Times Gone By

by Valerie Taylor

Little Chesterford is described by one Thomas Wright in the 1850s as 'This small parish… separated from Littlebury by the river Granta…extends from Great Chesterford to Walden; in length it is a mile and a half and in breadth it is a mile and a quarter. The village is small and the houses of humble appearance, chiefly occupied by those who are engaged in agricultural labour.'

In 1821, 192 people lived in the village; in 1831, 211; in 1848, 229. Today (1975) the electoral register lists 160 adults living in about 70 houses. Although Little Chesterford has changed very little in terms of its population over the years, far fewer villagers today make their living in 'agricultural labour'; perhaps no more than seven households are employed on the four remaining farms; Mr.Fordham’s Rectory Farm, Mr. Pumphrey’s Springwell Farm, Miss Sculpher’s King’s Farm and Mr Fairhead’s Farm. According to villagers today, Little Chesterford has a life and an active community spirit of its own, independent of Great Chesterford. Its smaller size makes it easier perhaps for the village to retain its identity, which is jealously guarded by villagers, many of whom feel that the village is unsuited to further development.

There used to be a manor called Manhall, set in 70 acres of woodland at the southern extremity of the parish; this has now completely disappeared but was excavated two or three years ago by a group of people who worked at Chesterford Park Research Station. In the time of Edward the Confessor, Manhall belonged to a man called Siward and another, unnamed, freeman. It was later joint-owned by Alan, Earl of Bretagne and Geoffrey de Mandeville. Afterwards it was given to the Abbey of Edmondsbury and in 1257 was passed in exchange for other lands from Symond, Abbot of Edmundsbury, to Richard, Earl of Gloucester, who, in 1259, obtained leave to build a castle there. William de Montchenchy next held the manor which passed to the Bourchier family and by marriage to Sir William Parr, Baron of Kendal, created Earl of Essex and Marquis of Northampton. The latter conveyed it to Lord Audley, whereby it descended to the Marquis of Bristol, together with the farm known as Little Chesterford Park.

In 1848, Little Chesterford Park was owned by James B. Fairman. Lord Inchcape lived There and after him, Mr Bell, who left in 1925 and who seems to have been the last resident owner. It was owned subsequently by a Mr Ryder and used during the war as a Jewish Hospital. It was last owned by Dr Gothe, a London doctor, now dead. Chesterford Park Stood empty for some time before Fisons took it over.

There was horseracing once at Chesterford Park, because Mr Eric Rayner, some time ago found an old racing ticket. Mr William Walters, now dead, remembered the racecourse but not the races which must have been run more than 80 years ago. Mr Pumphrey of Springwell Farm remembers Sunday School outings in horse-driven farm wagons with treats afterwards at the Park, sports and (rare) home-made ices, during the Bells’ time. Mr Pumphrey’s recollections of ‘the explosion’ are still vivid; ammunition was stored up in the woods at the Park and a week before D-Day it started exploding and blew out windows at Stortford. Rifle fire started, each bang louder than the last, shells and shrapnel were flying everywhere. The army ordered the area to be evacuated and everyone went either down the meadows into the ditches or into air raid shelters. Mrs Wakefield took her goats and Miss Nancy Stephenson took her family jewellery; the men from Springwell stayed behind to stop the buildings catching fire. The explosion, which lasted all day, flattened the corn, blew leaves off trees and the eagles off the gates at Chesterford Park. Mr Pumphrey remembers that it was 'pretty frightening at the time but we’ve had a good laugh since.' Mr & Mrs Ken Pumphrey rented Rectory Farm for 11 years and now live at Springwell Farm. When Mrs Pumphrey senior first came to the village in 1916, the vicar, Mr Stewart, called and said 'Don’t you think you are brave coming to live here?
You’re the first for 14 years.'

Little Chesterford apparently had the first Women’s Institute in the area fifty years ago; Meetings were held in what is now the Village Hall but which was once an Infant School and Sunday School. In 1848, the schoolmistress was Sarah Unwin. Other prominent local people at that time were –

Abraham Joseph Victualler (The Crown)
William Chapman Shopkeeper & Beerhouse
William Hunter, Esq Chesterford Park
John Toovey Lyles Maltster
Joseph Porter Blacksmith
Benjamin Reeve Shoemaker
William Ryder & Mr James Beerhouse
Joseph Seaman Tailor
John Searle Shopkeeper & Baker
William Lagden Farmer (Springwell)
Charles Nichols Farmer (Springwell)
Mrs Sarah Nichols Manor House
David Welch Manor House
Mary Welch Parsonage

Descendants of some of the above must still be living in or near Little Chesterford. Some of the older inhabitants, like Mr Will Lee of Rectory Farm Lodge, Mr Jack Reade who lives opposite the Post Office, Mr Charlie French and others, will perhaps remember something of the history of local families.

The Pumphreys remember when Mr and Mrs Reeves used to have the Post Office, and Miss Emily Button delivered all the mail on foot, walking up to North Park, nearly 4 miles. This lady had a shop in her thatched cottage (where the flats are now) and sold everything in small quantities if required, like pats of butter and enough cocoa for one cup, with sugar in it.

Mr French kindly loaned the photographs of The Great Fire of 1914. The fire was started by sparks from a traction engine, which caught the thatch of a roadside barn beside Fairhead’s Farm. The fire spread quickly, fanned by a strong wind; it zig-zagged through the village and three cottages were completely burnt out as well as both public houses (The Crown and The Bushel & Strike). The latter became a private house, the Crown was rebuilt. Mrs Law, an old lady of nearly 100, was rescued from the fire and taken in a wheelbarrow to the top of the village. Fifteen houses with thatched roofs were burned.

Another photograph shows a view of Lt Chesterford taken in 1922. These thatched roofs escaped The Great Fire. This spot in the village is where the flats now stand. There was a stream running down the street but in the 1930s it was piped and curbed. The tree on the right still stands today.

There are a number of interesting buildings in Little Chesterford but the two most well known are the Manor and the Church. In the time of Edward the Confessor, the Manor belonged to Queen Edeva. The Manor and its estates became the property of Robert de Hastings and passed by marriage to Godfrey de Louvain. They were held in 1302 by Thomas le Bred until Thomas Hasilden became owner in 1409. Subsequently the Manor and its estates passed by marriage to Robert Peyton. The Peyton family sold out to Thomas, Lord Audley and the estates thereby descended to the Marquis of Bristol. The Manor with its very thick-walled stone wing on the east side, its timber-framed solar west wing and its timber-framed hall in the middle, is a rare survival of a 13th century manor house.

The long nave and long chancel of the Church of St Mary the Virgin are also 13th century. There is a brass commemorating the wife of George Langham (1462) and an effigy of James Walsingham, who flourished in the reign of Henry 111. Two famous men are connected with this Church. The first was the famous preacher, Edward Rainborne, who was Dean of Magdelene College in 1637 and later Master (1642). He was dismissed in 1650 by act of Parliament and before being re-instated in his mastership at Cambridge at the Restoration in 1660, he spent part of the years in between as Vicar of Little Chesterford (1652). He was Chaplain to the King in 1660, Dean of Peterborough in 1661, and Bishop of Carlisle in 1664. The other famous cleric was Bishop C.J. Blomfield, who was Bishop of London from 1828 to 1856 and the last Bishop of that See to include Essex in his jurisdiction. He was also one of the greatest Greek scholars of the time. When he was Vicar of Great and Little Chesterford, he waged a campaign against pleasure-making and unnecessary labour on Sundays and saw to it that public houses closed on time.

The Newmarket spring race meeting used to begin on Easter Monday; the locals from nearby villages used to gather to see the gentry in their carriages passing through on the London to Newmarket road on Easter Sunday. They frequently stopped at the inn opposite the church (now the Crown House Hotel) for refreshment while services were being held in the church. This scandalised Mr Blomfield, who campaigned and eventually succeeded in getting the first day of the races changed from Monday to Tuesday. The Essex Review (October 1933) records the following anecdote regarding Little Chesterford: 'Walking over one Sunday for his duty at Little Chesterford, he found he had forgotten to bring his sermon with him. It was too late to return, so for the first and only time of his
life he preached extempore, his text being, 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God'. Being anxious to know how he had seemed to succeed, he asked one of the congregation on coming out how he had liked the sermon. 'Well Mr Blomfield, replied the man, I liked the sermon well enough , but I can’t say I agree with you. I think there be a God.' He had evidently stated the fool’s case too well, and it was certainly an awkward subject to try experiments with.'

This article only scratches the surface of what must surely be a fascinating village history. So many questions remain unanswered. When did the Manor House cease to belong to the Marquis of Bristol? Was the Earl of Gloucester’s castle ever built at Manhall? When did there cease to be a school in Little Chesterford? I am told that a house which is now divided into three cottages was once a Reading Room or a laundry; the middle cottage is still called Reading Rooms. The Editor would very much like to hear from anyone whose house has an interesting history or who recollects any interesting stories or traditions of the village.

Mrs Valerie Taylor
The Editor

Article taken from The Times of the Chesterfords, Sept 1975, pp.4-7.

Much that was said in this article about Little Chesterford still holds true today, particularly the community spirit which is much in evidence at the annual Village Fete. Little Chesterford Park is no longer an agricultural research station, but a business park owned by Norwich Union and home to several ‘high-tech’ firms.

The village, once home to several shops, a post office, a reading room, a church, a school (closed by 1902) and two public houses, now (2011) has only a church and a village hall (once the school), both public houses are now private houses, and the chapel has been demolished.

1922 - surviving-thatches	Agricultural Research park
Belongings in the street	Chesterford-Park-with-Bridge
Emily Button at her shop door	Mr King's Steam Fire Engine
Reading Room	St-Mary's
The Crown Inn after the fire	The-Street-looking-west
Jettied House - lost in fire