Towns, Cities, Villages and Hamlets

Samuel Lewis's Topographical Gazeetter 1831

FOXTON, a parish in the hundred of THRIPLOW, county of CAMBRIDGE, 6 miles (S.S.W.) from Cambridge, containing 368 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Ely, rated in the king’s books at £11. 2. 11., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Ely. The church, erected about the year 1456, is dedicated to St. Lawrence. A market and two fairs were anciently hold here; one fair is still held at Easter.

	For the Family Historian details available records can be found on the Foxton page of GENUKI Cambridgeshire.
	The village of Foxton is to be found the the Genweb Cambridgeshire web pages.

FOXTON is a parish and village, near the old road to Cambridge and on the river Rhea, with a station on the Hitchin, Royston and Cambridge branch of the London and North Eastern railway, 50 miles from London, about 7 south from Cambridge and 6 north-east from Royston, in the hundred of Thriplow, petty sessional division of Arrington and Melbourn, union and county court district of Royston, rural deanery of Barton and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely.

The church of St. Lawrence is an ancient edifice of flint in the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, north porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 5 very fine toned bells, made by Miles Graye in 1654 the eastern triplet is a very beautiful specimen of Early English work, and the other windows retain some fragments of good 14th century glass: there is a large double piscina in the chancel and opposite it a singular recess like a sedile: the rood staircase is in perfect condition: in the north aisle are two Decorated brackets, and in the south aisle a piscina: the font is of very early date: in the latter part of the 14th century the church possessed the privilege of sanctuary: it was restored in 1881, at a cost of £3,000, and has 250 sittings. The register dates from the year 1671.

There is a Wesleyan chapel here.

A cross of Cornish granite was erected in 1922, on a site given by Dr Briggs as a memorial to the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18, in whose memory also a recreation ground of about 3 acres was opened. A charter granted to the De La Hayes in 1325 gave them the privilege of holding a market here and two fairs, one at the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, the other at the feast of St. Andrew; this charter was confirmed in 1326; but there is now only one fair, which is held at Easter

The soil is gravelly and chalky; the subsoil, gravel and clay. The chief crops are wheat and barley. The area is 1,752 acres ; the population in 1921 was 480.

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

Domesday Book Entry

In THRIPLOW Hundred

The Abbess of Chatteris holds 5 hides and 40 acres from the King in FOXTON. Land for 8 ploughs. In lordship 1 hide and 40 acres; 2 ploughs there. 16 villagers and 11 smallholders with 6 ploughs. ½ mill at 10s 8d; meadow for all the ploughs. The value is and was £6; before 1066 £7. This land always lay and lies in the Church’s lordship.

In FOXTON Sigar holds 3½ hides and 20 acres from Geoffrey. Land for 5 ploughs. In lordship 2; 5 villagers with 10 smallholders have 3 ploughs. 1 slave; meadow for 5 ploughs. The value is and always was £4. Sigar held it himself under Asgar; he could sell and grant, but the jurisdiction remained with the lord.

In the same village is ½ mill, which pays 10s 8d, which Robert Gernon appropriated in Geoffrey’s despite, as the men of the Hundred testify.

War Memorial

The war memorial and the men on it have been documented on the Roll of Honour website for Cambridgeshire pages.