Kelly's Directory, 1892

Meldreth is a parish and straggling village on a branch of the river Rhea, with a station on the Hitchin and Cambridge line of the Great Northern railway, 4 miles north-by-east from Royston, 9 1/2 south-west from Cambridge and 42 from London, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Armingford, petty sessional division of Arrington and Melbourn, union and county court district of Royston, rural deanery of Shingay and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely.  The church of the Holy Trinity is a building of stone and clunch in the perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower, containing a clock and five bells: in the church is a monument to George Pike, esq., who died 1658 and beneath it is the family vault of the Mortlock family:  there is a memorial window by the vicar to the memory of his wife: another by friends of the vicar, and a third, was presented by J.G. Mortlock esq., in 1885: the church was restored in 1842 and has 500 sittings.  The register of baptisms and burials dates from 1681; marriages 1692.  The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £300, arising from 124 acres of glebe, with residence, in the grift of the Dean and Chapter of Ely, and held since 1864 by the Rev. Edward William Cory M.A., of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge, rural dean of Shingay, and surrogate.  There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.  Charities producing £12 yearly are distributed in fuel.  Richard William Hitch, esq., of Melbourn, who is lord of the manor, Christ’s College, Cambridge, Herbert Fordham, esq., of Odsey Grange, the trustees of the late John Hampden Fordham, esq., (d.1885), Biscoe Hill Wortham, esq., D.L., J.P., of Kneesworth House, Charles Ellis and Thomas Westrope Bowman, esqrs., and John George Mortlock, esq., and Mrs. Agnes Egg are the principal landowners.  The soil is strong clay; subsoil chalk.  The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and peas.  The area is 2,415 acres;  rateable value £4,449;  the population in 1881 was 718.

Parish Clerk, Benjamin Hale.

Post Office, Benjamin Hale, receiver.  Letters arrive from Royston at 8 a.m. & 1 p.m.; dispatched at 5.35 p.m.; on Sunday’s dispatched at 12 noon.  The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Melbourn.  Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.

There is no school in this parish; the children attend Trigg’s Charity school in the adjoining parish of Melbourn.

Railway Station, Edwin James Middleton, station master.

Carriers, Arthur James Howell, from Bassingbourn, passes through to Cambridge on Wed., and Sat.

Ball, Francis William, The Grove
Blomfield, John Frederick [Orchard Dene]
Bowman, Thos., Westrope, The Laurels
Cory, Rev., Edward William M.A. (vicar rural dean & surrogate), Vicarage
Ellis, Charles
Flitton, Ralph Henry, The Cottage
Mortlock, John George, Meldreth Court
Waller, William Mortlock

Commercial

Adcock, David, baker
Adcock, James, miller (water) [Topcliffe Mill]
Adcock, John, tailor
Bowman, Thomas Westrope, farmer & landowner, The Laurels
Chamberlain, Wm., shopkeeper
Clear, Samuel, farmer
Conservative Club, (Wm.Pullen, hon sec.)
Course, Elizabeth, (Mrs), shopkeeper
Course, Jonathan, farmer
Driver, Nathan, miller (water) [Flambards Mill]
East, John, beer retailer [The Sailor’s Return]
Elbourn, Alfred, machinist & farmer
Findlay, Samuel, Railway Tavern
Frost, Ann (Mrs), farmer
Hale, Benjamin, wheelwright, blacksmith & Post Office
Howard, Andrew, farmer
Jarman, Albert, brewer
Jarman & Co., brewers & maltsters
Lee, Wm., miller (water & steam)
Medlock, Geo., farmer, hay & straw dlr.
Nodder, John, carpenter
Palmer, George, farmer
Palmer, Mark, coal merch., grocer drpr. & agent for W. & A. Gilbey, wine & spirit merchant
Payne, John, beer retailer & farmer [The Dumb Flea]
Rumble, Robert P., farmer
Saunders, Walter J., farmer
Thurley, Fredk., beer retailer [The British Queen]
Tonson, Henry, beer retailer
Warren, Amos, baker
Wedd, Walter Jas., farmer College Farm
Wood,Thos., farmer
Woods, Samuel, Bell P.H.

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