Cambridgeshire History On The Net

SWAFFHAM PRIOR (or Great Swaffham) is a village and parish with a station on the branch line from Cambridge to Mildenhall, half a mile South-west of the churches, and is 6 miles west from Newmarket, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Staine, Bottisham petty sessional division, Newmarket union and county court district, rural deanery of Quy and Archdeaconry and diocese of Ely : it is remarkable for its two churches, both standing in one churchyard. The church of St. Mary, which had long been in ruins, but was used as a burying place for the Allix family, has now been partially restored; the building as it lately stood consisted of nave, with a portion of the chlerestory, fragments of the aisles, part of the western tower, Norman and Early English, and remains of the western porch : the chancel and vestries were completed in 1879, at a cost of over £2,082, and the entire cost of restoring the whole church is estimated at about £6,000, of which about £2,620 has been collected. The church of St. Cyriac and St. Jillitta is a plain embattled structure of Gothic Style, consisting of a small chancel, nave with aisles, low transepts and an ancient tower, terminating in an embattled polygon lantern and containing 6 bells : there are 300 sittings : in 1878 a faculty was obtained for the demolition of the church. The register dates from the year 1559. The living consists of the consolidated vicarages of St. Mary and SS. Syriac and Julitta, net yearly value £223, derived from 483 ½ acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop and the Dean and Chapter of Ely alternately, and held since 1897 by the Rev. Lawrence Fisher M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge. The famous Puritan, Dr. Edmund Calamy the elder, held the living from 1625 to 1631; Dr. George Davys, Bishop of Peterborough (1839-64) and Dr. Henry Pepys, Bishop of Worcester (1841-61) were curates here. The Most Rev. H. W. Jermyn D. D. the present Primus of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, was born here. The Baptist chapel was built in 1862. The churchyard, with a few reservations, was closed by Order in Council on May 19, 1899; a new burial ground adjoining the east side of the churchyard having been opened for use on Nov. 15, 1898. there is a reading-room, erected in 1868 by Miss Marianne Allix, Mrs. Roberts and Miss Juliana Allix, and under the control of C. P. Allix esq. Charities producing £84 yearly are appropriated partly to the school and partly to the poor. Swaffham-Prior House, built on the site of an old Elizabethan mansion, a portion of which it incorporates, is the seat of Charles Peter Allix esq. D.L., J.P. There are several manors in the parish, the chief of which are Swaffham Prior, belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Ely ; Shadforth, the property of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Knights and Baldwins, belonging to C. P. Allix esq. C. P. Allix esq. The Dean and Chapter of Ely, and Queens’ College, Cambridge and the principal landowners. The soil is loamy ; subsoil chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips and mustard seed. The area is %,563 acres of land and 24 of water ; rateable value, £5,733 ; the population in 1891 was 1,006, including part of the ancient British hamlet of Reach, which is about 2 miles north at the western end of the Devil’s Dyke or ditch, partly in this parish and partly in that of Burwell. National School, erected in 1852 for about 150 children ; average attendance, 120 ; the school is partly supported by funds administered under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners ; W. Staples Pratte M.A. master; Mrs. Pratte, mistress.