CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.
When giving
96 a. to Spinney priory in 1322, Mary Bassingbourn charged it with substantial charitable
duties. It was to maintain seven poor men in an
almshouse at Wicken, giving each daily a halfpenny loaf and a herring, shoes and linen for
underwear yearly, and a woollen coat (tunica)
every other year, also 200 turves a year each for
heating. The prior was also to distribute similar
amounts of loaves and fishes near Wicken
church to each of 1,000 poor people, eventually
at the anniversary of her death, unclaimed food
going to poor Wicken villagers. (fn. 7)
By 1395 the priory was finding those duties
burdensome: in 1400 Margaret Peyton alleged
that the seven almsmen had received nothing for
four years. (fn. 8) In the late 1410s the villagers repeatedly complained that the priory left the almsmen, whom the lord of the manor claimed to
name, to starve. It had substituted peasen for
wheaten bread and halved the number of herrings in the general distribution. In the 1410s
the prior, when distributing the food, was sometimes escorted by up to sixteen men armed with
staves and pitchforks. (fn. 9) In 1419 the priory
obtained leave from Mary's heir to commute the
distribution of food into giving a rent of 13s. 4d.,
out of Wicken manor, in penny doles to the
neediest inhabitants of Wicken, Soham, and
Fordham. The seven almsmen, chosen by the
prior, were still to receive weekly corrodies of
bread and ale, (fn. 10) not, however, recorded later.
Their almshouse, apparently standing at the
west end of the village, (fn. 11) was probably represented by the almshouse occupied by eight
families in 1664. (fn. 12) It comprised in 1837 a row
of seven tenements under one roof, still maintained by the parish, at the north-west side of
the village green. In the 1830s the overseers
placed poor widows in them rent free. (fn. 13) In the
mid 19th century the almshouses accommodated
elderly people, mostly women, sometimes with
their families. (fn. 14) The long, thatched building at
'Row green' was half-derelict, housing only four
old women, by the 1880s and empty by 1896. It
was then demolished and the materials partly
used in 1897 to build of brick, by public
subscription, on the same 1/2-rood site the
Diamond Jubilee Almshouses, which comprised
four single dwellings and two double ones for
married couples. Thereafter controlled, under
a Scheme of 1901, by the parish council, (fn. 15)
but still unendowed, those almshouses were in
poor condition by the 1970s, (fn. 16) and were again
rebuilt in 1991-2 to provide three old people's
dwellings. (fn. 17)
In 1634 James Hales, the last of his family,
left £10 to Wicken's poor, the interest to be
given on Midlent Sunday. (fn. 18) Other 17th-century
bequests in money for the poor, still held by the
parish in the 1780s, included 10s. a year from
William Jarvis (d. 1639), briefly lost 1688-99
and no longer paid by the owner of the property
charged after 1800, and 5s. a year each from John
Jarvis (1635), Christopher Jarvis (1652), and
Peter Jarvis (1699). Those bequests have also
not been traced after 1837. Others of £10 each
from Miss Talbot and John Layton had been
invested by 1783 in land in Burwell. The 1¼ a.
allotted at its inclosure in 1817 (fn. 19) still belonged
to Wicken parish c. 1900.
The parish also still then owned, (fn. 20) as probably
from the 1660s, two lots, c. 1½ a., in Sedge
and Edmunds fens, and 1½ a. of Lammas land
in Fodder fen. Its grazing was usually let by
candle auction in the 1830s, when the combined
rents, then £4 5s. and by 1863 £13 4s. 6d,
were given in cash among the neediest poor. (fn. 21)
About 1860 the parish annually gave the poor
the rent of 2 a. then, as still in the 1890s, let as
allotments. (fn. 22)
When the fens were divided in the 1660s, (fn. 23)
c.
15½ a. at the west end of Edmunds fen were
reserved to provide turf for the poor. In the 18th
century they were each allowed to dig up to
4,000 turves in that 'Poors' ground'. (fn. 24) By the
1830s, when the poor still by custom dug turf
there for firing, the peat had been almost worked
out, (fn. 25) but the land was still mown yearly for
sedge on the third Monday in July until the
1920s. Traditionally each poor man might have
as much sedge as he could cut that day, unaided,
starting from the edge of the lode, between dawn
and sunset. (fn. 26) In the late 20th century the parish
still owned that land, which was managed by the
National Trust. (fn. 27)
Wicken's other modern charities derived from
Miss Mary Hatch (d. 1858). In 1856 she built,
on a small plot north of North Street and just
west of her school, three almshouses, onestoreyed, but triple-gabled, of red brick, stonedressed, in Gothic style. As she had promised,
her will, proved 1858, gave £800, a third for
building costs, to endow them. She intended
them for well-behaved, Anglican widows and
widowers, aged over 60 or disabled. From any
surplus income after maintenance costs, each
should receive 2s. 6d. a week, 10s. quarterly for
fuel, and 10s. yearly for clothing. (fn. 28) In the late
19th century the almspeople, usually widows,
regularly received weekly half-crowns. The coal
and clothing allowances declined until the
1860s, as the available income was reduced from
c. £30 to £24 a year by 1870 and to £20 by 1910.
Those almshouses remained under Anglican
control after 1894. About 1950 there were only
two almswomen (fn. 29) and lack of fully qualified
applicants left all three almshouses briefly vacant
in 1953-4. (fn. 30) Weekly allowances to almswomen
shortly ceased, and, following a Scheme of 1976
allowing the occupants to be charged contributions towards maintenance, the charity's
income arose by the 1980s mainly from their
rents. It was by the late 1980s c. £1,800 a year,
by 1995 almost £4,500, accumulated, after
covering a £29,500 housing association loan, to
fund repairs. In 1994-5, when two dwellings
were vacant, new grants and loans, with £7,500
of charity capital, permitted the provision of
central heating and the addition of bedrooms to
two of the previously unpopular one-roomed
dwellings. (fn. 31)
Miss Hatch also in 1858 left £400 to support
an annual distribution to the deserving poor of
coal in November, and £300 likewise to provide
blankets, shirts, and petticoats at Old Michaelmas. (fn. 32) Of those funds, managed together and
invested to yield respectively £8 and £6 a year,
the coal charity was given in the 1860s in 1-2
cwt. each among up to 100 old people, especially
widows, and 40-80 large families. The clothing charity, after going briefly in ready-made
clothes, was by the 1880s distributed directly in
flannel and calico bought at local shops. In 1900,
when the charities' incomes were £10 and £8,
the combined total was, as from c. 1925, spent
on coal and clothing materials in alternate years.
From c. 1940 clothes rationing led to the whole
income being usually given in coal among large
families and the old and sick. (fn. 33) Although there
were few applicants except pensioners, clothing
was again apparently given in the 1950s. A
Scheme of 1958 allowed a wider use of the combined income, including small cash gifts. In
1994 the charity was wound up, the capital going
to improve the Hatch almshouses. (fn. 34)