Fulbourn: Churches

CHURCHES.

Like several other Cambridgeshire townships, Fulbourn had from the 12th century two churches, which stood together in one churchyard until one fell in 1766. Even thereafter their two parishes remained formally distinct, although the two benefices were united in 1876.

The earlier church founded was probably that of All Saints, which belonged to the largest manor, that held of the honor of Richmond. About 1184 Alan, viscount of Rohan, then its patron, gave it to his newly founded abbey of Bon Repos (Côtes-du-Nord) in Brittany, which was formally installed into possession. (fn. 1) All Saints was still held by a rector in the 1230s, (fn. 2) but Bon Repos had appropriated it by 1256. The rectory had probably already then been granted at farm by charter to Sawtry abbey (Hunts.), also a Cistercian one, which had represented Bon Repos in England since the 1190s. (fn. 3) The benefice so granted comprised only the great tithes, but no glebe. (fn. 4) When ordaining the vicarage, the bishop of Ely reserved its patronage to himself. Succeeding bishops regularly collated to the vicarage from the 14th century (fn. 5) to the mid 19th. (fn. 6) In 1852 its advowson was transferred to the bishop of Peterborough (fn. 7) and in 1869 by exchange to St. John's College, Cambridge, (fn. 8) which already had that of the other church, St. Vigor's.

That church, being named after a 6th-century bishop of Bayeux, was probably founded after 1066 by the tenants of the Mandeville fee. (fn. 9) It has always remained a rectory. Between 1199 and 1208 its advowson was disputed between Gilbert, lord of Dunmows, and Gilbert de Tany, lord of Colvilles. (fn. 10) The resulting settlement had by 1215 left the advowson to the lords of Dunmows, but obliged their rector to pay a £2 pension to the chaplains of Tany's manorial chapel. (fn. 11)

The advowson of St. Vigor's was possessed (fn. 12) and regularly exercised by successive lords of Dunmows into the 15th century. (fn. 13) They sometimes appointed close kinsmen, such as William of Dunmow, rector c. 1279-1313. (fn. 14) William Fulbourn, clerk, when lord, had himself presented as rector by 1370 (fn. 15) and used his seignorial jurisdiction to protect his rights to tithe. (fn. 16) In 1443 John Fulbourn's feoffees conveyed that advowson to feoffees probably for John Ormond, (fn. 17) lord of Zouches, with which it descended until the 1540s. (fn. 18) In 1546 it passed with the manors to the Crown, (fn. 19) which exercised it from 1553 to after 1600. (fn. 20) It was included in the sale of the lordships in 1625. (fn. 21) Although the Crown was still under Charles II claiming at least an alternating turn to present, (fn. 22) the Ramsays, who had not sold the advowson with the lordship, presented in 1660 and 1671. (fn. 23) Bishop Thamas Watson, having soon after acquired the advowson of St. Vigor's, included it in 1695 among his benefactions to his former college, St. John's, requiring that its nominees to that rectory should resign their fellowships within a year and come to reside in the parish. (fn. 24) Those conditions were substantially observed thereafter in practice, even in the 18th century, (fn. 25) by the former fellows whom the college regularly presented until the 1860s. (fn. 26) Following the union of the rectory with All Saints vicarage in 1876 St. John's became (fn. 27) and remained sole patron of the united living, usually termed a rectory, into the 1990s. (fn. 28)

The rector of St. Vigor's had all the tithes of his parish, but only a small glebe, nominally of 25 a. in 1279, (fn. 29) probably matching the half yardland which a previous rector had successfully claimed to hold in free alms in 1198. (fn. 30) The rector's fieldland comprised only 20 a. until inclosure, (fn. 31) when 13½ a., partly of old inclosures west of the village, were allotted for it. (fn. 32) From the mid 13th century the vicar of All Saints had been endowed, besides small tithes, with all that church's glebe land, 65-70 a. in 1279, besides 7 a. of closes. (fn. 33) Those closes had in 1232 been disputed between a preceding rector of that church and Master Peter of Fulbourn, perhaps kinsman of an earlier incumbent. (fn. 34) By the 18th century the vicar's glebe also included 70 a. of several heath and sheepwalk for 180 beasts. (fn. 35) At inclosure he was allotted 109 a. for all his glebe. (fn. 36)

Before inclosure no definite boundary was drawn between the two parishes. The farmers and other inhabitants rendered small tithes to the rector and vicar depending upon which parish their houses in the village were traditionally supposed to stand in. (fn. 37) The distinction had perhaps originally been based on tenure: tenants holding of Zouches, still considered the patronal manor c. 1800, (fn. 38) also possibly of Shardelowes (fn. 39) rendered tithes to All Saints, those of Dunmows and possibly Colvilles to St. Vigor's. For tithing the open fields, however, no permanent division was fixed, but the impropriator and rector tithed the arable east and west of a customary line in each sown field in alternating three-year periods, each thus tithing almost all the fields every six years. (fn. 40) In 1806 the All Saints impropriator accordingly claimed corn tithes of 1,695 a. of arable, partly inclosed, alternately with the rector. (fn. 41) About 1800 Robert Fiske, then holding both benefices, arranged with the impropriator to let all the great tithes jointly to the farmers and divide the rents received equally, instead of taking tithe in kind. (fn. 42) The lord, R. G. Townley, then encouraged the farmers to assert that the regular rate of composition for small tithes, unchanged for 80 years, was a legally binding modus, and to refuse Fiske's demands that they pay at an increased rate. (fn. 43) At inclosure all tithes were commuted for land, the impropriator receiving 431½ a. for All Saints' great tithes and its vicar 77 a. for its small tithes, while the rector obtained 482½ a. for all those of St. Vigor's. (fn. 44) Into the 1950s the impropriator's Shardelowes farm remained subject to pensions of £2 10s. to the vicar and 2 marks to the rector due until inclosure out of his Monks Barn impropriation. (fn. 45)

Waleran son of Ranulf, lord of the later Colvilles manor, before 1086 included the tithes of his Fulbourn demesne in grants to St. Stephen's abbey, Caen (Calvados), confirmed by Henry I. (fn. 46) By 1256 that grant had been converted into a tithe portion of 5 marks, payable, as still in 1340, out of St. Vigor's rectory to the Caen cell, Panfield priory (Essex). (fn. 47) In the 15th century it was assigned to various royal grantees, eventually to Eton College (then Bucks.). (fn. 48) That pension had been confirmed to St. Stephen's in 1332, following a 7-year dispute involving that abbey, Bon Repos, and the rector. The bishop's award, while assigning to Bon Repos and the rector their customary shares of most of the great tithes, provided that Bon Repos should have sole rights to great tithes from 202 a. in Cross field. (fn. 49) That ruling was perhaps the origin of the impropriator's claim, accepted in 1806, to all great tithes from 386 a. called the Severals, mostly in the open fields, but including 78 a. of inclosed arable. (fn. 50)

About 1217 All Saints church yielded its incumbent 30, and St. Vigor's only 16½ marks. (fn. 51) However, following the appropriation of the former, All Saints rectory was worth over £30 in the late 13th century (fn. 52) and in the late 14th was leased for £40, in 1368 partly to the vicar. (fn. 53) St. Vigor's with less land but more tithes became consistently worth more than All Saints vicarage. In the late 13th century they were respectively taxed on 17-20 and 5-10 marks, (fn. 54) in 1535 on c. £27 and £15. (fn. 55) Later the inequality increased, the rector receiving £120 in 1650 and £160 in 1728, the vicar only £40 at both periods. (fn. 56) Following the inclosure allotments the difference was slightly reduced: the two livings were respectively worth £442 and £253 gross c. 1830, (fn. 57) and £750 and £327 in 1873. (fn. 58) After 1876 the united benefices' 670 a. of glebe yielded initially £850 gross yearly, but its rents fell to c. £700 by 1887 and further later. (fn. 59) St. Vigor's Rectory farm, 394 a. west of the village, was sold in 1910 to H. W. S. Gray of Gogmagog House, Stapleford, (fn. 60) leaving 255 a. c. 1918; another 27 a. were later sold to Fulbourn Mental Hospital, (fn. 61) and 20 a. near the village for council housing c. 1945-60. (fn. 62) The incumbent retained, however, a substantial income until 1977 when much money from investments was diverted to other diocesan purposes. (fn. 63)

Before inclosure All Saints vicarage, which in 1476 included a two-storeyed east hall, (fn. 64) stood in a 2-a. close north of Pierce Lane. (fn. 65) About 1675 it had three hearths. (fn. 66) By the 1790s it was considered a cottage (fn. 67) and was let c. 1830 to the glebe tenant. (fn. 68) A vicar coming to reside, the first for a century, had it pulled down in 1857 and built a tall new grey brick house on a new site south of that lane. After the livings were united it was thought too large for a curate and was let from 1881 and sold in 1892 with its 7-a. grounds. (fn. 69) It still stood in 1990 as Field House. St. Vigor's rectory, whose site was enlarged in 1371 with land given by William Fulbourn, (fn. 70) probably stood then as later in a 2-a. close across the street from the churchyard. (fn. 71) It was rebuilt after a fire in 1727. (fn. 72) That building, which remained the rector's residence, was again rebuilt in 1868, largely in red brick in an eclectic style, on the same site. (fn. 73) The Victorian house, thought too large, was sold in 1950 and later converted, with new annexes, for workshops and offices. (fn. 74) A smaller new glebe house, still in use in 1990, was built in 1953 on part of its former garden. (fn. 75)

By 1200 the Tanys' manor house had a free chapel, probably already named St. Edmund's. (fn. 76) Chaplains served it into the late 14th century, as long as lords might be resident there. By 1256 it was taxed as a separate benefice, (fn. 77) to which chaplains, presented by the lords of Colvilles, were formally inducted in the late 14th century; one served c. 1350-86. (fn. 78) The last known, appointed in 1395, was a pluralist or sinecurist by 1410. (fn. 79) Besides its pension from St. Vigor's, Tanys or Colvilles chapel was endowed in the 14th century with open-field arable. (fn. 80) That 'chapel land', by the 1430s in the hands of the lords of Zouches, its patrons, (fn. 81) was still so styled when part of the Docwra estate in the 17th century. (fn. 82)

Rectors were recorded for both churches from the 1190s, (fn. 83) and vicars of All Saints occasionally from the 1270s. (fn. 84) In the late 13th century the rector of St. Vigor's was assisted by his own vicar, endowed with £1 yearly by 1256. (fn. 85) The last known such vicar purged himself of homicide in 1299. (fn. 86) Incumbents were regularly presented to each church from the mid 14th century, sometimes drawn from local families such as the Primroses. (fn. 87) Some gave books or vestments to their churches; one rector c. 1370 did so to replace those in which he was to be buried. (fn. 88) Between 1360 and 1410 they mostly served for over ten years each; (fn. 89) one vicar was licensed in 1396 to hear his parishioners' confessions. (fn. 90) The vicar Geoffrey Bishop served for c. 50 years before resigning on a pension in 1476, (fn. 91) but had five successors in 29 years, one dispensed in 1496 to be a pluralist. (fn. 92) Several 15th- and 16th-century academic rectors, holding offices in Cambridge colleges or otherwise pluralists, (fn. 93) probably did not reside.

The incumbents were assisted by other clergy. In 1378 there were five, including St. Vigor's parish chaplain. One, from a local family, was accused in 1377 of fighting in church and haunting taverns. (fn. 94) In 1406 there were three chaplains and in the 1460s a stipendiary chaplain and a parish priest. (fn. 95) About 1500 St. Vigor's was probably served mainly by such priests, (fn. 96) and in the 1540s both incumbents employed curates. (fn. 97) Neither rector nor vicar was resident in 1561. (fn. 98)

A recluse at Fulbourn owned 6 a. in 1279. (fn. 99) St. Vigor's church contained altars of St. Nicholas in 1228; (fn. 100) of St. Mary by the late 14th century, (fn. 101) perhaps standing in her chapel where the Ingulf family endowed masses in 1247; (fn. 102) and of St. John in 1420. About 1500 there were four guilds: in All Saints church of the Assumption and of St. John the Baptist; in St. Vigor's of its patron and of St. Stephen. (fn. 103) Geoffrey Bishop directed that the Fulbourn guilds should hold their annual breakfasts at the house belonging to his charity, (fn. 104) probably the guildhall where cooking equipment for feasts was available from 1526. (fn. 105) Confiscated land given for lights and obits was sold by the Crown in 1550 and 1576. (fn. 106)

The pluralist civil lawyer Humphrey Busby, vicar by 1561, (fn. 107) (d. 1580), sometimes resident, who was succeeded by his curate, (fn. 108) was reported in 1560 and 1576 for neither preaching quarterly nor even reading the Homilies, and for slackness in catechizing the young. The rector, moreover, had him brought before the High Commission for teaching false doctrine. (fn. 109) The contemporary royal choices as rectors, John Bell, 1559-91, master of Jesus College, Cambridge, and later dean of Ely, and John Hills, 1591-1626, also vicar from 1592, later master of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, (fn. 110) were presumably nonresident: both employed curates. (fn. 111) One man served under Hills in both churches after 1600. (fn. 112) Thomas Wilson, Hills's curate from 1607, (fn. 113) who married his widow and succeeded to the rectory in 1626, (fn. 114) was a pluralist. Sequestrated by 1645 for such Laudian practices as setting up altar rails, he returned in 1647 to disturb the Parliamentary nominee who had replaced him. (fn. 115) Meanwhile Robert Fagge, Wilson's curate in 1628 (fn. 116) and vicar since 1626, reckoned in 1650 a mean preacher, served, adhering to the Cambridge Presbyterian Classis in the late 1650s, (fn. 117) until his death in 1669. (fn. 118) Between the 1660s and the 1710s there were five vicars, not pluralists, so perhaps resident. Of the two rectors during that period one was in office, though non-resident, for 47 years. (fn. 119) Subsequently John Perkins, vicar 1713-38, was also rector from 1719 to his death in 1751. (fn. 120) Initially resident, he lived from c. 1740 on his neighbouring cure at Thriplow. (fn. 121)

From the 16th century to the 18th the population was probably divided about equally between the two parishes, each having c. 50 households in 1563 (fn. 122) and 50-55 potential churchgoers in 1676. (fn. 123) In the 17th and 18th centuries each parish had a similar birth rate. (fn. 124) How the villagers divided their attendance between the two churches before 1700 is uncertain. Some testators left money for the repair and the bells of both c. 1500. (fn. 125) In 1728 Perkins was holding two services each Sunday, apparently one in each church. (fn. 126) It was said in 1775 that services had traditionally been held alternately in each every Sunday, most parishioners attending, and some at least having reserved seats in, both. Following the collapse of All Saints church in 1766, an Act of 1775, which permitted its demolition and made St. Vigor's the church for both parishes, provided that the two incumbents should, unless they agreed otherwise, officiate in it in alternate weeks. (fn. 127) That may have been done initially: Walter Serocold the vicar served in person from Cherry Hinton in 1775, when the elderly rector similarly came over from his Cambridge college. (fn. 128) Robert Fiske, however, rector from 1781 and vicar also from 1790 to his death in 1826, (fn. 129) occupied the rectory house and performed both Sunday services himself in 1807, preaching only at the more 'fashionable' evening one. He claimed 30-40 communicants at the three annual sacraments. (fn. 130)

The next rector, F. P. Hall, 1826-66, (fn. 131) who also served as curate for the vicar, a minor canon at Ely, continued those practices: he resided continually and preached twice each Sunday by 1836 when he claimed to have doubled the number of communicants to 45. (fn. 132) In 1851 he had an average attendance, besides 60 out of 90 Sunday-school children, of 200 at morning and 320 at afternoon services, (fn. 133) about a quarter of the population. (fn. 134) From All Saints parish, which had c. 765 inhabitants in 1871 compared to 625 in St. Vigor's, (fn. 135) the churchgoing poor who received Farmer's charity, numbering 110-125 in the 1850s, 140-160 in the 1860s, on average attended c. 80 services each year. (fn. 136) In 1873 87 families from All Saints and 25 from St. Vigor's were reckoned regular churchgoers, while c. 35 neglected all worship. (fn. 137)

Hall's last years in office were disturbed by the advent of an active curate who drew large audiences to open-air sermons, acting for a new, still absentee vicar. (fn. 138) From 1857, the next vicar being resident, the two incumbents shared the duty in the parish until Hall died, aged 79. (fn. 139) The vicar's resignation in 1876 enabled the clergy and patron to push through the union of the two benefices, effected the same year despite vigorous resistance from over 200 villagers. Opponents were partly concerned that All Saints parishioners might lose their exclusive rights to its valuable charities, partly that J. V. Durell, rector since 1868, might develop his High Church tendencies in doctrine and ritual unrestrained by a more 'Protestant' colleague. (fn. 140) Durell became the first sole incumbent, serving until his retirement in 1919, (fn. 141) although he had a curate into the early 1890s. (fn. 142) From 1873 to the 1890s he provided three services on summer Sundays, two in winter, and monthly communions; he had in all 60 communicants in 1873 and 180 by 1885, though only 110 in 1897. Most were female, very few young men coming. In 1885 three eighths of the inhabitants were supposedly regular and another quarter nominal churchgoers, enough to fill the 500 places created by enlarging the church in 1869-70. (fn. 143) Durell's successor, who served until 1950, introduced further High Church ceremonies, including a cross-led Rogation procession. (fn. 144) By the 1930s church and chapel were co-operating in occasional open-air services. (fn. 145) Fulbourn, as a populous parish, still had its own resident incumbent in the 1990s. (fn. 146) The church had 241 people on its roll in 1980. (fn. 147) Some of the Chaplins, once Fulbourn's leading dissenting family, adhered to it from the 1960s. (fn. 148)

The two churches of ALL SAINTS, so named by 1185, (fn. 149) and ST. VIGOR, so named by the 1220s, (fn. 150) formerly stood barely 7 ft. (2 m.) apart in the south-eastern and north-western parts of the same churchyard near the southeast end of the main street. (fn. 151) Earlier use of that site for religious purposes is suggested by the surviving head of a stone wheel-headed cross carved with interlace, perhaps dating from c. 1000, found under St. Vigor's nave in 1869. (fn. 152) In the 18th century All Saints consisted of a chancel, with north vestry, raised over a charnel chamber, north and south transepts, at least one with a western aisle, a spacious nave and aisles under one roof with a south porch, and a threestage west tower, buttressed and parapeted, with a stair turret. (fn. 153) In the 17th century the nave and most of the chancel were still thatched, although aisles and transepts were tiled. (fn. 154) The south transept had a five-light south window with elaborate Perpendicular tracery. Some glass bore the arms of Cardinal Archbishop Bourchier, patron of Alexander Wood (d. 1479). (fn. 155) In 1747 the chancel retained its medieval screen and stalls, and, besides rails and steps reinstated since 1665, contained a 'handsome' pedimented reredos. Under Charles II it had been cracked and ruinous, its four-light east window partly stopped with clay. (fn. 156) The tower fell in May 1766, destroying much of the nave. The exposed clunch masonry soon decayed, while the woodwork was plundered. (fn. 157) The parishioners, claiming that they could not afford to rebuild it, obtained an Act in 1775 to demolish the ruins, devoting the proceeds to maintaining St. Vigor's. (fn. 158) Although there was thenceforth only one church rate, separate pairs of churchwardens continued to be chosen for the two ancient parishes until the 1870s. (fn. 159) No trace remains on the site, although some arches from an arcade were re-erected as the 'Temple' in the Manor grounds. (fn. 160) Memorials to benefactors, the brass of Geoffrey Bishop and part of a wall monument to William Farmer (d. 1712), were removed to St. Vigor's. (fn. 161)

That other church, built of fieldstones dressed with clunch and some Barnack stone, comprised before it was almost entirely rebuilt in 1869-70 (fn. 162) a chancel with a two-bayed chapel and vestry to its north, an aisled and clerestoried nave with a transeptal south chapel and a north porch, and a parapeted west tower with a short spire. There was a gabled two-storeyed porch in the angle to the south aisle. Traces, including a lancet in the chancel south wall, exposed in 1870, remain from an earlier structure comprising a chancel and narrow nave, whose western quoins are visible north of the tower. That tower was probably first built in the 13th century: blocked lancets were found in its upper stage in 1870. About 1850 13th-century sedilia were visible in the chancel south wall. The aisles were begun in the early 14th century with the south arcade, built just outside the earlier external wall, with quatrefoil piers having rounded shafts, square windows of two ogee-headed lights, and a much moulded west door to the south aisle. Work on a similar north arcade was probably interrupted by the fall of a wooden spire, after which the tower's upper parts were strengthened. The north arcade was completed more crudely in the late 14th century, with octagonal piers, matching the tower arch responds though with chamfered arches as on the south side, and two-light Perpendicular windows. Both sides have similar two-light clerestory windows. The nave roof, which retains its original steep pitch, was probably given by the rector William Fulbourn (d. 1391). (fn. 163) Its bosses, removed to the chancel roof in 1870, when the nave one was renewed copying its old design, include the arms of St. Paul's, where Fulbourn was once a canon, and of Zouche, Shardelowe, and other manorial lords. Fulbourn's large brass depicting him vested and coped, the first surviving priestly one in England to do so, is preserved in the chancel floor. During the 15th century the south transept with its four-light Perpendicular south window, perhaps the Lady chapel where John Wood (d. 1520) wished to be buried, (fn. 164) was added, as were the north chapel and vestry. An outer southwest porch, its upper part timber-framed until 1870, was put up south of the tower, into which a west window was inserted. The chancel received a new five-light eastern window. Part of the chancel work may have been done for the rector John Careway (d. c. 1443), (fn. 165) whose cadaver effigy lies under a wooden feretory within a cusped arch, perhaps an Easter sepulchre, in its north wall.

The chancel screen, still extant in 1747, was later removed. (fn. 166) Of the stalls there, facing one another, which were partly in place by 1495, (fn. 167) some with poppyheads survived in 1990. The wooden pulpit, whose cusped arches are surmounted with foliage and beasts, though usually supposed to be 14th-century, is probably a copy of a similarly ornate one, in place in 1850 and probably in 1747, which was removed by the architect in 1869-70. (fn. 168) Its arches contained from 1935 two late medieval panels painted with saints, possibly from the base of All Saints screen. They were discovered, reversed, in 1869 by a horse clipper who gave them c. 1877 to Trinity College, Cambridge, and were returned on loan in 1923. (fn. 169) Of several brasses extant in 1747 three figures survived after 1870. The south transept contains an altar tomb surmounted by stone effigies of an armoured man and his wife, whose heraldry indicates it to be that of Edward Wood (d. 1599). (fn. 170) There are also later wall monuments of the Daltons, William Greaves, and the Townleys, who successively used that transept between 1665 and the 1860s as their manorial pew. (fn. 171)

A major restoration, amounting to virtual rebuilding, was undertaken in 1869-70. (fn. 172) Only the nave arcade walls, the south transept, and part of the chancel north wall were retained, the rest being reconstructed from ground level upwards, copying or reusing the earlier masonry. Extensive additions and alterations were made to designs by A. W. (later Sir Arthur) Blomfield in massive 13th-century style. They included a new two-bayed chapel south of the chancel, a north transeptal chapel off the east end of the nave, from which a new arch was opened into the rebuilt chancel north chapel, a new chancel arch, and the replacement of the chancel east window with five graduated lancets with marble shafts. A west gallery under the tower was removed and the south-west porch rebuilt entirely in stone. Almost all the fittings were replaced, a little late medieval seating being retained and copied. A new font replaced a marble 18th-century basin, and the Townleys gave an elaborate new screen in memory of C. W. Townley (d. 1893). (fn. 173) A new organ, succeeding one in use in 1832, (fn. 174) given by the rector in 1872 was installed in the chancel north chapel. (fn. 175) The rector Dr. John Hills (d. 1626) had given, to maintain St. Vigor's, arable, worth £1 yearly in 1783. The 2½ a. allotted for it at inclosure was retained into the late 20th century. (fn. 176)

Both churches had in 1552 several pieces of silver plate, including chalices, some gilt. (fn. 177) In 1747, and perhaps in 1775, All Saints had a silver gilt cup and paten of 1632 given in 1633, possibly matching one of that date retained by St. Vigor's in the 20th century, when it also had a flagon given in 1745 by John Perkins and a cup of 1855. (fn. 178) St. Vigor's had three bells in 1552, All Saints four, and five by 1747, (fn. 179) of which two were cracked when the tower fell. The vigilant opposition of the poorer villagers long prevented their sale, approved in 1768, to pay for repairs. The fractured ones having finally been sold, the others were recast at St. Neots (Hunts.) with St. Vigor's three in 1776. (fn. 180) Those six bells were augmented with a treble given by a long serving churchwarden in 1821 and restored and rehung in 1979-80. (fn. 181) A late medieval clock bell outside St. Vigor's spire served the clock installed there by 1525, when the wealthy villager Richard Wright gave 23 a. for maintaining the clock and ringing the curfew bell and day bells in winter, any surplus going to maintain the tower and bells. (fn. 182) The 'clock land', later 26-8 a., for which 15 a., still owned c. 1990, was allotted at inclosure, (fn. 183) yielded £6-7 in the 18th century, £13 c. 1830-60, and £200 by the 1970s. (fn. 184) In the 19th century that money went to the parish clerk, who also had 3/4 a. allotted at inclosure for land traditionally his. About 1860 he still rang to time labourers' rising and mealtimes, and gleaning bells, besides the curfew, (fn. 185) which finally ceased only in the 1940s. (fn. 186)

Registers exist for St. Vigor's from 1538, with a gap 1684-96, and for All Saints from 1558 with a gap 1651-61. Separate series were still kept for both parishes not only after 1776, when parishioners could still be distinguished through their dwelling places, but even after 1876. A single set was only started in the 1920s. (fn. 187) The churchyard, whose northern part, still unconsecrated in 1859, had long served as the village's Camping ground and a site for almshouses, (fn. 188) was large enough to remain open in the 20th century. A lychgate was put up in 1923 in rivalry with the parish's official war memorial erected in 1920 on Pound Green to the south-east. (fn. 189) In 1934-5 the parish council acquired an additional burial ground, enlarged in 1951, south of the village. (fn. 190)