WHITTLESFORD HUNDRED
The small hundred of Whittlesford, almost due south of Cambridge, extends
for about 6 miles from the river Granta in the north to the Essex boundary
in the south. It consists of the same five parishes or townships in the upper
valley of the Cam or Granta as in 1066, when Ickleton, Hinxton, and Duxford
in the southern half each accounted for twenty of its eighty hides, while Whittlesford
contributed twelve and Sawston eight. (fn. 1) In the late 10th century a moot of the county
notables had met at Whittlesford (fn. 2) and the hundred court was presumably held there.
It may have met near a place called by the 14th century Mutlowe moor, apparently in
the northern part of that parish. (fn. 3) The hundred remained in the king's hands throughout
the Middle Ages. (fn. 4) In the late 13th century it shared a bailiff with Chilford hundred,
and yielded him between 2 marks and £2 of the 6 marks for which the two were farmed
in the 1270s. (fn. 5) One manor in each parish and two at Duxford had view of frankpledge
and the assize of bread and of ale. In addition the lords of Hinxton and Whittlesford,
the prioress of Ickleton, the Earl Marshal as overlord of D'Abernons manor in Duxford,
and the Templars under their general charter claimed more extensive privileges. At
Ickleton suit to hundred and county was withdrawn in the mid 13th century in right
of the honor of Boulogne, and other suits were withdrawn, as at Whittlesford, during
the turbulent 1260s. Fees at Duxford held of the honor of Richmond did suit to that
honor's court held at Babraham. (fn. 6) In the 17th century Whittlesford hundred was commonly administered with Chilford and Radfield hundreds. (fn. 7)
Whittlesford, Duxford, and Ickleton are divided from Sawston and Hinxton to the
east by the Cam or Granta. Two branches of the Icknield Way run north-eastwards
through the hundred. The northern branch, more used from medieval times, was turnpiked in 1769–70; a small hamlet had grown up where it crossed the river at Whittlesford. The principal village settlements all lie off that road. There was little settlement
away from the main village sites until after parliamentary inclosure. Sawston has been
greatly enlarged by the building of cheap cottages for its growing industrial population
in the late 19th century and of new housing estates in the 20th. In the other parishes
new building continued to be mostly close to the original village sites.
The hundred lies mainly upon the Lower and Middle Chalk, (fn. 8) and the ground rises
steadily from the north, where parts of Sawston consist of peaty fen, to downland at
over 300 ft. by the Essex border. There was extensive ancient woodland in historical
times, but only modern plantations remain. Strip lynchets surviving in Ickleton may
indicate that agriculture had already been introduced in the Bronze Age. From the
Middle Ages the land has been devoted mainly to arable farming, and a three-course
rotation was normal in open fields that persisted into the 19th century. The main corn
crop was barley, much of it sold outside the neighbourhood for malting. Sheep have
been widely kept, and rights of foldage and sheep-walk were important to the manorial
economy. By the 13th century there were many freeholders in the villages, mostly with
small properties, but agriculture was dominated by the manorial demesnes, which
except at Whittlesford accounted for at least half the arable in each parish. Saffron was
widely grown from the late 15th to the 18th century. The two southern parishes have
remained mainly agricultural. Their population declined from the mid 19th century,
and was virtually stationary in the 20th. In the northern parishes, especially Sawston,
industries developed, based originally on the river whose water-power had in the
Middle Ages turned more than ten mills. The mills have been used for fulling, papermaking, oil-pressing, and bone-grinding. Other industries have included tanning,
parchment-making, the processing of fertilizers and animal feeds, and the manufacture
of agricultural equipment and aircraft materials. The increase in the population of the
northern part of the hundred has also been encouraged, particularly since the 1950s,
by the growth of commuting to Cambridge.
Whittlesford hundred, 1845