Bell House – A Histon House through Time
By Eleanor Whitehead
Part One – origins
It is believed that the Church Street area of Histon, known as Church End, has been a centre of settlement for over a thousand years. Bell House stands proudly at the top of Bell Hill at the junction with Church St, in Church End, Histon. This timber framed cottage was originally built as a lobby entry cottage during the Elizabethan era. From the appearance of the timber frame it may well have been built with three bays. Built on a much larger plot than today, it was once a dominant building in this part of the village in its heyday.
The current internal brick chimney stack with two large inglenook hearths was a later insertion. Renovation in the 1970s revealed high quality studding and has led to much speculation as to the origins of the property. The richly carved oak door to its left came from Impington Hall as did the decorative bosses above the dormer windows.
2010 Grade II listed Bell House, with its studding revealed. On renovation, corrugated iron roofing was replaced by modern tiles. SHS
c. 1970 Photograph taken by Ken Oates of the finely carved, Jacobean oak door at Bell House, which had been reclaimed from Impington Hall (demolished by 1953).
We know that by 1630 the building was regarded as the village Town House where the Vestry (equivalent of today’s Parish Councils) regularly met. In 1686 it can be found (unnamed) in a list of alehouses and inns with accommodation and stabling, suitable for the billeting of soldiers in the event of a feared Dutch invasion. The Inn had three guest beds and stabling for 9 horses. But who built Bell House?
Until 1805, the property and its hereditaments were part of the Histon Manor estate. The estate (owned by Denny Abbey near Waterbeach, until the Reformation) was sold by the Crown shortly after 1539 and by 1541 it was bought by William Bowyer of Corn Hill, London. Born in Harston around 1493, this country boy was apprenticed to a draper in London in 1507. He did well! Around 1519, he prudently married the widow of a fellow member of the Drapers Livery Company. By his early thirties he was made a governor of the Merchant Adventurers dealing closely with Antwerp – he spoke Dutch. By the time he was forty he was a Member of Parliament, a city alderman and very wealthy.
William Bowyer acquired many properties in Cambridgeshire. It was probably his intent to retire to the country. London was not a healthy place to live. In November 1543 William gained a knighthood and satisfied an ambition to be appointed Mayor of London but, before completing his term, he died. He left a widow and five illegitimate children by Elizabeth Turner (a widow of yet another London draper) a large fortune to share.
A son, John Turner/Bowyer inherited the Manor of Histon. It may have been him that built a Manor House on the current site Histon Manor Site by 1560 (probably replacing an earlier dwelling on the moated site adjacent to Park Lane). It is also likely that he realised that building an inn/homestead, adjacent to the King’s Highway (now Church Street) from Cambridge to Ely via Aldreth, was a sound investment.
Early Publicans
The earliest 18th century record of an inn was confirmation that The Bell and Anchor, Histon (no further reference to the Anchor bit has been found before or since) was owned by the Lord of the Manor, Hoste Archer, whose family and Sumpter descendants owned Histon Manor from 1664 to 1877. The first named publican was Edward Leach from Stretham, who married a local girl Sarah Froment in 1733. By 1753, Edward’s widow, Sarah, had taken over the licence, which she held for the next twenty one years. Of their six children, only son Reubin and possibly an Edward, appears to have survived childhood. Hard times! Reubin never held the licence. He was a village bricklayer, an up and coming trade, which suggests a link with the church death record of his probable father, Edward Leach, who is described as a mason (not publican) in 1752. Did either do remedial work on the church?
In 1765 Reubin acted as witness to the marriage of newcomer Stewart Reynolds to local girl Frances Smith. The families appear to have remained close, for in 1792, Stewart acted as a witness at the wedding of Reubin’s daughter Jane.
From 1775 to his death in 1803, Stewart Reynolds was landlord at The Bell. The licence passed to his son-in- law Philip Papworth, small farmer, who had married his daughter Ann four years earlier.
For Philip and Ann Papworth, a once in a lifetime opportunity arose a few years later. The then Lord of the Manor, Thomas Sumpter, put the Bell Inn with two cottages, dove house and barn up for sale in one lot in 1805. The 1806 Enclosure map shows the extent of the Bell Inn plot, which stretched up to the current vicarage and down Bell Hill to the church footpath. As well as acting as a public house it also appears to be a working homestead. The third bay and back extension may well have acted as separate, tiny cottages for rent. The external chimney stack serving the third bay has 17th century bricks at its base. The Bell Inn and hereditaments were awarded to Thomas Sumpter at the 1806 Enclosure, but very soon afterwards, Philip and Ann Papworth took ownership of the property.
1806 Enclosure map showing Bell Inn Enclosure Award 546 owned by the Lord of the Manor, Thomas Sumpter. Note the extended inn, the possible dove-house, the large barn and the absence of the Victorian vicarage in lot 547.
For much of the 19th century several Papworth families dominated Church End, Histon. Next instalments include – Bell Inn and Environs during the 19th and 20th centuries. Family loyalties, tragedies, site development and how some of the 17 HIAG test pits in Church End also give insights into the history of this area.
References and Key
VCH Vol IX
1806 Enclosure Map copied from University Library Cambridge
William Bowyer biography by Helen Miller
Histon St Andrew’s church records transcribed by CFHS
Cambridge Chronicle – Cambridgeshire Collection
1686 Inn listing, 18th century ownership, tax records and licencing info. etc. – CCC Archives.
Photographs – SHS Stephen Harper-Scott, KO Kenneth Oates
Histon and Impington Village Society 