Kelly's Directory, 1896

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, 91/2 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 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 5 bells: in the church is a monument to George Pike, esq., who died in 1658, and beneath it the family vault of the Mortlock family:  there is a memorial window erected 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 300 sittings.  The register of baptisms and burials dates from 1681; marriages 1692.  The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £200, arising from 124 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Ely, and held since 1894 by the Rev. Percy Harvey, M.A. of Cavendish College, Cambridge.  There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels.  Charities producing £12 yearly are distributed in fuel.  Messrs Philip and Arthur Meyer, brewers of Orwell, who are lords of the manor, Christ’s College, Cambridge, Herbert George Fordham, esq., J.P., of Odsey, Herts, Alfred Russell Fordham, esq., the trustees of the late Biscoe Hill Wortham, esq., of Kneesworth (d.1895), Charles Ellis, Thomas Westrope Bowman and John George Mortlock, esqrs., 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 2,513 acres; rateable value, £4,679;  the population in 1891 was 713 in the civil and 642 in the ecclesiastical parish.

Under the provisions of the “Divided Parishes Act” a part of Meldreth was in 1882 added to Melbourn.

Parish Clerk, Benjamin Hale.

Post & Telegraph & Express Delivery Office – Benjamin Hale, sub-postmaster.  Letters arrive from Royston at 5.50 am & 1.20 pm; dispatched at 7.50am, 1.30 & 7.35 pm; on Sundays dispatched at 7.55 pm. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.  The nearest money order office is at Melbourn.  Wall letter box cleared at 8 pm.

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

Railway Station, Arthur Scott, station master.

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

Private Residents

Blomfield, John Frederick, Orchard Deene [Orchard Dene]
Bowman, John, The Limes
Bowman, Thos. Westrope, The Laurels
Butlin, Mackenzie Charles, M.A., Manor House
Ellis, Charles, Oak Lodge
Ellis, Hubert Oslar Shepherd, B.A. LL.B.
Harvey Rev. Percy, M.A. Vicarage
Jarman, Mrs, Brewery House
Mortlock, John George, Meldreth Court
Palmer, Mrs,  Rose Cottage
Robinson, Misses
Thorpe, Edward, The Grove
Worland, Mrs, Valley House

Commercial

Adcock, David, baker
Adcock, James, farmer
Banham, Reginald Piercy, poultry farmer; choicest selection of table poultry, white leghorns & langshans a speciality; poutry appliances of all descriptions;  various fruits in season, Court Poultry Farm
Bowman, Thomas Westrope, farmer & landowner, The Laurels
Cam Portland Cement Co. Ltd., (Alfred Russell, sec. & managing director)
Conservative Club (C. Ellis, pres.)
Course, Jane (Mrs), shopkeeper
Course, Jonathan, farmer
Driver, Nathan, miller (water) [Flambards Mill]
East, John, farmer
Elbourn, Alfred, machinist & farmer
Hale, Benjamin, wheelwright & blacksmith, Post Office
Howard, Andrew, farmer
Jarman & Co., brewers & maltsters
Kelsall, Thomas, farmer
Kirby, Henry, dairyman
Lee, William, miller (water & steam)
Medlock, Geo. farmer & hay & straw dealer
Miller, William, beer retailer [The Sailor’s Return]
Nodder, John, carpenter
Nottage, Jordan, Railway Tavern
Palmer, George, farmer
Palmer, Mark, coal merchant, grocer & draper, & agent for W. & A. Gilbey Ltd., wine & spirit merchants
Payne, John, beer retailer & farmer
Payne, William, farmer
Peters, George, miller (water) [Topcliffe Mill]
Saunders, Walter J., farmer
Thurley, Frederick, beer retailer [The British Queen]
Tonson, Henry, beer retailer
Warren, Amos, baker
Wedd, Walter Jas., farmer, College Farm
Wood, Thomas, farmer
Woods, Samuel, Bell P.H.
Worland, Abbis, vet. surg., Valley House

Comments about this page

  • Following the above comment, a page was added to this website on MacKenzie Charles Butlin which includes two photographs supplied by Robert Butlin.

    By Kathryn Betts (24/09/2012)
  • MacKenzie Charles Butlin was my great grandfather. I have, somewhere a photograph of him and his family, I believe taken at Meldreth Hall. Is anyone interested in this? I think not long afterwards he moved to Weymouth in Dorset. All the best.

    By Robert Butlin (08/06/2012)

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