Ramsey, Cambridgeshire
Encyclopedia
Ramsey is a small Cambridgeshire
market town
and parish, north of Huntingdon
and St Ives. For local government purposes it lies in the district of Huntingdonshire
within the local government county of Cambridgeshire
.
The parish include the settlements of Ramsey Forty Foot
, Ramsey Heights
, Ramsey Mereside
and Ramsey St Mary's
.
The town grew up around Ramsey Abbey
, a Benedictine monastery. The town manor is built on the site of (and using materials from) the ancient Abbey and is the seat of the Lords de Ramsey
, major landowners in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. The remains of the Abbey are now home to part of the town's secondary school. Abbey College, Ramsey
resulted from the amalgamation of the previous two secondary schools, Ailwyn School and Ramsey Abbey School.
Ramsey Rural Museum, on Wood Lane, is housed in 17th century farm buildings and is a small museum dedicated to the history of rural Fenland life.
Every year, over the August Bank Holiday weekend, the town is home to 1940s Weekend, one of Britain's biggest living history
events. The event, now held at The Camp, Wood Lane, is dedicated to recreating the sights and sounds of the 1940s and is held in aid of several local charities. The event, held at RAF Upwood
until 2011, features living history re-enactors, period dancing, food, exhibitions and trade stands.
Original historical documents relating to Ramsey, including the original church parish registers, local government records, maps, photographs, and records of Ramsey manor
(held by the Fellowes family, Lords de Ramsey), are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies
at the County Record Office Huntingdon. There is a Post Office in Ramsey.
Early and Middle Saxon Ramsey remains elusive. For the later Anglo-Saxon period, documentary evidence for the foundation of the tenth century Benedictine abbey at Ramsey has been recently substantiated by archaeological evidence for activity associated with the pre-Conquest monastery.
Tradition has it that Ailwyn, foster brother of King Edgar, founded a hermitage at Ramsey. It received a series of substantial grants of land by King Edgar who confirmed all the privileges in 975, including the banlieu. The abbey experienced the transition to Norman rule without difficulty and in the eleventh century it witnessed a period of rebuilding. In the civil war between Stephen and Matilda the monastery was badly damaged and impoverished. Geoffrey de Mandeville
expelled the monks in 1143 and used the buildings as a fortress. However, during the thirteenth and fourteenth century the house had a succession of wealthy abbots who embarked on a series of costly building programmes. The Black Death
brought prosperity to a temporary halt, and by the end of the fourteenth century the house was financially decayed. The abbey soon recovered and continued to thrive until its dissolution in 1539. At the Dissolution the site of the monastery, its land and associated granges at Bodsey and Biggin
were given to Richard Williams (alias Cromwell) who dismantled the buildings and sold off the material. The properties remained with the Williams/Cromwell family until 1676.
The early history of the town is obscure. Ramsey is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, either because it was part of Bury or because it belonged to the abbey that, at that time, enjoyed royal privileges.
Throughout the medieval period Ramsey remained a small market town serving the abbey and never developed into a borough. The original settlement probably developed outside the abbey, along Hollow Lane. By 1200 the town had grown sufficiently to obtain a weekly market held at the junction of High Street with the Great Whyte and, later, an annual fair held at the green by the church. During the medieval period the Great Whyte was a navigable canal that ran through the present road. It was culverted by 1854.
Properties along the Great Whyte appear to represent secondary (post-medieval) development of the settlement. Archaeological excavations have shown that this area was wet during the medieval period due to the presence of the fen. A fire occurred at Little Whyte in 1636 which destroyed some 15 tenements. A second fire in 1731 destroyed a great part of the High Street.
By the time of the estate map, the village had expanded along the Great Whyte and along the western end of the High Street by progressive infilling of plots. Later editions of the OS Maps up to the 1970s present a similar picture. Since the 1970s progressive increase in the size of the population has prompted development around the town and along Bury Road. The limits of the town of Ramsey and the village of Bury to the south are not clearly defined, with modern housing estates spreading across the urban boundary.
The bulk of the medieval economy was dominated by garden produce, cloth trade and alehouse keeping. Fisheries also played an important part in the fen economy, together with livestock. Throughout the Middle Ages the waterways of the fenland formed commercial and transport avenues that ran through the hearth of the region. Enclosure was piecemeal and prompted by the abbey.
Following the dispersal of the estates of the abbey into lay hands in the second half of the sixteenth century, enclosure at Ramsey and neighbouring parishes gathered momentum. Systematic drainage of the Great Level from the seventeenth century increased the area for hay and pasture which was progressively divided and allotted. The parish was finally enclosed by official Act of Parliament in 1801.
In 2011 Ramsey became the first town council in the UK to be controlled by the UK Independence Party.
on the north side and the warden's lodgings on the south, but both these have been demolished. The building became the parish church c. 1222.
The parish church of St Thomas of Canterbury is built mainly of rubble, but the aisles and other parts are of ashlar
. The roofs of the chancel
and nave
are covered with tiles and the aisles with lead. The church consists of a chancel (22 ft. by 20 ft.), nave (93 ft. by 19 ft.), north aisle (13 ft. wide), south aisle (13 ft. wide), north chapel and south chapel and west tower (14 ft. by 15 ft.), all measurements being internal.
The architectural history of this church is somewhat involved. The present building, which was originally erected about 1180, is of peculiar plan. The very small chancel, the long nave and the absence of a tower from the original church, point, as the investigators of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments
suggest, to the building having been designed for a hospital, infirmary or guest house. (The chancel would form the chapel, and the nave the hall of such an establishment. As in the case of all monasteries of Pre-Conquest foundation, the parishioners of Ramsey doubtless had rights in the monastic church. After the introduction of stricter rule and more elaborate services in the 12th century, particularly the Sunday Procession, the parochial services, probably at Ramsey as elsewhere, interfered with those of the monks. Hence, accommodation for the parishioners was no doubt made by a parochial chapel outside the monastic church, but possibly at a later date than was customary elsewhere if the present church had been originally an infirmary.
This late 12th-century building consisted of a chancel, with north and south chapels, nave and aisles. The south chapel was destroyed about 1310, before, or at the time that the early 14th-century window was inserted in the south wall of the chancel, but the north chapel was standing in 1744. The aisles were apparently rebuilt about 1500. The west tower was built in 1672. There was formerly a south porch, destroyed in 1843, which probably belonged to the period of the rebuilding of the south aisle about 1500. A north vestry was built on the site of the north chapel in 1910, and the church was restored in 1844, by Edward Fellowes
, when it lost some of its ancient fittings, including a chancel screen and some old glass. The gallery was removed in 1903.
The chancel is vaulted, and is lighted by a large east window of three round-headed lights, deeply splayed, above which is a vesica
-shaped window and high up in the gable a round-headed window, now blocked, which at one time lighted the space over the vault. In the south wall is an early 14th-century window of two pointed lights with a trefoil
above in a roundhead
, and farther west is a doorway of about 1600, with a four-centred arch in a square head. In the north is a doorway of uncertain date, leading into the modern north vestry. The vestry has a late 15th-century north window of three cinquefoiled lights, with tracery in a four-centred head, taken from the east wall of the north aisle. In the south wall of this vestry are the remains of the vaulting shafts, with cushion capitals for the vault of the 12th-century chapel which stood here. Similar remains for the vaulting shafts of the south chapel are still preserved outside the south wall of the chancel. The 12th-century chancel arch has a two-centred head, and the responds have scalloped capitals and moulded bases. There was formerly a chancel screen stretching across the nave and aisles at the first pier, which was taken down in 1844.
The nave was formerly of eight bays, but one bay has been embedded in the western tower. The arcades are very fine examples of 12th-century work. The arches are all two-centred of two plain orders, but the piers, although corresponding in the pairs opposite one another, differ, each pair from the other, some being of grouped shafts, others round and octagonal. The capitals in like manner differ, some scalloped, others have water-leaves and volutes. Over the second pier on each side is the entrance, now blocked, to the rood loft, indications of which may be seen on the south side. The clearstory, consisting of seven windows of two cinquefoiled lights in four-centred heads on each side, is of 15th-century date. The north and south aisles have windows of similar detail each with three cinquefoiled lights in a four-centred head, all of about 1500, and the north and south doorways are of the same date.
It was apparently intended to build a west tower in the early part of the 16th century. John Lawrence, the last Abbot of Ramsey, by his will dated 29 February 1537–8, directed that £13 6s. 8d. should be paid 'towards the building a stepull in the parish church of Ramsey when the town will build it.' The town at that time seems to have built only 'a low wooden steeple,' which fell down and was replaced by the present tower in 1672, from material taken from the monastic buildings. This west tower is of four stages, with embattled parapet and crocketed pinnacles at the angles. The tower arch is two-centred, with semi-cylindrical responds, having two attached shafts, scalloped capitals and moulded bases. The west doorway is also of 12th-century material, re-set, probably, from the original west doorway. Over the doorway on the outside in a panel is the inscription, 'Take heed, watch and pray for ye know not when the time is. S. Mar.
13, 33.' In the west wall of the second stage is a 15th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights re-set, over which, in the third stage, is another window made from re-set material. In the bellchamber is a window in each wall, made up from 12th-century and 13th-century material and a 12th-century stringcourse re-used. A beam of the bell frame bears the inscription, '1672 Nevill Jones et Thomas Wallis, churchwarden
s.'
The blue marble hexagonal font of about 1200 was found about 1844 buried below the floor of the aisle. It has a circular central shaft and six angle shafts.
The 15th-century oak lectern has a steep double rotating desk, supported on a square stem with four traceried buttress
es surmounted by figures of the evangelists. It has been restored. On it are the Paraphrase of Erasmus and Comber on the Book of Common Prayer
. The latter still has a chain attached to it.
There are the following monuments:
In the north side of the chancel to
William Henry Fellowes
(d. 1837);
Mary Julia widow of Edward first Lord de Ramsey (d. 1901);
Edward Fellowes, first Lord de Ramsey
(d. 1887);
on south side of chancel, to
Emma relict of William Fellowes (d. 1862).
The glass of the east window was given in memory of the Fellowes family.
In north aisle, to
James Smyth, surgeon (d. 1848);
Carina wife of Edward Day (d. 1867);
Coulson Churchill Fellowes (d. in France 1915);
above is a standard of the Life Guards
;
on east wall, to James Jones, agent to the Fellowes estate (d. 1803);
and on the west wall, to Arthur Hubbard and Henry Flowers (d. South Africa, 1899–1902);
windows to Private Leonard Fuller, Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry
(d. Flanders, 1915);
Harold Edward Langford (d. Kassasin, 1882);
Heneage Greville, Lord Guernsey (d. on the Aisne, 1914).
In south aisle, to Lance Corporal Ronald William Shelton, Royal Fusiliers (d. at Cambrai, 1918);
Rev. James Saunderson Serjeant, M.A. (d. 1882);
Isabella Rebecca, wife of Capt. H. W. Denison Adam (d. 1904);
tablet commemorating the gratitude of parishioners of Ramsey for restoration of the church by Edward Fellowes, in 1843–4;
on west wall, to David Black, B.A., 2nd Lieut. Lancashire Fusiliers
(d. Poonah, 1892);
window to Christopher Mawdesley (d. 1894), and Catherine Jane his wife (d. 1895).
There are said to have been four bells before the building of the tower in 1672, housed in a low wooden steeple. These four bells were, with some additional metal, cast into five. There is a sanctus bell, which is uninscribed and probably old. The other six bells were all cast in 1810 and five, and possibly the sixth, by R. Taylor, of St. Neots.
In the churchyard eastward of the chancel is the shaft of the 14th-century churchyard cross, standing about 9 ft. high. The head has been lost.
The present vicar of St Thomas a Becket is Canon Richard Darmody.
in 1267 who also granted a fair on the vigil and feast of the Translation of St Benedict and for two days following. The bulk of the trade was dominated by garden produce.
Fisheries also played an important part in the fen
economy. The abbey cartulary contains references to detailed arrangements concerning the granting of fisheries and fishing rights around Ramsey Mere
and Whittlesey Mere
, with rents being often paid in eel
s.
Livestock and in particular cattle was also an important element of the local economy. Portions of fen were reclaimed for both arable and pasture throughout the medieval and later periods. Meadow and pasture were regulated by common rights. There are accounts of disputes between the major abbeys of Ramsey, Thorney
and Ely
about profits and limits of their commons.
Among the occupations there were weaver
s and fullers
with others who were connected with the cloth trade. There were also tanner
s. The most prosperous trade was that of alehouse keeping which suggests that Ramsey had facilities for travellers. The market had lost its prominence in the 18th century to St Ives, and by 1881 'St Ives has drained our market of cattle, and only a few pigs are now its staple', and survived as a pleasure market selling trinkets.
at Ramsey in 1993, one of the first in the UK.
It was replaced with a 1.8MW turbine in 2008. In 2011, Abbey applied to Huntingdonshire
Council for permission to add a further 4 turbines to create a 5-turbine wind farm
capable of powering over 5,000 homes.
. The local football club, Ramsey Town
, play in the Peterborough & District League
.
and Ramsey East railway station
.
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
market town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
and parish, north of Huntingdon
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...
and St Ives. For local government purposes it lies in the district of Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
within the local government county of Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
.
The parish include the settlements of Ramsey Forty Foot
Ramsey Forty Foot
Ramsey Forty Foot is a village in Ramsey civil parish, part of the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies on the Forty Foot Drain....
, Ramsey Heights
Ramsey Heights
Ramsey Heights is a village in Ramsey civil parish, part of the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England....
, Ramsey Mereside
Ramsey Mereside
Ramsey Mereside, known colloquially as "The Village", is a small village approximately north of the town of Ramsey, Cambridgeshire. The Fenland Light Railway, a 7¼" gauge miniature railway is located in the village. The village holds an annual Strawberry Fayre on the first Sunday in July....
and Ramsey St Mary's
Ramsey St Mary's
Ramsey St Mary's is a village in Ramsey civil parish, part of the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England.-Church:During the 1850s, the need for a church in Ramsey St Mary's was realised, due to an increase in the population of Ramsey which was outgrowing the capacity of the Parish...
.
The town grew up around Ramsey Abbey
Ramsey Abbey
Ramsey Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey located in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, England, southeast of Peterborough and north of Huntingdon, UK.-History:...
, a Benedictine monastery. The town manor is built on the site of (and using materials from) the ancient Abbey and is the seat of the Lords de Ramsey
Baron de Ramsey
Baron de Ramsey, of Ramsey Abbey in the County of Huntingdon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1887 for Edward Fellowes, who had previously represented Huntingdonshire in the House of Commons as a Conservative for 43 years...
, major landowners in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. The remains of the Abbey are now home to part of the town's secondary school. Abbey College, Ramsey
Abbey College, Ramsey
Abbey College is a comprehensive secondary school in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire about 10 miles from Huntingdon and Peterborough, offering education for 11 to 18 year olds within its area. The school also offers courses for post-16 and has had a specialist Technology College status since 1999...
resulted from the amalgamation of the previous two secondary schools, Ailwyn School and Ramsey Abbey School.
Ramsey Rural Museum, on Wood Lane, is housed in 17th century farm buildings and is a small museum dedicated to the history of rural Fenland life.
Every year, over the August Bank Holiday weekend, the town is home to 1940s Weekend, one of Britain's biggest living history
Living history
Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is...
events. The event, now held at The Camp, Wood Lane, is dedicated to recreating the sights and sounds of the 1940s and is held in aid of several local charities. The event, held at RAF Upwood
RAF Upwood
RAF Upwood was a United States Air Force installation adjacent to the village of Upwood, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom.It is a non-flying station which was under the control of the United States Air Force, and one of three RAF stations in Cambridgeshire currently used by the United States...
until 2011, features living history re-enactors, period dancing, food, exhibitions and trade stands.
Original historical documents relating to Ramsey, including the original church parish registers, local government records, maps, photographs, and records of Ramsey manor
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
(held by the Fellowes family, Lords de Ramsey), are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies
Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies
Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies Service is a UK local government institution which collects and preserves archives, other historical documents and printed material relating to the modern county of Cambridgeshire, which includes the former counties of Huntingdonshire and the Isle of Ely...
at the County Record Office Huntingdon. There is a Post Office in Ramsey.
History
Besides a Palaeolithic axe discovered in Victoria Road and seen as a chance glacial find, there is no record of prehistoric finds from the town. Roman remains are limited to stray finds of pottery.Early and Middle Saxon Ramsey remains elusive. For the later Anglo-Saxon period, documentary evidence for the foundation of the tenth century Benedictine abbey at Ramsey has been recently substantiated by archaeological evidence for activity associated with the pre-Conquest monastery.
Tradition has it that Ailwyn, foster brother of King Edgar, founded a hermitage at Ramsey. It received a series of substantial grants of land by King Edgar who confirmed all the privileges in 975, including the banlieu. The abbey experienced the transition to Norman rule without difficulty and in the eleventh century it witnessed a period of rebuilding. In the civil war between Stephen and Matilda the monastery was badly damaged and impoverished. Geoffrey de Mandeville
Geoffrey de Mandeville
Geoffrey de Mandeville is the name of several important medieval English barons:*Geoffrey de Mandeville , was one of the great magnates of the reign of William the Conqueror*Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex Geoffrey de Mandeville is the name of several important medieval English...
expelled the monks in 1143 and used the buildings as a fortress. However, during the thirteenth and fourteenth century the house had a succession of wealthy abbots who embarked on a series of costly building programmes. The Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
brought prosperity to a temporary halt, and by the end of the fourteenth century the house was financially decayed. The abbey soon recovered and continued to thrive until its dissolution in 1539. At the Dissolution the site of the monastery, its land and associated granges at Bodsey and Biggin
Biggin
Biggin can refer to:*Biggin , Derbyshire, in the Peak District*Biggin Hill a town in London*London Biggin Hill Airport an airport near Biggin Hill, London*Biggin by Hulland, Derbyshire, near Hulland*Biggin, North Yorkshire...
were given to Richard Williams (alias Cromwell) who dismantled the buildings and sold off the material. The properties remained with the Williams/Cromwell family until 1676.
The early history of the town is obscure. Ramsey is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, either because it was part of Bury or because it belonged to the abbey that, at that time, enjoyed royal privileges.
Throughout the medieval period Ramsey remained a small market town serving the abbey and never developed into a borough. The original settlement probably developed outside the abbey, along Hollow Lane. By 1200 the town had grown sufficiently to obtain a weekly market held at the junction of High Street with the Great Whyte and, later, an annual fair held at the green by the church. During the medieval period the Great Whyte was a navigable canal that ran through the present road. It was culverted by 1854.
Properties along the Great Whyte appear to represent secondary (post-medieval) development of the settlement. Archaeological excavations have shown that this area was wet during the medieval period due to the presence of the fen. A fire occurred at Little Whyte in 1636 which destroyed some 15 tenements. A second fire in 1731 destroyed a great part of the High Street.
By the time of the estate map, the village had expanded along the Great Whyte and along the western end of the High Street by progressive infilling of plots. Later editions of the OS Maps up to the 1970s present a similar picture. Since the 1970s progressive increase in the size of the population has prompted development around the town and along Bury Road. The limits of the town of Ramsey and the village of Bury to the south are not clearly defined, with modern housing estates spreading across the urban boundary.
The bulk of the medieval economy was dominated by garden produce, cloth trade and alehouse keeping. Fisheries also played an important part in the fen economy, together with livestock. Throughout the Middle Ages the waterways of the fenland formed commercial and transport avenues that ran through the hearth of the region. Enclosure was piecemeal and prompted by the abbey.
Following the dispersal of the estates of the abbey into lay hands in the second half of the sixteenth century, enclosure at Ramsey and neighbouring parishes gathered momentum. Systematic drainage of the Great Level from the seventeenth century increased the area for hay and pasture which was progressively divided and allotted. The parish was finally enclosed by official Act of Parliament in 1801.
In 2011 Ramsey became the first town council in the UK to be controlled by the UK Independence Party.
Churches
The building of the parish church of St Thomas a Becket of c.1180-90 began as a hospital, infirmary or guesthouse of the abbey. It was originally an aisled hall with a chapel at the east end with a vestryVestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
on the north side and the warden's lodgings on the south, but both these have been demolished. The building became the parish church c. 1222.
The parish church of St Thomas of Canterbury is built mainly of rubble, but the aisles and other parts are of ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
. The roofs of the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
and nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
are covered with tiles and the aisles with lead. The church consists of a chancel (22 ft. by 20 ft.), nave (93 ft. by 19 ft.), north aisle (13 ft. wide), south aisle (13 ft. wide), north chapel and south chapel and west tower (14 ft. by 15 ft.), all measurements being internal.
The architectural history of this church is somewhat involved. The present building, which was originally erected about 1180, is of peculiar plan. The very small chancel, the long nave and the absence of a tower from the original church, point, as the investigators of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments
Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England
The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England was the body formerly responsible for documenting the records of English historical monuments. It was merged with English Heritage on 1 April 1999....
suggest, to the building having been designed for a hospital, infirmary or guest house. (The chancel would form the chapel, and the nave the hall of such an establishment. As in the case of all monasteries of Pre-Conquest foundation, the parishioners of Ramsey doubtless had rights in the monastic church. After the introduction of stricter rule and more elaborate services in the 12th century, particularly the Sunday Procession, the parochial services, probably at Ramsey as elsewhere, interfered with those of the monks. Hence, accommodation for the parishioners was no doubt made by a parochial chapel outside the monastic church, but possibly at a later date than was customary elsewhere if the present church had been originally an infirmary.
This late 12th-century building consisted of a chancel, with north and south chapels, nave and aisles. The south chapel was destroyed about 1310, before, or at the time that the early 14th-century window was inserted in the south wall of the chancel, but the north chapel was standing in 1744. The aisles were apparently rebuilt about 1500. The west tower was built in 1672. There was formerly a south porch, destroyed in 1843, which probably belonged to the period of the rebuilding of the south aisle about 1500. A north vestry was built on the site of the north chapel in 1910, and the church was restored in 1844, by Edward Fellowes
Edward Fellowes, 1st Baron de Ramsey
Edward Fellowes, 1st Baron de Ramsey was a British Conservative Member of Parliament.De Ramsey was the son of William Henry Fellowes, of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire, and Emma Benyon. He was elected to the House of Commons for Huntingdonshire in 1837, a seat he held for 43 years, until 1880...
, when it lost some of its ancient fittings, including a chancel screen and some old glass. The gallery was removed in 1903.
The chancel is vaulted, and is lighted by a large east window of three round-headed lights, deeply splayed, above which is a vesica
Vesica
Vesica is Latin for "bladder", and may refer too:Anatomy* Vesica, mainly used for the urinary bladder, also used for the gall bladder and in entomology for a part of the male genitals....
-shaped window and high up in the gable a round-headed window, now blocked, which at one time lighted the space over the vault. In the south wall is an early 14th-century window of two pointed lights with a trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
above in a roundhead
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
, and farther west is a doorway of about 1600, with a four-centred arch in a square head. In the north is a doorway of uncertain date, leading into the modern north vestry. The vestry has a late 15th-century north window of three cinquefoiled lights, with tracery in a four-centred head, taken from the east wall of the north aisle. In the south wall of this vestry are the remains of the vaulting shafts, with cushion capitals for the vault of the 12th-century chapel which stood here. Similar remains for the vaulting shafts of the south chapel are still preserved outside the south wall of the chancel. The 12th-century chancel arch has a two-centred head, and the responds have scalloped capitals and moulded bases. There was formerly a chancel screen stretching across the nave and aisles at the first pier, which was taken down in 1844.
The nave was formerly of eight bays, but one bay has been embedded in the western tower. The arcades are very fine examples of 12th-century work. The arches are all two-centred of two plain orders, but the piers, although corresponding in the pairs opposite one another, differ, each pair from the other, some being of grouped shafts, others round and octagonal. The capitals in like manner differ, some scalloped, others have water-leaves and volutes. Over the second pier on each side is the entrance, now blocked, to the rood loft, indications of which may be seen on the south side. The clearstory, consisting of seven windows of two cinquefoiled lights in four-centred heads on each side, is of 15th-century date. The north and south aisles have windows of similar detail each with three cinquefoiled lights in a four-centred head, all of about 1500, and the north and south doorways are of the same date.
It was apparently intended to build a west tower in the early part of the 16th century. John Lawrence, the last Abbot of Ramsey, by his will dated 29 February 1537–8, directed that £13 6s. 8d. should be paid 'towards the building a stepull in the parish church of Ramsey when the town will build it.' The town at that time seems to have built only 'a low wooden steeple,' which fell down and was replaced by the present tower in 1672, from material taken from the monastic buildings. This west tower is of four stages, with embattled parapet and crocketed pinnacles at the angles. The tower arch is two-centred, with semi-cylindrical responds, having two attached shafts, scalloped capitals and moulded bases. The west doorway is also of 12th-century material, re-set, probably, from the original west doorway. Over the doorway on the outside in a panel is the inscription, 'Take heed, watch and pray for ye know not when the time is. S. Mar.
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
13, 33.' In the west wall of the second stage is a 15th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights re-set, over which, in the third stage, is another window made from re-set material. In the bellchamber is a window in each wall, made up from 12th-century and 13th-century material and a 12th-century stringcourse re-used. A beam of the bell frame bears the inscription, '1672 Nevill Jones et Thomas Wallis, churchwarden
Churchwarden
A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish church or congregation of the Anglican Communion, usually working as a part-time volunteer. Holders of these positions are ex officio members of the parish board, usually called a vestry, parish council, parochial church council, or in the case of a...
s.'
The blue marble hexagonal font of about 1200 was found about 1844 buried below the floor of the aisle. It has a circular central shaft and six angle shafts.
The 15th-century oak lectern has a steep double rotating desk, supported on a square stem with four traceried buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es surmounted by figures of the evangelists. It has been restored. On it are the Paraphrase of Erasmus and Comber on the Book of Common Prayer
Thomas Comber (dean of Durham)
-Life:From a family at Barkham, Sussex, his father, James Comber, was the fourth son of John Comber, who was uncle to Thomas Comber, dean of Carlisle. His mother was Mary, daughter of Bryan Burton of Westerham, Kent, and widow of Edward Hampden...
. The latter still has a chain attached to it.
There are the following monuments:
In the north side of the chancel to
William Henry Fellowes
William Henry Fellowes
William Henry Fellowes , of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire and Haverland Hall in Norfolk, was a British Member of Parliament....
(d. 1837);
Mary Julia widow of Edward first Lord de Ramsey (d. 1901);
Edward Fellowes, first Lord de Ramsey
Edward Fellowes, 1st Baron de Ramsey
Edward Fellowes, 1st Baron de Ramsey was a British Conservative Member of Parliament.De Ramsey was the son of William Henry Fellowes, of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire, and Emma Benyon. He was elected to the House of Commons for Huntingdonshire in 1837, a seat he held for 43 years, until 1880...
(d. 1887);
on south side of chancel, to
Emma relict of William Fellowes (d. 1862).
The glass of the east window was given in memory of the Fellowes family.
In north aisle, to
James Smyth, surgeon (d. 1848);
Carina wife of Edward Day (d. 1867);
Coulson Churchill Fellowes (d. in France 1915);
above is a standard of the Life Guards
Life Guards (British Army)
The Life Guards is the senior regiment of the British Army and with the Blues and Royals, they make up the Household Cavalry.They originated in the four troops of Horse Guards raised by Charles II around the time of his restoration, plus two troops of Horse Grenadier Guards which were raised some...
;
on east wall, to James Jones, agent to the Fellowes estate (d. 1803);
and on the west wall, to Arthur Hubbard and Henry Flowers (d. South Africa, 1899–1902);
windows to Private Leonard Fuller, Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry is one of the three regular force infantry regiments of the Canadian Army. The regiment is composed of four battalions including a primary reserve battalion, for a total of 2,000 soldiers...
(d. Flanders, 1915);
Harold Edward Langford (d. Kassasin, 1882);
Heneage Greville, Lord Guernsey (d. on the Aisne, 1914).
In south aisle, to Lance Corporal Ronald William Shelton, Royal Fusiliers (d. at Cambrai, 1918);
Rev. James Saunderson Serjeant, M.A. (d. 1882);
Isabella Rebecca, wife of Capt. H. W. Denison Adam (d. 1904);
tablet commemorating the gratitude of parishioners of Ramsey for restoration of the church by Edward Fellowes, in 1843–4;
on west wall, to David Black, B.A., 2nd Lieut. Lancashire Fusiliers
Lancashire Fusiliers
The Lancashire Fusiliers was a British infantry regiment that was amalgamated with other Fusilier regiments in 1968 to form the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.- Formation and early history:...
(d. Poonah, 1892);
window to Christopher Mawdesley (d. 1894), and Catherine Jane his wife (d. 1895).
There are said to have been four bells before the building of the tower in 1672, housed in a low wooden steeple. These four bells were, with some additional metal, cast into five. There is a sanctus bell, which is uninscribed and probably old. The other six bells were all cast in 1810 and five, and possibly the sixth, by R. Taylor, of St. Neots.
In the churchyard eastward of the chancel is the shaft of the 14th-century churchyard cross, standing about 9 ft. high. The head has been lost.
The present vicar of St Thomas a Becket is Canon Richard Darmody.
Market
A weekly market was probably held by 1200. The grant was confirmed by Henry IIIHenry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
in 1267 who also granted a fair on the vigil and feast of the Translation of St Benedict and for two days following. The bulk of the trade was dominated by garden produce.
Fisheries also played an important part in the fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
economy. The abbey cartulary contains references to detailed arrangements concerning the granting of fisheries and fishing rights around Ramsey Mere
Mere (lake)
Mere in English refers to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth, e.g. Martin Mere. A significant effect of its shallow depth is that for all or most of the time, it has no thermocline.- Etymology :...
and Whittlesey Mere
Whittlesey Mere
Whittlesey Mere was an area of open water in the Fenland area of the county of Huntingdonshire , England.It occupied the land south-east of Yaxley Fen, south of Farcet Fen and north of Holme Fen. The town of Whittlesey lay to the north-east.Whittlesey Mere was the last of the 'great meres' to be...
, with rents being often paid in eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
s.
Livestock and in particular cattle was also an important element of the local economy. Portions of fen were reclaimed for both arable and pasture throughout the medieval and later periods. Meadow and pasture were regulated by common rights. There are accounts of disputes between the major abbeys of Ramsey, Thorney
Thorney
Thorney is the name of more than one place. It is also used as a common nickname for people with the surname Thorne.It often means "Thorn eyot", or Isle of Thorns; the isle might be in a fen or river, or the sea.In the United Kingdom:...
and Ely
Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about by road from London. It is built on a Lower Greensand island, which at a maximum elevation of is the highest land in the Fens...
about profits and limits of their commons.
Among the occupations there were weaver
Weaver
The Ploceidae, or weavers, are small passerine birds related to the finches.These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills, most of which are from Sub-Saharan Africa, with fewer species in tropical Asia. A few species have been introduced outside their native range. The weaver group is...
s and fullers
Fulling
Fulling or tucking or walking is a step in woolen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker...
with others who were connected with the cloth trade. There were also tanner
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
s. The most prosperous trade was that of alehouse keeping which suggests that Ramsey had facilities for travellers. The market had lost its prominence in the 18th century to St Ives, and by 1881 'St Ives has drained our market of cattle, and only a few pigs are now its staple', and survived as a pleasure market selling trinkets.
Business
In the nineteenth century, Ramsey had its own gas company and this was run by Edmund Broadberry, one of the Broadberry dynasty of gas engineers.Ramsey wind farm
Abbey Renewables erected a 225KW wind turbineWind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
at Ramsey in 1993, one of the first in the UK.
It was replaced with a 1.8MW turbine in 2008. In 2011, Abbey applied to Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
Council for permission to add a further 4 turbines to create a 5-turbine wind farm
Wind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
capable of powering over 5,000 homes.
Sport and recreation
Ramsey has a King George's Field in memorial to King George VGeorge V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. The local football club, Ramsey Town
Ramsey Town F.C.
Ramsey Town F.C. is an English football club based in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire. The club are currently members of the Peterborough & District League Premier Division.-History:...
, play in the Peterborough & District League
Peterborough and District Football League
The Peterborough and District Football League is a football competition in England. It has a total of six divisions, the highest of which the Premier Division sits at step 7 of the National League System...
.
Transport
Ramsey is well served by local buses, having regular and direct routes to St Ives, Huntingdon and Peterborough as well as from nearby villages. There is no current railway station at Ramsey, although two previous stations served the town on different lines - Ramsey North railway stationRamsey North railway station
Ramsey North railway station was a railway station in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire which is now closed.It was the terminus of a branch line from Holme on the East Coast main line run by the Great Northern Railway.-History:...
and Ramsey East railway station
Ramsey East railway station
Ramsey East railway station was a railway station in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, which is now closed.It opened on 16 September 1889, and closed to passenger traffic on 22 September 1930, and to freight traffic on 17 September 1956...
.