Relhan Collection : 208 Histon. Church and manor house

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

1820 At St Andrew’s church trees mask much of the church in Relhan’s drawing, but it is still a more open view than the present day. This was drawn from the grounds of the manor house and shows the manor and church closer than they are. It also shows a polygonal dovecote to the right in the area of what is now Bell Hill. The church has a cruciform plan with a central tower, all C13 style. The upper stage of the tower is early C14. There are C15 century alterations made mainly to the windows which are shown in Relhan’s drawing, particularly the S transept. There were clumsy restorations by Bodley in 1858 and 1861 (external work of nave ‘completely destroyed’), clerestorey windows are C19 and more rigorous alterations and rebuilding (including chancel and transept) were undertaken by Gilbert Scott and his son, 1871-1875, when many ancient features, including lancet windows and part of a priest’s door, were uncovered and restored. Evelyn-White describes the restoration as ‘in many ways praiseworthy, but undoubtedly excessive’ and Bell was also shocked. The 1875 work however was able to use stone form St Etheldreda’s, Histon’s other church that was taken down by the Hindes, which was retrieved when the long gallery at Madingley Hall was demolished. The churchyard is not shown by Relhan but the moat, dividing the open arable field with the grounds, is in the foreground. This moat would have been the site of the medieval manor house, which was rebuilt on the site of the present house by 1560. The manor of Histon St Andrew, previously owned by Denny Abbey, was sold by the Crown in 1539 to Edward Elrington. It passed through many hands and the C16 manor house was substantially rebuilt in C17. One bay of a timber-framed hall and part of the cellars survive from this time. In the C18 the house was given a Palladian entrance front of three storeys and five bays. In 1782 it was left to Thomas Sumpter, of a local farming family, and it remained in the Sumpter family until 1877. When Relhan recorded it in 1820 much of the land had been sold but the house and park had passed to Thomas Sumpter’s son William (d. 1847), the resident when Relhan recorded it in 1820. In 1877 it was sold to William Peed, a Cambridge solicitor, and he remodelled the S front, removed the attic floor and added a porch and extensions on the E end, with a billiard room on NW. After this expense Peed became scandalously bankrupt and disappeared abroad in 1897. Successive owners were generally content to maintain the house without great change. They included AH Harding from 1899-1927 (259), son and heir of Walter Harding of Madingley Hall and, from 1953 until his death in 1994, Professor JKS St Joseph, the pioneer aerial archaeologist. Improvements to the house and grounds are currently (2019) being planned by new owners. Bell 2013; Burton in Hicks 1997; Evelyn-White 1911; Hill 1880; Taylor 1998; VCH 1989; notes by the resident family