Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire
Historical Description
Gransden, Great, a village and a parish in Huntingdonshire. The village stands adjacent to Cambridgeshire, 3 miles NNE of Gamlingay station on the L. & N.W.R., and 7 SE by E of St Neots. It has a post and money order office under Sandy; telegraph office, Caxton. Acreage, 8402; population, 586. The surface is woody. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; gross yearly value, £200 with residence. Patrons, Clare College, Cambridge. The church was built in the loth century, and consists of nave, chancel, and aisles, with porches and tower. There are a Baptist chapel, almshouses, and some small charities. Gransden Hall is the chief residence.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Huntingdonshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Gransden St. Bartholomew | |
| Hundred | Toseland | |
| Poor Law union | Caxton and Arrington |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538.
Churches
Church of England
St. Bartholomew (parish church)
The church of St. Bartholomew is an edifice of stone, in the Perpendicular style, erected about 1460, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower, with spirelet, containing 6 bells and a clock with chimes, playing five different tunes; the pulpit is said to have been formerly in the University church of Great St. Mary, Cambridge; the screen which divided the chancel and nave is now placed in the organ chamber: the organ was built in 1888, by subscription, at a cost of £300: the church was thoroughly restored in 1874, at a cost of over £3,000, when the north porch was rebuilt and organ chamber added: the stained east window was erected by Mrs. Webb in memory of her husband, Theodore Vincent Webb esq. M.A., J.P.: the window in the south aisle is in memory of Mrs. Webb, and was erected in 1911: there is an alabaster tablet, erected at the expense of Fred Christmas esq. J.P. to the Rev. Barnabas Oley M.A., B.D. vicar here from 1633 to 1685: there are 350 sittings.
Baptist
Baptist chapel
There is a Baptist chapel, built in 1735; the church book dates from 1694: there are 280 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Great Gransden from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Gransden, Great (St. Bartholomew))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Huntindonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Great Gransden are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)