DIRECTORY.] . ASHWELL. 699 sary General Murray (a Waterloo veteran), whose successor another Hare Street in this county, two miles east of bequeathed them to the late P. Longmore esq. and they were , partly in the parish of Great . next sold by his trustees to the present occupier, Captain CROMER is about a mile north-west of the church. Here James Thomas Scott; the mansion of Ardeley Bury, stand- is St.•Joseph's chapel, now (1890) in course of erection. ing in a park of 80 acres, is a fine structure of brick in the LUFFENHALL is a hamlet, chiefly in the parish of , castellated style, principally built in 1820, but there still situated about a mile and a half north-west from Ardeley. remains a small portion of the old Elizabethan house, erected WOODEND, about 2 miles south-east, contains the resi­ about 158 I; it was until lately surrounded by a moat, now dences of several farmers and the chief part of the population. filled up, and was formerly the residence of Sir Henry The chapel of St. Alban the Martyr, erected in 1853, is built Chauncey kt. the historian of Hertfordshire, who died in of small stones, collected by children in the fields, withbrick April 1719. The principal landed proprietors are Captain quoins; it consists of chancel and nave, divided by a wooden James Thomas Scott, the Marquess of Salisbury K.G., P.C. screen, south porch and a turret containing I bell, and will John Wiliamson Leader esq. M.A., J.P. of Buntingford, J. H. hold 100 persons. There is a Congrf'gational chapel with Ward esq. and the Earl of Mexborough. The parish consists 60 sittings. of several hamlets, the houses of which are chiefly held by Parish Clerk, Nathan Kimpton. copyhold tenure, under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, Letters through delivered at 8 a.m. PILLAR who are lords of the manor. The soil is partly heavy and LETTER Box near the church, cleared on week days at partly light; subsoil, clay principally. The chief crops are 5.35 p.m. & at 9.35 a.m. on sundays; also one at Cromer, wheat, barley and beans. The area is 2,423 acres; rateable cleared at 6.20 p.m. on weekdays&9.ssa.m. on sundays. value, £3, IrO ; the population in 188 I was 495. The nearest money order offices are at Walkem, Bunting- The hamlets include GARDENER'S END, three quarters of a ford & Stevenage. is the nearest telegraph office mile east; PARKER'S GREEN, It miles south-east; MOOR Na~ional School (mixed), built in 1834 & enlarged & a GREEN, I mile east; MUNCHES GREEN, three quarters of a master's residence added in 1845; it will hold 130 children; mile south-east, and part of HARE STREET, I mile north, average attendance, 75; John William Senior, master; the remainder of which is in parish. There is Miss Mand Hardy, infants' mistress Ardeley. Munt David, farmer, Hare street Smith William, beer retailer RuddockRev.Mark Ernest M.A.Vicarage Parker Charles, farmer, Luffenhall ThompsonNoah, Dog & Partridge P.R Scott Capt. James Thos. Ardeley bury Western Richard, farm bailiff to Capt. Woollatt Samuel, farmer Smith Thomas Robert, Gardener's end J. T. Scott, Church End farm Young Henry, beer retailer Wright Wm. Henry, farmer, Moor hall Woodend. COMMERCIAL. YonngMary(Mrs.),beerretailer& black- Overell The Misses Cordell John, farmer, Luffenhall smith, Moor Green Newland Arthur, wheelwright Corden William, farmer, Bury grange Overell John, farmer Darby WaIter, farmer, Luffenhall Cromer. Penn William, shopkeeper Draper John, Old Bell P.R Boorman Bros. millers (wind) & blackR Phillips John, Chequers P.H Dearman Charles, beer retailer smiths, Cromer mill Sheppard Lucy (Mrs.), farmer Marvell James, farmer, Moor green Brand WilIiam, Horse & Groom P.R Wright James, farmer . Marvell Samuel, higgler, Moor green Cordell John, jun. farmer Young Chas. shopkeeper & beer retailer ASHWELL is a parish and large village, situatedamong church was restored and reseated with open seats in the the chalk hills in the valley of the Rhee, a tributary of the year 1868; and an organ erected at a cost of £400, subR Cam, on the Cambridgeshire border of the county, 41 miles scribed bythe parishioners: there are 460 sittings, 160 being from London, 4~ north-east from and 7 south-west free. The register of baptisms and marriages dates from from Royston, with a station 2~ miles south-east from the 1686; burials from 1678. The living is a rectory, tithe rent­ village on the and Cambridge branch of the Great charge £669. net yearly valne £360, with residence, in the Northern railway, in the Northern division of the county, gift of the Bishop of St. Albans, and held since 1851 by the Odsey hundred and petty sessional division,. Royston union Rev. Henry William Hodl'{son M.A. of Balliol Oollege, Oxford. and county court district, rural deanery of Baldock and There is a Congregational chapel with 400 sittings, Particular archdeaconry and diocese of St. Albans: that this locality Baptist (150),Wesleyan (350) and Primitive Methodist (ISO), was a British settlement there can be no doubt and the chapels. The charities for distribution in money and kind existence about a mile south-west of the entrenched camp amount to about £39 yearly, left at various dates from IS82 called "Arbury Banks" sufficiently proves its British to 1701 by Lawrence Williams, John Sell, The Rev. Thomas origin; it is supposed also to have been a Roman town or Chapman, Thomas Plomer, Richard Morley and wife and station under the name 6f Magrovinium and Roman and Edward Cumberland Wailer. Sells and Plomer's charities British coins have been found here: at the time of the and the poor's land together consists of 27A. 37P. of land Norman survey it was a market town and had several annual allotted under the award of the Inclosure Commissioners, fairs: it now consists of several small streets of scattered 22 Jan. 1863; Polmer's other charity of SA. IR. lOP. houses irregularly placed, with outlying farms: there are yields £8 15s. yearly for apprenticing. The Ecclesiastical two breweries, which give employment to a considerable Commissioners are lords of the manor. The principal land­ portion of the population, the remainder being engaged in owners are Joseph Trueman Mills esq. J.P. of Clermont, agriculture. Ashwell Fields, a large tract of common land, Watton, Norfolk, Edward Snow Fordham esq. M.A., LL.M., has been brought into cultivation. Thirty springs which J.P. and Mr. Thomas Chapman. The soil is chalky and very rise in the village form the head of the river Cam, or favonrable for the growth of barley. The area is 4,107 Granta. On both sides of the river large beds of coprolites acres of hilly land; rateable value, £6,033; the population have been discovered. The church of St. Mary the Virgin, in 188 [ was 1,568. a building chiefly of ciunch, and for the most part of Early HIGHLEY HILL is 2 miles south-west. English date, consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, Parish Clerk, George Norman. north and south porches, the latter with a parvise, and a Inland Revenue, John McCormack, officer lofty western tower, surmounted by a finely-tapering spire, Police Station, Henry George Spriggs, constable rising to a height of 176 feet and containing 6 bells, dated respectively 1792,1694, 1817, 1787,1808 and 1789 ; the tenor POST, M. O. & T. O. & S. B.-Abraham Hart Christy, post- weighs 18 cwt.: on the walls of the tower are various in- master. Letters arrive from Baldock at 7. 10 & Ir a.m.• scriptions rudely carved with knives; of these the greater dispatched at 12 noon & 6 p.m.; sundays 10 a.m number are illegible, save here and there a word, but one SCHOOLS :- remains which seems to read: .. Quat gratiae fonte (fontis) Merchant Taylors' Company's Endowed, founded by & tot dolores domini monte (montis) :" the north wall of the bequest in 1665 of £1,000 by Henry Colborn or Colbron, tower is nearly covered with rude carvings, some of very of Westbury Nemewtes, in this parish, who left the above early date: there were also Latin inscriptions on nearly all sum in trust to the Merchant Taylors' Company for the the columns, especially on the north side, but these are no erection of a school here, giving also £100 to the master longer legible; one singular and interesting inscription, & wardens for their pains: £150 yearly is paid to the though but fragmentary, seems to refer to the great pesti- master, who is appointed by the Company, & the resi- lence of 1349 and runs as nearly as can be read as follows, due, £17 IOS. carried to the school fund. The school "Pestilentia maesta cruenta miseranda ferox molesta .• & master's house were built in 1681 & enlarged in 1876, super est plebs pessima testis. In fine venit ventus validus in at a cost of £1,000 & will hold 150 boys; average attend- hoc anno Maurus in orbe tonat, MCCCLXI :," the pulpit, of ance, 106 ; there are now (1890) 135 boys; Albert William oak, is dated 1627 : at the end of the south aisle, formerly Chote, master; H. Bracy & E. S. Attrell, assistant the Lady Chapel, are the remains of a reredos, a piscina, masters and a spacious aumbry: in the north aisle is a. large altar A School Board of 5 members was formed in 1875 ; T. Shell, tomb, without inscription: in the south aisle is a memorial Royston, is clerk to the board; J. Warreu, Ashwell, at;.. window to Mary Snsanna Tinling, who died in 1857: the tendance officer E. H. &M. 46