RAMSEY is a market town and head of a petty sessional division, at the foot of a hill on Bury brook and on the borders of the Fens, 69 miles from London and 10 north-east from Huntingdon, in the Northern division of the county, Hurstingstone hundred, Hunti ngdon union and county court district, rural deanery of St. Ives, archd eaconry of Huntingdon and diocese of Ely. The long street called the Great White or Whyte runs north, and the other, called High street, runs east and west, cutting the south end of the Great Whyte, forming with it the letter T.
At the north end of the town is the station of the Ramsey and
Holme railway, which forms a junction at Holme with the Great
Northern main line. In 1889, the Great Eastern Railway Company
opened a line at the we st end of the town, which joins the St.
Ives branch and Wisbech section of their system at Somersham. The
town adopted the " Local Government Act, 1858" (21
& 22 Vict. c. 98), July 19, 1872, but under the provisions of
the " Local Government Act, 1894" (5 6 and 57 Vict. ch.
73), an Urban District Council has been established; it is
lighted with gas supplied by the Ramsey Gas Light and Coke
Company Limited; water is obtained by pumps only. This place
gives the title of baron to the Fellowes family, Edwar d Fellows
esq. M.P. having been created B aron de Ramsey, 8 July, 1887. The
church of St. Thomas-a-Becket is a spacious and elegant edifice
of stone, in the Norman and Early English styles, consisting of
chancel, nave of seven bays with clerestory, aisles and an
embattled western tower, built in 1672, with pinnacles,
containing a clock and 6 bells: the chancel, which is the most
ancient part of the edifice, has remains of north and south
chapels destroyed at an early period, the Norman piers and arches
being built into the walls: on the south side of the chancel is a
double p iscina under a canopy, and opposite this a richly
ornamented tomb to William Henry Fellowes esq. of Ramsey Abbey,
who presented the borough and county in Parliament for the period
of 34 years, and died 23 August, 1837, and on the south side of
the chancel there is also a tablet to Mrs. Emma Fellowes, his
relict, d. 27 January, 1862; there is also a memorial brass to
Mary Julia, widow of Edward, 1st Baron de Ramsey, d. 10 April,
1901; in the south aisle is another placed by the Fellowes
family, in memory of James Jones esq. for over 70 years the agent
for their estates: in the north aisle are monuments to Carina
Day, daughter of the late Peter Descou, d. 1867, and to James
Smith esq. su rgeon, d.1848, and a brass inscribed to former
incumbents of this parish; here is also a brass to David Black
B.A. of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and 2nd l ieut. Lancashire
Fusiliers, who died at Poona, and there are several stained
windows: in the chancel is a fine double lectern of oak, c. 1450,
with a brass-bound and chained copy of " Dean Comber on the
Book of Common Prayer," and a black-letter copy of "
Erasmus Paraphrase on the New Testament:" the font, of grey
marble from a quarry in Northamptonshire, consists of a hexagonal
basin, supported upon a central column of freestone surrounded by
six small ones of marble: a new organ was provided in 1903, at a
cost of £ 250: the church was entirely re-pewed and the interior
restored in 1844, and has since been new-roofed and renovated
throughout; extensive interior alterations were made in 1903, the
gallery being removed, choir seats erected, and the organ placed
in the nave: there are 700 sittings, half of which are
unappropriated: at the east end of the c hurchyard stands the
shaft of an ancient cross, about 12 feet in height. The register
dates from the year 1559. The living is a vicarage, net yearly
value £ 312, in the gift of Lord De Ramsey, and held since 1891
by the Rev. Robert Black M.A of Glasgow University and Downing
College, Cambridge, and surrogate.
The Mission Room of St. Felix is at Fortyfeet Bridge and that of
St. Benet in Ramsey Hollow.
The Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, in the New town, erected
in 1863, is a building in the Gothic style. It is now temporarily
closed.
There are two Baptist chapels and Particular Baptist, Primitive
Methodist and Wesleyan chapels.
The Cemetery, near the town, in Wood lane, covers three acres, of
which three fifths are consecrated, and has two chapels. The cost
of laying out the ground, drainage and the erection of the
chapels was about £ 1,760, and the purchase money for the land
£450. The cemetery is under the control of a burial board of 9
members, formed in 1858.
The Abbey Rooms, built by Edward, 1st Baron de Ramsey in 1877, at
a cost of over £1,200, consist of entrance hall, library, used
chiefly for small meetings, a large room , capable of holding 400
persons, with a fixed platform at one end, and two retiring
rooms, with kitchens and necessary outbuildings; a reading and
billiard room has been added at a cost of £200, given by the
present Lord de Ramsey in 1892.
The Ramsey Institution, at the top of Great Whyte, and erected in
1846, belongs to Ernest E. Llewellyn esq. and is now (1903)
rented by the Technical Education Committee, and used as a branch
school of the Peterborough School of Art.
The Police Station, in Great Whyte, is a building in the Italian
style, erected in 1854, after a fire which consumed 13 houses.
In 1888 a clock was erected in the Great Whyte, at a cost of
£250, by his widow and the parishioners, to the memory of Edward
(Fellowes), 1st Baron de Ramsey, who died 8 July, 1887.
The weekly market is held on Wednesday, and the annual fair for
cattle on the 22nd July. Manorial courts are held annually in
April or May. A great quantity of potatoes and other agricultural
produce is forwarded from this district, both by rail and water.
The rents and interests of certain lands and moneys, amounting to
about £ 80, are yearly distributed among the poor at Christmas.
There are also 31 cottages belonging to Dryden's charity, some
few of which are let at a nominal rent and others free to poor
parishioners. Almshouses for 122 poor women were built in 1837 by
Miss Urania Fellowes and Edward Fellowes esq. on the site of six
existing under the Dryden charity and then pulled down; the
income from this charity is about £60 yearly, derived from land,
and in 1867, Carina Day, daughter of Peter Descou, left for the
further support of the almspeople a sum of £12 yearly. The
charities for apprenticing amount to about £140 yearly.
This town became infected by the plague in the year 1666 by
means, it is said, of a piece of cloth, sent from London for the
purpose of being made into a coat for Colonel Cromwell cousin of
the Protector, who, with the tailor and all his family and about
400 persons, died of the infection; his burial is recorded thus
in the parish register -" Col. William Cromwell, Gentleman,
ye younger son of Sr O. C. departed this life Febr 1665-6."
At the head of the entries for the next year is written:-
23.9 in ye morning & was buried Febr. 24.9 of clock at night
" 1666. Ramsey visited wth ye plague this year." On the
21st May, 1731, a disastrous conflagration consumed upwards of 80
dwelling houses of the town, besides shops, barns and other
outbuildings.
Here was once a Benedictine abbey, founded in 969 by Ailwin,
Alderman of All England and Earl of the East Angles, and
dedicated to SS Mary and Benedict. The Abbey, which has the
distinction of being " mitred" , stood at the upper end
of the town, and occupied a tract of solid ground, two miles in
length, surrounded by the Ouse and melancholy marshes, and was
inaccessible save by water: the beautiful Perpendicular gatehouse
and refectory remain: Queen Isabella was here for a fortnight in
1309; at the Dissolution there were 9 monks and revenues
estimated at £1,715; t he modern mansion called Ramsey Abbey is
the seat of Lord de Ramsey D.L. J.P. lord of the manor and
principal landowner.
The area is 16,969 acres, chiefly fen land and 64 of water;
assessable value, £22,006; the population of the civil parish
and Urban District in 1901 was 4,823, and of the ecclesiastical
parish 3,465.
Fortyfeet Bridge, 2 miles north-east, Ramsey Hollow, Hern Drove,
Ugg Mere, 2 miles north-west, Ramsey Heights and Middlemoor are
in this parish.
Higney is a detached portion of this parish, and comprises 777
acres.
The Mission church of St. Benet, at Ramsey Hollow, erected in
1881, is a structure of brick, consisting of chancel and nave and
will seat 100 persons.
The Iron Mission church of St. Felix, at Fortyfeet Bridge,
erected in 1902, will seat 100 persons.
Sexton, David Sanders.