LITTLEPORT
Littleport is a large parish on the eastern border of
the Isle, 5 miles north of Ely. The village stands on
a patch of high ground, rising to 65 ft., separated from
the Isle of Ely proper by the narrow Wood Fen. Inclosure, as in most Fenland parishes, has been gradual,
as reclamation proceeded, but though some 1,500 acres
had already been so treated in the early 17th century
and nearly 1,000 more were ready to be inclosed, the
area surrounding the village is still known as Littleport
Fields. In or before 1548, 28 acres of arable were
unlawfully inclosed and converted to pasture by eleven
persons, including Mr. Hopkyns, then lessee of the
manor, and Christopher Bryggs, vicar. (fn. 1) The final inclosure of the common fields did not take place until
1840. (fn. 2) There were five common fields, all south of the
village-East Field on the river side of the Ely road,
and Knowle, Mill, Down, and Gray Fields west of it.
An area of 546 acres was divided between thirty-seven
proprietors, by far the largest allotment (134 acres)
going to Henry Martin. Clare College and Thomas
Gillett (40 acres each), the Earl of Hardwicke, lord
of the manor (39 acres), and John Cutlack (35 acres)
were the other principal allottees. The first two and
the earl were among the 'principal landowners' in
Littleport in 1851. (fn. 3) The small Hemp Field, already
inclosed, just south of the road to Sandhill, is a reminder
that Littleport was one of the few parishes in the county
where, at the beginning of the 19th century, this crop
was grown, along with the typical fen crops of potatoes
and mustard. In 1801 the total cultivated area
amounted to just over 5,000 acres (rather less than
one-third of the total of the parish). Nearly 4,000 acres
were under oats. (fn. 4)
In the middle of the 18th century Carter, the historian of Cambridgeshire, remarked that it was as rare
to see a coach at Littleport as a ship at Newmarket, (fn. 5)
but the village is now well served with communications.
It is on the main road (A 10) from Ely to King's Lynn,
which is here crossed by an important fen cross-country
road, that from Wisbech to Mildenhall and Bury St.
Edmunds (A 1101), on the canalized River Cam, (fn. 6)
which is crossed just below the village by a bridge carrying the above roads; and on the Ely-Lynn branch
of the Eastern Region, British Railways, which was
opened in 1847 and has a station here. (fn. 7) The Littleport-Wisbech section of A 1101 was turnpiked under
an Act of 1824 (5 Geo. IV, c. lx) through the efforts
of the Revd. W. G. Townley of Upwell, at whose cost
the suspension bridge at Welney (now replaced by a
concrete structure) was erected in 1826. (fn. 8) The village
is a very large one, with a population greater than that
of several neighbouring market towns such as Downham Market and Mildenhall. (fn. 9) It is one of the few in
the county to have a non-agricultural industry, the shirt
factory of Messrs. Hope Bros., which employs some
300 persons. (fn. 10) A tradesman's token of 1668 has been
recorded. (fn. 11) Two serious fires occurred in 1707 and
1727. Collections for relief were made by brief. The
damage caused by the former fire was nearly £4,000. (fn. 12)
In the middle of the 19th century the place was making
considerable progress. The Removal of Nuisances Acts
(9 & 10 Vic., c. 96, amended by 11 & 12 Vic., c.123)
were vigorously enforced, and 'the town, which once
appeared to be immersed in mud and mire, now wears
the face of cleanliness and comfort, possessing good
roads, well-drained premises, paved footpaths and other
evidences of civilization ...'. (fn. 13) Such urban features as
a Gas Company (1867), Savings Bank (1868), and a
working-men's club have appeared. The third of these
is the Alexandra Institute, erected by Hope Bros. for
their employees. In 1879 a town hall was erected by
the Town Lands Trustees with some of the proceeds
of the charity estates. (fn. 14) In 1900 there was a town
crier. (fn. 15) The village boasts a weekly newspaper, the
Littleport Gazette, established 1879, and a cinema in
Hempfield Road. At the Constitutional Hall (1890)
films are also shown. The British Legion premises in
Silt Road (fn. 16) are a very handsome and substantial brick
building. The Grange, Ely Road, a house built about
1855 by Canon Sparke of Ely, and later occupied by
the Hope family, was used in 1914-18 as a home for
Belgian refugees and later for the internment of German prisoners of war. In 1920 it was purchased by
the Transport and General Workers' Union for a convalescent home. It has so continued except during
1939-45 when it was used as a R.A.F. hospital. The
various rooms were fitted up at the cost of Areas of the
Union. (fn. 17)
The rise of Littleport to the status of an urban village
is a comparatively modern feature. The recorded
population of 31 in 1086 approximates to the average
of the Isle vills. The 1251 Ely cartulary shows a large
number of novi feoffati, but, judging by the number of
'works' commuted for money payments round about
1300, Littleport was at that time the smallest of the
six episcopal vills in the southern part of the Isle. (fn. 18)
A return of 1563 (fn. 19) shows 80 householders, the same
number as in Downham but distinctly below many
neighbouring villages such as Haddenham, Stretham,
and Sutton. The ship money rating of 1639-40 was
£42 10s. for Littleport, again the same as Downham,
while Wisbech, Whittlesey, Ely, Haddenham, Elm,
and Chatteris were assessed more highly. (fn. 20) By 1676,
when there were 556 persons of communicant age in
Littleport, (fn. 21) it had become the largest village except
Haddenham, and the 1801 census returns show that it
had outpaced Haddenham by a considerable margin
and Thorney by a very slight one. (fn. 22) Thereafter development was rapid, a 150 per cent. increase being
recorded in the next half-century; this rate was considerably above the high average for the Isle as a whole.
At the 1851 census, 2,622 of the 3,832 inhabitants
of Littleport were natives of the parish. The proportion of natives (68 per cent.) is higher than might have
been expected, in view of the exceptional increase of
the previous half-century; it may be compared with
71 per cent. in Potterne (Wilts.), 68 per cent. in
Deddington (Oxon.), and 59 per cent. in Bottesford
(Leics.) at the same date. (fn. 23) Slightly earlier figures for
Castle Acre (Norfolk), a village more akin to Littleport
in its social structure and rate of growth, showed in
1843 that at least 103 of the 249 families had come to
the village from elsewhere. (fn. 24) The distribution of the
Littleport immigrants is interesting. Four hundred and
sixty-four, or 38 per cent. of them, came from the
immediately surrounding parishes. Ely (126) and
Downham (74) come first, but it is remarkable that 71
and 44 came from as far away as Mildenhall and
Welney respectively, and that the numbers from Lakenheath (38), which to this day is very difficult of access
from Littleport, should almost equal those from
Southery (42), the first village across the fen along the
Lynn road. One hundred and thirty-eight came from
other villages in the Isle, all of which were represented
except Thorney, Newton, and Tydd, and 83 from
elsewhere in Cambridgeshire. Three hundred and
eighty-five came from other parts of the eastern counties
(Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Huntingdonshire, the Soke,
and parts of Holland) as against 63 from the rest of
England. This bears out Professor Redford's conclusion that migration in the early 19th century was
mainly short-distance-from one county to or from its
immediate neighbours. (fn. 25) It is interesting to note the
presence of 12 Irish, 4 of whom were described as
'vagabonds'. (fn. 26)
There are very few secular buildings of any antiquity, and none of much architectural distinction. The
following, all dating from the late 18th or early 19th
centuries, may be mentioned. The Old Turk's Head
Inn, Granby Street; Nos. 7 and 8 Victoria Street;
No. 14 Wellington Street; and the house in Main
Street opposite the town hall.
The greater part of the parish is fen land, and north
and east from the village stretches an expanse that is
one of the loneliest pieces of country within a hundred
miles of London. It includes Burnt Fen (said to be so
called from having been burnt by Hereward the
Wake) (fn. 27) on the Cambridgeshire, and Feltwell Fens on
the Norfolk side of the Little Ouse. There are no made
roads between the one from Littleport to Shippea Hill
and Mildenhall and the one from Southery to Feltwell
nearly 6 miles away north-east, except the by-road to
the remote village of Little Ouse on the county boundary. Much of this potentially fertile land lay derelict
from lack of drainage and sheer inaccessibility until the
Second World War. 'A desolate country except in
harvest time under blazing sun, and quite without
interest except to the farmer who gets his living there. (fn. 28)
In 1638 the local justices had information of a
gathering of 600 men who were to meet in Whelpmore
(now Wheltmore) (fn. 29) Fen at 'a foot ball play or camp,
which camp should be called Anderson's camp, who
should bring an hundred strong with him'. Rain prevented this assembly, but 200 men, including some
from Lakenheath across the Suffolk border, met the
following day and threw down the Undertakers' drainage dikes. They did not hurt any man's person or
goods. Six men in all were committed to jail as a result
of these disturbances. (fn. 30) Whelpmore was at that time
common to Littleport, Ely, and Downham, and as late
as 1782 there was considerable doubt as to where the
boundary ran. One of the witnesses before an Exchequer commission, who was then 64 years of age,
stated that as a child he had been rowed to a house
called Lees Hill in a gunning boat. (fn. 31) Farther east, the
former extra-parochial place of Redmere, (fn. 32) originally
on the Norfolk but now on the Cambridgeshire side of
the Little Ouse, was transferred in 1895 from the
former to the latter county. It had at various times in
its history been associated with Methwold and Hockwold in Norfolk and Lakenheath in Suffolk. In 1933
Redmere was abolished as a civil parish and absorbed
into Littleport. (fn. 33) Another change involving county
boundaries took place in 1885, when a detached part
of Hilgay (Norf.) was added to Littleport or to
Southery according as it lay on the left or right bank
of the Little Ouse. (fn. 34)
Among the vicars or curates of Littleport have been
Edward Leeds (d. 1590), Master of Clare Hall and
a noted civil lawyer, George Townsend (1788-1857),
miscellaneous author, and G. B. Jermyn (1789-1857),
whose collections for a history of Suffolk are in the
British Museum. (fn. 35) Henry Moore, clerk to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, was living at Littleport in 1684;
Cole says that he 'was made use of by the Presbyterian
faction to stifle and conceal all evidence that could be
brought to prove [Godfrey's] self-murther'. (fn. 36)
In 1381 Thomas Ixning and Thomas Lyncoln of
Littleport led the rioters who burnt the Bishop of Ely's
court rolls at Balsham. (fn. 37)
Owing to discord amongst the inhabitants Thomas
Tawney, overseer, found it impossible to make an
assessment to the poor rate during the greater part of
1698-9. In consequence he spent £135 5s. in relief
but recovered in rates only £72 1s. 3d. An appeal was
made to the Queen's Bench, whence in 1703 a mandamus issued enjoining the churchwardens and overseers to make an assessment of the lesser or the greater
sum upon the assessable inhabitants and to pay Tawney
what was due to him, or else to show cause why not. (fn. 38)
Further proceedings have not been traced.
Littleport was one of the principal scenes of the
rioting that took place in the Isle in 1816. (fn. 39) The disturbances broke out at a benefit club meeting at the
Globe Inn on Wednesday, 22 May, when several
hundred people assembled, besides the 50 or 60 club
members. Various houses were broken into, including
those of the vicar (the Revd. J. Vachell, a magistrate), (fn. 40)
Messrs. Clark, Sindall, Speechley, and Mrs. Waddelow, and a post-chaise passing through the village was
robbed. Two days later, when the rioters withdrew
from Ely, they barricaded themselves in the George
and Dragon Inn at Littleport, and in the fight to dislodge them one rioter, Thomas Sindall, was killed, and
another and one of the militia severely wounded. The
pursuit and arrest of the rioters occupied several days,
some of them hiding in the fens. One of them took
refuge at Apes Hall, whence the then occupier, Mr.
Crystal, drove him 70 miles in his trap, thus enabling
him to escape completely. (fn. 41)
MANORS
LITTLEPORT, acquired by the church
of Ely at an unknown date, was in 1086
rated at 2½ hides (6 ploughs), 1 hide with
2 ploughs being then in demesne. There were 15 villeins, 13 of whom held 9 acres each and two, 12 acres.
There were 8 cottars and 8 serfs, and sufficient meadow
for the plough-teams and pasture for the cattle. The
value had been £7 when received, £6 in 1066, and
£10 in 1086. These high values, for which the hidage
alone could not have accounted, were made up by very
important fisheries, rendering 17,000 eels and 12s. 9d.
in tribute. The manor belonged, as it had always done,
to the demesne of Ely. (fn. 42)
Littleport was allotted to the bishop on the formation of the see of Ely in 1109, and remained in the
bishop's hand until the Elizabethan alienations. The
survey of Bishop de Fontibus (1221) (fn. 43) shows a demesne
of 277½ acres arable and 29½ meadow, 29 customary
tenants with holdings ranging from 18 to 5 acres, 15
cottars without land, and 12 fisheries rendering 26,500
eels. Thirty years later (fn. 44) the demesne was of approximately the same area, rated at 2 carucates and stocked
with 10 cows, a bull, 20 pigs, a boar, and 300 sheep.
There were 8 customary tenants cum plenis terris and
23 cum dimidiis terris, and 17 cottars. While these
figures show little increase upon those of 1221, there
were over 60 novi feoffati, (fn. 45) mainly at 'Apesholt',
holding nearly 500 acres of reclaimed land, usually at
1d. an acre. (fn. 46) With these last, the rents due in 1251
amounted to £3 4s. 7d., besides 40s. from the roseria
or rush ground of Rack Fen. The fisheries were now
called upon to produce 36,000 eels, besides 2,000
'bedrepeeles' from 'Mudyke' and 'Burewere'. These
fisheries had now become much subdivided, as was
usual by 1251 on the episcopal manors. There was also
a windmill, (fn. 47) valued at £3 6s. 8d., which dated from
the episcopate of Bishop Northwold (1229-54). The
tenants owed suit of multure. (fn. 48) In return for 40s. a
year Bishop Northwold had granted his tenants the
right to cut sedge and rushes in the marsh of Rackfen,
provided they were not sold outside the manor. (fn. 49) The
cottars had the duty of thatching the demesne corn
stacks with these reeds and rushes, and were responsible
for damage if it was badly done. (fn. 50) Customary services
included work on Aldreth causeway, and the inclosing
of the bishop's park at Downham with a ditch and his
garden at Ely with a wall. In 1286, 116 summer and
490 autumn works were commuted for 4s. 10d. and
£2 0s. 10d. respectively; in 1302 19s. was received for
477 works, in 1316 10s. 3d. for 246 works. (fn. 51)
In 1298-9 a total of £36 8s. 6¼d. was obtained from
Littleport manor. (fn. 52) Fisheries (£10 1s. 6¾d.) continued
to be the most profitable source of revenue, but rents
had gone up to £4 1s. 9d. and perquisites of court
amounted to £4 12s. 5d. The windmill brought in
£3 18s. 8d. (fn. 53) In 1302 the total receipts were £19 6s. 1d.
and in 1316 £23 16s. (fn. 54) The usual mid-14th-century
decrease in value is shown in the survey of 1356. (fn. 55)
Fisheries then accounted for only £4, and the rents of
customary tenants for £3 13s. 7d. The mill was let
for £1, and the demesne (let to farm for £2 3s. 4d.)
had shrunk to 125 acres of arable and a 10-acre
meadow, of which the stock and produce were valued
at £23. The manor house, not being an habitual residence of the bishop, was small (parva aula) but was
in better condition than many, e.g. Doddington and
Wisbech Castle, that were recognized palaces. All its
defects were stated to be repairable. Its farm buildings
included a windmill. (fn. 56) The right of free warren in
Littleport was confirmed to the bishop in 1399. (fn. 57) A
warren is mentioned in 1468, when Elias Cliderow and
his son Clement were put in charge of it. (fn. 58)
In 1541 the value of the manor was said to be
£36 7s. 5d., (fn. 59) and in 1548-9 it produced £55 15s. 9d.
gross, excluding arrears. (fn. 60)
During the Elizabethan vacancy (1581-1600) a
survey was taken, (fn. 61) showing the 'Berrystead' (fn. 62) with
280 acres of demesne let for £5 6s. 8d., rents of assize
of £28 4s. 10d., fisheries worth £6 a year, and ferry
tolls of £1 13s. 4d. The total capital value of the
manor, at forty years' purchase, was put down at
£1,640, but there were considerable differences of
opinion as to certain items. Thus the value of the
fisheries was variously estimated at £260 and £340, of
the ferry at £71 13s. 4d. and £76 13s. 4d., and of the
demesne at £273 6s. 8d. and £308 6s. 8d. There were
large commons, but 2,500 acres in the parish were
worth only 3d. an acre, presumably owing to poor
drainage. The occasion for this survey was probably the
lease (1592) of the manor to Richard Drake. (fn. 63) Previous
lessees had been John Cox and Richard Arkenstall,
son and nephew respectively of the late bishop. (fn. 64)
Littleport was one of the manors granted away from
the see by Bishop Heton on his appointment; (fn. 65) in 1602
it was purchased with all its appurtenances, except the
advowson, by Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the
Tower. (fn. 66)
During the reign of James I another survey was
made, with less ambiguous valuations. (fn. 67) The manor
house, with two barns, a stable, 160 acres of arable land
in the common fields, and 70 acres of good meadow
(worth nearly twice as much as the arable) was £158
in capital value. Fen ground, 1,490 acres in extent,
had been embanked and planted with willows and
divided into twelve plots of meadow. It was worth
£391 7s., the value of an acre varying from 6s. 8d. to
4s. There were also 294½ acres inclosed but not embanked, mostly in hand, worth 5d. an acre, and 200
acres (described as 'decreed to the lord but not yet
several') ready for inclosure. There were also 400 acres
capable of inclosure about which agreement had not
yet been reached. All these inclosed or inclosable lands
were valued at 4s. an acre. The vaccary of the medieval
bishops was represented by a dairy farm of 10 acres
with 100 cattle. There were 14 miles of fisheries
(£20), sheepwalk in the common fields for 500 sheep
(£10), 2 windmills (£8 together), and manorial perquisites of £40. The total value was computed at
£740 0s. 4d., the fee farm rent to the king being £41.
There were 'very many cottages' on the waste.
In 1618 Sir John Peyton, with his son John and
Alice John's wife, sold Littleport manor, with appurtenances including 5 mills and 2,000 acres of (arable)
land and 10 of wood, to Sir Thomas Josselyn for
£1,400. (fn. 68) Josselyn was lord of the manor four years
later, (fn. 69) but became financially embarrassed and had to
hand it over to Sir Miles Sandys, bt., of Wilburton,
and his son, Josselyn's creditors. The Sandys in turn
had difficulty in collecting the rents owing to the detention of deeds by Thomas Wadelowe and other tenants,
and failed to pay the king's fee farm rent. (fn. 70) It was
probably on the extinction of the Sandys baronetcy in
1654 (fn. 71) that the manor was purchased by Sir Edward
Partheriche or Partridge, who in that year refused to
pay an annuity of £50 (dating from the Josselyn
tenure) from Littleport manor to Eleanor, daughter of
Sir Robert Brooke. (fn. 72) The Partheriche family held the
manor until 1734, (fn. 73) when Edward, High Bailiff of
the Isle of Ely from 1726 to 1749, sold it to Lord
Chancellor Hardwicke, (fn. 74) whose family retained the
lordship until 1851 or later. (fn. 75) In the 1820's the net
profit averaged about £20 a year. Quit-rents produced
between £25 and £30 annually and fines up to about
£2. The expenses of the bailiff and steward were
£8 7s. In the early 1840's an annual court dinner was
held in March or April, for which £2 was set aside. (fn. 76)
In 1900 Mr. A. H. Irvine of Meldreth held the manor,
and in 1933 Mrs. J. Spearing and Mrs. W. L. Raynes.
By the opening of the 20th century no fewer than 13
'principal landowners' were enumerated, 6 being nonresident. (fn. 77)
The convent of Ely, as in other of the bishop's
manors, retained certain interests. In 1251 parcels of
land in Littleport, valued at 6s. 7d. and 5s., were appropriated to the infirmarian and to the almoner respectively. (fn. 78) In 1538-9 the convent's property, specified
as a mill called Monks Croft and an acre of arable land,
was worth 6s. 8d. (fn. 79) It was formally transferred to the
dean and chapter in 1541. (fn. 80)
A tenement called the Priesthouse has a long recorded history. It is first mentioned by implication in
1301 when an agreement was made between St. John's
Hospital, Ely, as rector, and the vicar, concerning tithes
of hay in Presthous fen. (fn. 81) In 1426 Henry Parys held
of the Bishop of Ely a messuage in Littleport called the
'Presteshous' and died so seised. (fn. 82) Fines were levied
upon the same property in 1590 and 1625, when the
appurtenances included a free fishery. (fn. 83) The Priesthouse was perhaps the old rectory house which was
rendered superfluous upon the appropriation of the
rectory.
REDMERE is mentioned in the 1251 cartulary of
Ely. (fn. 84) It lay between the bishop's manors of Littleport
and Feltwell and Methwold (Norf). In 1347 it was
described as a marsh belonging to Methwold and was
held by John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey of the king
in socage. (fn. 85) It followed the descent of Methwold for
about a century (fn. 86) as parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster.
At an uncertain date it was granted to Fotheringhay
College (Northants.), founded in 1411. (fn. 87) It was in the
possession of the college in 1535, and was then worth
£3 6s. 8d. and described as a lordship. (fn. 88) The postDissolution grantee was Sir Richard Lee, (fn. 89) who in 1553
had licence to alienate in fee a moiety of this 'manor'
with its 874 acres of moor, marsh, and fishery, to
Nicholas Bacon. (fn. 90) In the same year Lee conveyed
the other half to Sir Ambrose Jermyn of Rushbrooke
(Suff.). (fn. 91) The Bacon half passed in 1590 to Sir Robert
Wingfield, who died seised six years later; (fn. 92) the Jermyn
half was conveyed by Sir Robert, who succeeded his
father in 1577, to Henry Warner six years later. (fn. 93) By
1646 the Warner family were in possession of the
whole, (fn. 94) after which its history is unrecorded until its
constitution as a separate parish about 1868 (fn. 95) and
transfer from Norfolk to Cambridgeshire in 1895.
Bishop Gray in 1465 granted 20 acres and 1 rood
in his marsh of Littleport to the hospital of St. John
the Evangelist, Cambridge, in frank almoin at a yearly
rent of 1s. This parcel of land, called 'le Fenpole', lay
in Westmore, near plots belonging to St. John Baptist
Hospital, Ely. (fn. 96)
'Apesholt', now Apes Hall in the north of the parish,
the area newly reclaimed in the 13th century, was in
the 16th and 17th centuries in possession of the Guibon
family. In 1560 Anthony Guibon of Cockfield (Suff.)
leased it to Paul Gresham of Little Walsingham (Norf.)
together with tenements called 'Thameshouse' and
'Cowpers'. (fn. 97) His nephew William Guibon died seised
of these in 1612, being succeeded by his second son
Thomas, a minor. (fn. 98)
CHURCHES
During the episcopal vacancy of
1169-73 Geoffrey, Archdeacon of
Canterbury, accounted for tithes from
Littleport to the value of 11s. 5d. yearly. (fn. 99) The church
was appropriated to the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, Ely, by Bishop de Burgh in 1225, (fn. 1) but a vicarage
was not ordained until the latter part of the 13th
century (see below). This hospital was united shortly
afterwards with the hospital of St. John Baptist, Ely. (fn. 2)
After the suppression of the hospital the rectory must
in the first instance have gone to Clare Hall, (fn. 3) but in
1720 a seventeen-year lease of it was made by Richard
Bigg and others to Thomas Marsh. (fn. 4) Cole records the
final verdict (1772) in a lawsuit between the vicar and
lay rector, the latter having claimed corn tithes from
the severals and fens, basing his claim on his rights in
common law as impropriator. The vicar won the case,
which was regarded as a leading one in the neighbouring parishes. (fn. 5)
In 1217 and 1254 the church was valued at £10. (fn. 6)
Another valuation, probably of 1276, raised it to £20. (fn. 7)
It was probably shortly after this date that the vicarage
was instituted, at the customary third (£6 13s. 4d.) of
the total value. (fn. 8) By 1291 the vicarage had been reduced to £5; at this date and again in 1535 the appropriated rectory was returned with the spiritualities of
the Ely hospital. (fn. 9) In 1414 a further reduction, made
by order of the Archbishop of Canterbury, reduced
the value of the vicarage to £4, (fn. 10) but in 1535 it had
risen again to £8. (fn. 11) In 1301 it was agreed between
St. John's Hospital, Ely, and the vicar that the tithes
of hay in 'Presthous' fen should be paid in kind and
equally divided between the two parties. All other hay
tithes were to be paid in money, of which the hospital
was to take 3s. 4d. and the vicar the remainder.
Another composition in respect of tithes was made
between the master and brethren of the hospital and
the vicar in 1384. (fn. 12)
The advowson of the parish church has always been
with the bishops of Ely, as has that of the daughter
churches of St. John Evangelist, Little Ouse (1869),
and St. Matthew, Littleport (1878). (fn. 13)
The patronal festival (St. George's Day) falls in
spring. The date proving an inconvenient one, the
village feast was altered in 1768 to the Tuesday after
5 November. (fn. 14)
Littleport had four guilds-St. George and Corpus
Christi (1377), St. John Baptist (1380), and St. Mary
(1382). The first two were unusual in making allowances of 3d. a week to indigent members whilst funds
lasted. (fn. 15) St. Mary's guild hall was in 1571 granted
to Richard Hill and Robert Don. (fn. 16) This was probably
the messuage of that name granted in 1747 by Aungier
Peacock for charitable purposes. (fn. 17) Certain property of
the Downham guild, specified as 50 acres of land and
6 'holtes' (18 acres) of marsh, with a tenement called
Bartrams, 4 cottages, and a croft called Chamber Croft,
with 2s. 6d. rent, lay in Littleport. (fn. 18)
Plan of St. George's Church
The church of ST. GEORGE, Littleport, consists
of chancel, north organ chamber and vestry, south
chapel, clerestoried nave, two north aisles, north porch,
south aisle, south porch, and west tower. The fabric
was almost entirely rebuilt late in the 15th century with
the exception of the west bay of the north arcade, which
is of 14th-century date. In 1857 the church was
drastically restored, when the north aisle was rebuilt
and enlarged and a second north aisle added. The
vestry and organ chamber, which are eastward extensions of these aisles, are also modern. The whole church
was re-roofed at this time: the roofs are slated. The
chancel has a modern east window of five lights, and
there are diagonal buttresses with three set-offs. There
is a window on the north and south of the chancel
of three lights with cinquefoiled heads. The chancel
opens to the south chapel by a four-centred arch with
moulded caps and bases. There is a plain piscina in
the chancel with a four-centred head, chamfered, and
a stone credence shelf. The chancel opens to the organ
chamber by a modern two-centred arch. The chancel
arch is four-centred and of two orders; the outer order
has continuous mouldings, and the inner shafts with
moulded caps and bases. The fenestration of the south
chapel is similar to the lateral windows in the chancel.
In the south wall there is a plain doorway with a fourcentred and chamfered head. The chapel opens to the
south aisle by a four-centred arch of two orders dying
into the wall.
The nave has arcades of four bays, the arches of
which are similar to the chancel arch except the west
bay on the north, which has an octagonal column and
semi-octagonal respond with moulded caps and bases
supporting an arch of two orders, and is of 14th-century
date. The clerestory has windows of two lights with
cinquefoiled heads; the tracery on the north has been
removed to the inner north aisle, which is also clerestoried. The two-centred tower arch is of two orders
with moulded caps and bases to the inner order of the
responds. The two north aisles terminate in a line with
the west face of the tower. The arcade between the
two aisles is modern and similar to those of the nave.
The windows of the south aisle are of three lights with
cinquefoiled heads, without tracery, and date from the
15th century. The windows of the old north aisle,
which are similar, are now in the outer north aisle, to
which they were removed when the church was enlarged. The aisle buttresses have two set-offs, those on
the north being modern.
The roofs are modern, but that of the nave has eight
medieval wooden angels, which have lost their wings,
attached to the bases of the intermediates. The south
porch is of 15th-century date with a four-centred arch
of two orders, the inner with moulded caps and bases.
The south doorway has continuous mouldings. The
north porch is entirely modern.
The tower, a fine example of 15th-century design,
is of four stages with an embattled parapet and angle
buttresses with four set-offs. There is a stair turret at
the south-east angle reaching to the parapet, the upper
part of which is semi-octagonal. There is a west
window of three cinquefoiled lights in the second stage;
the third stage has three two-light windows with
cinquefoiled heads on the north, south, and west sides.
The windows of the belfry are of three lights with
cinquefoiled heads, and the parapet is of brick. There
is no west doorway. There was formerly a passage
running through the base of the tower from north to
south, separated from the church by a thin partition
wall with a ringers' gallery above; the north entrance
is now completely blocked but the south still exists,
though it has had a modern doorway and door inserted.
The entrance to the tower stairway is by a door in the
south-east angle, which has a moulded arch and chamfered jambs. The ringers' gallery has a 17th-century
rail serving as a parapet on the east.
The font is of 15th-century date with an octagonal
bowl having quatrefoils in the panels. There is a massive iron-bound chest with rounded cover dated 1672.
There are two massive benches with moulded poupée
heads having a shield charged with a lion rampant, and
another bench with poupée heads of less massive construction, all being of 15th-century date. At the west
end of the inner north aisle is preserved the old north
door, a fine piece of medieval carpentry, with a band
of leaf carving round the frame and plain old hinges.
The plate includes a communion cup and paten
cover of silver, 1570; a paten of silver, 1830; an almsdish of silver, 1829; a flagon of glass; a silver-plated
memorial chalice of 1916; and a paten of 1928. The
1830 paten and the alms-dish were the gift of Bishop
Sparke of Ely (1812-36).
The tower contains eight bells by Warner, 1891.
There were formerly four, three by John Draper of
Thetford (1st, 1640; 2nd, 1622; 3rd, 1624).
The registers begin in 1754 (marriages), 1756
(burials), and 1783 (baptisms). The earlier registers
were destroyed during the Littleport Riots in 1816.
The church of ST. JOHN EVANGELIST, Little
Ouse, stands in a remote position on the Norfolk
boundary, 2 miles from the Littleport-Mildenhall
road. It was erected in 1869 at the cost of Canon E. B.
Sparke, Rector of Feltwell and son of Bishop Sparke.
It is a building of flint with stone dressings and slate
roof, consisting of chancel with north vestry and organ
chamber, nave, and north-west tower with pyramidal
slated roof. The ground stage of the tower forms a
porch. The weather vane is in the form of a dragon.
The tower contains three bells. The registers begin
in 1867. The parish was formed the previous year
from Littleport and the following Norfolk parishes-
Feltwell St. Mary, Feltwell St. Nicholas, Hilgay, and
Southery.
The church of ST. MATTHEW, on the road to
Welney and Wisbech, stands about 2 miles from Littleport town. It was erected in 1878 and is a brick
structure consisting of chancel, transepts, nave, south
porch, and west turret containing one bell. The
registers begin in 1878, in which year the parish was
formed from Littleport, Ely Holy Trinity, Ely St.
Mary, and Downham.
NONCONFORMITY
There was a Baptist congregation at Littleport during
the Interregnum. About 1655
its elders, Samuel and Ezekiel Cater, seceded to the
Friends with 10 of the members, leaving 22 in the congregation. (fn. 19) In 1676 there were 67 Dissenters amongst
Littleport's 556 persons of communicant age, but no
Papists. (fn. 20) Licences for various Nonconformist meeting-houses were issued-to Thomas Young in 1747,
to Rebeccah Godson in 1750, to James Clarke in
1754. (fn. 21) The denominations of the licensees, however,
are not recorded, and it is not possible to connect them
either with the Baptists mentioned above, or with the
numerous Nonconformist chapels which were later
established in Littleport.
A Particular Baptist church was founded in 1834
and a Calvinistic Baptist church in 1841. Neither of
these was in association with the Baptist Union, and
in 1851 the congregations were quite small. Both are
now closed. (fn. 22)
The Methodists were established somewhat earlier.
Their church in High Street dates originally from
1806, and was rebuilt in 1890 when the old building
became a Sunday school. In 1851 its congregation of
380 (including 100 Sunday scholars) was equal to those
of all the other Nonconformist chapels put together,
and was about two-thirds of that of the parish church. (fn. 23)
This was a Wesleyan church, and other chapels of this
denomination were established at Dairy Houses (1840)
and Black Horse Drove (1843). Both of these are in
use today (1951), though that at Black Horse Drove
was rebuilt towards the end of the 19th century.
Another chapel was opened about 1916 on Mildenhall
Road near the Little Ouse turning; this was closed
during 1939-45, and the iron building has since been
sold and demolished. (fn. 24) The Primitive Methodists
opened a church in Victoria Street in 1845, having
been established as a congregation ten years earlier.
This church was restored in 1871. The Primitive
Methodist chapel at Little Ouse (Morley Theobald
Memorial) dates from 1910. Both of these are still
in use.
The Independent church (Salem) in Globe Street
dates from 1850. The Salvation Army barracks in City
Road were established between 1904 and 1908. (fn. 25)
SCHOOLS
In 1789 Littleport was one of the sixtyeight Cambridgeshire parishes without a
school, but nine years later three small
unendowed day schools had sprung up, whose unlicensed masters taught from the Bible and Prayer
Book. (fn. 26) One of these schools, or a successor, adopted
the monitorial system of the National Society as early
as 1819. (fn. 27) Nevertheless the parish lagged behind many
in its educational equipment, and when the society
made its inquiry in 1846-7 only 130 children, in a
population of over 3,500, were being taught-about
50 of them on Sundays only. (fn. 28) In 1847, however, a
National School, 'a handsome building', (fn. 29) was erected
in Wisbech Road, near the church, and a master
appointed at a salary of £36 a year, without house.
This school, which cost £1,756, provided 172 places
in the first instance, and was in 1871 supplemented by
an infants' school for 100 at a cost of £413. (fn. 30) Attendance in 1867, by which date the school seems to have
been enlarged, averaged 151 boys and 117 girls during
the winter. In summer, owing to the gang system, the
numbers were only 85 and 67 respectively. (fn. 31) Provision
for the outlying districts was made by other National
Schools at Fen and Dairy Houses, at the end of Hale
Drove (1869), and Little Ouse (1870); these buildings
were combined schools and mission churches. The
total accommodation provided (about 400 places) was,
however, still inadequate, and in 1874 a School Board
was formed, (fn. 32) which provided two more outlying
schools at Black Horse Drove (1874) and at Westlands
in Littleport St. Matthew (1900). Between 1874 and
1885 the Board took over the four National Schools.
The Town Schools (fn. 33) were enlarged in 1885 to take
537 children. Further enlargements were made in
1909-10 and 1922 to keep pace with the population
and to counteract the reduced capacity that would have
resulted from the adoption of improved standards of
accommodation. After the second enlargement there
were places for 552 (207 boys, 212 girls, and 133
infants). In the early part of the Second World War
the presence of evacuees made it necessary to hire additional temporary accommodation in the Salvation Army
Hall (boys), Alexandra Hall (girls), and Primitive
Methodist Hall (infants). To replace the halls upon
their surrender, two additional classrooms and a staff
room were provided in the shape of a hut at the infants'
department in 1950.
In 1894 an infants' school for 80 was erected at the
Littleport end of Ten Mile Bank. Before 1910 it
was enlarged to provide 108 places, reduced to 94 in
that year. In 1923 there were only 25 children in
attendance and the school was closed. The buildings
were sold nine years later for £300. (fn. 34)
Black Horse Drove and Little Ouse Schools are both
near the Norfolk border, and take children from that
county. This has led to overcrowding. At Black Horse
Drove in 1932 there were 114 children on the roll and
recognized accommodation for only 75. The overflow
was taught in the Wesleyan Sunday school. The school
had been on the black list for some time owing to its
dangerous structural condition. A new school was
therefore built, providing 80 places at a cost of over
£3,000, and renamed at its opening (1937) the Coronation County Primary Junior Mixed and Infants' School.
There were 38 children on the books in 1949. (fn. 35)
The Little Ouse School was housed in very poor
premises-an iron hut used also as a mission room,
which still exists. Shortly before the First World War
a new site was bought and a teacher's house erected,
but the school itself was not furnished with new buildings until 1927. They are an attractive example of
semi-permanent timber construction. (fn. 36)
Also in Little Ouse village, on the Norfolk side of
the river, is Feltwell Fen School, known until 1929 as
Feltwell Anchor School. This was built by Feltwell
School Board in 1889 for 60 children at a cost of £650,
and was enlarged by a classroom for 27 infants in 1914,
after a merger with the Little Ouse (Isle) School had
been rejected. In the great floods of 1915, 1916, and
1917 the buildings were used as a refuge for homeless
families. (fn. 37)
The Westlands School also started in converted
mission-room premises (1900), but unlike Little Ouse
was a provided school from the outset. The original
accommodation was for 48. In 1921 the County
Council purchased a new site slightly nearer Littleport,
on which an army hut to hold 80 was erected as
temporary accommodation. No permanent buildings,
however, were ever erected, and in January 1932 the
seniors were transferred to Littleport Town; the remaining 28 juniors followed in September of the same
year. (fn. 38)
Fen and Dairy Houses School originally (1869) provided 100 places, reduced in 1910 to 83. This school
was leased by the church authorities to the School
Board in 1874. It stood in a very remote position in
the fen, more than 6 miles north of the village, and the
average attendance had dropped to 31 in 1938 and 25
in 1943. The school was therefore closed the following
year, and the children transferred to the Town Schools. (fn. 39)
CHARITIES
In 1747 Aungier Peacock gave a
messuage called the guildhall (fn. 40) and 27½
acres of land for the maintenance of a
causeway and the relief of the poor. Under the Bedford Level Act of 1677, 158 acres were allotted as
Town Lands. By 1837 these Lands with Peacock's
bequests were being let for £430 a year. The Commissioners of 1837 also recorded the existence of Fleet's
charity, of unknown date, valued at £100, and two
small charities producing £5 10s. a year. In 1837 all
these charities were given indiscriminately to the poor
in clothing, coals, and money. There were also 21 tenements inhabited rent free by the poor, one of which
was said to have been given to the parish under the
will of Robert Allison (1593). (fn. 41) In 1875 the Town
Lands were regulated by a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners, and in 1879 the Trustees built a town hall
with some of the proceeds of the charitable estates. (fn. 42)