Cambridgeshire History On The Net

SNAILWELL is a village and parish, 3 miles north from Newmarket station on the Great Eastern railway, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Staploe, Newmarket union, petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery of Mildenhall, archdeaconry of Sudbury an diocese of Ely. The church of St. Peter is an edifice of flint with stone quoins and windows, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a round western tower of Norman work containing 2 bells : the handsome reredos was presented in 1878 by William Montagu Tharp esq. Of Chippenham Park, as a memorial to his father; several stained windows being given at the same time by the family of the Rev. J. N. Hill, a former rector, by William Monatau Tharp esq. and by the members and friends of the family of the late rector : the vestry was also built by the late rector’s family, decorations which cover the whole of the interior : the beautiful and costly altar cloth was the gift of Mrs. E. Gittus, of Snailwell : the church was completely restored in 1878-9, at a cost of £2,600, and affords 130 sittings : in the churchyard is a stone tomb of a priest of the 15th century, with a cross on the upper slab, discovered in the wall of the south aisle during the restoration. The register dates from the year 1629. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £256, with residence and 100 acres of glebe, in the gift of W. M. Tharp esq. And held since 1895 by the Rev. Ernest Powles B.A. of Worcester College, Oxford. An unknown donor left for firing 33 acres of fen land, and a small allotment of arable land for the poor of the parish. Mrs. W. Montagu Tharp, of Chippenham Park, is lady of the manor and the principal landowner. The soil is various. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. The area is 2,034 acres; rateable value, £3,637; the population in 1891 was 181. Church of England School (mixed), built, with master’s residence, in 1879, for about 60 children; average attendance, 42; Thomas Porter, master.