Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire

Description
Hemingford Grey, a village and a parish in Huntingdonshire. The village stands on the Ouse, near two lines of railway, 1 1/2 mile WSW of St Ives, which is the nearest railway station. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under St Ives. The parish comprises 1851 acres; population, 883. The manor was given by Hardicanute to Eamsey Abbey, and by the Conqueror to Aubrey de Vere, and passed to the Greys, the Newmans, and others.. The manor house has Norman features; was formerly large and important; and was the birthplace of the Misses Gunning, famed for their beauty, one of whom became Countess of Coventry, and another successively Duchess of Hamilton and Duchess of Argyle. A water-mill occupies the site of one erected in the time of Richard I. The St Ives workhouse is here, and has accommodation for 450 inmates. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net yearly value, £168 with residence. The church is partly Norman, partly Early English; has a tower, with the stump of a spire which was destroyed by a storm in 1741; was restored in 1859 at a cost of nearly £1200, and contains monuments of the Greenes and the Margettses, and a marble tablet to Dr James John-son. There is likewise a place of worship for dissenters called the Union chapel.