Fen Ditton: Nonconformity

A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (North-Eastern Cambridgeshire). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2002.

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'Fen Ditton: Nonconformity', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (North-Eastern Cambridgeshire), (London, 2002) pp. 129. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol10/p129 [accessed 20 April 2024]

NONCONFORMITY.

In 1676 there was one dissenter in the parish, and in 1686 dispensation was granted to three recusants. (fn. 1) In 1807 the inhabitants included a dissenter who attended a meeting house in Cambridge, and by 1825 a family of Presbyterians. (fn. 2) A group of Methodists, who by 1873 were meeting in a room, were in 1880 worshipping in a chapel on High Ditch Road. (fn. 3) The chapel was renovated and extended in 1907 to seat 120 people. (fn. 4) In 1947 it became a Free chapel, open to other nonconformists, but in 1958 it was closed, and pulled down. In the 1990s the foundation stone with its inscription was in the parish, owned by the granddaughter of W. Fison, who had donated the site. The deeds for houses which replaced the chapel have unusual terms, forbidding gambling and the keeping of pigs within the premises.

Footnotes

  • 1. Compton Census, ed. Whiteman, 163; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1685-7, p. 322.
  • 2. C.U.L., E.D.R., C 1/4; C 1/6.
  • 3. Kelly's Dir. Cambs. (1883).
  • 4. Account from 1900 based on inf. from W. Fison's granddaughter; Norf. R.O., FC/63/134; Survey of Fen Ditton.