A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



in food, clothing or fuel to poor. In 1909 blankets 

 were distributed to forty recipients. 



In 1875 Thomas Ginn, by his will proved at 

 London iz June, gave £100 consols, the dividends 

 arising therefrom to be applied in or towards the 

 maintenance of Standon National Schools. 



In 1878 William Rolph Thorn ell, by his will 

 proved 23 October, left a legacy, now represented by 

 £z 1 z 91. 8</. consols, the annual dividends amounting 

 to £5 61. to be applied at Christmas in providing a 

 bun and 6d. to each poor child attending the public 

 school, and any surplus to be distributed among old 

 widows of Standon almshouses. 



In 1852 Miss Abigail Pratten, by her will proved 

 at London 1 3 August, gave £1,000, now represented 



by £1,007 9'- $<*• «"» sol3 t producing £25 3;. 9J. 

 yearly, the income to be applied in fuel and bread at 

 Christmas and Easter to poor widowi and other 

 deserving persons. In [909 coal was distributed to 

 seventy recipients. 



The almshouses at Wadesmill were founded by 

 Rachel and David Barclay by indenture dated 19 May 

 1794. The endowment consists of a sum of £710 

 London, Brighton and South Coast Railway 5 per 

 cent, consolidated guaranteed stock, producing £36 

 yearly. The almshouses are inhabited by four poor 

 widows, who receive p. weekly. 



The several sums of stock belonging to the charitier 

 in this parish are standing in the name of the official 

 trustees. 



STANSTEAD ABBOTS 



Stanstede (xi cent.) ; Stanstede Abbatis, Abbotts 

 or Abbot (xiv cent.) ; generally Stansted Abbots 

 after ivi cent. 



Stanstead Abbots is a parish of 2,612 acres, 

 bounded on the north-west by the River Ash, which 

 joins the Lea in this parish, on the south-west by the 

 Lea and River Lea Navigation, and on the south by 

 the Stort. Owing to so many rivers there is a large 

 amount of permanent grass in the parish, about two- 

 fifths of the whole extent. 1 There are large patches 

 of wood in the higher part of the parish : Eisneye 

 Wood on the north-west, Newgate Wood and Black 

 Bushes on the north-cast. The parish lies on the 

 London Clay, the chief crops being wheat, barley and 



The old church of St. James and the manor-house 

 of Stanstead Bury lie on high ground at some distance 

 to the south-east of the village, which is situated near 

 the river on the road to Hertford. The neighbour- 

 hood of Hertford and Ware probably brought a 

 considerable amount of traffic through Stanstead, 

 which may account for the seven burgesses there 

 recorded in the Domesday Survey. Stanstead never 



had i 



i far 



1 kno- 



i ther 



any 



specific mention of burgage tenure later, but a I4th{?)- 

 century conveyance of a messuage and land ' venderc, 

 dare, legare vel assignare'' may, perh.ips, point to a 

 survival of privileged tenure. To remedy the incon- 

 venient distance of the church from the village the 

 school was used as a chapel on Sundays in the 17th 

 century and served by a minister of its own.' It was 

 probably from this circumstance that Chapel Lane (so 

 called in 1712)' took its name. 



The main street of the village is the High Street. 

 This at one end is continued as the road to Hert- 

 ford, and at the other end makes an angle with the 

 Roydon road, which just past the village branches 

 north to Hunsdon and south to Rovdon. At the 

 east end of the street is the old Clock School, a 

 I-th-century two-storied building with a tiled roof. 

 The school was founded by Sir Edward Baesh as 

 a free grammar school for the sons of inhabitants 



in 1635- Although it has been much altered 

 and repaired, the schoolroom on the ground floor 

 still has the original beams in the ceiling and oak- 

 mullioned windows. Under the Endowed Schools 

 Act of 1879 the endowment was separated from the 

 rest of Sir Edward Baesh 's charities, and by a scheme 

 under the same Act was devoted, under the name of 

 the Baesh Scholarship Endowment, to maintaining two 

 scholarships of £1 o in Ware Grammar School for boys 

 from elementary schools in Stanstead Abbots. When 

 Ware Grammar School was abolished these scholar- 

 ships were made payable at Hertford Grammar School.* 

 The public elementary school opposite the corn-mill 

 was built in 1869 on a site presented by Mr. T. F. 

 Buxton. In the middle of the village is the Red Lion 

 Inn, an early 17th-century building much altered. 

 The date 1538, however, in modern form of figures 

 appears in the middle gable. The house U tilcJ and 

 has a projecting upper story and five gables ; in spite of 

 the rough-cast with which it is coated, there is visible 

 some plaster ornament in low relief of early 17th- 

 century date. Further along the Roydon road at the 

 bottom of Cat's Hill (Ketteshell, jciv cent.) are Sir 

 Edward Baesh's almshouses, built by the terms of his 

 will proved in 1 65 3. They consist of six brick cottages 

 of two stories under one tiled roof and still retain the 

 original door-posts and moulded window framesofoak. 

 Ncthcrfield, at the top of Cat's Hill, is the residence 

 of Mr. H. L. Prior, J.P. In the village are a number 

 of mailings, the manufacture of malt being the chief 

 industry here as at Ware. The corn-mill, probably 

 occupying the site of the mill mentioned in the 

 Domesday Survey, is situated in Roydon Road. The 

 present mill is a flour-mill, which succeeded an old 

 timber-mill burnt down some years ago. The Mill 

 Race is carried from the Lea through the town, and 

 joins the Lea again to the south of the village, but 

 the present mill is worked by gas power. In Chapel 

 Lane is St. Andrew's Church, built by Mr. T. F. 

 Buxton, consecrated in 1881, and constituted the 

 parish church in i 88z, 6 and the chapel of the Countess 

 of Huntingdon's Connexion, dating from about 1809, 



366 



