THORNEY
This large parish (fn. 1) is of a different type from the
others in Wisbech hundred. Its nucleus is an island of
gravel, not very perceptible except from the west, but
rising to 25 ft. above sea-level, or some 15 to 20 ft.
above the surrounding fen. Reclamation has proceeded
outwards from this nucleus, resulting in an oblong area
some 6 miles east to west by 4 miles north to south.
The parishes near Wisbech, whose nuclei are on sites
just behind the 'Roman Bank', are quite differently
constituted, with narrow frontages to the Bank and
long extensions into the fen. Since, moreover, Thorney
is on peat and not on silt fen, the orchards and market
gardens which are such a feature of the Wisbech area
are largely absent, (fn. 2) potatoes, cereals, and sugar-beet
taking their place. There is also a larger area of
pasture. (fn. 3)
Thorney is the only village in the Isle to have been
for a long period the sole property of an occasionally
resident landlord (the successive earls and dukes of
Bedford), and the conspicuously neat aspect of the
planned 'estate village' contrasts abruptly with that of
its neighbours. The Bedford family has earned a
reputation for enlightened estate management, especially
in the matter of housing, and at the present time the
limits of Thorney, though undefined by any natural
landmark, are sufficiently discernible from the superior
quality of the buildings within them. By the end of the
19th century over 300 cottages, of a total of some 450
in the parish, had been provided by the dukes, who
made a practice of leasing them on direct weekly
tenancies so as to avoid the drawback of the tied cottage. (fn. 4) The first village schools, the water-supply, and
the fire station were also provided at the sole cost of
the landlords. There is probably no village in England
with a more extensive display of well-designed Victorian cottage architecture. The work of house-building
has been energetically continued by the Thorney Rural
District Council. Although this body controls one of
the smallest areas in England, as regards both population and rateable value, (fn. 5) it had up to 1939 provided
34 houses, which with 14 built by private enterprise
represented 8.1 per cent. of the total. This proportion
was far above the average for rural districts of the size
of Thorney, and slightly above the average for the
country at large. (fn. 6)
The munificence of a great landowner has not
hindered the rise of a strong community spirit; it is
interesting to note that two of the five Community
Centres sponsored by the County Council have been
established at Thorney village and Wryde Croft. (fn. 7) The
Rose and Crown Inn was acquired by the People's
Refreshment House Association in 1899 and was one
of their earliest properties. (fn. 8)
Francis, 4th Earl of Bedford, was granted the right
to a market and two fairs at Thorney in 1634, (fn. 9) a
privilege which was renewed to Wriothesley, 2nd
Duke, in 1716. (fn. 10) The market was discontinued in
1830, but the fairs, for horses and cattle, were still
much patronized in 1879; (fn. 11) they were held on 1 July
and 21 September.
The village is situated where the main road from
Peterborough to Wisbech (A 47) is crossed by that
from Whittlesey to Crowland (B 1040), somewhat
west of the centre of the parish. The former road is
now one of the main cross-country routes of England
(Leicester-Norwich); it was turnpiked from Peterborough to Thorney in 1792 and on to Wisbech in
1810. (fn. 12) In the 14th century there was a monastic
grange at Wryde, (fn. 13) in the east centre of the parish,
and there is a certain amount of diffused settlement,
known generically as Wryde Croft, along the road
leading north from the main Wisbech road towards
Gedney Hill; also at Knarr Fen, along the droves south
of the Wisbech road; and at Thorney Toll on the
eastern boundary. All these places have modern chapels
and schools. (fn. 14) The railway from Peterborough to
Sutton Bridge, opened in 1866, (fn. 15) crosses the centre of
the parish, with stations at Thorney and Wryde. The
line from March to Spalding (1867) (fn. 16) crosses thenortheast corner and has a station (French Drove and
Gedney Hill) just across the Lincolnshire border.
French Drove and French Farm in the extreme
north of the parish recall the settlement in the 17th
century of French and Walloon refugees, who helped
in the reclamation and long remained an important
element in Thorney. The refugees were first admitted
on condition of being allowed to sell at any market,
and of being exempt from service overseas for 40 years,
and from subsidies and fifteenths. (fn. 17) They held services in the church under their own pastors, (fn. 18) who kept
a separate register from 1654 to 1727. (fn. 19) The settlement was fairly large; the register shows an average of
29 births a year in 1654-63, 37.9 in 1664-73, and 26
in 1764-83. After this date numbers began to diminish, partly no doubt owing to intermarriage and
absorption in the general community. In the 10 years
1714-23 there was an average of only 7.9 births per
year, and 7 in the last 4 years to 1727. (fn. 20) Cole, writing
in 1744, mentions that French was still spoken by the
descendants of the refugees in private conversation, (fn. 21)
and a court roll of 1748 shows 7 French names among
the 28 jurors. (fn. 22) Gardner's Directory of 1851 (fn. 23) shows
a few names, such as Barron, Bellamy, Charity, and
Provost, which may be of French origin, but these have
now died out.
Thorney Mill is mentioned in a 1470 commission
de walliis et fossatis, (fn. 24) and the manorial appurtenances
in 1787 were stated to include as many as ten mills,
though some of them may have been for drainage purposes only. (fn. 25) A windmill still stands in the village on
the Peterborough Road, but is now derelict. In the
18th and 19th centuries the Wing family, descendants
of Vincent Wing the astronomer, were agents to the
dukes of Bedford. John Wing (1752-1812) was in
1788 the subject of scurrilous attacks in connexion
with a proposed new tax on the North Level. (fn. 26) Two
companies of volunteer infantry, numbering in all 145
men, were raised between 1803 and 1805. (fn. 27)
The manor house, commonly called Abbey House, (fn. 28)
is situated to the west of the church and is a large stone
structure of various dates. The east wing is of the
second half of the 16th century and was probably
erected soon after the site of the monastery was granted
(1550) to the 1st Earl of Bedford. It retains some
original stone-mullioned windows, including a pleasant
two-storied oriel with gabled top, on the south side.
The east front was altered in the 18th century, and the
brick chimney-stacks are probably of the same period.
The main portion of the house is to the west, and is a
particularly good example of mid-17th-century work.
There is reason to believe that it was designed by John
Webb, the nephew and pupil of Inigo Jones, as it has a
marked similarity to his work at Thorpe Hall, Peterborough. (fn. 29) There is a fine staircase rising to the garrets,
with turned balusters and ball and acanthus cup finials.
Several of the rooms, particularly the dining-room,
retain their panelling, and there are some good woodenframed doorways. The house was enlarged towards the
north in the 19th century. The roofs are covered with
stone slates. To the north of the house is a 16th-century
barn.
Thorney, as an 'estate village' near the stone belt,
contains more examples of good domestic architecture
than most villages in the Isle. The following houses,
besides those above-mentioned, date from the 18th
century. In Whittlesey Road: Nos. 1 and 2, and J. W.
Harrison's premises. In Wisbech Road: Nos. 5, 6, 7
and 7A, and 14 to 17. Also Park House, and the premises occupied by Hugh Cure, and (outside the village),
Willow Hall and Prior's Farm. St. Vincent's Cross,
in the north-west corner of the parish on the road to
Crowland, dates from the 15th century; it is now
headless.
MANOR
During the Middle Ages what is now the
parish of THORNEY was of little or no
account except as the site and home farm
or demesne of the abbey, (fn. 30) and references to it apart
from the abbey are very scanty. The boundary with
the Ely Cathedral priory property in Wisbech Murrow
was adjusted in 1248. The Prior and Convent of Ely
recognized 200 acres between the dike dividingThorney and Wisbech marshes on the east, the alder
wood of 'Estdelf, 'Bingebrigge', 'Midfentre' and
'Eldethorneyweye' as Thorney property. Thorney in
return quitclaimed 400 acres of marsh called 'Eldegore'
to Ely. (fn. 31) A manor of Thorney is mentioned c. 1458, (fn. 32)
and the abbot had the right of free warren in his
demesnes, although the recorded breaches of this may
equally well refer to his share of Whittlesey Mere or
other possessions in the neighbourhood as to Thorney
itself. (fn. 33)
In 1291, when the abbey was at the height of its
prosperity, its temporalities in Thorney were valued
at £46 19s. (fn. 34) In 1539-40 the value had fallen to
£34 13s. 4d. (fn. 35) This does not suggest an important
estate, when allowance is made for the monastic buildings themselves. It is significant that no part of those
buildings was converted into a church until long after
the Dissolution, and that no grant of a market at
Thorney was ever made to the abbot. The surrender
was signed by the abbot and twenty monks, who may
perhaps have had some 100 persons dependent upon
them as servants and farm staff; these with their
families would not have amounted to more than a fairsized village.
Robert Moulton or Blyth, the last abbot, like many
of his contemporaries demised portions of the abbey
lands shortly before the Dissolution. The site of the
monastery itself was leased for eighty years from 1538
to Walter Williams or Crumwell, (fn. 36) of Chatteris, the
lease being converted into a twenty-one-year term by
the Crown in 1541. (fn. 37) In 1550 the site of the monastery
and its possessions in Thorney were granted outright
to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, (fn. 38) whose family
held them until 1910, when the 11th Duke sold the
Thorney Estate to the tenant farmers. (fn. 39) In 1545 the
keepership of Thorney Chase was granted to Edward
Elryngton. (fn. 40)
A survey of 1574 (fn. 41) shows 240 acres of upland ground,
160 acres of wood with 1,000 oaks worth £500, and
an unspecified amount of pasture worth 6s. 8d. an acre
with £100 worth of timber. The total annual value of
this part of the estate was £200. There were also
16,000 acres of fen, formerly dry but at the time of the
survey waterlogged. The ground of the fen was worth
6d. an acre and the reeds and willows growing on it
£200. The timber and what remained of the monastic
buildings were valued at £1,000. (fn. 42) The total area of
the estate, upland and fen, was put at 17,760 acres.
This estimate coincides almost exactly with the area of
Thorney parish before the recent changes of boundary
which was 17,802 acres of land and 40 of water. The
Elizabethan and modern statutory acres, however, are
not necessarily equivalent. If, as Browne Willis says,
the moat surrounding the precincts was a mile long and
20 feet broad, (fn. 43) the precincts themselves must have
contained about 40 acres.
The first proposal to redrain the Thorney fens was
made in 1626 by Robert Tipper and John Gason, (fn. 44)
and from 1630 (fn. 45) Francis 4th Earl, the first of his family
to take an active interest in the Thorney estate, and his
fellow Adventurers, accomplished a good deal with the
professional help of Vermuyden. (fn. 46) In the early days
of the 4th Earl's tenure (1629) only some 300 to 400
acres around the site of the abbey, let at £300 a year,
were cultivable. (fn. 47) The market grant of 1634, and the
re-edification of the church between 1636 and 1638,
show how rapid was the progress of draining. The earl
is said to have spent £100,000 on the work, making
himself practically bankrupt. The area was declared
to be drained at a Session of Sewers held at St. Ives in
1637, (fn. 48) but the following year the excuse offered for
not collecting the £20 ship money due from Thorney
was that the place was inaccessible in winter. (fn. 49) More
over, floods continued to cause great damage in some
years, notably at the end of 1672, when a west wind
backing south caused the upland waters to overflow all
the country between Crowland, Spalding, Wisbech,
and Ely. Many cattle were then drowned and houses
flooded, and the colza crop, planted to provide lamp
oil and also used in wool manufacture, totally lost. (fn. 50)
Damage on a similar scale occurred in 1770, when the
north bank of Moreton's Learn burst at Abel's Gull.
After this a farm of 407 acres at English Drove,
Thorney, several miles from the breach, had to be let
at £20 for the first and £200 for the next six years, the
tenancy to be determinable if there was a fresh breach. (fn. 51)
Nevertheless, under Francis's son William, 5th Earl
and 1st Duke, Thorney had risen sufficiently to be
considered a town by the traveller Gregorio Leti, who
mentions that the earl had tamed six stags in his park
here 'with a continual noise of drums, harps and other
musical instruments', and presented them to Charles I
to draw the royal coach. (fn. 52) At the outbreak of the Civil
War the earl (fn. 53) was made General of the Horse in the
Parliamentary army, but after the failure of an attempt
at mediation he joined the Royalists and his estates were
sequestrated. (fn. 54) There is no record that the estates were
granted out, and they were in any case restored in July
1644 after the earl had returned to the Parliamentary
cause.
After the Restoration the drainage and improvement
of the Thorney estate began to justify itself; most of
the corn used in the ducal household at Woburn, and
many of the bullocks, came from Thorney. (fn. 55) In the
middle of the 18th century the manor was for a short
time leased to the Markham family. (fn. 56) About this time
Cole remarked that 'within these 20 years [1724-44]
Thorney is quite another thing from what it was, being
handsomely adorned with many good buildings, and
particularly with a very noble Inn as big as a College'. (fn. 57)
Between 1583 and 1787 the manor of Thorney was
on many occasions the subject of family settlements
among the Russells. (fn. 58)
The later history of Thorney is uneventful, but of
some interest as that of a compact agricultural estate of
20,000 acres carefully administered. (fn. 59) At the beginning
of the 19th century the estate showed a profit. Its
average income was then nearly £10,000. The agricultural depression of the last quarter of the century
was, however, severely felt. Deficits were incurred in
five years between 1879 and 1895, (fn. 60) and the proportion
of net to gross income fell from 42 per cent. between
1816 and 1835 to 19 per cent. between 1876 and 1895.
At the end of the century the average income was only
about £5,000 a year, representing only 21/7 per cent. on
new capital outlay with no allowance for death duties.
But the duke could claim that he had never evicted a
tenant, and that Thorney was a healthy village with a
minimum of crime and no pauperism. Thorney in fact
came as near as any in the country to the ideal of 'a
wealthy landowner understanding the economics of
agriculture, a farmer master of its practice, a village not
over-populated, (fn. 61) with pure water, decent houses,
allotments and a school' instanced by a present-day
writer as 'the most successful experiment in social
organization that England had so far seen'. (fn. 62) The
various earls and dukes of Bedford are said to have
spent nearly £2 million in all on their Thorney
estate. (fn. 63)
CHURCHES
It is not known how the spiritual
needs of the abbey tenants in Thorney
were provided for in the Middle Ages.
Neither rectory nor vicarage is mentioned in the Taxatio
or the Valor Ecclesiasticus. (fn. 64) In consequence of the
terms of the grant of the abbey estates to the 1st Earl
of Bedford, the abbey church when it was restored to
religious use in the 17th century was treated as a
donative of the Russells. It continued to be so treated
until c. 1894. (fn. 65) The advowson was with the Dukes of
Bedford until the sale of the estate, and has subsequently been with the Bishop of Ely. (fn. 66)
There are Anglican chapels at Wryde Croft (1877)
and Knarr Fen (1890). (fn. 67) There is also a mission church
at North Side, served by the clergy of St. Andrew's,
Whittlesey. It is an iron building erected c. 1902 (fn. 68)
at the cost of the 11th Duke of Bedford and dedicated
to St. Guthlac. There is another Anglican place of
worship at Willow Hall (c. 1930).
The church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN AND
ST. BOTOLPH consists of north and south transepts
and nave. The former are modern, but the latter consists of the five western bays of the great conventual
church, which had a total length of nearly 300 feet.
It was dismantled after the suppression in 1539 and the
site granted to the Earl of Bedford. In 1638 the
western portion of the nave was patched up to serve
as a parish chapel. The aisles were destroyed and the
arcades walled up, the windows from the aisles being
inserted in this walling. The clerestory was also
removed and the triforium openings filled with 15thcentury tracery from some other part of the building,
possibly the clerestory. The whole was covered with a
coved plaster ceiling. In 1841 the transept was added
in tolerable imitation of 12th-century work. There was
further restoration in 1888 when the galleries were
removed and the church reseated. The old portion of
the fabric is a splendid example of Romanesque design,
resembling Ely and Peterborough, and dates from the
beginning of the 12th century. In the 15th century
the west front was considerably altered, a large window
being inserted and the flanking turrets crowned with
octagonal tops.
The chancel is arranged in the crossing, and there is
a large pointed single-light east window with internal
jamb shafts having moulded caps and bases. The tran
septs have plain round-headed windows of Romanesque
character, and there are lofty round-headed arches at
the crossing. In the south transept is a large organ gallery added in 1888, the space beneath which is utilized
as a vestry. The transepts are covered by a plain barrel
vaulting and the crossing by a groined vault.
The nave (fn. 68a) has arcades of five bays of early 12thcentury date with rounded arches of two orders, the
outer with a roll moulding and the inner plain. The
massive columns are alternately round and clustered
with cushion caps and moulded bases; the responds
are semicircular. The triforium has rounded arches of
two orders with roll mouldings, springing from shafts
with cushion caps and moulded bases. There are
circular vaulting shafts running up the face of the
columns. A small portion of the clerestory remains on
both sides at the west end, but it is now entirely
external; on the south it consists of a rounded arch with
continuous roll moulding, but the northern section has
billet moulding. Both openings are now blocked. The
triforium is surmounted externally by an embattled
parapet dating from the 17th-century restoration. The
arcades and triforium are fitted with uniform windows
of 15th-century date with three cinquefoiled lights.
Both nave and transepts have high-pitched external
roofs covered with stone slates. The west front is a
very interesting composition and exhibits work of three
distinct periods. It is flanked by large square turrets
of the 12th century, which are surmounted by 15thcentury octagonal tops richly panelled and with embattled parapets. The rest of the façade is mainly of
15th-century date. The doorway is deeply recessed
and of four orders with jamb shafts having moulded
caps and bases. The wall on either side is panelled in
two tiers, and above is a string-course with faces
alternating with conventional flowers. In the spandrels
is the date 1638, which must refer to the window
above. There is an inner doorway with ogee hoodmould terminating in a finial. The large five-light west
window is set within the arch of one much larger; it
has an embattled transom with trefoiled lights below
and cinquefoiled above and was inserted in 1638;
there is an ogee hood-mould with finial at the apex.
Above the blocked larger window is a string-course,
and the spandrels are panelled. A stone screen connects the octagonal turrets, with nine canopied niches
on its western face containing contemporary figures
in good preservation; it is uncertain whom they are
intended to portray.
Plan of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Botolph
The east window contains stained glass inserted
nearly a hundred years ago which is remarkably good
for its period. It depicts the miracles of St. Thomas
of Canterbury and is a copy of some 13th-century glass
in Canterbury Cathedral. In the lower easternmost
window on both sides of the nave is late 15th-century
Flemish glass; on the north is the Mocking, the Women
on their way to the Sepulchre, and the Harrowing of
Hell; on the south the Denial of St. Peter, the Supper
at Emmaus, and the Pieta. The second, third, and
fourth windows on the north have the following shields
of arms respectively: Russell, early 19th century; John
of Gaunt, late 14th century; and Henry VIII impaling
Katharine of Aragon, first half of the 16th century.
The second window on the south has the royal arms,
of early 16th-century date. On the north wall of the
nave is a marble memorial tablet to Ezekiel Danois,
1674. Danois was the first minister of the French
Protestant refugees who settled at Thorney in the
middle of the 17th century. The other fittings, including the font, are modern.
The plate includes a communion cup and paten of
silver, 1709, inscribed 'Ex Dono Tho: Brecknock
Minister Evangelii Thorney Abby', (fn. 69) and a shield of
arms, a chevron between three lions the paws erased;
a flagon of silver, 1876; an alms-dish of silver, 1750.
The north-west turret contains one bell dated 1720,
by a Nottingham founder.
The registers begin in 1654 and are complete.
Virtually nothing remains above ground of the
monastic buildings, but a 17th-century house about
150 yards to the south of the church has the remains of
a moulded window of medieval date in the cellar; it
probably formed part of the southern range. The
vicarage possibly incorporates some of the eastern
range. It is a good example of late 17th-century
domestic architecture, and resembles in character many
Northamptonshire buildings. There are brick chimneystacks of later date and the roof is covered with stone
slates.
NONCONFORMITY
An Independent 'mission'
was conducted by William
Evenett, the Whittlesey minister, between 1815 and 1820. Mr. Wing, the Duke of
Bedford's steward, was hostile, and threatened Mr.
Harker, in whose house the mission was held, with
eviction. The duke, however, was tolerant and Congregationalism for a time gained a foothold in Thorney. (fn. 70)
It had died out by the middle of the 19th century.
A Primitive Methodist chapel was erected in the village
in c. 1880.
SCHOOLS
The village school, like most of the
public institutions in the village, owes its
origin to the dukes of Bedford. Its date
of foundation is uncertain. Early in the 19th century a
tradition existed that 'a schoolhouse was erected by a
member of the illustrious house of Russell', (fn. 71) and it is
possible that this was Wriothesley, 3rd Duke, who in
1727-9 paid several visits to this part of his estates and
might, had he lived, have substituted Thorney for
Woburn as the principal residence of his family. (fn. 72)
Thorney as a ducal donative does not appear in the
various inquiries concerning education made by the
bishops of Ely at the end of the 18th century, but early
in the next century the dukes were making an allowance
of £20 a year for a schoolmaster's salary. (fn. 73)
By 1846-7 the Duke of Bedford had provided three
schoolrooms, for boys, girls, and infants. (fn. 74) In all, 284
children (in a population of 2,159) were being taught,
about a quarter of them attended both weekdays and
Sundays, and the staffs and their salaries were on a
generous scale. The staff consisted of two masters,
three mistresses, and two paid 'monitors', who received
£225 between the five of them. In 1850-1 the girls'
school was rebuilt with an infants' department. (fn. 75) This
building still exists, but the boys' school was rebuilt in
1875, in which year a Thorney School Board was
formed. (fn. 76) The Board took over the management of the
schools but the buildings remained the property of
the dukes of Bedford until 1912, by which time
the Thorney Estate had been broken up. The County
Council then bought the village schools, and those at
Knarr Fen and Wryde Croft (see below), for £800
including improvements. (fn. 77) The village schools, in
separate buildings on non-adjacent sites, were run as
separate departments; before 1910 the total recognized
accommodation was 328, afterwards 273 (106 boys,
89 girls, 78 infants). By 1925 both school buildings
were overcrowded. (fn. 78) In 1935 a new site on Wisbech
Road was obtained and an all-ages school built to accommodate 160 senior and 150 junior children of both
sexes. This was opened in 1940, and named the Duke
of Bedford School. (fn. 79)
Other schools were built by the dukes of Bedford in
the north-east and south-east of the parish at Wryde
Croft (1866) and Knarr Fen (1880) respectively. Like
the village schools, they were managed by the School
Board, and later by the County Council, though they
remained the property of the dukes until 1912. The
original accommodation was 80 in each case; both were
enlarged in the early years of the 20th century to
enable the Wryde Croft School to take 156 and the
Knarr Fen school 137. These figures were scaled down
in 1910 to 140 and 112 respectively. The senior
children from the Wryde Croft School were transferred
to the Duke of Bedford School in 1944 and the
remainder in 1945 when Wryde Croft School was
closed. The buildings, though of iron and timber construction, have lasted well and are now used as a community centre. Knarr Fen School lost its senior children
to the Duke of Bedford School in 1944 and was closed
at the beginning of 1948. The remaining children were
then moved to the North Side School. (fn. 80)
North Side School, transferred from Whittlesey to
Thorney parish in 1933, was built by the Whittlesey
School Board in 1877; the Duke of Bedford, who
owned the site, contributed £200. The building
originally accommodated 90 children, and, after enlargement and reassessment, 124. The average attendance, however, seldom if ever reached the latter
figure. In 1936 the senior children were transferred to
the Thorney village schools pending the completion of
the new Duke of Bedford School, and only 42 remained
on the books. These have since been reinforced by the
children, some 35 in number, from Knarr Fen. (fn. 81)