Histon in 1900

This is an extract from Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire 1900*

HISTON is a village and parish, with a station, about 1 mile north-east, on the Cambridge, St. Ives and Huntingdon line of the Great Eastern railway, 62 1/4 miles from London by rail and 3 north-west from Cambridge, in the Western division of the county, hundred and union of Chesterton, petty sessional division and county court district of Cambridge, rural deanery of North Stowe and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely. There were anciently two churches in this parish, St. Andrew’s and St. Etheldreda’s, but the latter, which stood west of St. Andrew’s, about a furlong distant, was sacrilegiously pulled down in 1600 by Sir Francis Hinde, then lord of the manor, and the materials used to build his house at Madingley: in 1874, on the removal of the long unfinished gallery at the end of Madingley Hall, portions of moulded and traceried stone work formerly belonging to St. Etheldreda’s were discovered, and re-incorporated in the chancel of St. Andrew’s on its restoration. The church of St. Andrew is a cruciform building of rubble in the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of three bays, aisles, transepts, a 14th century south porch and a central tower carried on low arches and containing a clock and 6 bells: the chancel and transepts are very fine Early English, and the latter have internal arcades and double piscine and sedilia, all highly finished: the chancel retains two sedilia: the south transept is lighted by two triplets of lancets, and was formerly the mortuary chapel of the Sumpter family, whose memorials still remain under the seats, and was restored in 1871 by the widow of W. R. Sumpter esq: the nave piers and arches are Decorated: the font is Perpendicular and has quatrefoiled panels, and there are several stained windows, those in the chancel being of Munich glass: the chancel was restored internally, re-seated and new roofed in 1874-5, under the direction of the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott R.A. and the nave and aisles by G. F. Bodley esq. A.R.A, F.S.A. at a total cost of £ 5,000: there are 500 sittings. The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1685; marriages, 1655. The living comprises the consolidated discharged vicarages of St. Andrew and St. Etheldreda, net yearly value £26 8; derived from 218 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of and held since 1900 by the Rev. William Chapman, of Queen’s College, Birmingham. A Baptist chapel was built in 1900, at a cost of £2,500 to seat 400 persons. There is also a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1897.

John F. Eaden esq. of Cambridge, is lord of the manors of Histon St. Andrew and Histon St. Etheldreda and Smith Howlett Rowley esq. J.P. Messrs. Stephen and Thomas Chivers, Col. G. B. Archer-Houblon J.P of Hallingbury Place, Bishop Stortford, and Walter Ambrose Heath Harding, esq. of H iston Manor, are the principal landowners in the parish.

Messrs. Stephen Chivers and Sons, who own several hundred acres of fruit gardens in the parish, have a large jam factory in the village, in which they employ about 500 people; the works are lighted with electricity and provided with a large artesian well, capable of supplying a tank with 20,000 gallons of water in six hours; the firm is able to produce over 100 tons of jam daily.

The land produces excellent crops of grain and turnips, market garden produce and great quantities of fruit, from which Cambridge, London and other markets derive large supplies. The area is 2,162 acres; rateable value, £4,366; the population in 1891 was 948.

By the Divided Parishes Act, in 1882, and Local Government Board Order 18,936 (March 25, 1886), detached parts of Histon were added to Impington.

Parish Clerk, John Crane.

A School Board, consisting of 5 members, was formed in 1895; John F. Symonds, 9 Bene’t Street, Cambridge, clerk to the board

Board (formerly Endowed) School (1895) (boys, girls & infants), erected in 1872, for 250 children; average attendance, 82 & infants, 43; John S. Churchill, master & organist; Miss Beatrice J. Mowlam, mistress

Railway Station, Charles Paige, station master.

 * Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire 1900 (London: Kelly’s Directories Limited, 1900), pp.145-146.