The Parish of St Andrew the Less
A talk given to Cambridgeshire FHS
on 26th Fbruary 2003
by Gill ShaplandOur speaker in February was Gill Shapland, who gave a fascinating talk on the development of this large parish, formerly the village of Barnwell, situated a mile outside Cambridge.
The roads into Cambridge are on gravel terraces, and the Newmarket Road lies on one such terrace, giving dry access to the river crossing. Its early inhabitants were hippos, bears and mammoths and also man, who had not yet settled in one place but was a hunter-gatherer. Saxon remains mark the beginning of the village.
The origin of the name Barnwell is doubtful. One theory is that it was Bairnswell, and celebrates dances by children around the well. Another derivation may be the name of a former owner. In Domesday, Barnwell appears with Cambridge, so it is difficult to give precise details. By the time of the Hundred Rolls, it was a village of 10 to 20 houses. Gill showed us the Inclosure map of 1811. There were a few properties only, and the fields were held in common, it was not possible to sell plots for houses. A drawing of Jesus Lane in 1805 shows an idyllic farming community, with sheep grazing peacefully. All that had changed by the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1885, which shows a tightly packed area. In 80 years, Barnwell had gone from a few houses to high density. Before Gill explained this change, we saw slides of historic sites.
We began with the remains of Barnwell priory, behind Newmarket Road, on Beche Road. It was founded in 1092 and was originally in the parish of St Giles. It moved to Barnwell in 1112. It had great influence, as clergy met there, tithes were gathered, and there was a large floating population concerned with trade and religion.
The Abbey Church is a small building just beyond the East Road/ Newmarket Road junction. It was closed for about 10 years in the 1830s, due to dilapidation, and Christchurch was built in that period. Registers cover both churches, with the entry A.C. used to indicate the use of the smaller church. The first Abbey Church was wooden and dedicated to St Andrew, which gave its name to the parish. The Priory was given the right to hold the Midsummer Fair in 1199. It was known as Pot Fair, and people came from far and wide to buy household goods. It grew from a three day fair to fifteen days.
Gill showed us next a sketch of the Leper Chapel of the Hospital of St Mary Magdalen from Cole’s MSS (originals at the British Museum, a film of the Cambs material at CRO). It was founded before 1199, and granted Stourbridge Fair in 1211. This was a major international fair, and lasted for a fortnight Sept-Oct. Many bought their annual supplies at this fair, which sold a wide variety of goods. Isaac Newton even bought the lenses for his telescope from the fair, which was frequented by London traders, as well as less desirable persons, such as pickpockets. Thurston – a name still associated with fairs – is one which occurs in St Andrew the Less parish registers. Many fair people over-wintered in Cambridge.
Christchurch – our next slide – is a rather ugly brick church, built in 1839, as by then the Abbey Church was much too small. Before long this church too was overcrowded, so St Paul’s was built at Newtown, at the other end of the parish. These churches were followed rapidly by St Matthews, St Barnabas and St Philips.
The chapel of Mill Road cemetery was our next slide. There are over 3000 headstones in this cemetery. It is not a cemetery for St Andrew the Less only, as sit covered all parishes south of the river. It was a necessity as a smell of rotting corpses hung over the city. The graveyards were so full that lids of coffins were visible above the ground. (The headstones of Mill Road Cemetery have been listed by the Family history Society, in a vast project led by Alan Bullwinkle, one of our founder members. –The St Andrew the Less portion is already available on microfiche, the rest will be available in due course)
Then Gill took us back to the rural days of 1805 and talked to us about the development of St Andrew the Less. The 19th century census returns show the rapid increase in population: 252 in 1811: 2211 in 1821: 9486 in 1841: 15,958 in 1871 and 27,860 in 1901. The parish was regarded in the Cambridge Chronicle as "the focus of villainy, the refuge of the common thief" and so on in an article of 1853. An 1849 report on sanitation and water describes sanitary conditions in the parish as wretched and a disgrace to humanity.
Gill showed us slides to illustrate social conditions. We saw the Old Town Gaol, which faced Parker’s Piece – site of the YMCA. It was closed in 1878.
There was also a female refuge in St Andrew the Less. A plaque at the Grafton centre marks the site. Minute books of the Refuge survive, which are useful sources of information. The girls worked at laundry and sewing, and details of the rates are given in the Minute books. About 20 girls stayed in the refuge and there were stringent requirements for admission. It was a charity and closed in the 1920s
We saw a slide of the old Workhouse (now 8 & 9 Staffordshire Gardens). Under the new Poor Law, there was a Workhouse built in Mill Road in the 1830s. The 1891 census for St Andrew the Less shows vagrants from all over the country staying there on census night (it makes life difficult for family historians).
The Railway Station also appeared on a slide. This was a very important feature of the parish as so many employees lived nearby. By 1845 there were two railway lines from Cambridge and the line to London was completed in 1851, in time for the Great Exhibition. It took two hours to London, so day trips were possible. The diaries of the Registrary of the University, Joseph Romilly (now in print), show that he often visited London several times in one week.
Finally we rounded off a very entertaining evening with slides of the lighter side of life in St Andrew the Less. We saw an advertisement of the Cambridge Pippin, an apple developed in Barnwell Nursery by William Pleasance in 1822. By the time he died, William Pleasance had many orchards and was described as a gentleman.
We were shown a poster for Barnwell Theatre, with such fare as a comedy called The Suspicious Husband and a more elevated offering of She Stoops to Conquer. The theatre was part of the fair entertainment, but in a tragic episode it was burnt down and there were many deaths. A new theatre was built in Newmarket road in 1808, which became known as the Theatre Royal. Charles Dickens was among the playwrights and actors who appeared there. The theatre closed and became a Mission Hall in the late 19th Century. It reopened as the Festival Theatre in the 1920s.
Other places of entertainment in the parish included public houses. They had a less cheerful role as the place where Coroner’s Inquests were held. Gill told us of a particularly sad instance of the deaths of a mother and daughter living in Occupation road in 1837, Elizabeth Bradford and her daughter Ann Newman. Both of them were unwell and taking laudanum. The mother fell across her daughter while under the influence and died, and the daughter could not get out so she died as well. There was a lot of ill feeling about the Anatomy School of the University, where young bodies were always needed, so an order was issued that the bodies must be buried to avoid unrest.
We heard about the local industries –coprolite digging, Hedley’s Ironworks on Mill Road where coprolite was processed, the Gas Works in Gas Lane. Lamps lighted the town centre in 1788, by gas lamps in 1823 and by electric in 1892. Employment was also provided by the sewage works in 1896, water works – piped from Cherry Hinton from 1855 – and the trams that began in the 1880s.
Our evening with Gill Shapland gave us a very interesting view of Barnwell, its history, buildings and life for the people there. Not easy to convey without the slides, but I hope this has given a taste at least.
Margaret Bone
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