is entered through a small lobby by a rebated doorway with a four-centred head. An intermediate doorway to the W. gallery has been intruded into the lower vice, apparently in the 18th century. The upper vice, which is unlit, is in the N.W. corner and rises into the bell chamber where it is finished with a rough dome; it has doorways at the foot and head similar to those of the lower vice.
The Roof of the chancel has a boarded and painted ceiling, of barrel form with seven sides, rising from an entablature at the wall head which is broken for a pediment over the monument to Thomas and Elizabeth Wendy (see Monuments and Floor slabs, Monument (3) below), and is probably of c. 1619. It is divided into rectangular panels by moulded ribs. The painting is 17th-century, probably restored in the 19th-century. The lean-to roof of the N. aisle is of the 14th century, restored, and is in five bays ranging with the arcade; the moulded principals rafters are supported by moulded and curved braces rising off original stone corbels as heads, and forming two-centred arches, the spandrels being filled with elaborate pierced tracery. A moulded central purlin intersects the principals at the apices of these arches, the junctions being ornamented with foliated bosses. The roof of the S. aisle is similar. Cole's description (B.M. Add. MS. 5803, 66) suggests that the bosses of the aisle roofs have been rearranged; the second and third (Plate 18) now on the S. side are carved respectively with shields of Scales and Ufford(?). The segmental roof over the S. porch is covered with lead having a panel embossed with the names of churchwardens and the date '1746'; the sub-structure, which includes some reused material, may be coeval.
Fittings—Armour (Plate 83): hung over Monument (4), consisting of painted and gilded helmet, late 16th-century; sword, bridle gauntlets and spurs, 17th-century. Bells: five; recast in 1816 two reproducing the dates 1615 and 1668; fifth again recast in 1960. Bell frame: old. Brass: In E. wall of N. aisle, in wooden frame, of Anna Ensor (Plate 22), 1654. Clock: iron framed, probably late 18th-century, restored and reset. Door: In tower, at head of lower vice, consisting of a single plank; old. Font: octagonal, stone bowl with moulded underside, modern clunch stem and moulded stone base; originally standing against the fourth pier of the S. arcade; 14th-century. Font cover: wooden, in the form of an eightsided pyramid with moulded ribs, turned finial at the apex and smaller finials at the corners of the moulded base; 17th-century. Glass: In E. window of vestry incorporated in a modern design (1) fragments of grisaille, two small mutilated nimbed figures in blue, one with a halo and two shields, respectively of Scales and of Burnel; 14th-century. In N. aisle windows and in W. window of S. aisle, in the heads of the lights and in the tracery (2) fragments, some in situ, of tabernacle work and foliation, pierced roundels, etc.; 14th-century. In last two windows on S. side of clearstorey (3) some quarries; 15th- or 16th-century.
Monuments and Floor slabs. Monuments: In chancel—on N. wall (1) of Francis Wendy, 1646; grey marble tablet, with shaped apron, cornice, cartouche of arms and crest of Wendy, enriched with swags and consoles, all of alabaster (see also Floor slab (4)); (2) of Elizabeth Wendy (Wentworth), 1658; in black marble and alabaster, consisting of kneeling effigy, with long veil, facing E. to prayer desk on which is an open book; flanking Ionic columns rise to a shallow hood with enriched soffit, surmounted by scrolled broken pediment framing cartouche of arms and flanked by urns; in base is a tablet with framing of arabesque and an apron carved with death's head (see also Floor slab (3)); on S. wall (3) of Thomas Wendy, 1612, and his wife Elizabeth (Atkins), 1592 (Plate 82); elaborate memorial in marble and alabaster erected by their son Sir William Wendy in 1619. The composition consists of a recess in two stages flanked by Corinthian columns on tall pedestals supporting a shallow hood; the crowning entablature and open pediment in wood are integrated with the painted roof of the chancel described with the fabric, and enclose a cartouche of arms with crest. Within the recess on an upper shelf under twin arches are the kneeling effigies of the wife (E.), and husband in academic dress (W.), facing each other across a double prayer desk; on a lower shelf and in front of his parents are similar effigies of Sir William Wendy, in armour, and his wife Blanche (Coniesby). The arches over the upper figures framed two shields of arms, that to the W. now missing; a third shield is placed against the bottom of the prayer desk between the lower figures. A framed and inscribed tablet is the central feature of an apron flanked by cherub heads; immediately above the apron affixed to the fore edge of the lower shelf are four further shields of arms (five more are missing); (4) of Thomas Wendy, K.B., (d. 1673), erected by his wife Lettice (Willoughby) (Plate 83); semidomed recess with panelled side pilasters, surmounted by an achievement of arms, in which is a standing effigy of white marble wearing coat and breeches, stock, long cloak and wig; below the niche is a black marble tablet in a scrolled frame (see also Armour above and Floor slab (6)); (5) of Simon Ertman, 1658, black marble tablet in scrolled alabaster surround carved with globes and mathematical instruments (see also Floor slab (1)). In N. aisle—on N. wall (6) of Ann, widow of John Buckbery, her daughter Martha Cartwright and grandson Edmund Cartwright, no dates; erected by the Lady Lettice Wendy; 17th-century. In the churchyard—a few 18th-century headstones. Floor slabs: In chancel—(1) of Simon Ertman, inscribed with name only (see also Monument (5)); (2) of Catherine Winstanley (Willoughby), 1694; with lozenge of arms; (3) of Elizabeth Wendy, inscribed with name only (see also Monument (2)); (4) of Francis Wendy, inscribed with name only (see also Monument (1)); (5) of Thomas Wendy, 1633, 'the 3d sonn of Thomas Wendy'; (6) of Thomas Wendy, K.B., 1673, and his wife Lettice, 1696 (see also Monument (4)); (7) of Thomas Stewart, 1688, 'Heíre at Law to Sir Thomas Wendy'; all of black marble. In doorway between chancel and vestry—(8) of Rev. [Timothy Per]kins, [1788, and Jane, his wife, 1787]; only a few letters are now legible (G. E. Davis, MS. History of Haslingfield, xxi, 28). In nave—(9) inscribed 'PS AG 70 1833'. In S. aisle—a number of fragmentary headstones reused as paving.
Niche: In S. aisle—S. of E. window, cut down and remodelled, retaining part of a miniature vaulted canopy; 14th-century or later. Piscina: In S. aisle, with moulded jambs, cinque-foiled ogee head and broken quatrefoil drain; 14th-century. Plate: includes cup, London 1847. Pulpit: made up with woodwork in part at least from the 'double-decker' illustrated in Churches of Cambridgeshire (1845), opp. 97, and incorporating a mediaeval octagonal stem and pierced sides divided into four trefoiled lights by a mullion and a transom. Scratchings: include in W. tower—on underside of tread at the head of the lower vice (1) 'John Ha[d?]e.. Anno dni~ 1561'; on jambs and head of door at top of upper vice; (2) 'Rychard Bacon an~o d... 1569'; (3) 'Johes~...', late mediaeval; (4) 'Robart Haward de hcg... de haslingfeld An~o dmi~ 1542'. Seating: In nave, incorporates some late mediaeval plain square ends with applied buttresses and simply-moulded top rails. Stoup: Inside and to the E. of S. door, with chamfered and broachstopped jambs and trefoiled ogee head, bowl hacked back to wall face; 14th-century. Weather-vane: On spire, copper cock; perhaps 18th-century. Miscellaneous: Loose in N. porch (1) four wooden roof bosses enriched with chip carving, conventional foliage, etc., some traces of old paint; affixed to modern organ case (2) two similar roof bosses; all probably from the nave roof replaced 1875–9, or by exchange from the aisles; mostly 17th-century but one or two possibly mediaeval. Incorporated in three modern seats and in the modern wooden altar (3) quantity of panels and strips carved with guilloche, marigolds and other conventional architectural or floral motifs of the first half of the 17th century. Incorporated in two modern prayer desks (4) cusping, probably from the old chancel screen illustrated in Churches of Cambridgeshire (1845), made up into pierced quatrefoils; 14th-century.
Secular
b(2) Haslingfield Hall consists of a house, park and buildings. The site is moated (Monument (34)) but is described below with the park, so as to reflect as far as possible the unity of the earthworks and the standing remains. The house itself is the remnant of a mansion which was reduced to its present size between 1814 and 1819. A number of drawings by Relhan (C.A.S. Library), including a general view of the house and park before the reduction (Plate 28), are valuable evidence for its history. In the early 19th century the nucleus consisted of an E. and W. range some 93 ft. long, having a central hall, balancing turrets or oriels on the S. front, and perhaps some projecting wings at the back.
Layer, writing c. 1639, says Haslingfield Hall was put up by Thomas Wendy, physician to Henry VIII (B.M. Harl. MS. 6768, 45); he acquired the property in 1541 and died in 1560. He may have been building c. 1555, the date carved on a chimney piece (Plate 56) formerly in the first-floor room at the E. end and now at Bourn Hall (see above). The Tudor mansion was remodelled in the subsequent century probably by Sir Thomas Wendy, K.B. (d. 1673), when the old work was cased in brick on the S., E. and W. and a top storey, also in brick, added. One of the features introduced at this time was a fine staircase housed in a projection on the N. side of the hall at its E., probably solar, end. The grounds were also much improved, most of the surviving walls and other features described below being substantially of the Restoration period. Thomas Wendy's widow outlived him by 23 years. At her death, if not before, the property fell into decay; Blomefield writing in 1726 describes the house, which had been empty for 12 years, as ruinous. Between 1814 and 1819 the bulk of the house apart from the E. end was demolished by the fifth Earl De La Warr who removed to Bourn Hall the staircase and chimney piece; the remnant was put into habitable order. Some materials from the house seem to have been reused elsewhere (e.g. in Monuments (16) and (21)); woodwork recently discovered in the attic of Monument (6) is also likely to have come from the Hall. Few changes have occurred since the early 19th century though some ground along the S. frontage has recently been sold off for building.
The House is three-storeyed, partly of brick and partly framed, with gable-ended and tiled roofs. The irregular S. front is mostly of 17th-century red brick with projecting plinth and stuccoed platbands at the floor levels. The windows are early 19th-century insertions and the W. end of the elevation is in 19th-century brick, this being the point at which the E. balancing turret shown by Relhan has been removed. The E. end (Plate 100) is gabled and has the plinth and platbands returned from the front with three windows or other openings in each stage (some blind or blocked) all with plain architraves of stuccoed brick. The centre opening on the first floor is a doorway on to a small 17th-century balcony with simple wrought-iron balustrade. To the N. are two framed, parallel, projecting wings, probably of the 17th century but both much altered: the eastern one is now quite shallow and houses a late 17th- or 18th-century chimney with stack of three conjoined square flues on a moulded base; the western one, if Relhan's primitive perspective is to be trusted, housed the staircase.
The interior is almost featureless. The ground-floor room at the E. end has a 16th-century ceiling divided by two moulded cross beams and moulded axial secondaries into six bays. Elsewhere a little of the framing is exposed. The substantial 17th-century roof of the main range is in four bays: it is of tie-beam construction with raking struts to collars and staggered purlins; most of the original rafters survive, save in the last bay which has been reconstructed.
The Park, which was of some 21 acres in 1810, had been already reduced in size; it is now considerably smaller and is still being encroached upon. Part of the outer wall, in 16th-century red brick with some later rebuilding and realignment, survives along the S. frontage to Vicarage Lane with 17th-century piers for a gate to the main approach.
The oblong inner enclosure was no doubt garden and orchard; it is some 2½ acres in extent, the house when complete standing in the middle. The enclosure is delimited to the E., S. and W. by a moat (Monument (34)), with sides respectively of 233 ft., 350 ft., and 255 ft. The moat is flat-bottomed and is 30 ft. wide save for a stretch on the W. arm where it widens to 50 ft.; the sides are vertical, the inner one faced with brick; the depth is 6 ft. to 7 ft. with 2 ft. to 3 ft. of water. The approach crosses the moat by a red-brick bridge (Plate 104) of three round arches each with a keystone and recessed in a square outer frame; the centre arch is somewhat larger than the other two. The enclosure is protected on the N. and E. and on the E. half of the S. sides by a red-brick wall, 10 ft. to 12 ft. high, leaving a space on the E. and S., between it and the moat, for a terrace about 13 ft. wide. Additional walls complete, with the E. end of the house, the enceinte of a pleasure garden occupying the S.E. quarter of the enclosure; they are also of brick save for a short length running S. from the house which includes reused clunch and freestone; some of this reused material and other fragments of stonework lying loose in the vicinity are of mediaeval origin. The garden is entered in the middle of the E. side through a brick gateway of rusticated piers with moulded bases and moulded cappings. The E. wall of the enclosure and the remaining walls of the garden are divided into panels by pilasters, which die against a plinth below and a dentilled cornice and coping above; elsewhere the pilasters are omitted. The extreme N. ends of the side walls of the garden are pierced by round-headed doorways recessed in square outer frames; there is a similar doorway at the extreme N. end of the E. wall, and a fourth adjoining it in a short screen wall which closes the terrace at the N. end. The enclosure wall was returned from the N. side along part at least of the W. side; it is now fallen but a short length including a pier can still be traced.
A number of farm and service Buildings previously stood on ground between the moat and the outer wall to the S. making an informal base court. The following, all 17th-century, survive:
(a) circular Pigeon house (Plate 25) in red brick, with chamfered plinth, intermediate platband and elaborately moulded cornice; its roof, covered with later fish-scale slates, rises to an open wooden cupola of eight arches surmounted by a finial and wrought-iron weather-vane. Inside are fifteen tiers of L-shaped nests, some fifty to a tier, with alighting projections of tile.
(b) Granary, partly of clunch ashlar, partly framed, with tiled roof, retaining a small original window, closed by a simple wrought-iron grille, and with old corn bins inside on either side of a central gangway.
(c) Well house, with one brick end, otherwise framed, and tiled roof; the well shaft, some 7 ft. in diameter, is lined at the head with brick.
b(3) House (Class J), 17th-century, single-storeyed with attic, framed, plastered and thatched; small later annexe at the E. end of the N. side. Internal features include some exposed framing and a 17th-century six-panelled door with moulded middle rail.
b(4) River Farm consists of a house and buildings. The House, T-shaped on plan, two-storeyed, framed and plastered, with some brick, has tiled and gabled roofs and is 17th-century. The E. and W. main range has a central chimney, the S. wing, slightly E. of axis, has a second internal chimney. The chimney in the main range has a blind panel on the N. side of the base and a square stack. The two rooms on the ground floor of the main range, either side of the chimney, have intersecting ceiling beams.
The Buildings, none of which is earlier than the 18th century, include two framed barns, both aisled, one of five, the other of eight bays.
b(5) House and Workshop. The House originated as a 17th-century, Class-J, framed structure of one storey and attic. Only the W. cell and adjoining internal chimney survive, the remaining two having been rebuilt during the 18th century in two storeys with an E. end chimney.
The Workshop, a timber-framed four-bay N. and S. range to the N. E. of the house, had a closed truss between the third and fourth bay and may be 17th-century also.
b(6) House (Class D; Plate 98), partly two-storeyed, partly single-storeyed with attic, framed, plastered and thatched; probably 16th-century. The low, rather poorly built, hall range runs E. and W. and is somewhat longer than usual. The relatively pretentious solar wing is of three original bays and projects some distance N. to form an L-plan; to the S. it finishes flush with the hall and is jettied at the first floor. The building was possibly designed for some special purpose, e.g. as an inn. In the 17th century the hall was divided up and floored and a chimney inserted in its E. end; the cross wing was also extended about 7 ft. to the N. Later industrial buildings put up behind the house, which is now known as 'The Maltings', have recently been reduced in extent, but still include a two-bay barn, at one time floored. In the course of modern renovations traces of a number of original openings have come to light. Loose fragments of carved woodwork found in the attic include a keystone carved with a cherub head and two finely executed terminal figures, all mid-17th-century and possibly from a chimney piece at one time in the Hall (Monument (2)); also a made-up panel with a crudely executed carousal and the date (on a separate member) 1641.
The outside of the hall exhibits no old features. Inside an original tie-beam truss is retained in the W. half; the N. brace is missing. The position of this truss is consistent with a division of the hall into three more or less equal bays, but the E. part has been reconstructed and there is no truss between the first and second bays. The W. end of the roof is original and smoke-blackened; there is a secondary truss in the hip which appears to have risen to a gablet. A recently exposed S. window towards the W. end of the hall, with internal shutter, is an insertion.
The framing of the cross wing is exposed externally on the first floor to the E.; it is vertical with two original down braces, each of which stops against an intermediate stud a short distance above the middle rail; three original windows can be inferred. At the S. end of the wing the first-floor studwork, is also exposed, interrupted by an oriel which may replace an original feature. Inside, the N. bay on the ground floor (excluding the lean-to addition) now forms a single room; the partition between it and the entrance lobby retains part of an original doorway with four-centred head as well as traces of a second doorway to the E. of the first; the axial beam of this end room probably replaces an original beam morticed for a secondary partition. The remaining two bays on the ground floor are divided by a primary cross beam, with exposed joists to the S., supporting the jetty; the middle bay has a moulded axial secondary beam. Traces of three further windows can be seen from the inside on the ground floor: in the original N. wall, with diamond mullions, partly masked and of uncertain width; in the E. wall of the S. bay with corresponding shutter groove in the middle rail; and in the S. wall, also with shutter groove. The first floor of the cross wing seems to have been partitioned between the middle and the S. bay.
b(7) House, ostensibly 17th- or 18th-century (Class J), framed and plastered, with gabled ends; access was refused.
b(8) Houses, two, forming a T-plan. The earlier (Class I), ranging E. and W., 18th-century, single-storeyed with attic, is framed, plastered and thatched. A second house (Class T), of two storeys, in white brick with tiled roof, ranging N. and S., was attached to the E. end of the other during the first half of the 19th century. It appears to have been built in part on street verge enclosed in 1820.
b(9) Houses (Plate 33), a semi-detached pair, singlestoreyed, with a central chimney, now one house, of clunch ashlar with slated hipped roofs. Probably erected by Rev. William Clark, curate in charge of Haslingfield, in or shortly before 1826, in which year he was presented in the manor court for 'having encroached on the waste and erected certain cottages thereon' (G. E. Davis, MS. History of Haslingfield, XVIII, II). The E. elevation is symmetrically designed with four two-light windows and two doors, all with two-centred heads, projecting imposts and keys.
b(10) House (Class H), now three tenements, two-storeyed, framed and plastered, with thatched roofs, was built in the late 16th or early 17th century. The main roof is carried through to a gable at the W. end, the W. cross wing being structurally an annexe and possibly an addition; to the E. it finishes in a gablet above the ridge of the E. cross wing, the width of which is only half that of the main range. This cross wing is organised in three short bays, with posts of full height worked with intermediate haunches for first-floor cross beams and enlarged heads for ties at the eaves. Other structural timbers, some downbraced, are visible inside the house; an internal chimney in the W. half of the main range has a rebuilt stack dated 1831; an external chimney against the side of the E. cross wing is dated 1823. S. of the main chimney is an 18th-century stair with turned balusters. On the first floor of the E. wing is a mutilated and blocked original window, one diamond mullion of which survives.
b(11) House, single-storeyed with an internal chimney and attic, framed, part plastered and part boarded, with thatched and gable-ended roof, may be a conversion from a specialpurpose building of 16th-century origin. It started as an open structure; the chimney with its shafted diagonal stack and the upper floors are 17th-century insertions. A 17th-century axial ceiling beam in the E. half has notched stops; the tie beams in the attic have been removed save for the sawn-off ends.
b(12) House (Class I), two-storeyed, with down-braced frame, part plastered and part tile-hung, is of the 16th or early 17th century. A later outshut has been added on the S. side. The brick chimney, built slightly W. of centre inside one of two bays, may be original. The tiled and gable-ended roof is of tie-beam construction with purlins and wind braces.
b(13) House and Barn. The House (Class J), two-storeyed, framed and plastered, gabled roof covered with tiles and pantiles, is 17th-century except for an 18th-century addition at the E. end. The E. part of the original house, adjacent to the chimney, is somewhat lower in height than the rest. Among timbers exposed internally are chamfered beams, some with notched and other stops. The Barn to the E., framed and boarded and divided into three bays by tie beams on swell-head posts with long curved braces, is of 16th- or 17th-century origin.
b(14) House, originally a small, framed, 17th-century, Class-J structure, may have been at the start single-storeyed and open to the roof at the E. end beyond the chimney. The middle room and small W. end room were thrown into one in the 19th century when the building was extended to the W. and the earlier house probably raised to its present height of two full storeys. The chamfered axial ceiling beam of the middle room with notched stops survives, and a small 17th-century cupboard door in the S. end of the chimney, with central diamond panel, may be in situ.
b(15) Vicarage, two storeys and attics, originally an 18th century, L-shaped, framed structure, was extended in the 19th century to complete a square plan, a considerable amount of rebuilding in brick being done at the same time. A panel inscribed '1761 TP' on the W. face of the W. chimney stack is for Timothy Perkins, Fellow of Magdalene College and Vicar 1746–1788. A staircase with turned balusters, square newels, moulded rail and closed string, some panelling and a few other original features, all reset, survive.
b(16) House (Class J), single-storeyed with attic, framed and plastered, with thatched half-hipped roof, is of the 17th or early 18th century. It was originally designed with a fireplace on each floor. Extraneous 17th-century woodwork, possibly from Haslingfield Hall, includes some turned balusters and some moulded timbers forming part of an upstairs partition. The original structure includes a moulded pine ceiling beam; it is unstopped and may also have been made for another building.
b(17) House, originally a pigeon house of the 18th or early 19th century, has framed and rough-cast walls. The usual hipped roof rising to gablets is covered with pantiles.
b(18) Willow Farm consists of a house and barn, both of 17th-century origin. The House, which has been extensively modernised, consists of a long two-storeyed framed and plastered range with an internal chimney towards the W. end and an added chimney, dated 1825, at the E. end. The six-bay Barn to the S.W. of the house is clad in boards: only the four western bays are original; they are divided by trusses with long braces from posts to ties. The roof has purlins supported by queen struts and strengthened by wind braces.
b(19) Pate's Farm consists of a house and buildings. The House, ostensibly Class-J, ranging N. and S., two-storeyed, plastered over a substantial frame, with thatched and gabled roof, may be of 16th-century origin; conversion from a partly open structure in the 17th century is a possibility. A 17th- or 18th-century wing has been added on the N. end of the E. side. Inside, some of the framing is exposed, including chamfered and stop-chamfered beams and a moulded fireplace bressummer. The Buildings, to the N., include a five-bay aisled barn of the 17th century, framed, boarded and thatched.
b(20) House and Barn. The House (Class I), one storey with attic, framed, plastered and thatched, with gabled ends and dormers on the S. side, is of the second half of the 17th century. A wing on the W. end of the N. side is probably an early addition. The frame is down-braced. Some chamfered and stop-chamfered beams are exposed inside. The three-bay Barn to the S., boarded over a down-braced frame, has a half-hipped thatched roof and is approximately coeval with the house.
b(21) Cantelupe Farm (N.G. TL 423541), house and buildings, was founded about the time of the enclosure of 1810–20, when the adjacent land was allotted to Earl De La Warr, from whose second title, Viscount Cantelupe, the property gets its name. Extraneous 16th- and 17th-century bricks and timbers were extensively employed throughout, and although one of Relhan's drawings, depicting Haslingfield Hall prior to the demolition of its western portion with what appears to be the Farm in the background, is prima facie evidence to the contrary, it seems likely that much of this reused material came from Haslingfield Hall (Monument (2)). One of the two barns included in the buildings described below is substantially a 16th-century building re-erected; it may have been one of those in the base court drawn by Relhan (Plate 28) and shown on the enclosure map of 1810.
The House (Class U), of two storeys, has walls of reused red and 19th-century white brick with hipped tiled roofs. Ceiling beams inside, some intersecting, are mostly cased, but one which is exposed is hollow-chamfered and of the 16th or 17th century.
The Buildings are grouped around a large yard to the E. of the house with a two-storey white brick structure in the middle. They include two framed barns both of which have been re-erected on plinths of reused red brick. One, of five aisled bays, boarded and with thatched half-hipped roof, is of 17th- or 18th-century origin. The other, in the same materials, save for some brick nogging, and unaisled, is 16th-century except for some replacements, mostly in the side walls and in the upper part of the roof: it is divided into five bays by main trusses with large chamfered braces from swell-head posts to a tie beam and queen struts to lower collars; intermediate rafters are framed into purlins at this level; above is a second set of collars and purlins, the latter secured by wind braces from the main rafters; the roof has secondary trusses without tie beams or wind braces.
b(22) Spring Hall Farm (N.G. TL 404542) consists of a house and buildings, all of the first half of the 19th century. The House (Class U), two-storeyed, with walls faced in white brick and hipped roofs covered with slates, has a main front to the E. with five segmental-headed hung-sash windows and a round-headed front door with a fanlight. The Buildings are to the W. and S.W. and include a barn and a granary in boarded framing, clunch and brick with tiled roofs.
b(23) Offal End (Class T; N.G. TL 400534), one storey and attic, of plastered studwork with thatched roof is early 19th-century. The plan is symmetrical and includes an original outshut along the N. side, with two service rooms on either side of the winding staircase.
b(24) House (Class I; N.G. TL 40365299), two storeys and attic, of plastered studwork with half-hipped mansard roof, now slated; some later accretions; early 19th-century.
b(25–33) Houses, are all Class-J, framed, and of one or two storeys; they are predominantly plastered and tiled or thatched and of the 17th-century, more or less altered. Monument (25) is an outlier (N.G. TL 40355303).
Earthworks
b(34) Moated Site (Class B; N.G. TL 405523). What is left of Haslingfield Hall is enclosed on three sides by a wet moat and on the fourth by a wall—see Monument (2), Park.
b(35) Settlements (between N.G. TL 420546 and 429548, and between N.G. TL 434543 and 435544; not on O.S.), of unknown date, are indicated by crop-marks on river gravel, respectively near the Bourn Brook and the river Granta. Roman pottery has been found near both, but not on the actual sites (C.A.S. Procs. I (1877), xii; XXII (1921), 124 ff.; air photographs 106G/UK/1718/4138; St. Joseph ER 67–76, EW 4, HE 13–15, VF 28–30, VO 28–30, AGB 14–15).
(a) (Plate 1), the first of the above, includes at least four irregular rounded enclosures, 100 ft to 200 ft across, with ditch lines A more complicated group measuring 1,500 ft. from E. to W. lies 300 yds further E. and includes many enclosures, ditch lines and pits; three E. to W. ditch lines can be traced; a D-shaped enclosure some 150 ft. by 150 ft. and two rectangular enclosures with a combined length of 250 ft. are attached to the S side of the central line. A pit alignment 300 yds long runs N. to S. in a wavering line across the W. enclosure, and two parallel ditches 100 ft. apart run S.W. towards Cantelupe Farm (R.C.H.M., A Matter of Time (1960), 28–31).
(b), on the E. side of the Granta in ground formerly part of Trumpington, includes an enclosure about 400 ft. square and within it a rounded enclosure about 100 ft. in diameter, pits and a straight ditch line; 120 yds to the S.W. is a circle some 80 ft. in diameter.
b(36) Barrow (N.G. TL 40635142; Plate 1). On the S. slopes of a chalk spur with extensive views to the N.E. and S.E. are the remains of a round barrow known as 'Money Hill'. Only a much-spread mound 90 ft. in diameter and 2 ft. to 3 ft. high, badly damaged by ploughing, survives. Air photographs, which show a crop-mark some 30 ft. wide, indicating a ditch, around it, also reveal five other possible barrows to the N.E. (St. Joseph ACZ 3–4). These, at N.G. TL 40665146, 40775148, 40925162 (appearing as dark patches on the photographs), 40695151 and 40925155 (appearing as circles 90 ft. to 100 ft. in diameter), are represented on the ground by circular chalky spreads 30 ft. to 70 ft. across.
(37) Cultivation Remains (not on O.S.). Ridge and furrow exists on river gravel beside the Cam and the Bourn Brook, e.g. between N.G. TL 400544 and 425547. Where complete the ridges are 200 yds. to 230 yds. long, 9 yds. to 11 yds. wide, and 9 ins. to 1 ft. high with headlands, on the edges of the streams, 5 yds. to 10 yds. wide. Faint traces of curving ridges, mostly running N. and S., can be seen on air photographs over the rest of the parish. All these remains and traces belong, apparently, to the former open fields. The existing remains were in 'Low Field'; the other open fields were called 'High' and 'Middle' Fields.
(Ref: enclosure map 1810 (C.R.O.); tithe map 1840 (T.R.C.); air photographs: 106G/UK/1490/4030–4; 106G/UK/1718, 3139– 47,3155–9, 4139–7; CPE/UK/2024/3001–3.)