PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



UFFORD 



church. The tall crocketed cover is ancient, in 

 the form of an octagonal spirelet. On the top 

 are two figures back to back, one holding a heart 

 with both hands, the other having the hands crossed 

 on the breast ; there may have been four figures 

 originally. 



Of ritual arrangements, besides those already men- 

 tioned, there are a few traces. In the north wall of 

 the chancel under the first window from the east is 

 the square locker commonly found in this position, 

 which probably sers'ed, among other things, as the 

 loculuj for the Easter sepulchre. In the north aisle 

 of the nave, in the angle of the rood stair, is a cinque- 

 foiled 14th-century piscina with a gabled head, and in 

 the north wall of this aisle are two plain arched re- 

 cesses with labels over, which are not sepulchral and 

 appear to be sedilia. In the south aisle is a piscina 

 like that in the north, but retaining its wooden shelf 

 above.' 



In the chancel floor near the sedilia is the indent 

 of a large brass, and at the east end of the north aisle 

 is another, smaller, with remains of an inscription, of 

 which the word 'capellan ' alone is legible. 



Against the north wall of the chancel is a large 

 alabaster monument with panelled arch and cornice 

 carried by Corinthian columns, and surmounted by 

 obelisks and a shield in a border of strapwork, set up 

 in 162 1 by Mrs. Quarles of Ufford, in memory of her 

 sister Bridgett, daughter of Sir John Chaworth of 

 Wiverton, and wife of Sir William Carre of Old 

 Sleaford. Under the arch lies the alabaster effigy of 



Lady Carre, on a raised alabaster tomb with marble 

 panels. 



The plate consists of a silver cup with cover paten 

 of 1619 ; a paten and flagon of 1887, presented in 

 that year by the present rector, the Rev. W. S.Wood ; 

 a pewter flagon inscribed 1732, and two plain pewter 

 plates with Vford on the edge of each. 



There are three bells — the treble of 1670, and the 

 second and tenor, by the mediaeval London founder 

 whose mark is a shield with a bend between a cross 

 and an annulet, identified with Richard Hille. The 

 inscriptions are : ' Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum ' 

 and ' In Multis Annis Resonet Campana Johannis.' 



The first book of the registers contains baptisms 

 and burials from 1570 to 1711 and marriages from 

 1571 to 1712. There are many gaps in the book. 

 The second book contains baptisms and marriages 

 from 1 71 3 to 1740 and burials from 171 3 to 1739. 

 In book three are baptisms and burials from 1 741 to 

 1804, and marriages from 174I to 1754. A fourth 

 book contains marriages from 1754 '° '75^ and from 

 1804 to 1828, with those from 1758 to 1803 in a 

 separate book. The baptisms and burials from 1805 

 to 1 8 1 2 are together in one book. 



The churchwardens' accounts and memoranda from 

 1663 to 1904 are in one book. 



G. Quarles, Mrs. Hangar, and 

 CHJRirr the Rev. J. Bourne gave before 

 1702 benefactions amounting to- 

 gether to j^20 for poor widows. The interest of j^l 

 is now laid out in clothing for the poor. 



WANSFORD 



Walmesford (to xvii cent.). 



The civil parish of Wansford, which is ecclesi- 

 astically attached to Thornhaugh, covers 396 acres. 

 It is bounded on the south by the Nene, which here 

 forms the division between the counties of North- 

 ampton and Huntingdon, but the larger part of 

 the village of Wansford is on the south of the river 

 in the parish of Sibson-cum-Stibbington. The soil 

 is light upon a substratum of inferior oolite, and 

 produces wheat, barley, and turnips. Ninety-six 

 and a half acres are arable land, 48J pasture, and 

 zf wood. The low-lying land by the river is liable 

 to floods. 



Wansford in the 1 8th and early 19th centuries was 

 celebrated as a posting town, a large number of roads 

 converging there, probably on account of the ancient 

 bridge across the Nene, the most important from 

 Peterborough, Huntingdon, and Oundle. It was 

 originally of thirteen arches, now only of ten, and the 

 southern portion was entirely rebuilt in 1795. In 

 the early 13th century Bishop Hugh Welles of 

 Lincoln gave a release of ten days' penance to those 

 who contributed to the repair of Wansford Bridge,' 

 and Bishop Sutton granted another such indulgence 

 in 1294.^ Henry III in I 2 34 granted an oak from 

 the forest of Clive for the work of the bridge.* Thus 

 its repair seems to have been a matter of general 

 interest, though the real obligation lay on the vill of 

 Wansford, according to the finding of jurors in I 330, 

 when repairs had been neglected.* The vill appears 



to have needed assistance on this occasion to do the 

 necessary work, for in 1332 protection was granted 

 for two years to the ' good men of the town ' of 

 Wansford collecting alms in churches for the repair of 

 the bridge of their town.' The next year they were 

 granted pontage for two years on wares passing over 

 the bridge for the same purpose.' This grant was 

 repeated for three years in 1340 and 1392.' 



The celebrated Haycock Inn, on the Huntingdon 

 side of the river, owed its prosperity to the roads. 

 The name is commemorative of the incident recorded 

 in ' Drunken Barnaby's ' well-known poem : — 



On a haycock sleeping soundly. 



The river rose and took me roundly 



Down the current : people cried 



Sleeping down the stream I hy'd ; 



' Where away,' quoth they, * from Greenland ?' 



' No, from Wansforth Brigs in England.' 



Thus, too, arose the custom of calling the town 

 ' Wansford in England.' There was also formerly a 

 flourishing barge trade down the Nene to Lynn. 

 Barnack stone was carried down and seacoals brought 

 back. The church of St. Mary and the Haycock Inn 

 with Major G. J. Wickham's house. The Oaks, are 

 the only considerable buildings, but on the Stamford 

 road is a house with a pretty mullioned bay window, 

 c. 1620. The Haycock is now used as a private re- 

 sidence. It was lately occupied by Lord Cheshara as 

 a hunting-box. The present tenant is Mr. Digby. 



^ At Bainton is a third piscina of the 

 same design. 



« Line. Epis. Reg. Wells, 12. 



^ Ibid. Sutton, Mem. I20t/. 

 * Close, Hen. Ill, m. 29. 

 ' Assize R. No. 632, m. 71. 

 ' Pat. 6 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 5. 



537 



^ Ibid. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 26. 

 ' Ibid. i+Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 34 j 

 t6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. ig. 



68 



Pat. 



