Some Interesting Bits of Wimpole History

In 1958 the local Women's Institute published a pamphlet entitled "Wimpole Village and Social Conditions Through the Centuries". Some of the source material is already available on this web site, but these collected excerpts may be of interest:

(1) The entry for 'Winepole' in the Domesday Book (1086).
(2) Sir William de Staundon, Lord Mayor of London, founder of the Chicheley Chapel.
(3) Those London Street Names!
(4) The Population of Wimpole 1801 to 1951.
(5) The Great Storm (1843).
(6) Rules for Lord Hardwicke's School in Wimpole with an Address to Parents (1853).
(7) A Recollection of Wimpole by W G Newell (1876-1967).
(8) Request for Early Wimpole Photographs.

My thanks to Mr John Bullen of Saffron Walden for the loan of the document.

Wimpole and the Domesday Book (1086)

The name Wimpole is generally thought to be derived from "Wina's Pool" (Wina = Celtic) - Wina being the name of a bondman or hind, whose homestead was probably near the ponds just south of where the Stable Block now stands and the square pond at the head of the Avenue.

It is recorded that the Manor of Wimpole in its earliest known history belonged to the family of Beecher (or Beches). It passed from them to the Avenells. Wimpole had Soc tenure - that is, a free tenement of land in return for services of an economic kind (e.g. the performance of some kind of agricultural work) - and was 40 miles in the Danelagh.

The following is a description of Wina's Pool, or Winepole as it has been variously named, in the Domesday Book 1086 [explanations in italics]:

"In WINEPOLE the Count himself [Count Alan] holds 2 hides [2 x 120 acres = 240 acres] and 2 1/2 virgates [2 1/2 x 30 acres = 75 acres]. There is land for three ploughs. [There are] two hides in demesne [on the home farm] and [there is] 1 plough here and there might be another 1/2 plough.

Here 2 villeins [men with between 60 and 120 acres] with 1 border [men with between 1 and 10 acres].

[There are] 6 cottars [men with between 1 and 5 acres] and 2 serfs [slaves] here and meadow for 1/2 plough [4 acres].

In all it is worth £7. When received it was worth £6. In the time of King Edward II it was worth £8. Edera the Fair held this land.

In WINEPOLE Humphrey holds 1 hide [120 acres] and 1 1/2 virgates [45 acres] from Eudo. There is land for 2 ploughs and which are here on the demesne, and [there is] 1 villein and 1 serf, meadow for 1 plough and wood for the fences. It is and always was worth 100 shillings. Garl Gurth held this land."

Notes on the above:

1. There were, therefore, two manors in Wimpole in 1086, each with its Lord of the Manor.

If it is assumed that each man was married with three children, then the total population of Wimpole in 1086 would have been around 65.

3. A survey made some 40 years later gives the animals on these manors as follows:
200 sheep, 6 pigs, 2 horses and 4 asses.

Sir William de Staundon

The following is a transcription of [presumably parts of] the will of Sir William de Staundon, who endowed a Chantry at Wimpole around 1390 (now known as the Chicheley Chapel). A Chantry was a chapel or other part of a church endowed for a priest or priests to celebrate masses for the founder's soul. Sir William was Lord Mayor of London in 1392 and again in 1407 (when he followed a certain Richard Whytyngdone) and was a Master of the Grocer's Company.

"My body to be buried in St Andrew's Church, Wimpole, in the County of Cambridge near my late wife... one thousand masses to be said within three days of my death and 500 masses each quarter of the year next after my decease.

To Agnes my now wife the furniture in two of my chief rooms in my mansion house at Wimpole aforesaid with my best gilt cups, ewers, etc... to daughter Elizabeth £200 when 14 years old... kinswomen Johanna Hunter... to William Brooke £100 sterling if he attains 21 years, the said sum meanwhile to be used in trade by a merchant within the realm of England and not beyond the sea and said merchant to have half the profit for his trouble... bequests to servants, apprentices and others...

£160 to be devoted to a Chantry in the Parish Church of Wimpole and £20 sterling for building a new aisle to the Church... bequests to his poor tenants at Wimpole, Arrington and Whaddon including gifts of white and red herring and bread during the season of Lent... to the inmates of Newgate and Ludgate... for maintenance of a Chantry in the Parish Church of Staundon (County of Hertfordshire) for the good of his soul and souls of his father, Alice his mother, Elizabeth his late wife, etc."

Those London Street Names...

In 1710, Lord Radnor sold Wimpole to [John Holles], the 1st Duke of Newcastle. The new owner fell off his horse and died the following year and the Wimpole estate was inherited by his daughter Henrietta [Cavendish-Holles]. Henrietta married Edward Lord Harley [31 August 1713 at Wimpole] who inherited the title 2nd Earl of Oxford on his father's death in 1924.

The Oxford family at this time owned a large estate in London and they named the new streets and squares after the family, their estates, their titles and their allies. Wimpole Street was named after the house. Oxford Street and Harley Street were named after Edward's titles. [Five minutes with an A-Z will also give you Cavendish Square, Henrietta Place, Holles Street, Welbeck Street, Cavendish Street, Mortimer Street, Edward Mews and Queen Anne Street among others.]

The Population of the Parish of Wimpole

There is a national Census every ten years when the year ends in a one. The following table gives the population of the Parish of Wimpole from 1801 to 1951 (the numbers include children and visitors from outside the parish in temporary residence within Wimpole on the date of census).

*A note on the 1841 census recorded that 'several large families have left the parish and others have emigrated since 1831' [Four Wimpole paupers emigrated to Canada in 1836 on passages financed by the Caxton and Arrington Poor Law Union under the new provisions of the [Poor Law Amendment] Act of 1834. The following year, the Commissioners' Annual Report reported a further 24 paupers emigrating from Wimpole to Canada - the highest number emigrating under the scheme from any Cambridgeshire or Huntingdonshire community at that time.] Who were they and what happened to them?

[See full online census for years 1881, 1891 and 1901.]

The Great Storm (10 August 1843)

'A most dreadful storm passed over this parish and caused the most serious destruction of property. It began about 4 o'clock p.m. and lasted several hours - the lightning and hail were terrific, the former like sheets of fire filled the air and ran along the ground, the latter as large as pigeon's eggs; some larger and others large angular masses of ice.... The destruction of property was dreadful! All the windows on the north side of the Mansion [i.e. Wimpole Hall] were broken, all the hothouses, and every window facing the north in many of the cottages!...  The storm entered from the north sea and passed through the land in a SW direction, spreading ruin in its progress - "the land before it was as the Garden of Eden, behind it a barren and desolate wilderness". The corn over which it passed was entirely threshed out, boughs and limbs torn off the trees, pigeons and crows killed, many sheep struck by lightning, and what the hail and lightning did not utterly destroy, the rain which fell in torrents finished. Such was the violence of the rain and its continuance that a stream rolled down Arrington Hill four or five feet deep, washed men off their feet, and carried away 30 or 40 feet of the Park wall. But amidst all this affliction God was merciful; no human lives were lost, and the destruction of property, although grievous, was partial.'

(Rector H.R.Yorke writing in 1843 in the Church Registers)

Rules for Lord Hardwicke's School at New Wimpole

[The printed 'Rules' were issued to parents on October 1st 1853. This date is believed to have been the inauguration of the new brick-built school building in New Wimpole. The school was endowed by Lord and Lady Hardwicke.]

October 1st 1853

Address to Parents

[This printed 'Address' was issued to parents on October 1 1853. This date is believed to have been the inauguration of the new brick-built school building in New Wimpole. The school was endowed by Lord and Lady Hardwicke.]

'The object of Lord and Lady Hardwicke in supporting this school is to combine the advantages of Education with a taste for honest and active industry, to install into the minds of the scholars a true knowledge of Christ's Religion, a love of virtue and detestation of vice, combined with a praiseworthy desire of improving the condition of life in which it has pleased God to call them. Lord and Lady Hardwicke feel that their exertions unassisted by the parents of the children, cannot succeed: they therefore earnestly entreat them to assist by their own teaching and example at home to bring up their children in the fear of God, the faith of Christ, Love and goodwill towards one another.

The Rules [above] are printed for the satisfaction and instruction of the parents, and it is hoped they will lend their aid in carrying them out.'

October 1st 1853

A Recollection of Wimpole in the 1880's

[A reminiscence written in the late 1950's by William George Newell, remembering his childhood in Wimpole in the 1880s. W.G. Newell died 19 March 1967, aged 91 years.]

"In those days Wimpole was considered a very prosperous little village. We had certain advantages over some of the other villages in the County as we had a Mansion with a big estate, connected with this a Woodyard, and a Brickyard, which meant employment for nearly all the people in and around the district.

We also had a Brewery: this was actually in Orwell Parish, the road running through the village dividing the two Parishes. On the [south] side of the road we had a Blacksmith's shop, and a little general shop. Also two "Locals" ["Queen Victoria" and "Fox and Hounds"], where many a happy hour was spent by the very hardworking men.

We also had a School and a Schoolmaster - Mr Samuel Horsfield - who was second to none in the County. About 80 children attended the school in those days.

Most of the events and old customs have finished now. But how we used to look forward to Wimpole Feast, for example. Two days it lasted, the 13th and 14th of May. We had roundabouts, swings, and a dancing tent, a temporary board floor was laid down on the side of the road and dancing was kept up very late indeed.

Then at Easter all the children stood to attention on Good Friday Afternoon, at 3 o'clock precisely, at the school and received a hot cross bun. That was the very best bun of the year!

In January we had Plough Monday. About a dozen farm-workers would drag a plough around all the farms and all the way up to Wimpole Hall. Each man would carry a whip, cracking it as they went along, and shouting something I could never understand. When arriving at the front door of the house they would take the plough and arrange themselves as close as possible to the door, then suddenly shout; cracking their whips:

"Up with your scrapers and
Down with your doors,
If you don't give us money,
We will plough no more"

I never heard of the threat being carried out.

On the shortest day of the year the widows would make a round of the village. It was called 'Gooding Day', and I well remember after a good spread at the Brewery, you would think a lot of geese had been let loose!....

I could write a lot about out Cricket Club of those days, and very many happy hours have I had on the cricket pitch in its lovely setting in Wimpole Park. I often got into trouble for playing cricket, but if I had my time again, I would play three games where I only had one. I must mention one particular week in which we enjoyed our cricket so much. Viscount Clifden brought his Cornish team for a whole week's cricket at Wimpole. How we all appreciated the great week we had. This was in the days of the present Viscount's father, and I am quite sure he enjoyed it for he was always keen on cricket, and always came down to the cricket ground when we were playing a match - if he was in residence at the time. We certainly played cricket under ideal conditions.

When I first played for Wimpole, the Rev Fellowes [1845-1896] was Captain of our team - and what a captain, and what a cricketer he was! But the very keenest of all was Mr J Hagger; he played regularly until he was well over 50.

I also remember that a party of Gypsies would visit the district about twice a year. They would camp up on the Mareway and go round the villages, the man pushing a scissor-grinder and the women with a basket selling anything from a clothes peg to a packet of pins. The one thing I remember so well about them when they came down to the village, they would camp under a hedge by the Blacksmith's shop for a meal. One little boy was always sent to the half-doors of the shop with a kettle and ask to boil it on the fire. I can hear him saying now - "If yer please, sur, wul yer bile me Muther's kittle". The tea was made in a tin, which was handed round to each one - sometimes seven or eight of them - in turn. I should imagine the one that had the last lick would get a rather a sticky one!"

Early Wimpole Photographs

The 1958 pamphlet ended with a selection of wonderful (but badly reproduced) Wimpole photographs. I would love to find original copies of the following images to include in the Photograph Archive:

(left to right)
• The Old Brickyards, New Wimpole.
• The Old Wooden School, New Wimpole.
• The Wimpole Cricket Team ("mid 19th century").

(left to right)
• Mrs E Bambridge (owner of Wimpole Hall).
• Mr Oliver Newell (Wimpole Blacksmith)
• Mr Samuel Horsfield (Wimpole Schoolmaster)
• Thornberry Farm Barn ("contains the mill to which the villagers used to bring their corn for grinding")
• Mrs W G Newell ("Schoolmistress at Wimpole School for many years")

Please e-mail if you have copies or any other information.