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Information about Great Abington circa 1900

GREAT ABINGTON is a parish and village, on the south bank of the river Granta and on the main road from Cambridge to Linton and Haverhill, 1 mile east from Pampisford station on a branch of the Great Eastern railway from Cambridge to Haverhill, 2 ½ north-west from Linton, 8 north from Saffron Walden and 8 south-east from Cambridge, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Chilford, union and petty sessional division of Linton, county court district of Saffron Walden, rural deanery of Camps, second division, and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely. The church of St. Mary the Virgin is an ancient edifice of flint and rubble, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, east porch and a south tower containing 2 bells: on the north aide of the chancel is a monument with recumbent effigy in alabaster to Sir William Halton kt. of the Middle Temple, ob. 20th November, 1639: the church was repaired in 1895 at a cost of £500, and the south aisle is now (1900) undergoing repair at a cost of £200: the church affords 200 sittings. The register dates from the year 1664. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £98, including 78 acres of glebe, in the gift of Edmund John Mortlock esq. who is impropriator of the rectorial tithes, and held since 1593 by the Rev. Arthur Worsley Smyth M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, who is also vicar of and resides at Little Abington. Abington Hall, the residence of Percy B. Hall esq. J.P. is a modern mansion, prettily seated in a well-timbered park of 50 acres, through which flows the river Granta. Abington lodge, the seat of Edmund John Mortlock esq. M.A., D L., J.P. is a handsome residence, very pleasantly surrounded by about 30 acres of meadow land. Edmund John Mortlock esq. is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is chiefly light, but certain parts are heavy; subsoil, chalk and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley. The area is about 1,588 acres; rateable value, £1,529; the population in 1891 was 317.

Parish Clerk, Alfred Cutter.

Letters through Cambridge to Little Abbington arrive at 7 a.m. & 3 p.m.; dispatched from Little Abbington at 7.50. The nearest money order office is at Little Abington & telegraph office at Linton, 2 ½ miles distant.

A School Board of 5 members was formed November 26, 1873, for the united district of Great & Little Abington; John James Rickett, clerk to the board

Board Schools, erected in this parish in 1870, solely at the expense of Edmund John Mortlock esq. for 200 children; average attendance, 80; Miss Emma King, mistress.

Cox Howard, Ivy lodge
Hall Percy Bernard J.P. Abington hall
Mortlock Edmund John M.A., D.L., J,P. Abington lodge
Andrews Albert, grocer & draper
Ashman Thomas, butcher
Dockrell Annie (Mrs.), dress maker
Jillings Chas. farmer, New House farm
King Edward, farmer, Abington park
Missen Charles James.Three TunsP.H.& brewer & farmer
Rickett John, jun. Builder, blacksmith & contractor Working Men's Institute (Edwin Dyball, sec)