Littleport, Cambridgeshire

Description
Littleport, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands on the banks of the navigable Ouse, which is crossed here by a wrought-iron bridge of 105 feet clear-span, erected in 1873, adjacent to the Ely and Lynn section of the G.E.R., 5 miles NNE of Ely; is a large place with several streets, and has a station on the railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Ely. The parish comprises 17,118 acres of land and 90 of water; population of the civil parish, 4157; of the ecclesiastical parish of Littleport St George, 3002 ; of Littleport St Matthew, 625. The manor belongs to the Earl of Hardwicke. All the surface except about 800 acres is fen. The land has been very greatly enhanced in value by skilful draining and bv the system of claying. Seventy-five wind-engines were used for eifecting the drainage prior to the introduction of steam power, and two steam-engines, each of about 80 horse-power,. were afterwards employed. There are a town-hall and two gift houses, erected in 1879, a working men's club and institute, a public hall capable of seating 450 persons, a constitutional hall capable of seating 500 persons, and a skating ground of about 30 acres. There is a large shirt and collar factory employing about 400 persons, and a hall, called the Alexandra Hall, for the use of the workpeople. The living of the mother parish is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely ; net value, £610 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Ely. The church is fine Perpendicular, was enlarged in 1857 by the addition of a double nave and aisle, has a lofty tower which figures conspicuously to a great distance, and contains nearly 900 sittings. In 1886 about 3000 acres of tins-parish were for ecclesiastical purposes added to the ecclesiastical district of Little Ouse, Norfolk. The ecclesiastical parish of Littleport St Matthew was formed in 1878 from the parishes of Littleport, St Mary and Holy Trinity, Ely, and Downham in the Isle. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, £200 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Ely. The church, erected in 1878, k a building of brick in the Early English style. There are Calvinist, Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels, and charities of various kinds with an income of £300. The parish council consists of fifteen members.