Description
Ramsey, a market-town, the head of a petty sessional division, and a parish in Huntingdonshire. The town stands at the foot of a hill, on Bury Brook, on the borders of the fens, at the terminus of the Eamsey and holme railway, which forms a junction at Holme with the G.N. main line. The G.E.R. have also a station here, which was opened in 1889. The town is 10 miles NNE from Huntingdon and 69 from London, took its name from an " eye " or island in a quondam mere or lake, originated and flourished round an ancient Benedictine abbey, suffered devastation by plague in 1666 and by fire in 1731, and is now a seat of petty sessions and of manorial courts. The buildings of the town are chiefly comprised in one long street called the Great Whyte, and another street called High Street, the two making a figure-like the letter T. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office under Huntingdon. The town is governed by an urban district council of twelve members. There is a weekly market which is held on Wednesday, a parade of shire horses and hackneys on 1 May, and an annual fair on 22, 23, and 24: July. The land round Ramsey is famous for its potatoes, of which very large quantities are grown. The Ramsey Institution stands at the top of Great Whyte, was erected in 1846, and is used for science and art classes. The Abbey Rooms, erected in 1877, have a large room capable of holding 400 persons, available for public meetings, with reading and billiard rooms attached. There is a police station in Great Whyte. The Grammar School, founded in 1661, occupies a modern building erected in 1860, enjoys an endowment of about £150 a year, and has accommodation for sixty boys. An infants' school at Church Green was founded in 1707, has an endowment of about £48, and will accommodate about 120 scholars. There are endowed almshouses for twelve poor women, thirty-one cottages belonging to Dryden's Charity which are let free or at a very small rent to poor people, and other charities worth about £220 a year. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; value, £350. Patron, Lord de Ramsey. The church is a spacious and interesting building of stone in the Norman and Early English styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, and an embattled western tower with a good peal of six bells. The chancel, with its pilaster buttresses, its triple roundheaded lights, "fish" window, and double piscina, is a very fine specimen of Norman work, and contains a fine lectern of wood and a chained book with old Tudor binding. The lectern, is one of the oldest in England, its probable date being 1450. In the churchyard there are a number of finely carved grave-stones of the Queen Anne period. There is a Roman Catholic chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and there are three Baptist chapels, one Primitive Methodist, and one Wesleyan. The cemetery in Wood Lane has an area of about 3 acres, and has two mortuary chapels. The abbey was founded in 969 by Duke Ailwin, was a mitred one and the head or seat of a barony, had a famous Hebrew library and school, was given at the dissolution to The Cromwells, gave place to a modern mansion-now the property of the Fellowes family, and the seat of Lord de Ramsey, who is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The present residence incorporates the old Abbot's Hall, and magnificent Early English remains of the refectory are to be seen in the basement rooms and cellars. The portion of the gatehouse which is used as a lodge gives some idea of the splendour of the old abbey. In the abbey is preserved a very interesting efiigy of Ailwin. The slab with the recumbent figure probably formed part of his tomb. The parish, which includes the hamlets of Hern Drove, Forty Foot Bridge, Middlemoor, Ramsey Hollow, and Ugg Mere, has an area of 17,033 acres; population of the civil parish, 4684; of the ecclesiastical, 3312. Ramsey St Mary is a separate benefice. See RAMSEY ST MARY.
Ramsey Parliamentary Division of Northern Huntingdonshire was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 29,549. The division includes the following:- Hurstingstone-Bluntisham-cum-Earith, Broughton, Colne, Fenstanton, Hemingford Abbotts, Hemingford Grey, Hilton, Holywell and Needingworth, Houghton, Oldhurst, Pidley-with-Fenton, Ripton (Abbotts), Ripton (Kings), St Ives, Sapley, Somersham, Woodhurst, Witton or Wyton; Norman Cross-Alwalton, Caldecot, Chesterton, Connington, Denton, Eiton, Farcet, Fletton, Folkesworth, Glatton, Haddon, Holme, Lutton, Morborn, Orton Longville, Orton Waterville, Sawtry (All Saints), Sawtry (St Andrew), Sawtry (St Judith), Sibson and Stibbington, Stanground, Stilton, Washingley, Waternewton, Woodstone, Woodwalton, Yaxley; Ramsey-Bury, Ramsey, Raveley (Great), Raveley (Little), Upwood, Warboys, Wistow.
