Cambridgeshire History On The Net

ISLEHAM is an extensive village and parish with a station on the Cambridge and Mildenhall branch of the Great Eastern railway, 6 miles north from Newmarket, 11 south-east from Ely and 16 ½ from Cambridge, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Staploe, union and petty sessional division of Newmarket, county court district of Soham, rural deanery of Mildenhall, archdeaconry of Sudbury and diocese of Ely. The church of St. Andrew is a spacious building of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower with squat spire containing a clock and 5 bells : the east window is partly filled with stained glass, erected by George Fletcher Robs esq. of this place, to his two daughters, Caroline Mary Carr, d. 28 Nov. 1875, and Alice Maude Robins, d. 10 Nov. 1866; there is another erected by the same donor to Frederick and Caroline Robins, and two erected to the Rev. Samuel Williamson Merry M.A. late vicar, 1872-89, and to the late Dr. Edward Watson : the church was partially restored in 1862, under the superintendence of the late G. E. Street R.A. at a cost of upwards of £3,000 : the chancel and east window were restored in 1883 : a system of heating was adopted in 1886, at a cost of £180 : there are 450 sittings. The register dates from the year 1566. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £265, with residence and two acres of glebe, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and held since 1889 by the Rev. Henry Wilson Robinson. The rectorial tithes are £670. Capt. Shipworth is lay rector. There is a Particular Baptist chapel in Pound lane and a General Baptist chapel in High street : both are endowed, the latter having about £50 a year : the records of the Pound Lane congregation extend back to the year 1693 ; the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon was baptized at the ferry in the river Lark near here, May 3rd, 1850. There is a small Primitive Methodist chapel. The charities amount to about £150, including an endowment for the school, clothing &c.for the poor and payments to the inmates of the almshouses, founded and endowed by Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Peyton, who died in 1518, occupied by four males and four females : the income is about £90 yearly : an invalid room has been added. The village and neighbourhood are famous for the production of limestone, great quantities of which are sent to Wisbech, Peterborough and other parts by George Frederick Robins and John Frost. Here also is a pumping station of the Ely Water Works Co. Cyril Dunn-Gardner esq. of Fordham, is lord of the manor. The principal landowners are George Frederick Robins esq.; George Bentinck Robins esq.; Richard Thomas Robins esq.; Reginald Stanley Hicks esq. of The Kennels, Great Wilbraham; Edmund John Mortlock esq. of Great Abington; Pembroke and King’s Colleges, Cambridge, and Arthur Hall esq. of Ely. The soil is various; subsoil, principally limestone. The chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The area is 5,207 acres of land and 23 of water; rateable value £6,815; the population in 1891 was 1,698. Schools :- Church Mission School, in the Fen, built, with master’s house, in 1879, at a cost of £940; Henry R. Quinn, licensed lay reader, conducts services on Sundays & acts as schoolmaster during the week; the school will hold 56 children; average attendance, 30; for services it will seat 90 persons. National (mixed), erected in 1848, for 304 children; average attendance, 150; Richard Bradley, master; Mrs. Ann Bradley, mistress; Mrs. J. C. Sparke, infant’s mistress.