DULLINGHAM

The parish of Dullingham, (fn. 1) covering 3, 387 a., (fn. 2) lies 10 miles east of Cambridge and 3 south of Newmarket. It stretches, narrowing gradually south-eastwards, from north-west of the CambridgeNewmarket road to the Suffolk boundary. The boundaries of the south-eastern part, running between ancient closes, are irregular and somewhat indented. The north-eastern boundary, dividing former open fields, is straighter. At inclosure in 1806, it was futher straightened as far south-east as the road to Stetchworth, 48 a. being ceded to Stetchworth under exchanges with landowners there. On the south-west boundary a 50-acre square ceded to the lord and rector of Burrough Green was transferred to that parish. (fn. 3)

The soil of the parish lies on the chalk, overlaid south-east of the village by boulder clay. The ground rises gradually from c. 150 ft. near the north-west end to over 275 ft. north-west of the railway line, which shares a narrow valley at 200 ft. with a watercourse running north-east into Stetchworth. That streamlet drains a depression which rises southeastward between two ridges, from 250 to 300 ft., and in which the village stands. Beyond its head the ground rises to over 360 ft. at Dullingham Ley, and again to over 350 ft. at the wooded south-east end of the parish.

Since the Middle Ages Dullingham has been devoted mainly to agriculture. The north-west part, except for heathland at the extremity, lay until inclosure mainly in open fields cultivated on a triennial rotation, and the south-eastern third consisted mostly of old inclosures, presumably created through clearing woodland. A wood at Dullingham was mentioned c. 975 (fn. 4) and the main manor included in 1086 woodland for 100 pigs. (fn. 5) Its two moieties comprised c. 1305 140 a. of wood (fn. 6) and in 1421 360 a. (fn. 7) A grove mentioned in 1348 consisted mainly of oaks and ashes. (fn. 8) Two of the manor's principal woods, Dullingham Park recorded in 1311 (fn. 9) and Ashbeds, covered in 1582 84 a. and 55 a., (fn. 10) and at inclosure in 1806 83 a. and 52 a. They were also then, as later, called Great and Little Widgham woods. (fn. 11) The manor included another great wood, covering c. 1656 76 a. and also called Dullingham Park in 1644, when it was leased for felling over 8 years. (fn. 12) That was probably the parkland opposite Dullingham House, of which 38 a. remaining at inclosure (fn. 13) were still well timbered in 1976. The two Widgham woods, offered for sale in 1950, (fn. 14) were leased from 1956 to the Forestry Commission, which planted them largely with conifers, preserving a little beech. (fn. 15) White wood, established before inclosure on the northwestern heath, covered 40 a. in 1898, (fn. 16) but was later reduced.

The name of Dullingham suggests that the village was an early English settlement, perhaps deriving from East Anglia. (fn. 17) In 1086 46 peasants and 4 servi were enumerated there, (fn. 18) and in 1347 73 tenants. (fn. 19) In 1377 115 adults paid the poll tax. (fn. 20) There were 38 taxpayers in 1524 (fn. 21) and 51 households in 1563. (fn. 22) In 1676 257 adults were recorded, (fn. 23) and 86 families included 378 members in 1728. (fn. 24) The population rose from 468 in 1801 to 684 in 1831 and 809 in 1851. From a peak of 835 in 1881 it declined to c. 765 after 1900 and 597 in 1931, falling further to 523 in 1951 and 501 by 1971. (fn. 25)

The village stands in the middle of the parish. A road south from Newmarket towards Linton divides at the north-east boundary into two branches, which on the south-west side are linked to form a triangle by the village street, called by 1380 Stone Street (fn. 26) and from 1600 Stony Street. (fn. 27) The largest group of dwellings was around the junction with the eastern road, where stood the church, rectory, old vicarage, guildhall, dissenting chapel, and main public house. It was separated by a gap, perhaps effected to give Dullingham House a view south across the road into its park, from a smaller group near the western junction. By 1626, and probably by 1605, a smaller settlement had grown up 1 mile to the south-east around the common green called Dullingham Ley. (fn. 28) The way to it met the road south from Stetchworth village at Cross Green, perhaps named from a former market cross mentioned in 1754. (fn. 29) Under Charles II the parish contained c. 90 dwellings, (fn. 30) and in 1801 there were 83. (fn. 31) Two or three tall, narrow farmhouses of the 17th and 18th centuries still survive on the western part of the street, and the village contains some timber-framed and thatched cottages of that period. Many more cottages were built or remodelled in the early 19th century for the Jeaffreson estate, to which 37 belonged c. 1870. (fn. 32) Those are in picturesque style, the walls in brick with flint dressings, and the roofs thatched with deeply recessed dormers. Of the 54 houses recorded at inclosure in 1806 33 were in the village and 14 at Dullingham Ley. A separate farmstead, later Lordship Farm, already stood on the lord's several heath, (fn. 33) and soon afterwards another, later Hill House, was built in the former western fields. Otherwise the parish continued to be cultivated from farmsteads in the old settled areas. The number of houses grew to 147 in 1841, and 181 in 1861, (fn. 34) of which c. 95 were on the village street and lanes running off it, c. 40 at Dullingham Ley, 13 at Cross Green, and 7 at Widgham Green, near the wood in the extreme south-east. (fn. 35) Thereafter the built-up area hardly changed for 100 years, there being still 173 houses in 1951. (fn. 36) After 1951 a row of council houses was built north of Cross Green, and in the 1970s the Dullingham estate put up several houses in bright red brick near the main cross-roads.

The largest house away from the village was at Lower Hare Park, on the heathland between the Cambridge and London roads. Shortly before 1800 a training groom put up the first buildings there, later selling his lease from the Jeaffreson estate to Richard, Earl Grosvenor (d. 1802), a great racing man, who lodged there when visiting his Newmarket stud. Robert, the second earl, enlarged the place into a handsome house, where he lived during Newmarket meetings. (fn. 37) The lease passed after 1826 to Wyndham B. Portman, who lived there from c. 1840 until his death in 1884 and was active in parish business. (fn. 38) In 1898 the lease of the house with 120 a. was acquired by Ernest de la Rue, later K.C.V.O. He designed electric starting gates and papier-mache surgical splints and boots, whose manufacture at Dullingham he organized during the First World War. After his death in 1929 (fn. 39) the house was left empty and eventually demolished, only outbuildings surviving in 1976. (fn. 40) The nearby Lordship farm, whose northern corner adjoined the old Newmarket Round Course, was occupied between 1879 and 1892 by the royal trainer, Richard Marsh, and later until the 1920s by Joseph Cannon, another trainer. (fn. 41) It was laid out in training gallops and paddocks, and was still attached in 1976 to the Egerton stud in Stetchworth. Dullingham had a resident horseslaughterer from 1912, and a veterinary surgeon in the 1930s. (fn. 42)

The ground occupied by those properties had previously been part of Dullingham heath, over which ran a branch of the Icknield Way, later part of the London–Newmarket road. Travellers were waylaid there and murdered in 1350, (fn. 43) and in 1358 a Dullingham landowner was accused of harbouring robbers operating on Newmarket Heath. (fn. 44) The road, which was connected with the village by field-ways called in the 18th century Cambridge and Swaffham ways, (fn. 45) was turnpiked in 1724, and disturnpiked in 1871. (fn. 46) In 1846 the Newmarket-Chesterford railway began to build across the parish a line which was opened in 1848 and connected with Cambridge in 1851, when Dullingham had its own station. (fn. 47) The station, closed for goods traffic from 1964, (fn. 48) was still open for passengers in 1976.

The King's Head, the oldest public house in the parish, in use as an alehouse by 1728 and so named by 1746, is basically a 17th-century house, standing in the north-east angle of the eastern cross-roads. (fn. 49) It belonged to the parish charity until 1931, (fn. 50) and was still open in 1976. Four other beer-sellers recorded in 1851 (fn. 51) probably included the Rising Sun at Dullingham Ley, closed by 1958, the Royal Oak on Stony Street, closed in 1975, and the Boot, mentioned in 1861, and still open in 1976, on the village green. (fn. 52) That green, south-east of the eastern cross-roads, covered 2 a. and was once the Camping close, used as a playground for the village youth. It belonged to the town by 1558, and was vested in the parish charity until 1931, when it was transferred to the parish council to be preserved as an open space. (fn. 53) A rent-charge of £2 a year on land owned by the parish in 1590 was used every other year, when the parish bounds were beaten, to pay for a ganging feast last held in 1832. (fn. 54) Another village feast was held at Whitsun in the 1970s. (fn. 55) In 1945 members of the Taylor family bought the former Oddfellows' hall, built near the church c. 1925, and gave it, as the Sidney Taylor Hall, for use as a village hall. (fn. 56)

Manors and Other Estates.

Before 1066 6 hides at Dullingham belonged to Earl Alfgar. By 1086 that manor, later DULLINGHAM manor, had been granted to the Norman abbey of St. Wandrille (Seine Maritime) which held it of the king in free alms. (fn. 57) Perhaps under Henry I the manor passed, apparently by exchange, to the Somerset baron Robert Malet (fn. 58) (fl. 1130–51), (fn. 59) whose heirs later held it under the abbey free of all feudal service. (fn. 60) In the 14th century they were said to hold in free socage, rendering a nominal rent, (fn. 61) although in 1344 a jury was induced to present that Dullingham was held in chief as ¼ knight's fee. (fn. 62) In 1421 the manor was said to be held of William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, possibly overlord of Scalers manor in Dullingham, with which there was perhaps confusion. (fn. 63)

Robert Malet's son William, steward to Henry II, held Dullingham in 1162 (fn. 64) and died in 1169, leaving as heir his son Gilbert (d. 1194). (fn. 65) William had given Dullingham as dower to Ralph Picot's daughter Eugenia, whose sister Alice married Gilbert and who had herself by 1174 married Thomas son of Bernard. (fn. 66) After Thomas died in 1185 (fn. 67) Eugenia held the manor under Gilbert (fn. 68) until her own death soon after 1200. (fn. 69) By 1210 it had reverted to Gilbert's son William (fn. 70) who died in rebellion in 1215, leaving daughters as coheirs. (fn. 71) Dullingham had been settled for life on William's wife Alice. (fn. 72) By 1223 she had married John Bisset, (fn. 73) who held the manor c. 1236 and died in 1241. (fn. 74) Alice retained it until her own death c. 1263, (fn. 75) after which it was equally divided between the heirs of William Malet's daughters Mabel and Helewise.

Mabel had by 1223 married Hugh de Vivonne, a Poitevin mercenary captain (fn. 76) (d. 1249). Their son William de Forz (fn. 77) (d. 1259) left four daughters as coheirs. A moiety of Dullingham was assigned to Cecily, the youngest, born c. 1257 (fn. 78) and married by 1273 to John de Beauchamp (d. 1283), lord of Hatch Beauchamp (Som.). (fn. 79) Cecily granted the moiety, later BEAUCHAMPS HALL, (fn. 80) in 1288 to her younger son Robert. (fn. 81) When Robert died without issue in 1303 the moiety reverted to Cecily, (fn. 82) descending on her death, probably in 1320, to her elder son John (fn. 83) (d. 1337). It passed successively to John's son John (d. 1343) and grandson John Beauchamp, (fn. 84) of age in 1351, on whose death without issue in 1361 it was assigned to his deceased sister Eleanor's son John Meriet as coheir. (fn. 85) Shortly after coming of age in 1368 Meriet sold the moiety to Sir Aubrey de Vere, (fn. 86) who later reunited the manor by acquiring the other moiety, called POYNTZ HALL.

That moiety had been assigned c. 1265 to Nicholas Poyntz, (fn. 87) son of Helewise Malet by Hugh Poyntz (d. 1220), another Somerset landowner. (fn. 88) In 1264 and 1265 Nicholas's manor was seized and plundered by Montfortian rebels. (fn. 89) Before his death in 1273 Nicholas granted it to his eldest son Hugh (fn. 90) who by 1279 had granted it for life to Sir Henry Cockington. In 1291 Cockington returned it to Hugh (fn. 91) who died in 1308 and was succeeded by his son Nicholas. (fn. 92) The same year Nicholas (d. 1311) granted it in fee at rent to John Knight, a London merchant, but Nicholas's son and heir Hugh (fn. 93) held it in demesne at his death in 1337. Hugh's son Nicholas, of age in 1340, (fn. 94) granted the moiety, subject to a yearly rent, to his younger brother Hugh, and in 1349 sold his reversionary interest to John Wiltshire. (fn. 95) In 1353 Wiltshire conveyed his rights to John Kimble, (fn. 96) to whom Hugh Poyntz released possession of the estate in 1355. (fn. 97) Probably c. 1374 (fn. 98) Kimble sold it to Clement Spice and others, apparently feoffees for Sir Aubrey de Vere, to whom they released Poyntz Hall in 1381. (fn. 99)

Aubrey, for whom the earldom of Oxford was restored in 1392, died holding Dullingham in 1400. (fn. 100) In 1412 his feoffees settled the manor in tail male on his younger son John, later knighted. Sir John (d.s.p. 1421) left as heir male his nephew John, earl of Oxford, who was under age. Dullingham, however, was occupied by Lewis Johan, Sir John's feoffee and second husband of his sister Alice Court. Johan, who claimed under an alleged remainder to her in the 1412 settlement, (fn. 101) retained Dullingham until c. 1432, when Earl John claimed it, asserting that the remainder had been forged. The earl apparently recovered Dullingham before Johan's death in 1442. (fn. 102) After the earl's execution in 1462 Dullingham was briefly taken into the king's hands, (fn. 103) and after the forfeiture of the earl's son Earl John was granted in 1471 to Richard, duke of Gloucester. (fn. 104) In 1475 it was granted to John, Lord Howard, who returned it to the Crown c. 1477, (fn. 105) to be restored to the earl's younger brother, Sir Thomas Vere (d.s.p. 1478), lately disattainted. (fn. 106) Dullingham was finally restored to the earl in 1485. (fn. 107) When he died in 1513 he left it for life to Margaret (d. by 1536), widow of his brother Sir George, with remainder to her son John, his heir male. (fn. 108) When John died without issue in 1526 the reversion of Dullingham descended to his sisters, Elizabeth and Ursula, and John Neville, from 1543 Lord Latimer, son of a third sister Dorothy. Elizabeth (d. 1559) was wife of Sir Anthony Wingfield (d. 1552), councillor of Henry VIII, and Ursula of Edmund Knightley. (fn. 109) In 1541 Neville entered upon a third of the third previously held by Elizabeth, widow of Earl John (d. 1513). (fn. 110) After Ursula died without issue in 1559 (fn. 111) her third share was divided between Elizabeth's son Sir Robert Wingfield and Lord Latimer, each thenceforth owning a moiety. (fn. 112) Latimer died in 1577. Under a partition of 1580, his four daughters and coheirs with their husbands ceded their moiety to Sir Robert Wingfield. (fn. 113) The eldest daughter Catherine (d. 1596), wife of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland (d. 1585), reserved, however, the woods called Dullingham Park and Ashbeds. Her son Henry (fn. 114) sold them in 1609 to Edmund Mileson, owner of Dullingham rectory, (fn. 115) with which they were eventually reunited to the main manor. (fn. 116)

Sir Robert Wingfield died in 1596. His eldest son Sir Anthony (fn. 117) (d.s.p. 1605) settled Dullingham in 1602 on Thomas, his younger brother and eventual heir. (fn. 118) Sir Thomas died in 1610, leaving as heir a son Anthony, aged three. Dullingham was included in the jointure of Sir Thomas's widow Elizabeth, who hastily married Henry Reynolds, allegedly a papist fortune-hunter, who occupied her lands c. 1615. (fn. 119) Her son, created a baronet in 1627, (fn. 120) died in 1638. Sir Anthony's son and heir Richard, then aged 6, (fn. 121) sold his Dullingham estate in 1656 to John Jeaffreson, (fn. 122) a pioneer settler on St. Kitts in the West Indies. (fn. 123)

Jeaffreson died in 1660, leaving his lands to his son Christopher, aged 10, who prospered as a West India planter. (fn. 124) Dying without issue in 1725 Christopher left his estates to his cousin John's eldest son, another Christopher Jeaffreson, who, the will having been found invalid, bought out his father's claims in 1728. (fn. 125) Christopher, M.P. for Cambridge 1744–9, (fn. 126) died in 1749 and his son and successor Christopher in 1788. (fn. 127) The latter's only son, Lt.-Gen. Christopher Jeaffreson, died in 1824, leaving as heir his daughter Harriet, (fn. 128) who married William Pigott in 1827 and died in 1838. (fn. 129) Pigott occupied Dullingham House almost until his death in 1875 with his son by Harriet, Christopher William, (fn. 130) born in 1836. The latter took the name of Jeaffreson in 1839 and that of Robinson, under an inheritance from his maternal grandmother, in 1857. (fn. 131) In 1870 he married Mary Marianne Marianna, daughter of John Dunn-Gardner, who had married his sister Ada. (fn. 132) Mrs. Robinson held the Dullingham estate from her husband's death in 1889 (fn. 133) until she died, aged 91, in 1939. The estate then descended to her half-brother A. C. W. Dunn-Gardner's daughter Miriam, Christopher's grand-niece and wife of Harvey Leader. (fn. 134) About 1947 Mrs. Leader sold the estate to F. B. Taylor (d. 1959), whose son Mr. P. B. Taylor was the owner in 1976. (fn. 135)

Dullingham House, standing a little north of the village street, is built in red brick, and consists of a three-bay centre and two-bay wings. In the centre is a bulky doorway with Corinthian columns supporting a broken pediment. The existing house was probably constructed by Christopher Jeaffreson (d. 1749) (fn. 136) although its plan suggests that it may encase an earlier building. A third storey above the original cornice was added early in the 19th century. About 1800 it was surrounded by c. 30 a. of grounds, including a stable block with a central arch and wooden cupola. After inclosure the grounds were enlarged northward with a 41-acre triangle of former open field, (fn. 137) and the park was landscaped by Humphrey Repton about 1800. (fn. 138) Further alterations were made to the garden front in the 19th century.

In 1086 Hardwin de Scalers occupied 1⁵/6 hide at Dullingham, formerly owned by sixteen sokemen, eight of whom had been Earl Alfgar's men. (fn. 139) That estate, afterwards called CHALERS, was later held by a cadet line of Hardwin's family under the Scalers barons of Whaddon, descended from his son Hugh. (fn. 140) In 1208 Hugh's grandson Hugh (d. c. 1215) vindicated against his kinsman William, lord of Caxton, his lordship over certain knights' fees, including that at Dullingham, (fn. 141) which was held in 1242 of Hugh's son Geoffrey (fn. 142) and in 1302 and 1346 of Geoffrey's descendants Thomas (d. 1341) and Thomas Scalers (d. 1364). (fn. 143) Robert de Scalers, tenant in demesne in the early 12th century, was succeeded by his son Tibbald, (fn. 144) who held 1¹/6 fee in 1166. (fn. 145) About 1200 Tibbald and Baldwin de Scalers granted land from their Dullingham estates to Warden abbey (Beds.). (fn. 146) In 1209 Baldwin's widow Estrange, who still held 2 hides there c. 1236, and her second husband Gilbert son of Walter unsuccessfully called on Tibbald, apparently as Baldwin's kinsman and lord, to warrant them against Baldwin's daughters Mary and Gillian, (fn. 147) with whom Tibbald was disputing 60 a. there in 1214. (fn. 148) The lawsuit had descended, presumably with Tibbald's lands, by 1225 to John de Scalers, (fn. 149) who was tenant in 1242, (fn. 150) and probably the sheriff of that name in 1249, 1259, and 1264. (fn. 151) A namesake held the fee in 1272 and 1279, (fn. 152) and later gave it in marriage with his daughter Maud to Andrew de Mohun of Brinkley, (fn. 153) who held it in 1302. Andrew was dead by 1309, when Maud released it to their son Andrew (fn. 154) (fl. 1322). (fn. 155) That son or a namesake held the Scalers fee in 1346 and 1355, (fn. 156) and probably another Andrew in 1380. (fn. 157) In 1383 the latter's feoffees conveyed the manor called Chalers to Sir Aubrey de Vere, to whom John de Mohun, Andrew's kinsman and heir, released it in 1386. (fn. 158) Thereafter it descended with Dullingham manor, being held in 1428 by Sir Lewis Johan, and later by the Veres and their successors, along with 80 a. (fn. 159) once owned by the local family of Baas, (fn. 160) sold by Simon Burden to Sir Aubrey in 1367. (fn. 161) Warden abbey retained the Scalers lands given to it, with other acquisitions made c. 1200, and amounting in 1279 to 52 a., (fn. 162) until it sold them shortly before 1390. (fn. 163)

Soon after 1040 Thurstan son of Wini left 1 hide at Dullingham to his cniht Wiking, (fn. 164) probably the Wichinz who held a hide there as Earl Harold's man in 1066. By 1086 that hide and two half-hide estates, one earlier held under Eddeva the fair, were held by two knights under Count Alan of Richmond. (fn. 165) MADFREYS manor, later held of the honor of Richmond, (fn. 166) was presumably derived from their holdings, and perhaps belonged c. 1125 to Ralph son of Mafred. (fn. 167) It was probably held in succession by Henry Matfrey or Madfrey (fl. c. 1200) and Ralph Madfrey, (fn. 168) tenant c. 1236 and alive in 1260. (fn. 169) Henry Madfrey, who held 80 a. in demesne of the honor of Richmond in 1279, (fn. 170) died in 1296. (fn. 171) About 1305 75 a. at Dullingham were acquired by John Madfrey of London. (fn. 172) A John Madfrey of Dullingham, recorded c. 1312, (fn. 173) had 30 a. there settled on him in 1329 and died after 1339. (fn. 174) Richard Madfrey (fl. 1327–53) held land there in 1344. (fn. 175) In 1375 his former lands were sold by John Bath to Thomas Sewale of West Wratting. (fn. 176) Land called Madfreys was sold to Sir Aubrey de Vere in 1367 (fn. 177) but was not included in the Vere estate later. In 1525 an estate at Dullingham called Madfreys descended from Thomas Hildersham to his son John with Patmers manor in Stetchworth, (fn. 178) with which it was sold in 1573 to Roger, Lord North, afterwards descending with the main Stetchworth estate. (fn. 179) Madfreys was presumably represented by c. 180 a. of old inclosures south of Dullingham Ley, which with c. 210 a. allotted at inclosure belonged in the 19th century to the Eaton family, owners of Stetchworth, until its sale in 1876. (fn. 180)

Under King Edgar one Oslac pledged land at Dullingham to Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, later surrendering it to the bishop's foundation at Ely, which c. 1000 also acquired land there attached to an estate at Stetchworth. (fn. 181) In 1279 12 a. at Dullingham were still held of the prior of Ely. (fn. 182)

The RECTORY estate, appropriated to the Cluniac priory of Thetford (Norf.), was held, with other land acquired before 1200, by the priory until its dissolution. (fn. 183) In 1540 all its lands passed by exchange from the Crown to Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, (fn. 184) between whose attainder in 1547 and restoration in 1553 the rectory was possessed by royal lessees. (fn. 185) In 1566 it belonged to his grandson and heir, Duke Thomas, (fn. 186) and after Thomas's execution in 1572 to his eldest son Philip, earl of Arundel, with William Dix, probably again returning to the Crown upon Philip's forfeiture in 1589. (fn. 187) In 1606 James I granted the rectory to Philip's younger brother Thomas, earl of Suffolk, (fn. 188) who in 1608 sold it to Edmund Mileson of Bury St. Edmunds (Suff.). Mileson died in 1623 leaving it to his son Borrowdale Mileson (fn. 189) (d. 1678). By 1676 Borrowdale had sold it to Thomas Edgar, who had married his daughter Agatha and died in 1677. Edgar's son and heir Mileson Edgar (fn. 190) died in 1713, having just sold a third of the rectory to his uncle Devereux Edgar's son Robert. (fn. 191) About 1733 Robert sold the rectory to Christopher Jeaffreson, (fn. 192) with whose Dullingham estate it descended thereafter. At inclosure in 1806 c. 405 a. were allotted for the rectorial tithes. (fn. 193) The rectory farmstead then stood a little east of the eastern cross-roads. (fn. 194)

Soon after 1200 Baldwin de Scalers's daughter Gillian and others granted land at Dullingham to Anglesey priory, (fn. 195) which retained it until its dissolution. The property was sold by the Crown in 1559. (fn. 196) An estate including until c. 1570 200 a. with 100 a. of heath descended from William Barton (d. by 1504) successively to John, Leonard, and Stephen Barton. (fn. 197) In 1579 Stephen sold c. 240 a. to John Hasyll, who resold them in 1580 to trustees for Clare College, Cambridge. (fn. 198) In 1798 the college owned 327 a., including c. 70 a. of heath, (fn. 199) and after inclosure c. 232 a., (fn. 200) sold in 1914. (fn. 201) Queens' College, Cambridge, owned c. 4½ a. of wood, sold in 1948 to F. B. Taylor. (fn. 202)

Economic History.

Of 6 hides belonging to the largest manor at Dullingham in 1086 half were in demesne, but there were only 3 demesne ploughteams, so that the 17 villani possessing 9 teams who, with 10 bordars, occupied the rest, probably did most of the demesne ploughing. The Scalers and Richmond fees each included 2 teams, but the one had 7 villani, the other, probably lying further east, only 2, besides 9 bordars with 1 a. each. (fn. 203)

In 1279 the parish was said to include 1,400 a. of arable, 445 a. of grassland including 300 a. of common heath, and 125 a. of manorial woodland. The demesne of the main manor, recently divided equally between two lords, comprised 340 a. of arable, 20 a. of several grass, and 120 a. of common pasture shared with six other landholders. Besides 198 a. divided among 16 free tenants, there were c. 330 a. of customary land, of which four villeins held 20 a. each, two c. 15 a., nineteen 10 a., and six 5 a., while four cottars held 1 a. each. The villeins' works were valued at 5s. for each 5 a. held. John de Scalers had 180 a. of arable in demesne, while 8 free tenements held of him totalled 90 a., and Henry Madfrey owned 95 a. Neither had any villein tenants. Of the land held freely by 21 people, excluding 152 a. belonging to religious houses, 254 a. belonged to six men with 20 a. or more, one holding 82 a. under six different lords, and another tenant 61 a. as ¼ knight's fee. (fn. 204) The Beauchamp and Poyntz manors each normally received c. 30s. from their free tenants, (fn. 205) of whom they had together c. 40 in 1347, when Beauchamps had probably 16 and Poyntz 17 customary tenants. (fn. 206) In 1307 the 12 villeins on Poyntz manor owed week-work every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 48 weeks of the year, amounting to 1,728 works. (fn. 207) In 1283 the 16 villeins on Beauchamps manor had been similarly burdened, owing 1,425 works over 40 weeks and 200 more, perhaps excluding boon-works, during harvest, besides ploughing altogether 72 a. a year. (fn. 208) By 1304 their obligations had been reduced by two-thirds to 480 works a year, (fn. 209) probably rendered only on Mondays, as in 1321 when, perhaps through the recent famine, there were only 7 villeins left, holding 10 a. each. (fn. 210) By 1343 the works due had been reduced again to 240 a year, and 96 in harvest, (fn. 211) and by 1361 had been entirely commuted, the money-rents having consequently risen to 10 marks a year. (fn. 212) The arable of Beauchamps had, like that of Poyntz, totalled 240 a. c. 1305, (fn. 213) but had fallen to 120 a. in 1321 and 1343, (fn. 214) increasing again to 400 a. by 1421 when that of Poyntz was only 100 a., and that of Scalers 60 a. (fn. 215) The Scalers demesne was usually farmed out by the mid 14th century for terms of 5 to 7 years, the lessor providing 2 oxen and 2 stots, many tools, and some seed. (fn. 216) Much copyhold survived until the 19th century. In 1655 all but £2 10s. of the manorial quit-rents were from copyhold, (fn. 217) and after inclosure 437 a. of the 1,000 a. not belonging immediately to the demesnes were copyhold. (fn. 218)

The ancient inclosures in the south-eastern third of the parish, covering 505 a. c. 1800 apart from the surviving woodland, belonged almost entirely to the demesnes. (fn. 219) The area also contained, however, c. 80 a. of scattered open fields, including Radfield (44 a.) adjoining Radfield in Burrough Green, and c. 25 a. of common pastures, including Widgham green, (fn. 220) Dullingham Ley, and the Lammas meadow. At the western end of those closes lay the moor covering 48 a., held in 1800 by the lord in severalty. The main open-field arable began with Hall field south-east of the village and Mill field further south. To the west, south of the Cambridge way, lay Rannewe field, so named by 1552 from an ancient Dullingham family, Stonehouse field, Stony hill, and Middle field by the heath. The fields south of the Cambridge way covered at inclosure c. 657 a., those north of it c. 988 a. The latter comprised, from west to east, Cropley, formerly perhaps Coplow, field, West field, Limepit field, probably connected with a lime-pit mentioned in 1713, the large Great Crouch field north of the village, and Stetchworth Mill field. The last, also called in 1783 Interbait field, (fn. 221) was until inclosure intercommonable with Stetchworth. (fn. 222) North-west of the open fields lay the heath; a Newton field adjoining it was mentioned in 1312. (fn. 223) In 1586 the tenants of the manor complained that Sir Robert Wingfield's lessee had wrongfully excluded them from common of pasture upon certain land, perhaps there. (fn. 224) By 1798 most of the 460 a. of heath was held in severalty by the lord, although Clare College retained 62½ a. of heath for itself. (fn. 225)

The arable was probably subject to a triennial rotation by 1309 when common was claimed over certain grassland throughout every third year, and yearly from Lammas to Candlemas. (fn. 226) Regular fallows, subject to commoning, were in force on the demesne in 1343, (fn. 227) and the lessee of Scalers manor was required to fallow and sow according to the 'season' in 1348. (fn. 228) The main crops were wheat and barley, one man bequeathing 20 a. of each in 1528, (fn. 229) and each was sown in alternate years on summertilled land c. 1595. (fn. 230) A rotation in three shifts was still in use in the 1790s. (fn. 231) The crops on 1,240 a. sown in 1801 included 337 a. of wheat, 484 a. of barley, and 301 a. of oats, besides 79 a. of peas and beans, and 35 a. of rye, but only 3½ a. of turnips and potatoes. (fn. 232) Sainfoin was grown in some demesne closes in 1788. (fn. 233)

The main manor had in 1086 a flock of 68 sheep, and the Richmond fee 200. (fn. 234) To a levy of wool in 1347 Dullingham contributed 92 stone, of which the manors and monastic estates provided 34 stone, 40 freeholders 42 stone, and 33 customary tenants 16 stone. (fn. 235) Besides the fold of Dullingham manor, which was entitled c. 1655 to sheep-walk for 600 wethers on the common heath, (fn. 236) folds were attached to the rectory estate (fn. 237) and to Scalers manor, whose farmer was required in 1354 to maintain a grange and sheep-pen on the heath. (fn. 238) The later Clare College estate included by 1503 sheep-gate and foldage for 300 sheep. (fn. 239) One yeoman bequeathed over 60 sheep in 1495, (fn. 240) another 42 in 1594. (fn. 241) About 1,400 sheep were kept c. 1794, when the flock-masters were allowed to sow clover, trefoil, and rye, presumably on the fallow, for their spring feed. (fn. 242)

The sale of timber was also a source of profit and employment. When the Poyntz manor was plundered in 1264 the loss of timber felled, at 40 marks, was reckoned as heavy as that of corn, (fn. 243) and in the 14th century the sale of underwood yielded about a tenth of the manorial incomes. (fn. 244) In the 16th century Queens' College sold the crop of its 5 a. of woodland, mostly oaks, annually, (fn. 245) and Dullingham Park and Ashbeds were let in the 1580s for £35 a year. (fn. 246) The lessee could profit by sub-letting pasture rights. Ashbeds could feed 18 cattle during the summer in the 1590s. (fn. 247) In the mid 19th century the population included 8 woodmen and sawyers, mostly living at Dullingham Ley, and 7 or 8 carpenters and wheelwrights. (fn. 248)

Of the £136 assessed on the parish in 1524 three people taxed at £10 or more had £40, while ten with £3–£8 had £55, and there were 16 with £2 compared with only nine with £1. (fn. 249) The more prosperous yeoman families included those of Rannewe, recorded from 1375 until nearly 1700, (fn. 250) Breton, whose head owned over 100 a. c. 1500, (fn. 251) Barton, (fn. 252) and Appleyard. John Rannewe was said to be worth £60 in 1522, (fn. 253) and Robert Rannewe gave 40 a. of arable, 24 a. of grass, and 12 a. of wood to his son in 1564, (fn. 254) while Alexander Rannewe bought c. 52 a. between 1562 and 1564, (fn. 255) and possibly c. 200 a. which were sold by the Bartons c. 1570. (fn. 256) Thomas Appleyard, whose father Thomas (d. 1613) had bought other Barton land in 1578, (fn. 257) was lessee of Dullingham Park in 1644 and among the wealthier parishioners. (fn. 258) Having joined the royalist rising at Linton in 1648 he compounded for land worth £235, besides paying a fine of £190. (fn. 259) By the late 17th century there was perhaps a wider gap between rich and poor. Of c. 90 dwellings recorded in 1666, 77 had only 1 or 2 hearths and only 4 more than 4, and in 1674 more than half of those inhabitants who had only 1 hearth were excused paying tax. (fn. 260) In 1655 the Dullingham manor estate included 432 a. of arable, 116 a. of woodland, and 184 a. of heath. (fn. 261) By 1806 it had grown to include c. 552 a. of the 986 a. of land in severalty, while of the rest 210 a. belonged to the Stetchworth estate, and 48 a. to Clare College. (fn. 262) The only other substantial estate remaining was that of Robert King, whose father Ralph (d. 1785) had by 1781 bought the land of the Robinson family, with the beneficial lease which they had enjoyed since 1704 of the Clare College farm. (fn. 263)

An inclosure Act was obtained in 1806, (fn. 264) and an award was made in 1810. Of the land allotted, including c. 1,745 a. of open fields and pastures and 460 a. of heath, besides old inclosures given for exchanges, Christopher Jeaffreson received c. 1,275 a., Richard Eaton of Stetchworth Park c. 255 a., Robert King 233 a., Clare College 163 a., the vicar and neighbouring incumbents c. 108 a., the lord of Burrough Green 45 a., and the parish charity 38 a. Eleven lesser landowners shared c. 75 a., and 14 a. were allotted, mostly in blocks of 1½ rood on Dullingham Ley, for common rights attached to 27 cottages. Of the 3,390 a. left in the parish Jeaffreson emerged with c. 2,022 a., Eaton with 453 a., Clare College with 232 a., and King with 235 a. (fn. 265) King's property, later Heath farm, remained in his family, with the Clare College lease, until the 1870s. (fn. 266) The Eaton land adjoining Stetchworth was usually farmed from that parish, the 180 a. in the south-east part being run from an old farm-house at Dullingham Ley. (fn. 267) On the Jeaffreson estate c. 1,630 a. were divided c. 1870 between Rectory farm of 587 a. let to Robert King, probably occupying the eastern part of the former open fields, three farms each of c. 240 a., Cables farm of 182 a., and Widgham Wood farm to the south-east of 133 a. (fn. 268) From 1896 Hill House farm in the north-west part of the parish was occupied by Sidney A. Taylor (d. 1937), (fn. 269) whose son F. B. Taylor later bought the manorial estate.

Parishes in Radfield hundred in the late 18th century

By 1828 the larger farms were being cultivated on a four-course rotation, including wheat, barley, clover, and turnips. (fn. 270) The presence of a water-tower on Hill House farm suggests that a steam-engine may have been used there. In the late 19th century several farmers were in difficulties. The charity farm was found to be in bad condition in 1879, its tenant having lately died insolvent. (fn. 271) On the Clare College farm the wet and heavy soil was badly overgrown with weeds, and the rent was reduced from £350 in 1871 to £184 by 1903, when the farm was let to a Newmarket butcher who fattened livestock there. (fn. 272) One small farm called Gipsy Hall was devoted in 1924 to poultry and fruit-growing. (fn. 273) Sugar-beet was grown in the parish in the 1970s, when Mr. P. B. Taylor, the principal landowner, was farming almost half of it himself. (fn. 274)

In 1831 92 labourers were employed on the farms, while there were 40 tradesmen and craftsmen. (fn. 275) There were c. 100 labourers in 1851, when 10 farmers provided employment for 89, and c. 119 in 1871. (fn. 276) In the mid 1870s up to 80 labourers were connected with the Agricultural Union, and undertook a strike. (fn. 277) In 1851 the village craftsmen had included 5 shoemakers, 2 journeymen blacksmiths, and 3 brick-layers, but such workmen had mostly disappeared by 1914. (fn. 278) A brick-works, ¾ mile south-east of the village by the road to Dullingham Ley, was working between 1883 and 1896. One large malt-house just north of the church was disused by 1903. (fn. 279) Another stood by 1885 near the railway station, and was perhaps that run by Flinn and Sons, recorded as maltsters from 1883 to 1929. In 1976 the extensive buildings were used for storing grain. (fn. 280)

A windmill, which belonged to the manor in 1279 (fn. 281) and to Beauchamps moiety in 1343, (fn. 282) was perhaps that standing on an artificial mound c. 600 yd. south of the village, which had given its name to Mill field by 1552. (fn. 283) It belonged as copyhold to John Breton in 1683 (fn. 284) and by 1795 to William Isaacson, (fn. 285) whose granddaughter Mary sold it c. 1850 to Elijah Moore. (fn. 286) The Moores ran it, employing three millers in 1871, almost until it closed soon after 1900. (fn. 287) Only the mound remained in 1976.

Local Government.

In 1279 and 1299 the lords of Dullingham manor claimed to hold, apparently jointly, view of frankpledge, infangthief, and the assize of bread and of ale, and to have a gallows, pillory, and tumbrel. (fn. 288) The court of that manor was still styled a view of frankpledge in the 19th century. (fn. 289) Under Elizabeth the lord was said to be 'chancellor in his own court', and claimed to provide equitable remedies there, so that counsel sometimes pleaded there. (fn. 290) An unofficial description of proceedings in 1588 shows the steward and jury putting pressure on tenants and witnesses to change their minds, even in simple cases of land transfers within a family. (fn. 291) Court minutes surviving for 1673–84 and 1823–35 are almost entirely concerned with copyhold title, as is a court book for the rectory manor for 1823–95. (fn. 292)

In 1548 money was left to the common box for distribution to the poor by the churchwardens according to the king's injunctions, (fn. 293) and in 1550 men were censured for not contributing for the poor. (fn. 294) In the 1790s the overseers paid 1s. to 2s. a week each in poor-relief to 19 people including 7 widows, besides buying fuel and footwear and helping in sickness. Their activity was supervised by occasional parish meetings. (fn. 295) By 1803 the cost had doubled since c. 1785 to £350. A workhouse then being built (fn. 296) with £400 raised from the parish charities had been finished by 1805, when a manager was sought. It had 19 inmates in 1813, but only 8 in 1815. In both years c. 30 people still received relief outside it. The total cost of relief was £609 in 1814, (fn. 297) ranging thereafter from £450 up to £900 in bad years. (fn. 298) About 1830 the parish paid 15 men from the poor-rate to work on the roads, and gave allowances for large families. (fn. 299) The workhouse, which stood by the road towards Burrough Green, was sold and converted for dwellings, (fn. 300) after the parish had been included in 1835 in the Newmarket poor-law union. (fn. 301) It remained in the Newmarket R.D., (fn. 302) being included in 1974 in East Cambridgeshire.

Church.

In the early 12th century Robert de Scalers gave Dullingham church to the Cluniac priory of Thetford (Norf.), to which his son Tibbald and Robert Malet later confirmed it. (fn. 303) In 1277 Tibbald's heir John de Scalers confirmed the advowson to the priory. (fn. 304) By 1245, and probably by 1219, the church with 100 a. of glebe had been appropriated by the priory. (fn. 305) A vicarage was established by 1278, (fn. 306) and the advowson remained with the priory until its suppression. (fn. 307) Since the priory was an alien house the king presented in 1337 and 1349, (fn. 308) later perhaps entrusting the patronage to Mary, countess of Norfolk, who presented in 1349 and 1352. (fn. 309) In 1534 William Breton the vicar, having obtained the next turn, resigned and presented a kinsman and namesake. (fn. 310) After 1540 the advowson generally passed with the impropriate rectory, (fn. 311) Thomas, duke of Norfolk, presenting in 1566, (fn. 312) and Sir Roger Townsend and William Dix, custodians of his land, in 1589. Dix alone presented in 1591, (fn. 313) but the previous vicar disputed his nominee's title. (fn. 314) The Crown presented in 1598. (fn. 315) From 1608 the advowson passed through the Milesons, Edgars, and Jeaffresons, successively impropriators, Devereux Edgar presenting in 1707, (fn. 316) and was sold to the Taylors with the manorial estate. In 1973 it belonged to Mrs. R. M. Taylor, widow of F. B. Taylor. (fn. 317)

The vicarage was endowed, besides the small tithes, (fn. 318) with 10 combs or 1 load of wheat a year charged on the rectory, and still apparently rendered in the 19th century. (fn. 319) The vicarial glebe amounted in 1615 and 1713 to c. 4 a. of closes and 12 a. of open-field land. (fn. 320) At inclosure in 1806 the vicar was allotted 86 a., (fn. 321) and his glebe subsequently comprised 87 a., which he retained in 1976. (fn. 322) Edmund Mileson (d. 1623) as impropriator bequeathed, besides 100 marks for building or buying a house for the vicar, a rent-charge on the rectory of £10 a year to make the living more attractive for a learned, preaching minister. The vicar was to forfeit 5s. of it for every Sunday when he provided no sermon. (fn. 323) If that bequest took effect, it was perhaps superseded when Edmund's son Borrowdale (d. 1678) left the vicar £10 a year from the rectory, (fn. 324) from which £20 a year was paid in 1786 and 1806 (fn. 325) but only Borrowdale's £10 from the 1830s. (fn. 326) Under a Scheme of 1881 the money was paid thenceforth through the trustees of the parish charities. (fn. 327)

The church was said to be worth 20 marks in 1217 and 1254 (fn. 328) and £20 in 1291, when the vicarage was worth only £5. (fn. 329) The latter was assessed at £12 15s. in 1535, (fn. 330) and yielded £40 a year in 1650 (fn. 331) and £60 in 1728. (fn. 332) By 1830 it brought in £165, (fn. 333) and in 1877 £185 gross. (fn. 334)

The vicarage house originally stood just east of the rectory. (fn. 335) It was ruinous through neglect in the 16th century. (fn. 336) It was repaired c. 1728 (fn. 337) and again c. 1783, when it was let to poor people, and c. 1807. (fn. 338) Between 1830 and 1836 S. H. Banks, vicar from 1828, built a new house on the vicarial allotment at the west end of the village street. (fn. 339) The house, a plain grey-brick block, later enlarged with Gothic detailing, was still occupied by the vicar in 1976.

Guilds of St. James and of Our Lady were receiving legacies for obits in the 1520s. (fn. 340) Land given to them for lights and obits was sold by the Crown in 1548 and 1571, (fn. 341) and a guildhall in 1563. (fn. 342) The latter was probably the long timber-framed and jettied 16th-century building standing in 1976 just north-west of the eastern cross-roads.

A priest of Dullingham was recorded c. 1200 (fn. 343) and vicars from 1285. (fn. 344) William Breton, vicar 1488– 1534, formerly master of St. Katherine's College by the Tower, (fn. 345) was son of a wealthy Dullingham yeoman, (fn. 346) and was usually resident in his parish. (fn. 347) His kinsman and successor, vicar 1534–54 and 1557–61, was also resident in the 1540s, (fn. 348) but in 1561 lived at Kelvedon rectory (Essex). (fn. 349) In his absence the churchwardens organized services. (fn. 350) His successor William Tilbrook, also a local man, caused trouble by naming his unlearned brother as parish clerk and harbouring an immoral daughter. (fn. 351) John Milward, vicar 1591–8, lived at Cambridge, visiting Dullingham to hold hasty services, sometimes reading unsurpliced and in his riding-boots. (fn. 352) John Dunch, vicar 1598–1639, (fn. 353) was faced c. 1610 with fierce disputes over claims to precedence in seating at church. (fn. 354) His successor Thomas Catherall, minister at Newmarket c. 1625, was chosen under the will of Edmund Mileson, (fn. 355) and retained the living until his death in 1658, being described in 1650 as very able. (fn. 356) A successor may have been ejected after 1660, a new vicar being instituted in 1662. (fn. 357)

Nicholas Phillips, vicar 1708–29, (fn. 358) lived on his cure, holding two services every Sunday in 1728, and had 20–30 communicants thrice a year. (fn. 359) The church then possessed a library of over 50 volumes. (fn. 360) John Symonds, vicar from 1729, also held Stetchworth from 1744 until his death in 1778. (fn. 361) By 1775 he held only one service a week. (fn. 362) The next vicar, Joseph Hall (d. 1828), from 1781 also held Bartlow rectory, (fn. 363) where he lived, serving Dullingham in 1807 through a curate also officiating at Brinkley, and in 1825 through the vicar of Stetchworth. Sunday services were in his time held alternately morning and evening, and communion four times a year, attended by c. 30 people. (fn. 364) S. H. Banks held Dullingham from 1828 until he died, aged 84, in 1882, with the neighbouring living of Cowlinge (Suff.). (fn. 365) In 1836 he was resident and supported a Sunday school, (fn. 366) and by 1851 held two services every Sunday, claiming to fill the church's 300 sittings on fine afternoons. (fn. 367) By 1877 there was again only one service on Sundays, and only 20 communicants. (fn. 368) Succeeding vicars held two services a week, and introduced weekly communions. (fn. 369) They included an Australian, a retired headmaster, and an ecclesiastical antiquary. (fn. 370)

The church of ST. MARY (fn. 371) is built mainly of field stones with ashlar dressings. It consists of a chancel, aisled and clerestoried nave with north porch and south chapel, and west tower. A blocked north window with plate tracery and a piscina show the chancel to be 13th-century. The thick-walled three-storey west tower is probably 14th-century, but was later given buttresses overlapping the aisles and new windows. The four-bay nave and aisles, with arcades having four shafts to each pier, were mainly rebuilt in the 15th century. The mouldings of the north doorway and the survival of 14thcentury piscinas in the aisles suggest that earlier external walls were preserved, but all the aisle and clerestory windows, and those of the chapel, are Perpendicular. The 15th-century north porch, facing the village, has a high outer arch, side-windows on head-corbels, and a flush-work base. The south chapel, divided from the aisle by two arches once containing screens, is probably the lady chapel mentioned in 1500. (fn. 372) A south porch just west of it had vanished before 1749. (fn. 373) The chancel has a waggon-roof, ceiled over, but probably ancient, the nave a 15th-century roof on king-posts, and medieval braces survive in the roofs of the aisles and chapel. The octagonal 15th-century font received new painted royal coats of arms in 1603. (fn. 374) A medieval tomb-slab with a floriated cross lies above the altar steps, (fn. 375) and the chancel contains many monuments to members of the Jeaffreson family, including a lively rococo wall-tablet by Bottomley of Cambridge to Christopher Jeaffreson (d. 1749), (fn. 376) and one of 1778 by Richard Westmacott the elder (d. 1808), whose son Sir Richard (d. 1856) in the 1820s provided several plain neo-classical ones, and a recumbent figure of Lt.-Gen. Jeaffreson (d. 1824). (fn. 377)

In 1528 £10 was left to erect a cross for the church, perhaps that whose base survives in Dullingham Park. (fn. 378) The chancel needed repair in 1550 and 1595, and the north aisle was open to rain in 1577. (fn. 379) William Dowsing broke 30 pictured windows in 1644. (fn. 380) The whole church was repaired c. 1728, (fn. 381) and was in a decent state in 1783. (fn. 382) Christopher Jeaffreson (d. 1749) spent £300 on installing pews. (fn. 383) An organ was acquired in 1877. The church was restored between 1884 and 1890, the roof repaired in 1899, (fn. 384) and the tower in 1928 and 1939. (fn. 385) About 1904 a green marble pulpit was given in memory of John Dunn-Gardner. (fn. 386)

The parish owned in the 18th century 15 a. called church land, whose rent, c. £9, was spent on church repairs. (fn. 387) Part, 5½ a., was sold at inclosure, (fn. 388) but the town lands trustees continued to contribute towards such work sums fixed by a Scheme of 1846 at £10 a year. In 1912 that sum, with the vicar's £10, was constituted a separate ecclesiastical charity. (fn. 389)

The church had two silver chalices in 1552. (fn. 390) About 1960 the plate included a cup and paten by Samuel Head of 1699, a flagon of 1722, and a cup and paten of 1840 and 1874. (fn. 391) There were four bells in 1552 (fn. 392) and in 1749, (fn. 393) as in 1858 and later, (fn. 394) when they comprised one cast by John Draper in 1626–7, one by Miles Gray of 1660, one by John Bryant of Hertford in 1784, and one of 1828 by Thomas Mears of London, who also supplied the bell for a new clock installed c. 1830. (fn. 395) The parish registers begin in 1538, (fn. 396) and are virtually complete, including civil registers for most of the Interregnum.

Nonconformity.

Under Charles II five or six people were occasionally presented for not coming to church. One had left his children unbaptized and buried his servants without the rites of the church. (fn. 397) There were seven dissenters in 1676, (fn. 398) and a few, unbaptized, in 1728; (fn. 399) a house was registered for dissenting worship in 1736. (fn. 400) No dissenters were recorded thereafter until the 1820s when a few Wesleyans began to worship in a cottage. (fn. 401) In 1825 they bought land just east of the Camping close to build a chapel, opened in 1826. (fn. 402) In 1851, when there were 200 sittings, the minister claimed a congregation of 130. (fn. 403) In 1854 and 1879 the chapel was served from Mildenhall (Suff.). (fn. 404) It was still open in 1976.

Half the population were said to be dissenters in the 1870s. (fn. 405) About 1884 a Congregationalist minister from Cheveley established a mission room at the west end of Dullingham Ley, seating 130. In 1916 it had six lay preachers. (fn. 406) By 1965 membership had dwindled to 5, and it was closed c. 1968 and later sold. (fn. 407)

Education.

An unlicensed schoolmaster teaching at Dullingham in 1578 was dismissed in 1580 for irreverence to the sacrament. (fn. 408) The parish again had a schoolmaster in 1590. (fn. 409) In 1676 Borrowdale Mileson left £5 a year to the public schoolmaster at Dullingham to teach poor boys grammar. If the vicar would teach the school, he was to have the money. (fn. 410) Between 1728 and 1825 the £5 was paid to a schoolmaster, probably usually, as in 1807, the parish clerk, to teach six poor boys. The school was kept in 1749 in the south chapel of the church, in 1807 in the vestry, probably the same place. (fn. 411) Two smaller schools were teaching reading in 1818. (fn. 412) In 1833 there were two day-schools with 30 pupils. One received the endowment money for teaching six children chosen by the vicar reading, writing, and arithmetic. (fn. 413) In 1846 two dame-schools each had c. 40 pupils. (fn. 414)

The vicar arranged in 1842 that his church clerk William Ingram should keep a school supported from Mileson's endowment, subscriptions, and school-pence. A Scheme of 1846 devoted half the net income of the town lands to support that school, and £10 to a Sunday school taught by Ingram who also served as postmaster and manorial bailiff. For some years he also gave evening classes for adults, but dropped them after a farmer complained that they encouraged young men to leave the parish. (fn. 415) About 75 children were receiving some schooling in 1851 and c. 125, including very few from Dullingham Ley, in 1871. In 1877 there were also two dame-schools. (fn. 416)

A school board, formed in 1875, (fn. 417) of which the vicar frequently served as chairman, opened a new school, with a master's house and separate rooms for infants and older children, east of the eastern cross-roads in 1878. It was taught by a master and mistress, assisted by up to four girl pupil-teachers. (fn. 418) Attendance rose from 99 in 1884 to 137 in 1903. (fn. 419) A new classroom was added in 1902. (fn. 420) Under a Scheme of 1881 the educational charity income went towards tuition fees for children under ten, prizes, premiums for pupil-teachers, and apprenticeships. (fn. 421)

Attendance fell from 106 in 1914 to 44 by 1938. (fn. 422) From 1947 the older children went to Bottisham village college, (fn. 423) but the school was still open for younger pupils in 1976. Under a Scheme of 1955 half the Educational Foundation's income of £90 a year was spent c. 1960 on scholarships and apprenticeships. (fn. 424)

Charities for the Poor.

The guild of St. James c. 1517 was partly a benefit society, governed by an alderman and steward. It was maintained by subscriptions in money, wheat, and malt, and by the increase of the guild's livestock let out to the members, who dined together twice a week at the guildhall, poor brethren dining free of charge, while those bedridden received 15d. each. (fn. 425) The guild (fn. 426) may also have controlled the land said c. 1490 to belong to the town or the churchwardens, and worth ½ mark in 1524. (fn. 427) Following the guild's suppression that land was repurchased with the guildhall in 1564 and vested in feoffees to the use of the inhabitants. The guildhall may have become the town house mentioned in 1589, but was apparently later alienated. William Leader by will dated 1599 left a house and 3 a., the rent to be used to buy black frieze to clothe the parish poor, a charge still fulfilled in 1728. (fn. 428) Probably by 1775 the house, as the King's Head inn, was used as the farm-house for the town lands, with whose revenue its yield was thenceforth spent. Those lands comprised in 1786 6 a. of closes and 62 a. of field-land, yielding £24 a year, and after inclosure 56 a., all copyhold, let from 1831 for £110 a year, besides four cottages built c. 1815 and sold in 1875. The income was c. £120 c. 1860, but fell to £80 c. 1890. From 1885 12½ a. by the Camping close were let as allotments. In 1931 the public house and land, then yielding £105 a year, were sold for £2,700, invested to produce c. 1960 £98 a year.

In 1786 the income from the town lands went to support the rates. In the early 1830s up to £42 was distributed yearly among the poor in indiscriminate doles of 5s. or occasionally, as in 1831, in clothing, to honour Leader's bequest. A Scheme of 1846 directed that the balance, after paying for maintenance and £10 for church repairs, be divided equally between educational purposes and the poor, who were to receive in clothing and fuel up to £1 each. In practice, in 1878, £52 was distributed among 700 people in tickets of 2s. for each adult, 1s. for each child, valid for clothing and blankets. A new Scheme of 1881 allotted the poor's share to medical expenses, clothing, fuel, and food for needy inhabitants not on poor-relief. When, however, the trustees sought in 1883 to select really needy individuals, the parish labourers and small craftsmen successfully demanded the continuance of the previous universal and equal distribution. Between 1905 and 1910 the trustees gave out up to £38 a year in half-crown tickets for coal, clothes, and fuel to 200 adults earning under £1 a week and 130 children. A Scheme of 1912 transferring control to the parish council retained the existing trusts, most inhabitants strongly objecting to any restraint on distributions in kind. About 1960 c. £37 a year from that charity was available for the poor.

John Appleyard by will proved 1658 left £1 a year for the poor at Christmas, (fn. 429) a benefaction not traced later. Borrowdale Mileson by will proved 1678 left £5 a year to provide penny loaves for twelve old, poor, and sick persons every Sunday after church, the balance, £2 8s., being for the poor at Christmas. The charity was distributed mainly in bread in the 1780s and 1810s, (fn. 430) but payments temporarily ceased c. 1830. Later, because dissenters would not come to church to receive the bread, the £5 was accumulated and distributed every three years throughout the parish in flour. John Britton by will dated 1701 left 10s. a year for bread for the poor at Christmas. In the 1830s £2 10s. was given in bread every five years. The Scheme of 1881 vested both charities in the town lands charity trustees, and provided for continued distributions in bread, permitted from 1933 throughout the year. Mileson's £5 was still being received c. 1960; Britton's rent-charge was redeemed in 1952 for £20.

Christopher Jeaffreson by will dated 1725 gave £3 a year for the poor at Christmas. His will having been declared invalid, his heirs, though giving the £3, wrongly considered it a voluntary gift, and payment ceased after 1824. Two minor rent-charges for the poor, one given before 1590, had been lost by 1786. Ada Mariota Dunn-Gardner, niece of Mrs. Robinson, by will proved 1919 left for the parish poor £200, yielding c. 1960 £11 10s. From 1938 it was managed with the other parish charities.

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