Post Office Trade Directory, 1869

Meldreth is a parish and station on the Hitchin and Cambridge line of the Great Northern Railway, 4 miles north-by-east from Royston, 9½ south-west from Cambridge and 42 from London, on a branch of the river Rhea, in the hundred of Armingford, union and county court district of Royston, rural deanery of Shingay, archdeaconry and diocese of Ely.  The church of Holy Trinity has a nave, aisles, chancel, south porch, and embattled tower, which contains 4 bells;  it was restored in 1842 and contains a monument to George Pike, esq., and a family vault of the Mortlock family: a small stained glass window has recently been placed in the chancel by the vicar, the Rev. E.W. Cory, to the memory of his mother.  The register dates from the middle of the sixteenth century.  The living is a vicarage, yearly value £224, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Ely, and held by the Rev. William Cory, M.A., of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge.  The Independents and Wesleyans have each their respective places of worship.  Gas works have been built in this parish and light Melbourn and Meldreth.  The principal landowners are the Dean and Chapter of Ely, Christ’s College, Cambridge and the Rev. A.C. Wright.  The soil is strong clay; subsoil chalk.  The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and peas.  The population in 1861 was 735;  the area is 2,000 acres.

Parish Clerk, Benjamin Hale

Post Office – Benjamin Hale, receiver.  Letters arrive from Royston via Melbourn, at 7.30am; dispatched at 6 pm; on Sundays dispatched at 11.30 am.  The nearest money order office is at Melbourn.

Railway Station – Henry Hitchcock, station master.

Private Residents

Cory, Rev. Edward William M.A. (vicar)
Palmer, Mrs
Rose, Charles, esq.

Commercial

Adcock, John, tailor
Baker, Thos. Beer retailer & wheelwright [The Queen Adelaide]
Blott, William, farmer
Campkin, John, relieving officer & registrar of births, deaths & marriages for Melbourn district
Chamberlain, William, shopkeeper
Clear, Elizabeth & Martha (Misses), farmers
Clear, Ann Adelaide (Mrs.), farmer
Course, Humphrey, shopkeeper
Elbourn, Alfred, machine man
Ellis, Charles, farmer
Flitton, Charles, corn merchant
Flitton, William, farmer & miller [Sheene Mill]
Frost, James, farmer
Hale, Benjamin, wheelwright & blacksmith
Harrip, Aaron, blacksmith
Howard, Benjamin, cattle dealer
Howard, Emma (Mrs), farmer
Jackson, Thomas (Mrs), farmer
Jarman, William Bell, beer retailer
Jordan, William, shoe maker
Linton, William, farmer
Melbourn Gas Works (Charles Clarke, manager)
Palmer, George, farmer
Payne, Benjamin, beer retailer [The Dumb Flea]
Prior, Joseph, carpenter
Rhodes, Charles, coprolite merchant
Stockbridge, Martha, shopkeeper
Tonson, Henry, Green Man
Waller, William, farmer
Wallis, Isabel Agnes (Mrs), grocer
Warren, Amos, baker
Welch, Samuel, miller
Wilson, John, Railway Tavern
Wood, Thomas, farmer
Woods, Samuel, Bell
Worland, Frederick, shopkeeper
Worland, Thomas, cow leech
Worland, William, cow leech
Wright, Charles, boot & shoe maker