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Information about Fulbourn circa 1900

FULBOURN is a consolidated parish and village, with a station on the Cambridge and Newmarket section of the Great Eastern railway, 5 miles east-south-east from Cambridge, in the Eastern division on the county, hundred of Flendish, Bottisham petty sessional division, union of Chesterton, Cambridge county court district, rural deanery of Quy and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely: it includes two parishes, viz. All Saints' and St. Vigor's. Both churches stood in the same churchyard, but on Sunday, 25th May, 1766, at about 5 a.m. the tower of All Saints' church fell and totally ruined the building; 3 of the 5 bells were lying in the ruins in May, 1774, but the oak benches and fittings had been stolen: the church was eventually taken down under the authority of an Act of Parliament; all the parochial assessments are united, but each parish appoints its own officers, and the livings are consolidated. The church of St. Vigor is a building of stone, chiefly in the Decorated style, but with some Early English and Perpendicular features, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south transept or chantry, south porch opening eastward, with parvise, and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 6 bells; in the chantry is a high tomb, with two recumbent figures of clunch stone, probably representing Edward Wood esq. and his lady, ob. 1633; here also is a tablet to Tyrrell Dalton, ob. 1682: on the north side of the chancel, under a septfoiled arch, and within a wooden shrine of six compartments, is an emaciated recumbent effigy of John Careway, a former rector of St. Vigor's, who died in 1443: in the chancel is a large brass, with effigy in cope, under a canopy, to William de Fulbourn, chaplain to Edward III. and formerly canon of St. Paul's Cathedral, ob. 1390: there are several other brasses, including one of a priest, circa 1520, and fixed against the wall in the north aisle are kneeling effigies of a lady and two children: the tower and the north arcade of the nave are Early English, dating from about 1280: the south arcade is very good Decorated: the windows are chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular: on the north side of the chancel is a curious irregular cusped arch, forming a sedile: the pulpit, of carved oak, dates from about 1330, and is enriched with crocketing and quaint figures in the spandrils; the nave is seated with fine open benches, the ends being panelled and finished with poppy heads: in 1887 the beautiful Early Perpendicular east window of five lights was filed with stained glass, and in the south transept is a memorial window to Richard Greaves Townley, who died at Pekin 30th Nov. 1888: there are also several memorial tablets to members of theTownley family: the church affords 500 sittings. The register dates form the year 1558. The living consists of the rectory of St. Vigor and the vicarage of All Saints', July 25th, 1876, joint net yearly value £500, with residence and including 570 acres of glebe, in the gift of St. John's College, Cambridge, and held since 1868 by the Rev. John Vavasor Durell M.A. late fellow and tutor of that college. The Congregational chapel, built in 1821, will seat 500 persons. The Working Men's Institute has a lending library of 900 volumes and a reading room, supplied with daily and weekly papers and magazines. There are eight almhouses, erected by subcription in 1864. The charities are as follows: £78 yearly from Careway's Charity, for clothing; £110 yearly from Bishop's Charity, for flour; £27 yearly from Farmer's Charity, the greater part of which is distributed amongst the poor who regularly attend church; and a sum of £12, given by Thomas Oslar, in 1722, to purchase an acre of land for a perpetual charity for the poor widows of St. Vigor's parish, the profits of which are distributed on St. Thomas' Day. A new pumping station of the Cambridge Water Works Company, erected as an auxiliary to the works at Cherry Hinton, was opened in March, 1891, at a cost of £2,000. The annual fair, formerly held here on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following the first Sunday after Trinity, is now held, by Order in Council dated 19th June, 1883, on the Monday and Tuesday only. The Rev. Charles Francis Townley M.A., Joseph Chaplin esq. and the rector are the principal landowners. Fulbourn Manor is the residence of the Hon. Lady Tryon: the house stands in its own grounds of 9 acres, and is surrounded by a well-wooded park of about 78 acres. The soil is loam; subsoil, chalk. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The area is 5,263 acres; rateable value, £10,189; the population in 1891 was 1,807, including 496 inmates at the asylum.

FULBOURN VALLEY is 1-and-a-quarter miles south.
NEW SHARDELOWES is 1-and-a-half mile south-east.
Sexton, William Carter.

The County Lunatic Asylum, opened Nov. 2, 1858, is a structure of brick in the Elizabethan style, from plans by Mr. Fowler Jones, architect, of York, & was erected at a cost of about £40,000: it has since been considerably enlarged & in 1900 had 550 patients; attached are 87 acres of land, a consecrated cemetry, gas works, brewhouse & farm buildings. Edward Coulton Rogers M.R.C.S.Eng. medical superintendent; John McGregor M.B. & Ch.Edin. assistant medical officer; Rev. Charles William Alfred Brooke M.A. chaplain; T.M. Francis, clerk to the visitors; Henry Archer, clerk & steward

Schools:-
A School Board of 5 members was formed May 9, 1879; Isaac Miller, Fernside, clerk to the board; Joel Muffett, attendance officer
Board School, built in 1880, at a cost of £647, & with the previous building, formerly used as a girls' school, will hold 250 children; average attendance, boys 52, girls 63; there is a endowment of £30, distributed in money prizes to the scholars; Miss Elizh. Ostler, mist
National (infants), erected in 1865, for 100 children; average attendance, 42; Miss M. A. Baldwin, mistress

Railway Station, Ernest Orman, station master
Carrier to Cambridge.-Watson, every wed. & sat
* Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire 1900 (London: Kelly's Directories Limited, 1900), pp.134-135.