Towns, Cities, Villages and Hamlets

Samuel Lewis's Topographical Gazeetter 1831

ELSWORTH, a parish in the hundred of PAPWORTH, county of CAMBRIDGE, 4½ miles (N.N.E.) from Caxton, containing 773 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Ely, rated in the king's books at £ 14. 6. 0½. The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. There is a trifling endowment for a school, Dr. Franklin, in 1695, bequeathed £400 for building and endowing three almshouses for poor widows.

For the Family Historian details available records can be found on the Elsworth page of GENUKI Cambridgeshire.

ELSWORTH is a parish on the Huntingdonshire border of the county, 6 miles south-by-west from St. Ives station on the London and North Eastern and London, Midland and Scottish railways, about 10 west from Cambridge and 8 south-east from Huntingdon, in the hundred of Papworth, petty sessional division of Caxton, union of Caxton and Arrington, county court district of Cambridge, rural deanery of Bourn and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely.

The church of the Holy Trinity, which belonged to Ramsey Abbey from a very early period until the dissolution of the monasteries, is a building of stone in the pore Decorated style, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and a low embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and 4 bells, 3 of which bear the following inscriptions : I, Non vex sed votum non musica cordeala sed cor. 1628; 3, Cum moveo admoneo, R.G.I.A. churchwardens. 1616; 4, + Christopher Graye made me. 1675 : the triple sedilia and double piscina are especially good examples of the Decorated style, and there is also some excellent Perpendicular wood work in the chancel, consisting of stalls returned at the west end, with poppy heads and linen fold panelling; under the book rests of tire stalls are little lockers retaining their original panelled doors, locks arid hinges: outside, on the south side of the chancel, is a lose-side window, with the original iron staples remaining: over the porch door is a sun-dial with the inscription "MOX NOX ; " and on the east gable is a most beautiful and perfect Decorated cross: on the floor are two slabs with matrices of 15th century brasses, and there are traces of others: in the tower is a plain chest: the church was thoroughly I restored in 1892, the north aisle completely rebuilt and I several new windows inserted, at a cost of £1,000, of which £300 was contributed by the late Rev. Edward I Cheere M.A. of Papworth Hall, to whose memory a new east window was inserted: the church affords 400 sittings. The register dates from 1528 and is in excellent preservation.

The Particular Baptist chapel here will seat 250 persons.

Half an acre was given in 1901, by the then rector, as an additional burial ground. There are almshouses for three persons and charities of £11 yearly for distribution. Mrs. Banks left £300, the interest of which is distributed in coals &c. on the 21st Dec. annually. James Spearing and W. L. Raynes esqrs. are lords of the manor. The Rector is lord of the rectory manor.

The soil of this neighbourhood is stiff clay, anrd the subsoil blue gault, with chalk, stones and flints. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley. The area is 3,839 acres ; the population in 1921 was 487.

On March 7, 1902, part of the area of the Elsworth Holy Trinity ecclesiastical parish, without houses or population at the time of the Census, was transferred to the ecclesiastical parish of Corrington St. Mary.

[Extracts from Kelly's Directory - Cambridgeshire - 1929]