Description
Northill, a village and a large parish in Beds. The village stands near the river Ivel, 3 miles SW of Sandy station on the G.N.R. and L. & N.W.R., and 4 WNW of Biggleswade, and has a post office under Biggleswade; money order office, Old Warden; telegraph office, Sandy. The parish contains also the hamlets of Thorncote, Budna, Hatch, Ickwell, Brookend, Upper Caldecote, and Lower Caldecote. Acreage, 4140; population of the civil parish, 1419; of the ecclesiastical, 1408. An old rhyme in reference to the many hamlets asserts that-" Ickwell and Northill, Calcote and Hatch, Beeston and Thorncote, all go to one church."
The manor belongs to the Harvey family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; gross value, £480 with residence. Patrons, the Grocers' Company of London. The church is an ancient and very fine building of dark red sandstone, partly in the Decorated and partly in the Perpendicular styles, was restored in 1862 at a cost of £2000, comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with an embattled western tower, and was made collegiate in the time of Henry IV. by the Tralleys. It contains some very good carved stalls with misereres and desks in the chancel. A chapel of ease was erected in 1867 at Upper Caldecote, and is a cruciform building of stone in the Byzantine style. There are some small charities and five almshouses, which were erected and endowed in 1876. Ickwell Bury is a fine mansion of red brick in the Queen Anne style, standing in the midst of a park of 150 acres. Ickwell House is a very ancient and interesting building formerly surrounded by a moat, and is supposed to be the oldest house in the county. There is an ancient earthwork in the parish either of ancient British or Roman origin.
