Information about Comberton circa 1900
COMBERTON is a parish, bounded on the south by the Bourn brook, about 2 miles north-
west from Lord's Bridge station on the Bedford and CAmbridge branch of the London and
North Western railway, and 5-and-a-half west-south-west from Cambridge, in the Western
division of the county, hundred of Wetherly, union of Chesterton, Cambridge petty sessional
division and county court district, rural deanery of Barton and archdeaconry and diocese of
Ely. The church of St. Mary is an edifice of stone in the Early English and later styles, and
consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled
western tower containing 4 bells: the chancel arch and south arcade of the nave are Early
English, the north aisle and clerestory Perpendicular and the tower Decorated; the interior is
seated with open benches, elaborately carved with tracery; the rood stairs and doorway
remain and there is an octagonal Early English font; the church was repaired in 1850 and
restored in 1877-8 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and has since been further restored in
1884-5; the total cost amounting to £981: there are 300 sittings, 240 being free. The register
of baptisms dates from the year 1564; marriages, 1560; burials, 1561. The living is a
vicarage, net yearly value £248, with 5-and-a-half acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of
Jesus College, Cambridge, and held since 1891 by the Rev. Peake Banton M.A. of Jesus
College, Cambridge. The Union Nonconformist chapel was erected in 1868 on a site given by
G. E. Foster esq. There are charities of about £15 yearly, arising from about 6 acres of land
and distributed in money among the poor. Coprolites are found here in considerable
abundance, lying near the surface of the soil. Deeply cut in the turf of what was once the
village green is a curious old maze, now inclosed in the school playground. The governors of
St. Thomas' Hospital are the lords of the manor, and Thomas Wootten esq. is the principal
landowner. The soil is heavy clay; subsoil, chalk and gault. The chief crops are wheat, oats
and barley. The area is 1,954 acres; rateable value, £1,844; the population in 1891 was 453.
National School (boys & girls), erected in 1846 & endowed with £5 yearly; the school will hold
120 children; wverage attendance, 80; Timothy James Adnitt, master
Carriers to Cambridge.-Sidney Gauge, to the 'True Blue,' every sat.; Percy Baker, to the 'Little
Rose,' Trumpington street, wed. & sat
* Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire 1900 (London: Kelly's Directories Limited, 1900), pp.111.
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