PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



St. Kyneburga under the degenerate local title 

 of Lady Connyburrow's Way.' According to one 

 version of the local tradition in connexion with 

 this ridge, Lady Kyneburga, proceeding along this 

 road on an errand of mercy, was pursued by three 

 ruffians ; as she ran to escape them the contents of 

 her basket, falling to the ground, sprang up as flowers 

 before her, while a great gulf opened behind and 

 swallowed up her pursuers. 



Extensive Roman remains discovered in the parish 

 are connected with the settlement of Durobrivae.' 

 One of the pavements discovered is now in the ante- 

 room of the dairy at Milton. 



The London and North-Western Railway runs 

 through the southern part of the parish. Castor 

 station on this line is about half a mile from the 

 village ; and Wansford Junction, at the meeting of 

 the London and North-Western and the Wansford 

 Branch of the Great Northern, is just within the 

 south-west boundary of the present parish of Sutton. 



Copies of the enclosure award of Castor of 1898 

 are (i) with the parish records in the charge of the 

 Parish Council, (2) with the Clerk of the Peace, 

 (3) at the Board of Agriculture. The tithe map 

 is with the parish records as above, the altered 

 apportionment consequent on the enclosure of 1 898 

 bearing the date of 1901. 



The village lies along the main road from Peter- 

 borough to Oundle, which here follows the foot of 

 the slope, rising northward from the valley of the 

 Nene. The Roman camp was built on the brow of 

 this slope, running down it to the low ground, as at 

 Burgh Castle and elsewhere. Several fragments of its 

 walls remain — one to the north-west of the church 

 running in a north-easterly direction, and others, in 

 the wall of the rectory garden, east of the church, 

 running south-west. The north boundary of the 

 churchyard appears to follow the direction of the 

 Roman wall, but the east boundary runs south instead 

 of south-west. On the level ground to the south of 

 the slope on which the church stands, between the 

 churchyard and the road, many foundations of Roman 

 buildings are known to exist. 



Near the road at the north end of the village 

 stands Castor House, a Georgian building with large 

 grounds, the seat of Lt.-Colonel F. A. White. ' The 

 Cedars,' an old house with a modern front, near to the 

 church, is now occupied by Mr. G. L. Kennedy, and 

 formerly by Mr. William Le Queux, the author. 

 ' The Elms,' another old stone house, is occupied by 

 Mr. Percy Wood. The village also contains many 

 picturesque stone houses and barns, with roofs covered 

 with Collyweston slates or thatch ; also the remains 

 of two stone crosses, one near the village green, the 

 other at the top of Love's Hill on the Peterborough 

 road. 



There are here Church schools, partly supported 

 by Mr. Fitzwilliam of Milton, and a Congrega- 

 I tional chapel, opened in 1 848. The population in 

 1901 was 639. 



The hamlet of Ailsworth — ecclesiastically a part of 

 Castor but a separate civil parish — is situated on the 

 west of the Roman north road at a short distance to 



CASTOR 



the north-west of Castor, and consists of a few 

 cottages, with a Methodist chapel opened in 1 860. 

 There is a recreation ground in the fields at the 

 southern end of the village. Ailsworth Heath was 

 exempted from enclosure by the award in 1898. The 

 population in 1901 was 251. 



Milton Hall or Manor-house is in the east of the 

 parish. There is various evidence, such as grants 

 of market and fair, mention of tenants and other 

 circumstances, to prove that in earlier times a village 

 existed at Milton. 



The village of Sutton, which was formerly a hamlet 

 of Castor and a chapelry annexed to that church, 

 was constituted a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1851, 

 and in 1903 was united with Upton.' The parish 

 was enclosed in August, 1903. It is situated on the 

 left bank of the Nene, and consists of a few private 

 houses and cottages, with church and a modern 

 vicarage-house containing a two-light 13th-century 

 window preserved from a house formerly on the same 

 site. There are no local schools, the children 

 attending those at Castor. The population in 1901 

 was 98. About a mile to the east of the village, at 

 the cross-roads half-way between Sutton and Ails- 

 worth, are the remains of the ancient stone cross of 

 Sutton. Robert of Sutton, who from 1262 to 1273 

 was abbot of Peterborough, was born at Sutton. 



Upton, originally a hamlet of Castor and a chapelry 

 attached to that place, was constituted a separate 

 ecclesiastical parish on 15 June, 185 I, and in 1903 

 was united with Sutton.* The village consists of the 

 church and manor-house, standing apart, with a few 

 cottages and a model farm to the westw.ird. Bishop 

 Dove of Peterborough once lived in this manor- 

 house, and his son Sir William Dove and other 

 members of his family are buried in the church of 

 Upton. At the present day the manor-house is a 

 farmhouse. The parish was enclosed in November, 

 1843 ; the award is in custody of the churchwardens. 

 The population in 190 1 was 85. 



Among the place-names found in Castor and its 

 hamlets are Jugwells, Mollycrofts, Hanglands, Nor- 

 mangate Field, Graves, Duck Paddles, Potter's Oven 

 (probably commemorating the lost industr)-), and 

 Tarrels, which mav be a corruption of Thorolds. 



ABBOTS MANOR.— T\ie ' vill' of 

 MANORS Castor and Ailsworth was confirmed to 

 Peterborough by the charters of both 

 Edgar and Wullhere.' 



At the time of the Domesday Survey the abbey of 

 Peterborough held 3 hides in Castor,' and the same 

 amount was held by five knights of the abbey ;' 

 about forty years later the amount of land in demesne 

 of the abbot was returned as 4J hides,' Ailsworth 

 being probably included. 



The vill of Castor and Ailsworth was confirmed 

 to the monastery by Richard I and Henry III.' 



In the 13th century the manor appears to have 

 been one of the more important possessions of the 

 abbey. Abbot Alexander of Holderness, 1222-6, 

 who is described as a great builder, built the hall at 

 Castor,'" and in 1293 Edward I granted to the abbot 

 and his convent the right of free-warren in their 



' Bridges, op. cit. ii, 499. 

 ' y. C. H. Nortkann, i, 166-72. 

 •Order in Council, 15 June, 1851 ; 

 ibid. 8 Dec. 1903. 

 * Ibid. 



' Birch, Cart. Sax. i, No. 

 Cbrofi. (Rolls Ser.), i, 200. 

 duction to Soke. 



* y. C, H, Norrbann, i, 3 1 ^a. 



'Ibid. 314*. 



473 



22 ; jI.S. 

 See intro- 



9 Soc Antiq. MS. No. 60, fol. 185. 

 » Cart. Ant. DD. 17 ; Chart. R. 

 11 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 19. 

 *** Sparke, Scrifinrei, 1 1 5. 



60 



