From Robert Morden's Map 1695 (1753 or 1772 edition)

Towns & Villages in Herts

Therfield

Adjacent Parishes: Bassingbourn (Cambs), Buckland, Kelshall, Litlington (Cambs), Reed, Royston, Sandon

It was in Odsey Hundred

It was in the Royston Union

This picture of the church comes from Cussans' History of Hertfordshire, published in 1873. Because the church was in danger of collapse (note the massive buttresses) it was demolished and a new church erected on the site starting in 1878.

THERFIELD is a village and scattered parish, upon the chalk range, extending to the Cambridge border, 3 miles south from Ashwell station on the Hitchin and Cambridge line of the Great Northern railway, 3 miles south-west from Royston and 8 east-by-south from Baldock, and in the Northern Division of the county, Odsey hundred and petty sessional division, Royston union and county court district, rural deanery of Baldock and archdeaconry and diocese of St Albans.

Therfield - The Church         postcard by Robert H Clarke        posted 1904 The picture shows the incomplete tower and the stonework left ready for the construction of the South Porch.

A later Robert Clarke card showing the completed porch and the church bell hanging in a tree.

The church of St Mary the Virgin, erected on the site of the former church, at a cost of £4,600, exclusive of the chancel, rebuilt by the Rev. J. G. Hale M.A. rector 1870-1907, is an edifice of flint and rubble stone in the Decorated style from designs by Mr. G. E. Pritchett, architect of Bishop Stortford, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles and a tower, erected in 1911 and containing 6 bells, dated respectively 1689, 1626, 1656, 1597, 1608 and 1707: the church affords 510 sittings. The register dates from the year 1538. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £538, including 66 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and held since 1907 by the Rev. Frederick Roberts Blatch M.A. of Oriel College, Oxford.

The Congregational chapel is a building of flint, capable of seating 250 persons, and was erected in 1836 and restored in 1867 at a cost of £300.

Boteman's charity, of £34 17s yearly, arises from 38 acres 24 poles of land, left some time previous to 1580 by one Boteman, of Sandon, and is distributed in fuel. Money Crofs charity, amounting to £2 a year, left in 1772 by John Clerke, is given in bread.

Here are four manors; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are lords of Therfield manor; Rev. George Archer M.A. rector of Stilton, Peterborough, of the manor of Mardlebury; H. Phillips esq. of the manor of Gledshaw or Gledseys, and the rector of the Rectory manor. The principal landed proprietors are Francis John Fordham esq. of Royston, John Phillips esq. of Royston, H. Phillips esq. of Royston, the trustees of the late Rev. Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley bart (d. 1889), and Mrs. T. S. Usborne.

The soil is mixed, heavy and light: subsoil, chalk and clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and some roots. The area is 4,704 acres; rateable value, £3,005; the population in 1011 was 681 in the civil and 579 in the ecclesiastical parish.

Kelly's Directory for Hertfordshire, 1914

Hertfordshire Inns lists two old public houses in Therfield. The Bell is a 19th century building, but there has been a Bell on the site since at least 1707, when it was owned and occupied by a widow, Mary Green. It was bought in 1801 by John Izard Pryor, brewer of Baldock. In 1750 William Figgis, carpenter of Therfield, mortgaged the Fox and Duck to Thomas Crockett, victualler, of Royston. It was rebuilt in the 19th century.

Victoria County History

Web Site: www.therfield.net now contains transcripts of the all the censuses between 1841 and 1901 and useful links to other web sites.

Therfield Church Gate - no publisher - circa 1912
Note Thatched cottage.

See also Vital Records

If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.

Last Updated May 2008