Hertfordshire Genealogy: Places: Bygrave

St Margaret's, Bygrave

Posted to Miss G. Tanner, Zennor, 54 Oxhey Rd, Bushey, Herts, 8th July, 1930.

Publisher logo in stamp box (from another copy of card) - identity unknown.

BYGRAVE, a parish in the hundred of Odsey, county of Hertford, 2 miles (N.E. by N) from Baldock, containing 107 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at Ł17.9.7., and is in the patronage of the Marquis of Salisbury.

Topographical Dictionary of England 1831

Bygrave Church
from an article by J. W. P. Carnegie entitled "A Backwater of North Hertfordshire" in Hertfordshire Countryside, Winter 1947-8

The article describes the church and includes a picture of the Rev. John Hemery Carnegie, rector of Bygrave 1872-1900.

Bygrave is a parish and village, lying half a mile north of the Icknield Way, 2 miles north-east from Baldock station on the Hitchin and Cambridge branch of the London and North Eastern railway, 7 miles north-east from Hitchin and 39 from London, in the Hitchin division of the county, Odsey hundred and petty sessional division, Hitchin union and county court district, rural deanery of Baldock and archdeaconary and diocese of St Albans.

The church of St Margaret is a small and ancient building of clunch from the Ashwell pits, chiefly erected at the beginning of the 14th century; it partly covered with ivy and consists of chancel, nave (Norman), north porch and a belfry at the west end containing one bell, dated 1718; there is a piscina in the chancel and an inscribed slab on the floor to Peter Feuillerade, a Huguenot, and formerly rector here, ob. 1725: the font is octagonal and dates from the 15th century; there are 40 sittings. About 1842 a stone coffin containing two skulls was discovered at the west end of the churchyard. The register of baptisms dates from 1802; marriages 1765; burials 1805; the previous registers were accidentally destroyed by fire in 1812, when kept by a curate in his residence at Ashwell. Transcripts of the ancient registers of Bygrave may be seen at Messrs. Hawkins & Co. solicitors, Hitchin. The living is a rectory, annexed to that of Baldock, joint net yearly value Ł640, with residence, in the alternate gift of the Marquess of Salisbury and the Bishop of St Albans, and held since 1920 by the Rev. Charles Winford Alington M.A. of Trinity College, Oxford, rural dean of Baldock, and surrogate, who resides at Baldock. The ecclesiastical parish was reunited to Baldock by special Act of Parliament in 1900.

The Marquess of Salisbury K.G. is lord of the manor and principal land owner. Near Bygrave House are the remains of moats constructed in 1386 by Sir John Thornbury kt. then occupier, as a defence from wandering thieves and disbanded soldiers; he also obtained a licence in the same year to crenellate "duos domos suos infra manerium," being the only licence of this kind granted in the county during the 14th century.

The soil is light loam; subsoil clay and chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley and turnips. The area is 1,758 acres; rateable value Ł2,427; the population in 1831 was 159. By the Divided Parishes Act a portion of the parish was annexed to Baldock in 1881.

Letters through Baldock, Herts, which is the nearest money order and telegraph office, 2˝ miles distant.

COMMERCIAL
Clare Ann (Mrs), Compasses P.H. North Road		Johnson John B. farmer, Bygrave House

Kelly's Directory for Hertfordshire, 1926

Some Surnames from the 1851 census of Bygrave

Arnold, Birchall, Bird, Bishop, Cawdell, Cook, Cubis, Currell, Draper, Field, Funeral, Goodsheld, Gurney, Hawkins, Hide, Huckle, Huffer, Jones, Males, Millard, Myatt, Oakley, Perry, Richardson, Rickerby, Saunders, Scales, Scott, Smith, Smyth, Theobalds, Toovey, Tredale, Troup, Wallis, Waterfield

Area maps

Victoria County History

Bygrave Parish Council Website

If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.