Parishes: Grantchester

GRANTCHESTER

The well known village of Grantchester (fn. 1) stands by the river Cam almost 2 miles south-west of Cambridge. (fn. 2) The modern spelling of its name has tempted some antiquaries and historians to identify it as the 'Grauntaceaster' of Bede and other AngloSaxon writers, and thereupon to find in earthworks by the river the remains of a Roman camp or city, (fn. 3) and even to transfer to Grantchester the legendary prehistory of Cambridge University. (fn. 4) There was probably a small Roman settlement near the village. (fn. 5) Its name, however, came from the Grantasetan, settlers beside the Granta. (fn. 6)

Their township originally stretched, like the neighbouring parishes to the west, from the road between Cambridge and St. Neots to the Bourn brook. A settlement beyond the down to the north later developed into the village of Coton, which gradually acquired the status of an independent parish. The dividing line between the two parishes long remained indistinct. Both had land, and enjoyed rights of common, in Down field, which extended across the modern boundary. (fn. 7) The rector of Grantchester took tithe there and in parts of Coton. (fn. 8) The boundary was laid down in 1803 by the commissioners under the Grantchester Inclosure Act of 1799, (fn. 9) who fixed it at the northern edge of the allotment made to Corpus Christi College, impropriator of the rectory. (fn. 10) Grantchester parish, as then delimited, contained 1,557 a. (fn. 11) Its northern boundary in part ran along the Coton or Bin brook, straightened at inclosure, to Stonebridge and then followed the Cambridge road to the Cam, Grantchester's eastern boundary. (fn. 12) In 1912 the part of the parish which recent building had turned into a suburb of Cambridge was detached and united to that borough. The remainder of Grantchester thereafter contained 1,391 a. (fn. 13)

The ground is mostly low-lying, largely flat in the north, gently swelling in the south to over 50 ft. Rising ground just north of the village gave its name to Ridgeway field. To the north-west the ground begins to rise towards the down. Minor tributaries of the Coton brook rose in this area, such as the Fulbrook (later Pichard Willows brook), which joined it at Stonebridge; the streamlet rising near Haggis Farm, probably called Crowbrook; and the West brook, once the northern boundary of Down field. (fn. 14) The parish included five open fields which were inclosed in 1803. (fn. 15) The land lies on alluvium and gravel along the rivers, elsewhere on gault, from which coprolites have been dug, overlaid north and south of the village by chalk ridges, between which lies a strip of gravel. (fn. 16)

The village stands at the eastern end of that strip, slightly raised above river level. It probably first grew along the wide street, running east and west, once its green, (fn. 17) later called Coton Road, whose line a disused hollow way once continued eastward to a ford across the Cam. South of that way inequalities in the ground indicate the sites of abandoned medieval tenements. (fn. 18) The village street zigzags south-east instead towards the church and manorhouse, between closes that may once have been open-field furlongs. Before 1800 building was largely confined to the north side of the green and the stretch just east of it, (fn. 19) called High Street, as far as the church. Under Charles II there were c. 30 dwellings. (fn. 20) The type of timber-framed thatched cottages then normal appears in the frequently photographed Wright's Row, opposite the turning to Cambridge. Several had by the 1960s been restored and made habitable by the Cambridgeshire Cottage Improvement Society. (fn. 21) The more elaborate cottage called Audley's, on the Cambridge road, with its oriel window, carved barge-boards, and kings' heads in the gables, may owe those decorations only to 19th-century alterations. (fn. 22) A ribbon of building along the Cambridge road was extended in the later 19th century with a terrace of brick labourers' cottages. (fn. 23) At the same time the larger houses, such as Cedar House and Merton House, were rebuilt or modified, and others were newly built, to accommodate middle-class newcomers; they include Riversdale, erected by S. P. Widnall in the 1850s, (fn. 24) and Charterhouse Lodge. A mansion built c. 1906 was called Balls Grove (fn. 25) after the wood belonging to the lords of the manor that had once occupied its site. Some semi-detached houses were put up south of the green after 1918, but King's College, as the principal landowners, subsequently restrained building to preserve the village's picturesqueness. Grantchester contained 125 houses in 1921, 150 in 1931, and only 155 in 1961. (fn. 26) In the later 1960s a council estate of some 50 dwellings, including many bungalows, was built south of the green. (fn. 27)

In the 19th century the growth of Cambridge spilled over the Grantchester border into Newnham Croft where divided ownership of the closes made new building easier. In 1830 only two villas stood there, (fn. 28) but ribbon building soon appeared by the Barton road, where there were over 50 houses by the 1850s apart from the brick-makers' cottages further west. (fn. 29) About 1870 terraces of workingmen's cottages were laid out at Croft Town, (fn. 30) followed by Selwyn Terrace c. 1880. (fn. 31) Building there probably accounted for most of 100 new houses built in the parish between 1871 and 1891. (fn. 32) In 1889 the 98 or more dwellings there commanded rents three or four times those charged in the village. (fn. 33) After 1900 development was more rapid, being sponsored by King's and other colleges: 160 new houses were built. (fn. 34) The land east of Grantchester Street (formerly Gravelpit Lane), once used for gardening or tennis courts, was partly covered with terraced housing around Owlstone Road, dated 1904, and further west around Eltisley Avenue. (fn. 35) About 1908 King's College began to develop Millington Road with larger houses in more spacious grounds. (fn. 36) Fulbroke Road, west of Grantchester Road, was begun at the same time. (fn. 37) After the district had been severed from Grantchester parish, there was much infilling of empty sites, but further growth westwards or southwards was impeded by a cordon of college sports fields, which were themselves separated by agricultural land from Grantchester village. (fn. 38)

The population recorded for Grantchester before 1400 included that of Coton. In 1086 some 76 inhabitants were enumerated. (fn. 39) The two villages contained c. 100 resident tenants in 1279, over threequarters of whom lived in Grantchester, (fn. 40) and almost 40 taxpayers in 1327. (fn. 41) In 1377 177 adults paid the poll-tax. (fn. 42) At Grantchester 28 persons paid the subsidy in 1524. (fn. 43) There were 16 families in 1563. (fn. 44) In 1666 37 dwellings were recorded, but in 1674 only 32. (fn. 45) There were 92 adults in 1676. (fn. 46) In 1728 the village contained 170 persons in 38 families. (fn. 47) The population was 294 in 1801, and, though it apparently fell to 245 in 1811, had risen to 488 by 1831. (fn. 48) That of the village probably numbered 473 in 1841, 517 in 1851, and 549 in 1861. In 1871 it reached c. 625, and thereafter probably fell. Its decline was masked by the growth of Newnham Croft which had probably had c. 130 inhabitants in 1841, perhaps 168 in 1851, and c. 150 in 1861, and by 1871 had risen to c 220. (fn. 49) The two places had together 1,147 inhabitants in 1881 and 1,196 in 1891, but declined to 1,172 in 1901 when the village itself had 517 inhabitants. In 1911 Newnham Croft had 1,179, the village 510. (fn. 50) In 1921 the village's population was 489, which after rising to 546 in 1931 fell again to 493 in 1951 and 418 in 1961. (fn. 51)

Grantchester lies close to the line of the Roman road called Akeman Street. The modern road from Cambridge through Barton to Arrington Bridge, called in Grantchester the Portway, runs parallel to the Roman route and south-east of it. (fn. 52) The Portway was turnpiked under an Act of 1797, (fn. 53) and a toll-bar was set up in 1808 at its junction with the Grantchester-Coton road. (fn. 54) It was disturnpiked in 1870. (fn. 55) Grantchester village was linked to Cambridge by the Broadway, which survives, (fn. 56) and to Barton by a road called Alfordesway or Alfonseway (later Deadman way), (fn. 57) which ran from the village's western end to meet the Portway at the border with Barton. Its line followed the northern edges of the post-inclosure fields just north of the existing bridleway to Barton, which probably represents a lesser track called Sladwell or Barton way. (fn. 58) The Millway ran from Barton south of Grantchester to Grantchester mill and crossed the island called Dryholm to a ford leading to Trumpington, (fn. 59) later replaced by a plank bridge called Brasley Bridge. A new bridge of brick was built further south in 1790. (fn. 60) A causeway formerly led south from the village to St. Audrey's Well (a name later corrupted to Tarter Well) which has been ploughed out. (fn. 61)

The village contained in 1851 four public houses, the Red Lion, Green Man, Blue Bell, and Rose and Crown, (fn. 62) all of which survived in 1970. Prosperity derived from tourists and visitors from Cambridge and elsewhere had enabled the Red Lion and Rose and Crown to be reconstructed and enlarged.

The character of Grantchester gradually changed during the 19th century, as middle-class immigrants from Cambridge settled in the suburban villas around Newnham Croft and some large new houses built between the village and the river, and workingmen in the cottages at Newnham Croft. In 1841 the population included a wine-merchant, a cabinetmaker, printers, and college servants. Residents of independent means in 1851 and 1861 included stock-owners, a ship-broker, and an engineer from South Carolina. (fn. 63) The village's closeness to the university also produced interactions with it. From the late 16th century undergraduates had been swimming in the Cam at Grantchester. Those drowned while bathing were occasionally buried there. (fn. 64) Byron's Pool, the former mill-pond of Trumpington mill, where he was supposed to have swum, (fn. 65) had received its name by 1851. (fn. 66) King's College owned Bowling Green close by the Barton road. (fn. 67) In 1787 the farmers of Grantchester complained that sporting undergraduates were riding over their fields and trampling their corn. (fn. 68) In the later 19th century colleges began to acquire playing fields in the north-east part of the parish. In 1883 Queen's College took a lease of part of Bowling Green close as a cricket ground, and between 1884 and 1904 King's College leased or sold other land in the area to Selwyn, Trinity, Pembroke, and St. Catharine's for similar purposes. (fn. 69) By 1875 a university bathing place was established on the river, (fn. 70) and a hockey ground in Newnham Croft by 1900. (fn. 71) Academics also began to settle in the parish. In 1851 a few undergraduates and private tutors were lodging in Newnham Croft. (fn. 72) From the 1870s fellows of colleges, especially biologists and physiologists, came to live in the village itself. (fn. 73) Five of the seven leading private householders signing a protest in 1909 were dons. (fn. 74) Among the more distinguished residents in Grantchester at various times were the classicist Henry Jackson; the biblical and theological scholars R. H. Kennett and J. R. Lumby; the philosopher A. N. Whitehead; William Bateson, a pioneer of modern genetics, who pursued experiments on plants in his garden at Grantchester; the botanist and ecologist Sir Arthur Tansley (d. 1955); and the zoologist Cecil Warburton (1854–1959). (fn. 75) In 1953 A. J. Suenson-Taylor took Grantchester as the title of his newly created barony. (fn. 76) The village was also by 1900 popular among undergraduates as a destination for punting and walks along the river. The poet Rupert Brooke lodged at Grantchester between 1909 and 1911, first at the Orchard, where there was a tea-shop later devoted to his memory, later at the Old Vicarage. (fn. 77)

Some customary rituals were still preserved in the 19th century by the village children. The boys went round singing and asking money on Plough Monday, and mumping with blackened faces at Christmas. (fn. 78) Traditional May-day ceremonies were kept up until 1914. (fn. 79) The labourers, however, had by 1850 readily exchanged the ancient 'Horkeys' or harvest suppers for cash payments. (fn. 80) In the 19th century and later the village feast was held from St. James's day, 25 July, for two or three days.

Grantchester's picturesqueness was recognized in the 1930s in a county plan under which the river meadows were to be kept free of building. King's College entered into a covenant not to develop most of the land between the village and Cambridge, and also c. 1932 the Cambridgeshire Preservation Society bought a meadow near the city threatened with building. (fn. 81) Some felt, however, that the influx of dons and visitors seeking rural charm had resulted in neglect of the welfare of the village's ordinary inhabitants, as traditional cottages were replaced by more expensive houses, and Grantchester, like neighbouring parishes, was becoming a dormitory suburb of Cambridge. (fn. 82)

S. P. Widnall, who wrote a history of Grantchester published in 1878, bought the Old Vicarage in 1853 and decorated its garden with follies. Only one, a garden-house with Gothic ornaments, survived in 1970, having been restored after 1918. Widnall dabbled in lecturing and inventing, and set up his own printing press at Grantchester, from which he issued his history and other books, mostly written by himself. (fn. 83)

Manors and Other Estates.

In 1086 Robert Fafiton held 2¾ hides of the king, besides half a virgate held of Picot the sheriff, (fn. 84) which subsequently became BURWASH manor. Robert was succeeded by his son Eustace and grandson Aubin (fl. 1159). (fn. 85) By 1200 all Fafiton's Cambridgeshire lands, including the Grantchester manor, were held in chief by the Mortimers of Wigmore, (fn. 86) whose overlordship was recognized until the early 15th century. (fn. 87) Under them Grantchester was in the 1190s held by Robert de Quincy (d. c. 1197). (fn. 88) His son Saher (created earl of Winchester in 1207; d. 1219) (fn. 89) included Grantchester among the estates with which he endowed his eldest son Robert upon his marriage, probably after 1207, with Hawise, sister and eventual coheir of Ranulf, earl of Chester. (fn. 90) Hawise held the manor in dower from Robert's death in 1217 (fn. 91) until her own in 1243. (fn. 92) Margaret, Robert's daughter by Hawise, had married by 1228 John de Lacy, constable of Chester (fn. 93) (d. 1240). (fn. 94) In 1230 she and her husband released their claim to the main Quincy inheritance, derived from the earls of Leicester, to Saher's second son, Roger, earl of Winchester, who then occupied it. Roger in return granted to John and Margaret and their issue Hawise's dower, including Grantchester, with other lands, to hold of Roger and his heirs. (fn. 95) When Roger died in 1264 his mesne lordship over Grantchester may have been included in the purparty assigned to his daughter and coheir Margaret and her son, Robert Ferrers, earl of Derby (d. 1279). (fn. 96) In 1476 Elizabeth, Lady Ferrers of Groby, a representative of the Ferrers family, and her husband, Sir John Bourchier, claimed Grantchester from King's College which then held it, on the ground that the house of Lacy was extinct. (fn. 97)

The manor had come, on Hawise's death in 1243, to Margaret de Lacy and her second husband, Walter Marshal, earl of Pembroke (d. 1245). (fn. 98) Margaret survived her son, Edmund, earl of Lincoln (d. 1258), and dying in 1266 left Grantchester to her grandson, Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln (d. 1311). (fn. 99) His heir was his daughter Alice, married to Thomas, earl of Lancaster. (fn. 100) Grantchester, however, was included in the dower assigned to Earl Henry's second wife, Joan (d. 1322), who in 1313 married Nicholas Audley (d. 1316) who held it with her in 1316. (fn. 101) Upon Earl Thomas's execution in 1322, Edward II seized the Lacy estates for the benefit of Hugh le Despenser the younger, (fn. 102) to whom Joan was obliged to resign her dower lands at Grantchester and elsewhere. (fn. 103) Alice was compelled to exchange her hereditary right in them for a life-interest with remainder to Despenser. (fn. 104) By 1325 she and her next husband, Ebles le Strange, had also surrendered their life-interest in Grantchester to Despenser, (fn. 105) who held the manor until his execution in 1326. It then escheated to the Crown. In 1327 it was granted for life to Sir William Trussel, to whom Earl Thomas had granted a reversionary life-interest. (fn. 106) Trussel lost it again in February 1329 for taking part in Henry earl of Lancaster's rising. (fn. 107) In July 1329, at Roger Mortimer's instance, it was granted to Richard Monmouth, (fn. 108) who had shared Mortimer's escape from the Tower in 1324. (fn. 109) Monmouth was killed in 1330 while resisting Mortimer's arrest at Nottingham Castle. (fn. 110) In 1331 Edward III restored certain lands including Grantchester to Ebles and Alice for life, with remainder to Ebles's heirs. (fn. 111) Ebles died in 1335, when a life-interest in Grantchester came to Alice (d. 1348) and her third husband Sir Hugh Freyne (married 1336, d. 1337). (fn. 112) By 1344 both Alice and Ebles's nephew and heir, Roger le Strange of Knokyn, had released their rights at Grantchester to Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, (fn. 113) who gave the manor his name.

On his death in 1355 it descended to his son Bartholomew Burghersh, K.G., (fn. 114) who died in 1369. Shortly before his death he had enfeoffed his executors with the manor. (fn. 115) In 1369 they sold it to feoffees including William Strete, the king's butler, (fn. 116) possibly to Strete's use. Strete held the manor on lease from 1370 to 1379, (fn. 117) and his executors remained in possession after his death, probably in 1383, (fn. 118) until in 1386 they transferred it to new feoffees, (fn. 119) probably acting for the king's clerk Roger Walden, later archbishop of Canterbury 1397–9. (fn. 120) In 1396–7 new feoffees were installed on behalf of Roger and his brother John Walden. (fn. 121) Burwash manor was in 1403 settled on John and his wife Idony for their lives. (fn. 122) John Walden died in 1417. (fn. 123) Idony (d. 1424) (fn. 124) granted her life-interest in 1419 to Henry Somer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, (fn. 125) who had acquired the remainder from the Waldens' feoffees in 1418. (fn. 126) Somer subsequently united this manor with that of Jaks.

The manor called c. 1400 JAKS included several estates which had gradually been assembled by the family of Grantchester. Its largest component was ½ knight's fee held of the honor of Boulogne. In 1086 two knights of Count Eustace held of him 2¾ hides, (fn. 127) subsequently divided into two manors based respectively on Grantchester and Coton. The former was by the late 12th century held by the family of Fercles (or Ferknes), (fn. 128) who probably came from Ferques (dep. Pas de Calais) near Boulogne. John de Fercles held it in 1190, (fn. 129) and dying c. 1199 (fn. 130) was succeeded by his son Geoffrey (fn. 131) (d. 1228). Geoffrey's son and heir Eustace (fn. 132) died in 1230. (fn. 133) His heirs, his sisters Isabel and Lucy, came into the king's wardship. (fn. 134) Isabel married successively, without royal licence, William de Fosse, Sir Hugh Sengham before 1236, (fn. 135) and John le Moyne of Shelford (d. 1275) by 1242. (fn. 136) Lucy had by 1243 married William Appleford. (fn. 137) In 1257 Appleford and Moyne divided the Fercles lands equally between them. Moyne took half the Grantchester estate with the advowson, Appleford the rest (reckoned as c. 60 a. in 1271 and c. 68 a. in 1279) with the mill. (fn. 138) Appleford died after 1260 (fn. 139) and Lucy in 1271. Her estate descended to her son William (fn. 140) who soon leased it to two men for life and in 1273 sold the rent and the reversion to Merton College, Oxford. The college bought out the lessees, (fn. 141) and thereafter, with one brief interval, (fn. 142) owned the property continuously, retaining it in 1970. John le Moyne upon Isabel's death transferred his share c. 1259 to Eustace, her son by Hugh Sengham. (fn. 143) Eustace was dead by 1267. His wife Joan held his lands until his son William came of age in 1285. (fn. 144) In 1321 William Sengham sold his manor for an annuity to Sir Walter Pateshull and Sir Walter's wife Joan and brother Thomas, then rector. (fn. 145) Sir Walter died in 1330 and his son Thomas, a minor, in 1349. (fn. 146) Joan brought the manor to her second husband Sir William Baud, whom she married in 1330. (fn. 147) Baud was dead by 1343. (fn. 148) Joan and her next husband John Lee thereafter shared the manor with her daughter by Baud, Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Gedding. In 1352 John Grantchester, who had leased it since 1340, bought it from them. (fn. 149)

The Grantchester family (fn. 150) already owned a substantial holding at Grantchester. Robert Grantchester was established there by 1300. (fn. 151) In 1307 he acquired from Geoffrey Church of Harston c. 50 a. (fn. 152) which Geoffrey's father Richard and grandfather Robert had held of the Hospitallers of Shingay. (fn. 153) Robert Grantchester also acquired property representing the virgate which Robert Fafiton, as successor of Judichael the huntsman, had held of the count of Mortain in 1086. (fn. 154) Its overlordship descended with the honor of Leicester to the earls and later dukes of Lancaster, so it was called Leicester, Montfort, or Duke's fee. It was a dependency of the neighbouring Leicester manor of Barton. (fn. 155) In 1246 Simon, earl of Leicester, released c. 56 a. in Grantchester to John Newnham and his tenants for a rent of 20s. (fn. 156) In 1279 the land was held of the honor of Leicester by Richard Wombe of Cambridge, who had been succeeded by 1288 by his son William. (fn. 157) In 1307 John Wombe sold it to Robert Grantchester. (fn. 158) Robert transferred all his lands to his son John in 1331 and died c. 1333. (fn. 159) In 1341 John acquired the mesne lordship of the land, once rated at 1½ virgate, held of Count Alan in 1086, (fn. 160) of which the overlordship descended with the honor of Brittany. About 1200 William Gikel granted the mesne lordship to Rose of Arrington, wife of Henry of Orwell, and her son Henry. (fn. 161) In 1238 Rose granted its remainder, with land at Wimpole, to Geoffrey of Wimpole (d. after 1251), (fn. 162) whose son Richard was lord in 1279. (fn. 163) One virgate was occupied under these lords by John le Eyr (fl. c. 1225), his son Robert (fl. 1220–50), (fn. 164) and Robert's son Ralph, tenant in 1279, who divided his land among his sons c. 1285. (fn. 165) In 1285 Richard Wimpole sold his fee to Philip and Peter at Well of Ickleton. (fn. 166) Peter sold it in 1303 to Sir Walter Huntingfield of Kent, (fn. 167) whose son John granted it in 1341 to John Grantchester. (fn. 168)

John Grantchester died in 1362, when his widow Joan married Sir Laurence Bremle, of Kent, (fn. 169) and held the estate with him (fn. 170) until John's son Jakes came of age c. 1371. (fn. 171) In 1381 Jakes was compelled to become captain of the insurgent burgesses at Cambridge. (fn. 172) He died in 1404, having devised his estate, by then bearing his name, to his son Thomas, a minor. (fn. 173) Thomas took possession with his wife Joan in 1417 (fn. 174) and had died by 1421. (fn. 175) Joan and her second husband Guy Corbet possessed the manor from 1422, and leased it to Henry Somer in 1426. (fn. 176) Thomas's daughter and heir Elizabeth died in 1427. The next heir, the daughter of Thomas's sister Elizabeth by a serving-man, had been thrust into a nunnery c 1424. (fn. 177) In 1427–8 Joan and Guy Corbet, with Jakes's feoffees, sold the manor to Somer, (fn. 178) who accordingly held the united manors of Burwash and Jaks, together with the Merton estate, on lease to him from 1437 or earlier, (fn. 179) until his death in 1450. He devised the united manor to James, his daughter Agnes's son by Sir Richard Vere. (fn. 180) In 1452, however, Somer's executors sold his lands in Grantchester and Coton to King's College. (fn. 181)

King's College had already in 1446 acquired Merton's property there through an exchange arranged by Henry VI for Crown lands in Wiltshire, (fn. 182) but was obliged to restore it to Merton in 1464 under Edward IV's Act of Resumption of 1461. (fn. 183) King's College continued to accumulate property in Grantchester, such as an estate called Audleys, (fn. 184) including part of the Eyr family's land, which John Reynaud, clerk, and his brother Thomas Reynaud of Audley had accumulated in the early 14th century. (fn. 185) Thomas (d. c. 1338) (fn. 186) was succeeded in turn by his son Thomas (d. 1346) (fn. 187) and grandson Thomas (d. by 1358) (fn. 188) and the latter's sister Elizabeth or Isabel (d. c. 1408). (fn. 189) Her sons William and John were both dead by 1437. (fn. 190) Henry Somer acquired Audleys c. 1447, (fn. 191) and devised it in 1450 for life to Thomas Maister, once his receiver at Grantchester. (fn. 192) Robert Wodelarke, provost of King's, bought it in 1465 and transferred it to his college in 1467. (fn. 193) The college subsequently acquired estates called Scales, bought in 1508 from William Scales, a fellow, (fn. 194) Stewards, bought from William Steward in 1572, (fn. 195) Annables in 1565, and Tabrams after 1568, (fn. 196) besides various copyholds. By 1560 it owned c. 613 a. in the fields, (fn. 197) and in 1795 693 a. of the parish. (fn. 198)

The existing farm-house of Manor Farm stands just south of the church, by a moated site, three sides of which were visible though the northern one had by 1970 been obliterated by farm-buildings. The house retains the basic structure of the timberframed medieval manor-house. It has a hall with a large chimney and gallery, a solar, and two crosswings. (fn. 199) The house belonged to Henry Somer. In 1744 its windows contained glass with the arms of Somer and Vere, and a festive motto. (fn. 200) The surviving accounts for Somer's time show no large-scale building works, although they mention many minor repairs, including glazing. (fn. 201) He may therefore have acquired the house with one of the manors that he bought, probably Jaks: the chief messuage of Burwash manor was ruinous in the 1350s, (fn. 202) and the way from the adjacent old rectory to the church led c. 1350 through John Grantchester's garden. (fn. 203) King's College in leases as late as 1549 reserved to the provost and senior fellows a right to occupy the manor-house and its garden. (fn. 204)

Among other colleges with land in Grantchester was Corpus Christi, as owner of the rectory glebe. (fn. 205) St. John's, with 22 a. as successor of St. John's Hospital, Cambridge, (fn. 206) and Trinity, with c. 20 a. by 1560 as successor to Michaelhouse, had their land lying in scattered strips near the northern boundary of the parish, obtained mostly through gifts by burgesses of Cambridge. (fn. 207)

The only substantial lay estate remaining at Grantchester after 1500 was that called LACYES, after the family which since the 14th century had held it of Burwash manor by knight-service for ¹/6 fee. About 1540 they claimed descent from an illegitimate son of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln (d. 1311). (fn. 208) Sir John Lacy (fn. 209) (d. after 1348) (fn. 210) by 1328 (fn. 211) held land at Grantchester which in 1343 he granted to his son Edmund. (fn. 212) John Lacy, who had probably succeeded to the estate by 1349, survived until 1387. (fn. 213) Thomas Lacy held it between 1395 and 1437, (fn. 214) and his son Richard until c. 1471. (fn. 215) Richard's son Thomas Lacy died in 1479, (fn. 216) and his son Thomas in 1506, having devised his lands to his wife Margery St. Lo for life, with reversion to his son Henry provided that he repented of his wanton and unfilial conduct. (fn. 217) In 1547 Henry Lacy and his brother Edward sold their land, then called a manor, to Thomas Neville, (fn. 218) who the same year resold it to John Huddlestone of Sawston. (fn. 219) In 1556 Huddlestone sold it to John Pecke of Trumpington, (fn. 220) from whom the estate, including over 215 a. in Grantchester, was bought in 1559–60 by William Barnes, a lawyer. (fn. 221) Barnes died in 1562, leaving his land to his son Robert, a minor. (fn. 222) Robert was converted to Catholicism, and was imprisoned from 1594 to 1603 and nearly hanged for contacts with Catholic priests. (fn. 223) His consequent financial embarrassments (fn. 224) obliged him to sell his Grantchester lands in 1608 to his brother-in-law Edward Slegge, an elderly lawyer from a prominent Cambridge family, (fn. 225) who died in 1611. (fn. 226) Slegge and his wife Mary (d. before 1618) sold off c. 130 a. of Lacyes. The rest passed in 1618 to their son Edward. (fn. 227) In 1636 Edward Slegge, clerk, sold the remaining land, c. 80 a., to Edward Clench. (fn. 228) Clench on his death in 1659 left his nephew John Byng the right to pre-empt Lacyes. (fn. 229) In 1666 Byng with Sir James Smith sold it to Dorothy, widow of Sir William Clarke, but her title was disputed. (fn. 230) The shrunken estate based on Lacyes Farm was acquired c. 1772 by John Matthews, who dying in 1781 left it to his brother Uriah. (fn. 231) Uriah Matthews was allotted 97 a. at inclosure in 1803, (fn. 232) and died in 1830. Both his unmarried nieces and heirs were dead by 1837. (fn. 233) In 1839 the farm was bought by King's College. (fn. 234) The surviving Lacyes farm-house was not built until the 17th century, and was refronted c. 1790 in the Georgian style. (fn. 235)

George Clarke (1661–1736), son of Dorothy Clarke, (fn. 236) had in 1695 sold c. 60 a., including part of the Lacyes land, to Thomas Bendyshe of Barrington, (fn. 237) in whose family they descended until sold in 1792. (fn. 238) They came by marriage to Thomas Page, who was allotted 65 a. at inclosure. (fn. 239) The land descended in his family until bought in 1866 by King's College, (fn. 240) which thereafter owned virtually the whole parish, apart from the estates of Corpus Christi and Merton Colleges and the vicar's glebe, and some small crofts beside the boundary with Cambridge.

Economic History.

In 1066 most of Grantchester and Coton was occupied by 12 sokemen, who by 1086 had been replaced by or reduced to villani who numbered c. 10. There were also 64 or more smallholders. Their 13 plough-lands were fully stocked with ploughs, but the yearly value of the land had fallen from £25 10s. in 1066 to £19 5s. in 1086. (fn. 241)

The arable of Grantchester was by the 13th century cultivated in five fields. (fn. 242) South of the village lay Burnemead (fn. 243) (later Stulp) (fn. 244) field, between the Bourn brook and Alfonseway, (fn. 245) containing c. 348 a. To the north-east Calfholm (fn. 246) (later Whiteditch) (fn. 247) field, with c. 180 a., lay between the river and the Broadway, (fn. 248) west of which was Fulbroke field, (fn. 249) covering c. 275 a.; Ridgeway field, (fn. 250) with c. 370 a., lay in an are around it, and included the rising ground north of the village. Part of Ridgeway field, called the Denge (fn. 251) and the Brache, (fn. 252) lay beyond the Portway, and was separated by a belt of pasture called Little moor, Crowbrook common, and Halkes pasture (fn. 253) from Down field, (fn. 254) which reached to the West brook. Down field was intercommonable with Coton. (fn. 255) The land in it farmed from Grantchester lay mostly on its north-east side, by the Coton brook. (fn. 256) Across the brook lay the Aldfeld green (later Grantchester Herd green), also common to Grantchester and Coton. Other pasture lay along the Portway and the Fulbrook. (fn. 257) Grantchester's meadows lay mostly along the Cam, including (from north to south) Broad meadow, Calfholm common, and Little fen, and on the islet of Dryholm beyond the mill-stream. (fn. 258) The arable was cultivated on a triennial rotation. In the 15th century one of the three main fields, Burnemead, Fulbroke, and Ridgeway, lay fallow each year. The two lesser fields were each associated with one of them, although not on any permanent system. (fn. 259) In Newnham Croft, the north-east corner of the parish, the furlongs were by the 15th century divided into croft land, (fn. 260) partly owned or leased by men from Cambridge and its suburb of Newnham. (fn. 261) A Cambridge butcher already owned a share in the meadow there in 1346. (fn. 262) About 1430 the miller of Newnham was renting 20 a. there for 2s. each, double the rate for arable land. (fn. 263)

In the 13th century reliance on villein services was already declining on the manors. Villeinage remained on the Lacy and Fercles manors, but only 160 a. of 600 a. held by their tenants was held by villeins in 1279, the rest belonging to free tenants and small freeholders. On the Fercles manor eight customary tenements contained only 3 a. each. (fn. 264) Their holders rendered in the 14th century 1 ploughing boon, 1 carting boon, and 1 harvest boon to Jaks manor. (fn. 265) Even those services were not recorded after the 1360s. On what was later Burwash manor, 13 of 16 virgaters (some in Coton) held 9 a., 3 only 6 a. By 1296 their labour-services had been mostly commuted from of old to moneyrents yielding over £6 a year, besides assized rents. The greater virgates paid 15s. 7d., the lesser 11s. 10d. They still rendered ploughing boons in 1296, but by 1400 the only services being exacted were two harvest boons from each virgate, (fn. 266) usually by the 1440s commuted for 4d. each. (fn. 267)

In 1296 Burwash manor yielded c. £33, including c. £12 from rents and commutations, and c. £11 from leased portions of the demesne, of which 55 a. had long been divided among the virgaters in 3 a. lots for 1s. 3d. an acre, and 92 a. had been more recently let for 1s. 8d. each. The demesne arable (including the above 92 a.) covered c. 255 a., of which 122 a. lay in blocks of 6 a. or more. There were also 33 a. of meadow and pasture. The hired servants included two ploughmen, a carter, cowherd, and shepherd. Of the corn grown, twice as much barley and dredge as wheat, some was sold. A herd of milking cows was rented out. Vines also were grown. (fn. 268) The manor's value was maintained in 1311, when leased demesne brought in 16 marks, (fn. 269) but had declined to c. £27 in the 1330s, (fn. 270) and had fallen greatly by 1355, when rents altogether yielded only £3 10s. The value of the arable had sunk from 12d. an acre in 1311 to 3d., the meadows were waterlogged, and the farmstead ruinous. (fn. 271) In 1381 Jakes Grantchester was farming the estate, (fn. 272) but after 1386 the Waldens resumed direct cultivation of the demesne, although unprofitably. Most of the corn grown on it was sold as were the fleeces from a flock of 130 sheep in 1386, but of some £32 or £33 a year received from Grantchester and Coton most came from rents, including those of 84 a. on lease in 1387, court dues, sales of pasture, and similar sources. Only £9 in 1386 and £5 in 1404 came from selling farm produce, and the costs of cultivation averaged almost £30 a year. Harvesting, done mostly by wage-labour, cost £6 or £7, and the manor employed permanently a bailiff, 4 ploughmen, and a shepherd. Repairs to farm-buildings cost almost £20 in 1404, shortly before John Walden leased the demesne to a former bailiff. (fn. 273)

The Fercles demesne arable may have amounted to c. 180 a. in the 13th century. (fn. 274) Half of it was leased for £5 c. 1259, and for 10 marks c. 1270. (fn. 275) The half that came to Jaks manor was, with the Grantchesters' other land, kept in hand between the 1350s and 1370s, being owned by a local family. The lord was not always resident, but employed a bailiff. The Grantchesters' land cultivated each year amounted to some 240 a. upon which 4 to 7 ploughmen, besides shepherds, carters, and swineherds, were employed. For harvesting, John Grantchester, besides hired labour, called on the men owing him boon-works, both from Grantchester itself and from his lands in neighbouring villages. The corn grown was sometimes delivered to the lord's household, but equally often sold, the barley being malted before sale. A flock of sheep, numbering almost 300 in 1352 but only 100 in 1364, was pastured alternately at Grantchester and at the family's other estate at East Hatley. (fn. 276) After Jakes Grantchester's death the demesne was leased c. 1415 to farmers for £10 a year. (fn. 277)

Merton College had at first exploited its half of the Fercles estate directly. In 1282 it received nearly £10 from selling corn. (fn. 278) By 1317 it had included the Grantchester land in a lease of its manor of Merton Hall, Cambridge. (fn. 279) Corpus Christi likewise kept the rectory in hand for a time after its appropriation, selling corn of which less than half came from the tithes. (fn. 280) By 1457 it was leasing the rectory to partnerships sometimes including the vicar, at first in the form of sales over several years of the grain yielded by the rectory. (fn. 281) In 1478 it obtained a papal licence to lease the rectory outright to laymen. (fn. 282)

After Henry Somer had bought Burwash and Jaks manors, he resumed direct farming of most of the demesne. (fn. 283) He leased to tenants c. 60 a. of the Burwash demesne (including 34 a. in Coton), and 190–200 a. of the Jaks demesne, besides 60 a. of the land that he leased from Merton College. At a standard rent of 1s. an acre they yielded £13 or £14 a year. The demesne was managed by a bailiff in the 1430s, but after 1440 by Thomas Maister as receiver-general. Somer paid only occasional visits of inspection. The large demesne staff of up to 14 included up to 6 ploughmen, a sower, a grangekeeper, carters, a shepherd, a fisherman, and a maltster. Their wages cost almost £30 a year, besides liveries of corn. When extra labour was needed at harvest-time, many villagers, both men and women, turned out not as boon-workers but for wages. Gangs of labourers were taken on at piece-work rates, and in 1437 men were hired and sent down from London to help.

The area sown each year fluctuated in the 1430s around 280–90 a., but was increased to 315 a. in 1445 and 342 a. in 1446. Somer, owning directly half the field land, could probably adjust the rotations to suit himself, and sometimes grew winter and spring crops in the same field in the same year. His main crops were wheat and barley, usually sown in the proportion 1 to 2. The wheat was sold to bakers at Cambridge, the barley malted and sold in large quantities (400 quarters in 1445 and again in 1446) to brewers at London, yielding up to £70 a year. Much hay was also sold, and fleeces from a flock of 150 or more sheep. The dovecot provided pigeons in scores of dozens (130 dozen in 1436), swans were kept on the river, and saffron and cherries grown in the garden. Rents and dues, including £20 from lessees of the mill and of a farm in Barton, supplied almost £60 a year in cash for paying wages and running the farm, and Somer was able in the 1440s to draw almost £60 a year in cash from the profits of his sales.

King's College's purchase of Somer's manors was mainly to protect itself from the vicissitudes of the Cambridge market by providing a certain supply of grain and malt close at hand. It therefore continued direct farming of the demesne, conducted by a bailiff, who delivered most of the surplus wheat and malt, more barley than wheat being grown, to the bursar for the college's use, besides more than half the doves. The area cultivated each year varied between 220 a. and 240 a. The whole demesne in hand in 1466, including closes and meadows, was 429 a. Because of the heavy expense of cultivation, including wages for eight or more servants, the college did not receive any net income in cash from farm produce. In 1466 it leased the demesne to two local men, one of whom had lately been bailiff, for £21 9s. a year. It still retained also quit-rents worth over £27 a year, and reserved its right to pasture on the demesne a flock of sheep which it had bought in 1463. By 1504 the demesne rent was raised to £30 a year. (fn. 284)

The consolidation of the demesne was matched by a decline in the number of customary tenants and the area they held. In the early 15th century Grantchester contained 5 or 6 greater virgates of c. 18 a., and 3 lesser of c. 12 a., including altogether c. 140 a. (fn. 285) By the 1430s two virgates were in the lord's hands. In addition free tenants held c. 86 a. (fn. 286) In 1437 186 a. of demesne held by lease were divided among over 40 tenants, only 5 of whom held more than 10 a. (fn. 287) That land may for a time have been assimilated to the copyholds, for in 1536 customary tenants held c. 200 a. at rents of 1s. an acre. (fn. 288) By 1560 the open-field land held by natives of the village had shrunk greatly. The old demesne arable covered 384 a. King's College had more recently acquired another 230 a. Merton and other colleges held c. 184 a. Outsiders from Cambridge and elsewhere had another 47 a., mostly in Newnham Croft. Lacyes manor contained in 1560 218 a., (fn. 289) including a once independent farm of c. 100 a. merged in it since 1530, whose farmstead had been demolished. (fn. 290) The seven surviving copyholders in 1560 held only 110 a. (fn. 291) In 1660 11 copyhold messuages remained. (fn. 292) At inclosure only 75 a. of copyhold remained, 15 a. held of Merton College, the rest of King's. (fn. 293)

The village still retained enough tenants to furnish juries of 12 or more for the manor court until the early 17th century, when the court continued occasionally to regulate the course of agriculture and stints of cattle. In 1553 one ox was allowed for every 20 a., one sheep for each acre, and each cottager might keep 3 beasts. The court had frequently to forbid the agisting of cattle on Grantchester commons for butchers from Cambridge. (fn. 294)

In 1549 King's College leased its demesne to a gentleman, George Crede of Madingley, instead of a husbandman as hitherto. (fn. 295) Its smaller properties, acquired later, such as Audleys and Scales, were leased separately. (fn. 296) In 1570 it arranged that, after the expiry of Crede's lease in 1576, the main demesne also should be divided. One farm, based on the manor-house and farm, should contain c. 160 a. of arable. The other, called Sheepwalk because the college's liberty of foldage was attached to it, (fn. 297) contained c. 135 a. by 1660. Scales and Audleys farms together c. 1660 contained 194 a. and Stewards and Annables 124 a. (fn. 298) From the 1570s the old moneyrents were replaced, as on other college estates, by leases for smaller cash sums, supplemented by renders in kind of wheat, malt, and mutton, or their cash equivalent at prevailing prices. (fn. 299) Thus in 1637 the college obtained for the manor farm £10 13s. 4d. in money and £30 worth in kind. (fn. 300) Between 1560 and 1592 the college inclosed in the Brache, in the angle between the Coton brook and Portway, 31 a. thereafter called New Closes and leased in 1592 to a Cambridge butcher for a rent including 40 fat wethers. (fn. 301)

College lessees were often of higher social standing than formerly. Thus Merton College leased its estate in 1548 to Dr. Thomas Wendy, in 1580 to a clerk of the signet, in 1622 to a knight from Yorkshire, and in 1694 to a serjeant-at-law. (fn. 302) Such men sub-let: Edward Lucas, lessee of the rectory c. 1597 for c. £20 rent and a fine of £100, (fn. 303) had an under-tenant who was liable for church repairs. (fn. 304) The next lessee, Edward Flowerdew, was receiving £160 a year in 1623 from his under-tenant for 120 a. and the tithes. (fn. 305) In 1591 King's College leased its manor farm to Dr. Thomas Byng, master of Clare College and Dean of the Arches, who had bought the remainder of the previous lease. (fn. 306) Dr. Byng, on his death in 1599, left his leasehold to his son, Henry Byng, serjeant-at-law, (fn. 307) who dying in 1635 left his lands and leaseholds in Grantchester to his widow Catherine (fn. 308) (d. 1647). She left them to Henry's third son John Byng. (fn. 309)

John Byng set out to obtain by purchase or lease possession of all the land in the parish, proposing by 1652 to enclose it and convert it to pasture. (fn. 310) Between 1649 and 1657 he acquired the leases of all the King's College farms, adding in 1662 control of the common land and waste, and the right to collect the quit-rents. (fn. 311) In 1654 he became lessee to Merton College (fn. 312) and purchased the lease of the rectory from Arthur Buckeridge for £1,400, £400 more than it was worth. Corpus Christi at first refused to accept him as its tenant, fearing that inclosure would impair its income from the great tithes. (fn. 313) Byng also had a dispute with the vicar, Isaac Dobson, over which of them should receive tithe on hay or clover growing on arable land laid down to pasture. (fn. 314) In 1659 Edward Clench left Byng in effect the residue of Lacyes manor. (fn. 315) In 1666 Byng was named as owner or occupier of almost the whole parish. (fn. 316) By 1662 he had turned 770 a. into pasture, including 654 a., mostly in the east and south of the parish, which was completely inclosed. The yield per acre had been raised from the 13s. 4d. or less which came from the 384 a. still under tillage to £1 or 30s. and sometimes even 40s. an acre for the pasture. Byng expected after paying £248 rent to have a profit of £1,622 a year, (fn. 317) but he had paid far more for the land than it was worth, (fn. 318) and went bankrupt, probably late in 1664. His creditors took over the 1,575 a. then inclosed for pasture, and sold up Byng's own property, while the colleges issued new leases. (fn. 319) By 1674 the previous divisions of ownership and the old agricultural system had been restored. (fn. 320)

The colleges continued the system of beneficial leases until 1800. Thus on Manor farm, to which Sheepwalk farm had probably been united by 1753, Edward Lilley paid from 1774 for c. 266 a. of arable a rent of £65, in which the renders in kind were reconverted into money, and fines for renewal of c. £230 every 7 years. He was left with over half the yield of land that was thought able to pay a rack-rent of £220 or £280. (fn. 321) By the 1790s three large farms, mostly owned by King's College, covered most of the parish. The enlarged Manor farm contained c. 310 a., with the right to pasture 400 sheep. Benjamin Howard farmed Scales and Audleys, some 167 a., with Merton College's 101 a. and the mill. Uriah Matthews of Lacyes farm occupied his own land, 100 a., and the King's College farms called Stewards, Annables, and Penningtons, covering c. 235 a. (fn. 322) Inclosure was proposed in 1799 and, though the owners of 134 a. objected, was agreed to when the colleges undertook to compensate their tenants by renewing their leases at the old fines. The Grantchester and Coton Inclosure Act was passed in 1799, (fn. 323) and the award made in 1803. The tithes were commuted for land, Corpus Christi College receiving 344 a., including 34 a. in Coton, and the vicar 100 a. King's College, which had owned 693 a., emerged with 647 a. including 68 a. of closes. Merton received c. 70 a., and Cambridge University and four colleges 62 a. Matthews obtained 97 a., and Thomas Page 66 a. Twelve other owners received only 36 a. between them, including 19 a. allotted for rights of common. (fn. 324) The inclosure at first proved profitable. The yearly value of Manor farm increased from £285 to £557, that of Penningtons from £150 to £273. (fn. 325)

The uniting of farms developed further in the 19th century. The Howard family had ceased by 1856 to farm Scales and Audleys, which with the Merton College land were usually held with Lacyes, and their farmsteads were converted into or replaced by private houses. (fn. 326) From the 1830s Samuel Widnall (d. 1848) and his son S. P. Widnall cultivated, from the Grange, land south-east of the village as nursery gardens, supplying their florist's shop in Cambridge. They were noted for growing dahlias. The rest of their farm, c. 75 a. by the Coton road, was from the 1870s united with Lacyes. (fn. 327) From the 1850s King's College's land was divided between two large farms. Manor farm, including c. 300 a. south of the village, was still held in 1846 on a beneficial lease for £180, though worth £734. It was held successively by Edward Lilley (d. 1846), his son F. W. Lilley, and, in the 1880s, the latter's widow or daughter. (fn. 328) North of the village Lacyes, containing c. 380 a., stretched to the Cambridge–Barton road and Newnham Croft. (fn. 329) Corpus Christi College's land beyond that road was usually divided into two farms. (fn. 330)

In 1801 300 a. of wheat were grown, and only 200 a. of barley. (fn. 331) The village remained mainly agrarian in the 19th century. Besides a normal complement of craftsmen, it had 75 farm-labourers in 1841 and 48 in 1851. In 1861 the farms provided employment for 54 men and 21 boys out of 100 available in the village, while 26 men were engaged in coprolite digging, (fn. 332) which continued from c. 1860 to the early 1880s. S. P. Widnall complained in 1864 that the digging had pushed up his labourers' wages by 1s. a week. King's College as lord of the manor took royalties for coprolites of up to £100 an acre. (fn. 333) About 1850 the croft land at Newnham Croft provided work for 10 or more gardeners. (fn. 334) The Heffer family by 1851 owned a small brewery behind the Blue Ball inn, which was working until c. 1900. (fn. 335) By 1830 a brick-works was established in the angle between the Cambridge-Barton and Cambridge-Grantchester roads. In the 1850s it employed c. 6 men. (fn. 336) It was still open c. 1912, but had been closed and its pits flooded by 1920. (fn. 337) The village forge, on High Street near the east end of the green, was replaced by 1929 by a garage. (fn. 338) In 1960 Grantchester contained only four farms. Of the 400 a. of Lacyes, c. 250 a. were being cropped, partly for canning; the rest supported a dairy herd. (fn. 339) Many inhabitants for whom farming provided no employment worked in Cambridge. (fn. 340)

In 1086 Robert Fafiton owned a mill in Grantchester worth £2, with a weir rendering 1,000 eels, half in Grantchester and half in Trumpington. (fn. 341) The mill has probably disappeared. It is not to be identified with the mill, mentioned by Chaucer, that once stood above Byron's pool. (fn. 342) That mill belonged in the 13th century to the Trumpington family, the tenants in demesne of Fafiton's Trumpington lands, but they held it not of Fafiton's successors the Mortimers, but of the Caylys, who had inherited a mill at Trumpington held in 1086 by William de Warenne. (fn. 343) The mill that survived at Grantchester was that held in 1086 of Count Eustace, (fn. 344) which descended to the Fercles family, and when their lands were divided in 1257 was assigned to the Applefords. (fn. 345) William Appleford sold it to Merton College, (fn. 346) which owned it until modern times. For some time in the 15th century until c. 1480 it was used for fulling cloth as well as grinding corn. (fn. 347) From c. 1500 it was normally leased with the Merton College farm in Grantchester. (fn. 348) In 1553 Maurice Neville, then miller, was accused of flooding the village meadows through building a new mill on the mill-stream, and was ordered to restore the accustomed flow of water. (fn. 349) The mill remained in use during the 19th and early 20th centuries, being managed successively by the Howard and Nutter families, (fn. 350) and was burnt down in 1928. (fn. 351)

Local Government.

In 1299 the earl of Lincoln claimed view of frankpledge and the assize of bread and ale in his manor. (fn. 352) The Fercles family had had the same privileges, with infangthief and a gallows, from time immemorial. The bailiff of the honor of Boulogne was entitled to attend and supervise the view of frankpledge. After the Fercles manor was divided, the tenants both of the Senghams and of Merton College still for a time did suit to a single court. (fn. 353) Each lord sent his own bailiff to it, and they divided the profits. In 1286 the warden of Merton complained that William Sengham was hindering him from taking his share. (fn. 354) Under the Grantchester family the court met twice a year in the mid 14th century. (fn. 355) The court of Burwash manor was electing a reeve and hayward in 1396. (fn. 356) After Henry Somer had united Burwash with Jaks manor, their courts were generally held on or about the same day, (fn. 357) and gradually fused together into a single court which King's College held for Grantchester with Coton until modern times. It dealt separately, however, with the business of the two villages. (fn. 358) By 1594 it was devolving such work as collecting fines for road repairs on the constable and churchwardens. (fn. 359) The court sat yearly at Michaelmas until 1606, and thereafter at irregular intervals. (fn. 360) Court rolls survive for 1550–8 and 1591– 1618. (fn. 361)

Grantchester was in 1776 spending £68, including £7 10s. for house-rent, on poor-relief. By 1803, when 35 people including 14 adults were being relieved and the rates stood at 5s. in the £, expenditure had risen to £312. (fn. 362) In 1813–14 expenditure averaged only £225, and c. 20 people were on permanent relief. (fn. 363) Until 1824 the cost varied between £220 and £240, (fn. 364) but increased sharply to over £300 in 1830, when 6 or 8 persons were put on the surveyor's hands to work on the highways. (fn. 365) By village tradition any family left homeless was entitled to lodge itself in the church porch, whereupon the parish was bound to find it a dwelling. After the tradition had been successfully tested c. 1830, the church door was moved to the outside of the porch. (fn. 366) In 1836 Grantchester was included in the Chesterton poor law union, (fn. 367) and it remained in the Chesterton R.D. in 1970.

The parish council set up in 1894 obtained in 1897 a lease from King's College of 10 a., increased in 1903 to 15 a., between the Cambridge road and the river, which were from 1898 let as allotments. (fn. 368)

The growth of Newnham Croft as a suburb of Cambridge in the late 19th century gradually overstrained the framework of parish government. The inhabitants of the Croft demanded such urban amenities as metalled roads, main drainage, streetlighting, and fire-hydrants. The people of the village objected to paying rates for services from which they would derive no benefit. (fn. 369) After 1900 the weight of numbers at Newnham Croft began to tell on elections to the parish council. Gas-lighting was installed there in 1907. (fn. 370) In 1912 the whole built-up area there was incorporated into Cambridge under a boundary extension order made in 1911, and the 'firebrands of the Croft' and the villagers parted with mutual relief. (fn. 371)

Church.

The church of Grantchester belonged originally to the manor held of the honor of Boulogne. By 1200 its advowson was held with the Grantchester portion of that manor by the Fercles family. (fn. 372) When their estate was divided in 1257 the advowson was included in the moiety that passed to the Senghams, (fn. 373) and was held with their manor until John Grantchester bought it in 1352. (fn. 374) In 1358 he sold the advowson, with 1 a. for it to inhere in, to feoffees acting for Corpus Christi College. (fn. 375) The rectory was taxed at 20 marks in 1217, at 14 marks in 1254, (fn. 376) and at 32 marks in 1291. (fn. 377) In 1340 it was worth £23, including £19 13s. from its glebe. (fn. 378) By 1380 its value had risen to £32 14s. 8d. (fn. 379) The glebe amounted to c. 130 a., including 31 a. in Cambridge and Barton fields; (fn. 380) 85 a. had been given, several generations before 1279, in free alms from the Fercles demesne lands so that 77 a. of glebe lay in blocks of 5 a. or more. (fn. 381) The rector may also have had some manorial rights. In 1372 two messuages were held of him for 3 summer works. (fn. 382)

Corpus Christi proposed the appropriation of the church in 1365, (fn. 383) and accomplished it in 1380, when Bishop Arundel ordained a vicarage. Thereafter the college possessed the great tithes and rectorial glebe, (fn. 384) reckoned at 77 a. in Grantchester in 1548 but at 98 a. in 1660. (fn. 385) The net income from both was £19 in 1381, but only £9 in 1382. (fn. 386) The college's enjoyment of the tithes was not undisturbed. In 1159 Aubin Fafiton had granted two-thirds of the tithes of his demesne, later Burwash manor, to St. Neots Priory. (fn. 387) The priory's portion was by 1254 commuted for a pension from the college of £1 a year, raised by 1291 to £2, (fn. 388) but reduced by 1380 to 13s. 4d. (fn. 389) The priory, however, kept a record of the demesne concerned, in case it desired to reassert its full rights. (fn. 390) About 1424 Henry Somer, lord of both Grantchester manors, took a lease of the priory's two-thirds, and apparently claimed exemption from paying Corpus Christi its tithe, not only for the original Burwash demesne, but for his other demesne land and some 200 a. rented to lessees. (fn. 391) He encouraged his servants to carry off tithe-corn already gathered by the college's collectors. (fn. 392) The college vainly endeavoured to maintain its rights in face of his wealth and standing in the royal service. (fn. 393) Somer's executors, however, under his instructions in 1458 restored the leased tithes to the college, which resumed the £1 payment to the priory, raised to 26s. 8d. c. 1488. (fn. 394) After the Dissolution it became payable to the Crown. In 1562 Archbishop Parker, formerly master of Corpus Christi, fearing that some courtier might obtain the St. Neots portion and repeat Somer's claim, arranged to have the portion sold by the Crown to the College. (fn. 395) At inclosure the tithes were exchanged for land, Corpus Christi receiving 310 a. for tithes and glebe in Grantchester. (fn. 396) The parsonage house and homestead formerly stood in a close east of the manorhouse, which at inclosure was transferred to King's College. (fn. 397)

Upon the ordination of the vicarage in 1380 the advowson was assigned to Corpus Christi, who remained patrons. The vicar was awarded the altarage, the tithe on hay, and all the small tithes, with a pension of £2 a year from Corpus Christi, and glebe of c. 22 a., consisting of scattered strips, none larger than 3 a. The college was to repair the chancel; the vicar might live in the rectory house until another was built for him. His income was taxed at £4 a year, but was actually to yield £9 16s. 8d. (fn. 398) A vicarage house and farm-buildings had been erected by 1442, when an elderly vicar leased his vicarage to Corpus Christi for £5 a year. (fn. 399) He was then already receiving his tithe from the demesne in cash. (fn. 400) By 1508 the tithes of the mill were also commuted for £1 a year. (fn. 401) In 1536 the vicar had £7 14s. 4d. a year, (fn. 402) in 1650 £40, (fn. 403) in 1718 £49. (fn. 404) The glebe amounted to c. 19 a. in 1639. (fn. 405) In the late 18th century the vicarial tithes were exchanged for a modus, as of 2s. 6d. an acre on hay, but also covering such novel crops as clover. (fn. 406) They were exchanged at inclosure for 84 a., while 16 a. were allotted for glebe. (fn. 407) The value of the vicarage c. 1830 was £291, (fn. 408) but had by 1873 fallen to £261, supplemented by £75 given by Corpus Christi, and interest on £350 stock bought out of profits from raising coprolites on the glebe. (fn. 409) The value declined further to £169 in 1887 and £109 in 1897, to which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners added £50. (fn. 410) The glebe was sold in 1921, mostly to Corpus Christi College. (fn. 411)

The house called the Old Vicarage was built by Matthew Shortyng in 1683 to replace an older vicarage that had stood in 1639 on the same site. (fn. 412) It was used by vicars, or more often their curates, until William Martin, vicar 1850–82, planning to reside himself, built another north-west of the church c. 1851. (fn. 413)

Land was given in the 13th century and later for lights at the altar of the Virgin Mary, (fn. 414) and in 1328 by Thomas Audley for a priest to say mass there. (fn. 415) The parish contained two guilds by 1498, one in honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury. (fn. 416) Its guildhall and 6 a. were sold by the Crown in 1549. (fn. 417)

Rectors of Grantchester are recorded from c. 1200. (fn. 418) Lords of the Fercles manor sometimes gave the profitable benefice to their relations. Thus between 1294 and 1312 it was held by Hugh Sengham, brother of William Sengham, who was not ordained even subdeacon until 1302; (fn. 419) between 1313 and 1328 by Thomas, brother of Walter Pateshull; (fn. 420) and between c. 1336 and 1352 by John Baud, brother of Sir William Baud. (fn. 421) Thomas Eltisley, first master of Corpus Christi, held the living by 1363, (fn. 422) and exchanged it in 1375 with his nephew, Thomas Eltisley. (fn. 423) Such incumbents were probably often absent. John Baud obtained licences for nonresidence in 1339, at the countess of Northampton's instance, and 1343. (fn. 424) The parish chaplain who took his place was mentioned in 1349, (fn. 425) and there were two chaplains in 1378. (fn. 426) In 1442 a church clerk was receiving his wages from the lord of the manor. (fn. 427)

Several 15th-century and early-16th-century vicars had Cambridge degrees, and were connected with Corpus Christi. (fn. 428) Thomas Alleyn, vicar 1541–5, (fn. 429) had Protestant sympathies. He had been thrust into a fellowship at Corpus Christi in 1536 by Thomas Cromwell, (fn. 430) and was accused of disparaging auricular confession. He fell out with the college, and consequently with the bishop and diocesan officials, over his demands, eventually rejected in 1544, that the college should help him to pay tenths and first-fruits to the Crown, and repair his vicarage house out of the impropriation. John Howsden, farmer of the rectory, who had kept the last vicar submissive with false charges of adultery, incited the parishioners to accuse Alleyn of non-residence. Alleyn answered that he had withdrawn for fear they would poison the sacrament. (fn. 431) His successor, John Robinson, vicar 1548–52, was married by 1549. (fn. 432)

From the 1560s vicars were usually graduates, and often fellows, of Corpus Christi. (fn. 433) Edward Brayne, vicar 1572–1613, was accused in 1578 of failing to wear the surplice, but explained that he occasionally omitted wearing it only to avoid superstitious emphasis upon it. (fn. 434) Thomas Whatton, who became vicar in 1634 by an exchange, (fn. 435) did not match his enthusiasm for Laudian ceremonial with any pastoral zeal or moral earnestness. He displeased the parish by innovations in ritual, and harassed them by demanding mortuaries in breach of custom and by continual litigation. He quarrelled with his wealthiest parishioners, Mrs. Catherine Byng and Edward Clench. Clench was heavily fined in 1639 by the High Commission for procuring Whatton's arrest inside Grantchester church. The parishioners also accused their vicar of drunkenness, haunting taverns, and gross indecency, charges which he partly admitted. Whatton fled from Grantchester in 1640 and the vicarage was sequestrated in 1644. (fn. 436) In 1650 the cure was being served by Isaac Dobson, a fellow of Corpus Christi, who was formally instituted in 1662. (fn. 437)

Matthew Shortyng, vicar 1678–1707, (fn. 438) in his later years allowed Corpus Christi to put in its senior resident fellows, in turn, to serve the cure and take the profits. His successor, Christopher Selby, vicar 1707–16, did the same. (fn. 439) After Selby's death a succession of fellows held Grantchester in plurality with Little Wilbraham, another Corpus living, until 1806. (fn. 440) John Hooke, vicar 1762–77, was tutor to George III's children at Kew, and left his parish duties to a curate. (fn. 441) His successor, William Butts, employed the rector of Great Wilbraham as curate. (fn. 442) There were c. 20 communicants in 1728, not more than 16 in 1807 and 1825. (fn. 443) John Hewitt, vicar 1806–50, resided in Norfolk, employing as curate in 1836 a fellow of Corpus Christi who was regaining his congregation. (fn. 444) In 1851 it numbered 247, besides the Sunday school children. There were 236 sittings, but only 107 were free. (fn. 445) There were c. 50 communicants in 1873 and c. 130 in 1896, when half of the inhabitants adhered to the church. (fn. 446) About 1870 the increase in population, especially at Newnham Croft, was threatening to overcrowd the parish church, which was enlarged to add 300 seats. (fn. 447) In 1871 a temporary chapel of ease, dedicated to St. Mark, seating 200, was built by the Barton Road and licensed, to serve the new district. (fn. 448) In 1877 Corpus Christi sold land to trustees for building a permanent new church. (fn. 449) By the 1880s it had its own curate. (fn. 450) Its tone was mainly Evangelical. St. Mark's church was rebuilt in brick in 1901. (fn. 451) In 1903 it was licensed for marriages, and in 1918 a separate ecclesiastical parish, including the part of Grantchester north of the 1912 civil boundary, was formed around it. (fn. 452)

The church of ST. MARY AND ST. ANDREW was originally dedicated in honour of St. Andrew alone. (fn. 453) His feast was until c. 1350 the village's winter quarter-day for rents and dues there. (fn. 454) St. Mary may have been added to the dedication after 1500, because of her special service suppressed at the Reformation. (fn. 455) The building is mostly of clunch and field stones, much of it being plastered, and has a chancel, nave with south aisle and north porch, and west tower. The nave is still in part of the late 11th or early 12th century. Presumably the church then had a chancel and a nave, shorter than the later nave and with doorways and windows carved in the Saxo-Norman style. (fn. 456) The chancel was rebuilt to an elaborate and advanced design in the second quarter of the 14th century. A recess in the north wall may have contained the tomb of the man who paid for the new chancel. About 1400 the chancel arch was rebuilt, partly perhaps to receive a rood-screen, the nave was extended westward by one bay, both doorways being moved to the extension, and the west tower was built, the arms of John Fordham, bishop of Ely 1388–1426, being carved in a spandrel of the west doorway. A small transeptal chapel at the east end of the north wall of the nave was possibly built by the executors of Jakes Grantchester (d. 1404), who directed them to spend £40, from the proceeds of selling his lands, on such a chapel if his son died without issue. (fn. 457) The window in the recess may come from that chapel, which had been demolished before 1744. (fn. 458) The nave was refenestrated in the later 15th century, and a quantity of glass, including some with the arms of Somer impaling Vere, was added presumably after 1450. (fn. 459) An altar tomb in an arched recess, removed to the east wall of the south aisle, may be that of Thomas Lacy (d. 1506), who ordered that his tomb, to stand by St. Thomas's altar, should have a marble top with brasses of himself and his wife in their winding sheets, with their children and escutcheons. (fn. 460)

The farmers and sub-lessees of the rectory often neglected their duty of maintaining the chancel, and were frequently admonished between 1598 and 1638 to repair its ruinous seating, glazing, and paving. (fn. 461) In 1678 it still needed plastering. By 1685 the church was mostly in good order. (fn. 462) Among modern monuments are those of Catherine Byng (d. 1627), widow of Dr. Thomas Byng, and of two fellows of Trinity and Clare, c. 1700. (fn. 463) About 1635, perhaps because the nave roof had been lowered, the tower arch was underbuilt with a narrower roundheaded arch in brick, on whose sides were formerly painted figures of Time and Death. The roodscreen still remained in 1744. (fn. 464) In 1833 the west gallery used by the choir and musicians was enlarged in the Gothic style, and an organ installed. The pulpit, enriched with Jacobean panelling and the arms of Dr. Thomas Jegon, master of Corpus Christi 1602–18, came from the demolished Elizabethan chapel of that college. The tower was converted into a vestry and its window into a door c. 1864. (fn. 465) A clock, widely known because of Rupert Brooke's poem, was installed in 1870 or 1877, (fn. 466) and was out of order for many years after 1907; (fn. 467) the evidence about the hour at which the hands stood is conflicting. (fn. 468) The church was enlarged in 1877–8, to accommodate the growing population, with a south aisle in the Perpendicular style designed by Arthur Blomefield, and the nave roof was raised. (fn. 469) There was further restoration in 1887–91, (fn. 470) and the tower was restored, largely in concrete, in 1899– 1900. (fn. 471) Its bells were new-founded at Bury St. Edmunds under Thomas Lacy's direction c. 1500. (fn. 472) There were four in 1552, (fn. 473) but only three in 1744 and in 1968, of which one was made in 1610 and one in 1677. (fn. 474) The plate includes a cup and paten of 1648, and a paten of 1723, given in 1833, besides a medieval pewter paten found in the churchyard in 1870. (fn. 475) The churchyard was extended with land bought from King's College in 1872, and again in 1909, despite opposition from dons living at Grantchester who feared damage to the character of the village. (fn. 476) The existing parish registers begin in 1539, and are substantially complete. (fn. 477)

Funds for the maintenance of the church come from the church charity, established in 1914, which draws its income from the town lands estate charity, and money for the upkeep of the churchyard and for the parish clerk's or verger's pay comes from other charities described below. (fn. 478)

Nonconformity.

In 1728 it was said that there were two Independents and two Quakers. (fn. 479) Robert Robinson, who became pastor of the Stone Yard Baptist chapel, Cambridge, in 1761, (fn. 480) had a congregation of about 100 for his occasional lectures in Grantchester, which were held at times convenient for the poor. (fn. 481) John Wesley visited the parish in 1759 (fn. 482) and 1762. (fn. 483) It was, however, John Berridge (fn. 484) who, by preaching in a barn, was mainly responsible for introducing nonconformity into Grantchester, (fn. 485) whence at least 17 converts were reported to him in 1759, (fn. 486) and where he preached to a congregation of c. 1,000 in the same year. (fn. 487) In 1783 there were said to be many dissenters and followers of Berridge's disciples. (fn. 488)

An Anabaptist meeting-house was recorded in 1807; (fn. 489) places for protestant dissenting worship were registered in 1789, (fn. 490) 1806, (fn. 491) and 1809, (fn. 492) and a chapel was registered in 1814. (fn. 493) By 1819 the schoolroom of a Sunday school, formed by members of the Independent church at Cambridge, was used for Sunday evening sermons and a monthly lecture during the week. (fn. 494) The curate said in 1825 that the large number of Independents and, even more, of Baptists was increasing, partly owing to the proximity of Cambridge, where dissenters prevailed. There was a meeting-house, the preachers were generally mechanics or journeyman shopkeepers, and the dissenters' Sunday school was the only free school. (fn. 495)

In 1851 there was an Independent meetinghouse with 80 free sittings, and a congregation of 50, (fn. 496) and in 1873 dissenters of no particular denomination hired a small room. (fn. 497) A Baptist chapel was built on the west side of the Cambridge road in 1876, (fn. 498) to be subject to the general control of the ministers and deacons of the St. Andrew's Street and the East Road Zion chapels in Cambridge. (fn. 499) The building was enlarged in 1891, (fn. 500) in 1897 about a quarter of the inhabitants were said to be dissenters, (fn. 501) and the chapel was apparently dependent on the Mill Road church in Cambridge in 1898, when it had 50 members. (fn. 502) It was registered for worship (fn. 503) and marriage (fn. 504) in 1912, and in 1930 it belonged to the West Group of the Cambridge Village Preachers Association. (fn. 505) From the early 20th century it was in membership with the Baptist Union, (fn. 506) and shared a minister with Barton, Comberton, and Coton. (fn. 507) Fifteen members were recorded in 1921, (fn. 508) but there were only two by 1963 when the chapel was closed. In 1966 it was sold, (fn. 509) and by 1970 had been converted into part of a private house. (fn. 510)

Education.

There was a schoolmaster in 1601. (fn. 511) Anne Robson (d. c. 1731) left £50 to teach reading and writing, (fn. 512) but the parish officers did not apply for the legacy, which had been lost by 1783. (fn. 513) In 1818 there were two schools which together had 30 pupils, and 66 children, including c. 30 from Trumpington, attended the Independents' Sunday school, the only free school in the parish in 1825. (fn. 514) That Sunday school was evidently revived in 1830 and was supported by Independents in 1833, when it was attended by 12 children. (fn. 515)

A National day- and Sunday school was opened in 1830 on a site provided by King's College at a nominal rent. (fn. 516) It has a hipped thatched roof, and its walls of studwork were later clad in asbestos. (fn. 517) The school was supported by subscriptions and school pence in 1833, when 69 boys and girls attended the day-school and 65 the Sunday school. (fn. 518)

About 1855 the vicar built a teacher's house next to the school at his own expense. (fn. 519) It is of clay bat with brick dressings and tiled roofs. (fn. 520) Although there was a dame school kept by a dissenter in 1865, dissenters' children attended the National school and were taught on Church principles, but did not go to Sunday school or to church. By that time the schoolroom was too small, (fn. 521) and King's College provided a new site on the opposite side of the main street (fn. 522) where a new school was completed in 1867. At the wish of Corpus Christi College it was not open to government inspection. (fn. 523) Subsequently a teacher's house was built next to the new school. There were 35 boys and 39 girls in 1871, (fn. 524) when the mistress was not certificated, and a Sunday school and an evening school were held in the schoolroom. Income included £10 from Betton's charity, weekly fees of 1d., and the rent of sittings in the chancel. (fn. 525) An annual government grant was apparently first received in 1872. (fn. 526) There was an evening school for boys in 1873, (fn. 527) and between 1895 and 1901 attendance at an evening school aided by government grants varied between 18 and 39. (fn. 528)

There were 96 children at the day-school in 1909–10, (fn. 529) and 49 in 1937–8. (fn. 530) The school became Controlled in 1952, (fn. 531) and a temporary classroom had been built by 1970, when there were 84 pupils, and children over 11 attended Comberton village college. (fn. 532)

In 1865 many inhabitants of the north end of the parish were said to prefer Cambridge schools, (fn. 533) and apparently they subscribed to a Church of England school (fn. 534) which was opened in Newnham in 1872. (fn. 535) About 50 places in that school were considered to be available for Grantchester children in 1873. (fn. 536) when the school in Grantchester village was recognized for 100 children. (fn. 537) In 1908 79 children from Newnham Croft went to the Newnham school, 43 to various schools in Cambridge, 13 to the Grantchester school, and seven were taught privately. (fn. 538) In 1915 a council school for 120 children was opened in Newnham Croft. (fn. 539) The Newnham Church of England school was closed in 1925, (fn. 540) and in 1937–8 average attendance at Newnham Croft was 86, (fn. 541) and there were 270 children in 1970. (fn. 542)

In 1851 Ellen Howard kept a boarding-school in Merton House, which had 13 girls, and there was a dame school with 8 children. (fn. 543)

The William Martin Memorial Prize Fund, established in 1887 in memory of a former vicar for prizes for religious knowledge at the public elementary school, had a yearly income of 15s. in the 1960s. (fn. 544)

Charities for the Poor.

Church land was recorded in 1436–7, (fn. 545) and the churchwardens in 1536 held land in Grantchester then called church land (fn. 546) and said to be held by the township c. 1560. (fn. 547) In 1728 rent of c. £8 a year was used for the relief of rates, (fn. 548) and the town land in 1783 produced £8 for general purposes. (fn. 549)

At inclosure in 1803 2½ a. freehold and 21 a. copyhold of the manor of Grantchester with Coton were allotted for the town land. In 1837 the estate included a copyhold house in Grantchester, called the town house (fn. 550) and divided into four tenements, let rent-free to the poor. From the £35 rent from the land the overseer paid the churchwardens' church bills, and £15 10s. a year, considered as a gift from the town land, was spent on coal for poor women. About 1846 c. 7 a. were let in 31 allotments under regulations which excluded those who stole, poached, or broke the Sabbath. (fn. 551) Most of the tenants refused to pay rent, claiming that the poor ought to hold the land rent-free. As a result income was frequently insufficient to provide gifts of coal, and the tenants were ejected c. 1856. About 1875 5½ a. were let for coprolite digging, and for several years up to 1876 considerably more than a third of the rent was spent on coal. Between c. 1875 and 1878 the trustees, spending nearly £200 on litigation, resisted labourers' attempts to have the town lands let as allotments. (fn. 552)

By a Charity Commission Scheme of 1884 twothirds of the net income was to be for the church, and the remaining third was to be spent in certain specified ways, including contributions towards the cost of emigration, for the benefit of the poor. The copyhold land and cottages were enfranchised in 1886 for about £223. Further Schemes in 1909 and 1914 established three separate charities, the town lands estate charity endowed with 23½ a., let in allotments and smallholdings for about £44, and four cottages, the church charity endowed with twothirds of the net income of the town lands estate, and the poor's charity endowed with the remaining third. The cottages, or alms-houses, were to be occupied rent-free by old poor of the ancient parish of Grantchester.

During the Second World War two alms-houses were converted into one dwelling, and the other two were similarly converted c. 1961. A Scheme of 1961 authorized rents of not more than 5s. a week. In 1962 the town lands estate received rents of £87 10s. from land, and £25 10s. rent from almspeople. The share of the poor's charity in 1967 was £20, from which 16 people received £1 each.

Mary Butts, by will dated 1806, gave £100 to provide a cottage for the parish clerk and to pay him 30s. a year for maintaining the churchyard. The cottage was built with the help of private subscriptions, and £30 was placed with Corpus Christi College, which paid the 30s. until the capital was transferred to the Official Trustees in 1924. Part of the cottage was let for £5 a year in 1837, but it was apparently wholly occupied by the clerk c. 1864. (fn. 553) It was sold and the proceeds of sale of £650 invested in stock in 1956, when a Charity Commission Scheme distinguished the charity for the parish clerk, endowed with £650 stock, from the charity for the upkeep of the churchyard, endowed with about £52 stock.

Uriah Matthews, by will proved in 1830, bequeathed £80 for the repair of his wife's tomb in the churchyard, any surplus to be spent on the interior of the church and the parish clerk's cottage. (fn. 554) In 1923 the trust for repairing the tomb was declared void, the charity's income to be applied for the church and repairs of the cottage. About £10 was spent on the cottage in 1952.

In 1817 B. A. Keck gave £350 stock to maintain the tomb in Grantchester churchyard of his son B. A. Keck (d. 1815), and for distribution among poor widows of Grantchester. (fn. 555) In 1896 the gift for the maintenance of the tomb was declared a valid ecclesiastical charity, and a Scheme of 1897 divided the charity into two, £100 stock for the ecclesiastical charity of B. A. Keck, and the remainder for his eleemosynary charity. (fn. 556) In 1956 it was the practice to add the ecclesiastical charity's surplus income to the eleemosynary charity when a distribution was intended. In 1967 21 widows received £1 each.

Appelina Gee (d. 1847) by will bequeathed £50 for bread for the poor. By 1864 the charity had £64 stock producing an annual income of about £2. (fn. 557) In 1967 income was about £1 10s., no distribution was made, and there was a credit balance of £20 10s. Elizabeth Bridges, by will proved in 1894, left £10 a year to maintain the churchyard, any surplus to be used for coal for the aged poor. (fn. 558) In 1964 £61 was spent on the maintenance of tombs and inscriptions. In 1903 the Revd. G. Martin gave £30 stock in memory of his uncle, William Martin, vicar 1850– 82, to distribute blankets on Christmas day. Income accumulated from c. 1938 amounted to c. £50 in 1969.

The Grantchester Nursing Charity was started in 1938 when the parish council received about £105, apparently from the Trumpington and Grantchester Nursing Association, to be invested for the sick poor of the parish. (fn. 559) At first subscriptions were the main source of income, which was used to finance the local district nurse. In 1952 the Charity Commissioners directed that the income should continue to be used for the sick poor of the parish, and in 1960 £9 was spent.