ECONOMIC HISTORY
In 1086 a quarter of
the available ploughland in Histon was on the
two home farms, each of which had 2 ploughteams, and the rest was farmed by 29 villani and
42 lesser peasants with 11 teams between them. (fn. 13)
The proportion of demesne and peasant farming
was much the same in 1279, despite great changes
in the manorial structure: 22 per cent of the
arable land was farmed directly by three lords,
70 per cent by their villeins, and 7 per cent by
free tenants. None of the manors was using
labour services, which had been commuted at
different rates, 1s. 9½d. for the standard villein
holdings on the Eynsham manor and 1s. 7d.
on Colville's, suggesting that the services once
exacted had also differed. Most of Eynsham's
men held 12 a. of land at a rent of 12s., and most
of Colville's 10 a. for 12s. 4d.; on each manor
there were also smaller, more irregular holdings.
Only four men, one a miller and another a smith,
held land in both manors, though a few of the
freeholders were also tenants in Impington. In
all there were 16 free tenants, none with more
than 12 a., 101 villeins with standard holdings
or irregular ones of more than 6 a., and 72
villeins with smaller holdings, mostly of 1 a. or
only crofts or cottages. (fn. 14) The recent division
of a yardland on the Eynsham manor among
members of a peasant family was implied c.
1180. (fn. 15) The villeins' rents and commuted labour
services were worth c. £49 in 1279, (fn. 16) and the
great tithes £36 in the 1350s. (fn. 17) In 1442 a lessee
paid £32 for the demesne and £16 for the
rectory, and the rents were worth c. £18; (fn. 18) some
of the demesne was perhaps afterwards let to the
villagers, since by 1539 their total rent had risen
to c. £31 while the rent for the manor and tithes
was down to £22. (fn. 19)
Both manors in Histon enjoyed an ancient
right of turning their animals into the commons
of Impington, which after long-running disputes
in the late 15th, 16th, and early 17th centuries
were gradually whittled away. (fn. 20) In the mid 16th
century sheep belonging to the inhabitants of
Histon and Impington were folded indiscriminately in the fields of both, (fn. 21) probably because
farms commonly extended into both townships.
Land was being concentrated in the hands of
some families by the 16th century. Two Histon
farmers, Thomas Styward and Roger Muncey,
were assessed in 1522 at £80 and £120 respectively, the latter one of the highest figures in the
county. (fn. 22) Both families were settled at Histon
by 1279. (fn. 23) Their later wealth and position may
have derived from leases of the manorial demesne, as was that of William Bromsted, who
married the widow of a lessee of Denny abbey's
manor, (fn. 24) and at the Dissolution held leases of
Impington and of both Histon manors. (fn. 25) Thomas Barnard (d. 1570) had 95 a. and five houses
and cottages. (fn. 26) In the 1620s his namesake was
among the leading copyholders of Histon St.
Etheldred manor who resisted paying heriots,
fines, and rents. (fn. 27) Unlike similar episodes at
nearby Over and Willingham, that in Histon did
not end with the lords selling out. In 1638 Histon
St. Etheldred comprised 180 a. of demesne and
420 a. of copyholds, (fn. 28) and in 1659 half the annual
value of the united manors came from the
demesne and the sheepwalk and half from copyhold rents and court profits. (fn. 29)
The arrangement of the open fields c. 1637 (fn. 30)
was almost identical to that on the eve of inclosure in 1801. (fn. 31) The village closes, which adjoined
those of Impington, were ringed by open fields
in an arc from north-east to south-west of the
village. Reading anti-clockwise, their names at
inclosure were Great Barrow, Little Barrow,
Church, Home, Yonbrook, and Park fields. The
last was called Mill field in the 17th century,
when it was somewhat smaller and Home field
larger. (fn. 32) The six fields appear to have been
cultivated on a three-course rotation in the early
18th century, when bylaws refer to the wheat,
barley, and fallow fields. (fn. 33) In 1749 Guy Sindrey
of Histon Manor had 50 a. of wheat, rye, and
maslin in Yonbrook and Great Barrow fields and
48 a. of barley and 7 a. of oats evidently in Home
field. (fn. 34) In 1801 there were estimated to be 500 a.
of wheat, 400 a. of barley, 260 a. of peas and
beans, 100 a. of oats, and 50 a. of rye, with 80 a.
of turnips and 5 a. of potatoes. (fn. 35) Saffron was
grown in the Middle Ages. (fn. 36)
The common meadowland in the 17th century
and until inclosure lay in two thin slivers beside
the brooks west of the village. (fn. 37) One farmer
frequently bought hay from Cottenham in the
1640s, (fn. 38) presumably because little could be made
in Histon. At the north end of the parish Little
Moor and Great Moor occupied the lowest-lying
part of Histon. Both moors were rough grazing in
the Middle Ages, (fn. 39) and the commoners retained
grazing rights there until inclosure. Because the
commons were so small, bylaws in the late 17th
century and the early 18th forbade overstocking. (fn. 40) Scarcity of permanent pasture also probably made sheep more important than cattle in
the village's economy. A flock of nearly 350 was
kept in 1755 by the tenant of Abbey farm, who
was sowing clover as feed, (fn. 41) and feed crops on
the same farm in 1810 included turnips and
coleseed. (fn. 42)
The inclosure of Histon and Impington was
necessarily undertaken by a single Act of Parliament: the boundary was uncertain and many
owners, both large and small, had land scattered
across both parishes. Moves to inclose were
begun in 1800, apparently by Thomas Sumpter
of Histon Manor. At first the numerous opponents included the lords of both Impington
manors, and there were middling farmers ranged
on both sides. (fn. 43) Some of the Impington proprietors petitioned parliament against the bill,
and the owners of some 28 per cent of the acreage
to be inclosed refused to consent. The difficulty
appears to have been overcome by recalculating
the extent of opposition on the basis of land-tax
assessments, which put the bill's opponents at
only 19 per cent, just below the usual limit which
might have prevented inclosure. (fn. 44) The Act was
passed in 1801 (fn. 45) and the award was completed
in 1806. (fn. 46) It included a great many exchanges of
small plots of land, evidently with the object of
consolidating farms within one or the other
parish. The three principal allottees in Histon
were Thomas Sumpter, whose land stretched
south from Histon Manor towards Girton, Thomas Panton, whose estate covered the west part
of the parish between Abbey Farm and the
Oakington boundary, and the vicar.
Inclosure was followed shortly by changes in
land ownership, since Sumpter's and Panton's
estates were broken up by sale between 1806 and
1809. (fn. 47) The reduced Abbey farm at the west end
of the parish was let to tenant farmers for a time
in the mid 19th century, but was taken in hand
by the Rowley family in the early 1860s and
remained so in 1986. Throughout the period it
covered almost 400 a. (fn. 48) In 1834 there was only
one other farm of comparable size, in 1851 two
others, and in 1861 just one again. (fn. 49) Ownership
remained fragmented until the late 19th century
and agriculture was dominated by small farmers,
the larger ones having 50-200 a., usually rented.
There were 10 farmers employing labourers in
1831 and 9 in 1861. (fn. 50) About a third of the
labourers were without work in 1834. (fn. 51)
The proximity of Cambridge encouraged the
development of market gardening in the early
19th century. Garden ground was advertised for
sale in 1806, and Richard Sumpter of Histon
Manor was selling his orchard produce commercially the following year. (fn. 52) There were several
gardeners in the 1820s and 1830s, (fn. 53) and by 1851
ten, six of whom had no other occupation. (fn. 54)
Among them were John and William Chivers,
brothers whose family came to dominate farming
in Histon. (fn. 55)
John Chivers's sons Philip, Stephen, and Thomas all began as market gardeners and the
eldest remained so, (fn. 56) while Stephen and Thomas
expanded rapidly as farmers. Stephen had 170 a.
in 1861, 300 a. in 1871, and 700 a. in 1881;
Thomas 130 a., 270 a., and 640 a., though most
of it was probably rented and he did not have
sons to take over from him. (fn. 57) Stephen Chivers
(d. 1907), however, continued to extend his
farming activities after founding the family jammaking business in 1873. He, his son John (d.
1929), and John's children always treated the
factory and the farms as a single enterprise, even
when they were managed by different members
of the family. Stephen started growing fruit on
a large scale in the 1860s, (fn. 58) and later, as the
demands of the factory increased and as its
profitability allowed him to buy more land, he
extended his orchards and soft fruit considerably. Over much of his land c. 1900 corn and
roots were grown only as break crops every four
or five years. (fn. 59) He owned most of the 310 a. of
fruit trees and bushes in the parish at that
time. (fn. 60) The establishment of the factory and the
stimulus which it gave to fruit growing were said
in 1894 to be an important reason for the
prosperity of a wide region around Histon despite the agricultural depression. (fn. 61)
By the 1930s Chivers and Sons Ltd. owned
1,500 a. in Histon and adjoining parishes, and
another 4,500 a. elsewhere in Cambridgeshire,
all run from a central estate office at Histon.
When John Chivers's son Stanley took over the
management of the farms after the First World
War, they were reorganized as a highly integrated
operation for supplying the needs of the factory. (fn. 62) Large acreages of soft fruit and plums
were grown for canning and making jam; cows
and pigs were kept for their dung; corn was
grown and the straw used to make manure; silage
and hay were made as winter feed for the animals;
poultry were raised, fed on home-grown wheat,
and housed in the orchards to keep the land
clean and manure it, the eggs going to the factory
for lemon curd. Pedigree herds of milk cattle
and pigs were established and Percheron horses
were introduced, though there were also many
tractors at an early date. In the 1920s, when corn
became uneconomic, much land was put down
to grass to prepare it for later use as orchards,
and large flocks of sheep were built up. Chivers's
farming business, later based at Impington
Hall, (fn. 63) passed with the factory into the ownership
of Schweppes Ltd. in 1959, but was bought back
by the family in 1962, (fn. 64) and remained a family
firm, though much reduced in size, (fn. 65) in 1986.
In the parish as a whole, corn accounted for
some three fifths of the acreage recorded in the
decade or so before the onset of the agricultural
depression in 1879, but then declined to a quarter
between the 1900s and the 1930s. Some of the
land was turned to grass, though sheep remained
much more important than cattle in the late 19th
and early 20th century, and orchards and market
gardens were the main feature of Histon's agricultural economy by 1900, when there were 21
such businesses besides Chivers, but only 5
farmers. The first nurseries were established in
the 1930s. (fn. 66) Arable crops returned to their former prominence after 1945 and especially in the
1980s, when fruit growing and dairying both
declined greatly. (fn. 67)
The fruit grown by Stephen Chivers in the
1860s was mostly sent by rail for sale outside
Cambridgeshire, but a successful experiment in
making jam in a barn in Impington in 1873
encouraged him to buy a plot of land next to
Histon station in 1874 and build a small factory,
called the Victoria Works. (fn. 68) Chivers claimed that
his was the first jam factory in England run by
a fruit grower, (fn. 69) and the firm's success has been
attributed to the quality of its products and
to successful marketing. (fn. 70) Fruit jellies, custard
powder, and orange marmalade were made at
Histon from the 1880s and fruit canning began in
1893, one of its earliest applications in Britain. (fn. 71)
Further land by the railway station bought
between 1874 and 1884 (fn. 72) provided ample room
for expansion: from the late 1880s to 1901 new
building was almost continuous and by the 1930s
the factory covered much of its 46-a. site. (fn. 73) An
imposing office building was opened on Station
Road in 1897. (fn. 74) The factory had extensive buildings for preparing fruit and for making, packing,
and storing jam, jellies, and other products, (fn. 75)
and also included workshops which produced
most of the materials required by the firm.
Employees were engaged in can-making, silverplating, box-making, printing, and making and
repairing vehicles from the 1890s to the 1950s. (fn. 76)
A dozen people had been involved in the enterprise in 1873; c. 1885 there were 150 employees (fn. 77)
and by 1901 the work force was over 1,000. (fn. 78) At
that time workers came from 12 surrounding
villages as well as Histon; (fn. 79) they included 250
Histon girls c. 1900, though the firm did not
employ married women in the factory before
1914. (fn. 80)
Chivers consolidated its position as a nationally known firm in the early 20th century and
began exporting in 1901. (fn. 81) Laboratories were
built after 1898 and a full-time works chemist
was appointed in 1905 to maintain quality and
extend the range of products. (fn. 82) Charles Lack,
works engineer from 1896, made important technical and labour-saving innovations, including
automatic filling machinery (1901) and vacuum
caps (1924), which helped to keep Chivers ahead
of its commercial rivals. (fn. 83) Chivers and Sons
became a limited liability company in 1901 (fn. 84) and
the works was renamed the Orchard Factory c.
1910. (fn. 85) By the late 1920s the factory employed
nearly 2,000 at peak periods and over 1,600
throughout the year. Women filled two thirds of
the permanent jobs and did most of the seasonal
labour. Clerical work and management jobs
employed another 250 in 1929 and 300 by 1939. (fn. 86)
Expansion in the 1920s and 1930s was mainly
in new factories elsewhere, (fn. 87) but the number of
employees at Histon rose to 2,200 in the early
years of the Second World War, (fn. 88) when an
important product was blackcurrant purée, the
outcome of research on vitamin C carried out in
the firm's microbiological laboratory by Mamie
Olliver in the 1930s. (fn. 89)
Business declined after 1945 as Chivers lost
the leading market position which it had held
before the war and failed to install modern
equipment. (fn. 90) By 1959, when the company was
taken over by Schweppes Ltd., (fn. 91) there were
fewer than 1,500 employees at Histon, and the
closure of several departments by Schweppes
brought it down to 1,200 permanent staff by
1961. Female employment was worse affected
than male. (fn. 92) The factory was part of the Cadbury
Schweppes group from 1969, and although the
manufacture of other brand-name preserves was
moved to Histon (fn. 93) the closure of virtually all the
clerical departments, continuing mechanization,
and the decline of the national market for jam
reduced the permanent work force to 700 by
1980. (fn. 94) Most workers came from the immediate
neighbourhood though from the 1930s special
buses brought others from villages in the Fens. (fn. 95) In the 1980s new offices, plant, and cold stores
were built on the west part of the factory site
away from Station Road, the older buildings to
the east were demolished, and that part of the
site was sold. (fn. 96) The foods and beverages division
of Cadbury Schweppes, including the ChiversHartley trading company based at Histon, was
bought by its managers in 1986. (fn. 97)
The Chivers family were paternalist employers. A profit-sharing scheme, one of theearliest in the country, was introduced in 1891
and had nearly 400 'co-partners' by 1928; con-
tributory pensions followed in 1933 and were
extended to female workers in 1938. Consul-
tation with the work force took place after 1918
through a system of advisory committees, and
there was little or no trade union activity until
Schweppes took over, and no major industrial
dispute. Welfare provisions included a fact-
ory nurse, surgery, and canteens, all intro-
duced before 1914, and evening and day release
classes. (fn. 98)
Histon had other large employers in the 20th
century. Reed Corrugated Cases Ltd., a division
of Reed International, began making corrugated
fibreboard boxes in a factory south of the
Orchard Factory in 1929, with 50 workers, and
employed 300 by 1960 and 200 in 1986. (fn. 99) Torvac
Ltd. was established in the 1950s and moved
into a new factory in 1970, making electron
beam welding equipment, vacuum furnaces, and
metallizers, and employing up to 70 people. (fn. 1)
The firm of W. J. Unwin Ltd., one of the biggest
horticultural seed merchants in the country, was
founded in Histon c. 1904. By the 1960s nearly
all the seeds were grown under contract in
different parts of the world, but the company's
headquarters and trial grounds remained in Imp-
ington Lane, where 200 people were employed
in 1981. (fn. 2)
Other firms with bases or depots in Histon in
1986 included Quenby Price Ltd., an agricultural
merchandise subsidiary of Unilever. (fn. 3)
was a windmill on the Eynsham manor
in the mid 13th century, (fn. 4) and by 1279 there was
a second mill on Colville's manor. (fn. 5) Only one of
them appears to have survived in the mid 17th
century. It stood in Park (formerly Mill) field
close to the edge of Great Meadow. (fn. 6) A post mill
on that site was dismantled in 1806. (fn. 7)
was a weaver in Histon in the mid 17th
century but the only other reference found to
the trade is a 20th-century tradition of weaving
shops facing the green and on Glebe Way. (fn. 8) In
the 17th and 18th centuries tailors, shoemakers,
a blacksmith, and a carpenter were recorded. (fn. 9)
From the mid 19th century the village supported
a wide and growing range of tradesmen, shops,
and services. There were two blacksmiths until
the 1850s and one to c. 1953, a carpenter until
the First World War and a wheelwright until
the Second, a bricklayer to the 1880s, and a
thatcher for a decade or more after 1900. Several
craftsmen set themselves up as builders and
contractors from the 1860s; there were three
such firms in 1937. A tailor and a shoemaker
were usually in business between 1847 and
1937. (fn. 10) Nine coprolite diggers lived at Histon in
1871, (fn. 11) though there do not appear to have been
any workings in the parish. (fn. 12)
Histon had five or six shops for most of the
period 1850–1900 and the number thereafter
increased greatly, especially in the 1920s. (fn. 13) The
first shops on Cambridge Road in Impington
parish opened in the 1890s and by 1929 there
were 24 in Histon and Impington together.
About half the shops in the 1930s were in
and around Histon High Street, the rest in
Cambridge and Station Roads. The Cambridge
and District Co-operative Society opened a
branch in Histon in 1903, one of the first two
outside Cambridge. There was a taxi service in
the early 1920s and a filling station a decade
later, and three banks opened sub-branches in
the 1930s. Building societies and estate agents
followed later. In the 1970s and 1980s there were
over 20 shops, including a printing and copying
service and a video library, besides a large range
of tradesmen and professional services. (fn. 14) New
offices were being built for the Anglian Water
Authority and other occupiers in 1987 on the
site of the former Chivers factory.