Norfolk - Welney

Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk 1883, (Norfolk section), p.552

WELNEY, is a parish in Downham union, partly in this county and partly in Cambridgeshire. Particulars are given in Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire.

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Entry in Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk 1883, (Cambridgeshire section), p. 122.

WELNEY is a parish, situated partly in the Isle of Ely, and county of Cambridgeshire and partly in Norfolk, in the hundred of Wisbech, union and county court district of Downham, rural deanery of Fincham, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich; it is on the banks of the Old Bedford river, 5 miles west from Manea station, 13 south-east from Wisbech, and 10 south-east from March. In 1826 the Rev. William Gale Townley erected at his own expense a handsome suspension bridge across the Hundred-foot river, thus connecting the village with Littleport and Ely, which could previously only be reached by ferry. In 1848 the old church was taken down and a new one erected and named in honor of St.Mary the Virgin: it is a handsome stone building in the Early English style; the cost was defrayed by funds furnished by Marshall's charity: it consists of chancel and nave, with a bell turret containing 2 bells and has sittings for 420: there is a handsome stained east window. The registers are amongst the oldest in the deanery, dating from the year 1642. The living, formerly a chapelry of Upwell, is now a rectory in the gift of Charles Watson Townley esq. Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, and held by the Rev. Edward Russell Wilford M.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge, who is also a surrogate in the diocese of Norwich and diocesan inspector of schools in the deanery of Fincham; a substantial rectory house was built in the year 1864. The tithe is commuted at £1,258 18s. 2d. and there are 13 acres of glebe. The Baptists and Primitive Methodists have chapels here. The funds of Marshall's charity are derived from lands left by W. Marshall esq.: this estate, which formerly only realised about £70 a year, has now so increased in value as to bring in a net income of about £700 a year: the property is vested in the hands of the trustees and the income is divided in the following manner; one-third is given to the widows in the parish and two-thirds are appropriated to the church, the schools and the roads. Charles Watson Townley esq. is lord of the manor. The principal landowners are F. R. Beart, esq., W. R. Beart, esq, Morley Beart, esq. William Little esq. James Failes esq. and Joseph Morton esq. The soil is clay and fen; subsoil clay. The chief crops are wheat, beans and roots. The area is 5,444 acres; rateable value of Cambridge portion £3,426, and of Norfolk portion £5,920; the population, who are wholly dependent on husbandry, numbered in 1881, 499 in the Isle of Ely and 527 in Norfolk, making a total of 1,026.

TIP'S END is 2½ miles north-west, and the Wash to the south

Parish Clerk, Jeremiah Jacobs.

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POST & MONEY ORDER OFFICE & Savings Bank:— Geo. Stokes, postmaster. Letters received from Wisbech, viâ Upwell, at 6.35 a.m.; dispatched at 5.45 p.m. The nearest telegraph office is at Upwell.

SCHOOLS:—

The Church of England Old School, at which the children of the poor receive a free education, was erected at the same time as the church; Walter Bearcock, master.