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Information about Kirtling circa 1900

KIRTLING is a parish and village 5.5 miles south-east from Newmarket, the nearest railway station, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Cheveley, union, petty sessional division and county court district of Newmarket, rural deanery of Thurlow, archdeaconry of Sudbury and diocese of Ely. The church of All Saints is an ancient building of flint with stone dressings, chiefly in the Norman style and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, north and south porches and a western tower supported by immense buttresses and containing 5 bells; in the church are the tombs of several of the North family, including Sir Edward North M.P. for Cambridgeshire, 1st Baron North, ob. 31Dec 1564, and his son, Sir Roger North de Kirtling, knight banneret and 2nd baron, ob 3 Dec 1600; the tomb of the latter bears his recumbent effigy, in armour with gold spurs, the head resting on a baron's helmet and a cochant lion at the feet, the whole being surmounted by a canopy supported on six carved pillars; a third tomb commemorates Dudley, 4th baron, K.B. ob. 1677; and there are memorials to others of the family, dated 1665-6; there is also an ancient brass, but the name is obliterated, and over the entrance to the south porch is a grotesque figure of the Virgin; the church affords 500 sittings. The register dates from the year 1585. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £89, arising from 172 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of Lord North, and held since 1892 by the Rev. Hugh James Thomas Brookman Th. Assoc. K.C.L there is a Baptist chapel, seating 100, and a Primitive Methodist chapel seating 80 persons. Almshouses were built here about 1842 by John and Marquess of Bute, a former owner of the property in this parish in memory and at the request of this wife Maria, eldest daughter of George Augustus (North) 3rd Earl of Guildford; she died in 1841: the buildings were subsequently converted into a nunnery and at another time used as a Catholic school, but they have since been turned into cottages, and are now occupied by aged farm labourers. Kirtling Tower, the seat of Lord North, is all that now remains of the ancient Kirtling Hall, originally built about the reign of Henry VI, but the main part of the building was pulled down in 1801 by George, 3rd Earl of Guildford and 9th Baron North: Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen, was a state prisoner at Kirtling Hall under the charge of Edward, 1st Lord North: attached to the house is a roman Catholic chapel built in 1877 and dedicated to Mary Immaculate and St. Philip and there is a house for a priest on the estate; the public are admitted to mass on Sundays at 1am and on week days at 8.30am. Lord North is lord of the manor and principal landowner; Stephen Goodwin Howard esq. J.P. and the vicar are also landowners. The chief crops are wheat , barley and oats. The area is 3,126 acres; rateable value, £2,995; the population in 1891 was 705.

UPEND is a hamlet in this parish, about 1.5 miles north-east.

Parish Clerk, George Leach.

Post, M.O & T.O., T.M.O., Express Delivery, Parcel post, S.B. £ Annuity & Insurance Office.- Mrs Mary Jennings, sub-postmistress. Letters arrive from Newmarket about 7am. & 2.30pm & leave at 6.40pm; Sundays, 11.35am.

Wall Letter Box, near the church, cleared at 6.50pm; Sundays, 11.50am; and another at Upend cleared at 7.35am & 5.50pm; Sundays, 8.35am

Parochial School, erected in 1850 for 150 children; average attendance, 92; Seth Ellis, master; Mrs Louisa Ellis, mistress

North Lord J.P. Kirtling tower; & 51 Cromwell houses, Cromwell road London S W
Brookman Rev. Hugh James Thomas Th. Assoc K.C.L Vicarage
Colin Philip James Danby
Donovan Rev. Frederick (Catholic), The Presbytery
Howard Stephen Goodwin J.P. The Moat
Newman Francis Robert Harding, the Cottage

COMMERCIAL

Ashman, James, shopkeeper
Bacon, Elizabeth(Mrs.), beer retailer
Bacon Jabez Nathan, shopkeeper
Bacon John, coal dealer
Bacon Obed, farmer
Baugh William, head gamekeeper to H.M. Beddington esq
Bell John, stud farm, Upend
Benton John, head gardener to Lord North
Bowyer Frank, farmer, Place farm
Challis Thomas, grocer & draper
Claydon Sampson, market gardener
Cornwell John, farm bailiff to Samuel Taylor esq. Parsonage farm
Dodd Daniel, farm bailiff to Lord North, Pratt's Green farm
Enoch Amos, estate foreman & assistant overseer
Foreman James, farm bailiff to Stephen Goodwin Howard esq. J.P. Up end
Ginn George, hurdle maker
Humphrey Charles, farmer, Hall farm
Level James, coal dealer & farmer
Level John, farmer
Newman Francis Robt. Harding, agent to Lord North, The Cottage
Osborne John, farm bailiff to Mrs. Calver, Vicarage farm
Perrin Ben, blacksmith
Pettett James, chimney sweeper
Poulter Samuel, shopkeeper, Up end
Reeman Mark, carrier
Smith Daniel, bricklayer & beer retailer
Smith Harry, beer retailer & pork butcher, Up end
Stone Richard Dominic, Queen's Head P.H. & farmer
Wade, John, farmer, Oak farm
Wollard John, greengrocer

* Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire 1900 (London: Kelly's Directories Limited, 1900), p.150.