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Cambridgeshire - Willingham

Willingham Mill's

The first of the Willingham Mills was owned by Mandy Manning's family. The building shown in both the pictures, was rather interesting, it was called the "the silk room", and it is understood that in the early days they stored the silks used for sieving the flour on the top floor. The roof at the end of the building was chamfered back on the corner so that when the wind was in that quarter the sails did not catch on it. The mill was pulled down in 1957.

The second mill belonging to the Cattell family was restored and is featured on the Willingham village sign that stands on the green. The restored mill can be seen below.

The Cattell Family Mill now restored and featured on the sign.
St. Mary and All Saints  

"The church of St. Mary and All Saints is an edifice of stone and rubble, chiefly in the Decorated style, with some remains of Saxon and Norman work, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave of six bays, aisles, south porch and a lofty western tower with pinnacles and spire and containing a clock, provided in 1887 at a cost of £125, and 5 bells: in the north wall of the chancel is an arched recess and on the south side is a remarkably fine piscina and sedilia; some ancient though mutilated stalls remain, and there is an excellent Perpendicular roof with carved foliage: on the north side of the chancel, and now used as a vestry, is a small but very remarkable chapel, in the Decorated style, with a high pitched stone roof, carried on stone arches springing from corbels and pierced above by tracery with foliated cusping; it has also a piscina mounted on a shaft: the piers and arches of the nave are Decorated and the clerestory Perpendicular; the very fine hammer-beam roof, also of this date, is said to have been brought from Barnwell priory: the spandrils are filled with carved foliage and shields: in the north aisle are two fine canopied tombs, and an altar step remains at the east end, which formed a chantry chapel belonging to the manor of Willingham, and is still inclosed by a beautiful though much mutilated Decorated screen: the roof is Perpendicular, with carved bosses, and retains much of the ancient colouring; the south aisle has a roof of different pattern, and is partly inclosed by a Perpendicular screen, forming a chapel attached to the manor of Brunes; it retains a piscina and a canopied tomb: the font is Perpendicular and has an octagonal basin: the pulpit of the same period, is pentagonal, on a single octagonal shaft, and has panelled sides, beautifully carved: within the lower stage of the tower are three large arched recesses: the chancel was restored by the rector in 1890-91, at a cost of £1,200, under the direction of Messrs. Carpenter and Ingelow, architects: there are 320 sittings.The register dates from the year 1559."

"The Baptist chapel in High Street seats 800 persons, and there is another called the “Tabernacle;” the Wesleyan chapel affords 200 sittings."
[Kelly's Directory - 1929]


The church as shown on a postcard.


The old Methodist Church by the Green.

The "Tabernacle" church.

Photographs Copyright © Mandy Manning - 2000

The war memorial for Willingham can be found on a separate page.

Various views of the church
and below the gates celebrating the Jubilee 1887.

The village sign (above)
is to be found on the village green (below).
The picture (right) of Mr Barton
who owned a shop in Silver Street,
long since gone.

The village pump is
now a centrepiece (above right).
The old village school is now offices.

The photographs and postcards shown on this page were kindly supplied by Mandy Manning. There is a history web site in Willingham with over 4000 photos from the Dennis Jeeps collection.

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Last Updated on: 9 February 2005
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