Wimpole 

We cannot find a URL for Wimpole Parish Website

Follow this link to register the Parish website so that it appears here

Historical notes about the Parish of Wimpole

Wimpole's park lies between two Roman roads, great gates with a stone lion and unicorn opening to it from one part of Ermine Street, and a marvellous avenue running from another and crossing Akeman Street on which the village lies. The avenue is a double one of elms, like a nave and aisle, 100 years wide and more than two miles long, and is an approach to the hall build three centuries ago by Sir Thomas Chichele, enlarged by the Earl of Oxford, and made bigger again by Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke. Here Queen Victoria was entertained soon after her marriage, and the story is told how, having by mistake mislaid her jewels, she came down to dinner with a wreath of roses in her hair, someone saying (we doubt not with truth) that not all the jewels in the world could have made her look so queenly.

The great house and the church at Wimpole stand together, linked by association down the ages. The church was made new with brick walls in 1749, but it has kept its Chichele chapel with a great display of monuments in stone and brass. On a big alabaster tomb lies Sir Thomas Chichele of 1616 in gilded armour, at his feet a dog with a bone, and round the tomb six children, one a wide-awake babe in a cradle.

The little collection of brasses on the chapel walls includes a fine portrait of Dr Thomas Worsley in his rich Tudor vestments, an unusual picture of the Madonna and her Child, and a very attractive figure of Edward Marshall who was parson here and died in 1625. We see also a graceful woman in a little cap, and a group of six girls in kennel headdresses. In two of the chapel windows there is 14^th century glass, with many old shields of lords of the manor, and a figure in brown disguised as a monk. One attractive window shows Our Lord in Glory, and another the Madonna and St George in memory of a soldier of the Great War and his mother. A third window is interesting for its story rather than for the highly coloured glass which tells it. It is to Victor Yorke of the great house, who died of heart failure in 1867 while giving a penny reading when he was the guest of the Rothschilds. We see him as an officer reading to a little group, among them his host and the daughter of the house, whom he was going to marry.

There is a huge monument to the Earl of Hardwicke, with figures of Britannia and a woman with lilies, and a plaque of himself and his wife. Famous as a lawyer who did much for that part of our law known as Equity, he became Lord Chancellor and presided over the trials which followed the rebellion of 1745. Another monument has a portrait of his son Charles Yorke, who was Lord Chancellor too, and there is a handsome marble figure of the 3^rd earl, reclining with a sword and a book, wearing the rich regalia of the Order of the Garter with a pendant of St George slaying the dragon. Other family memorials are in classical style with cherubs, plaques, and figures of woman by urns.

A Great Reformer

Philip Yorke, the great Lord Chancellor Hardwick, was the son of an obscure Dover lawyer who sent the lad to his London agent. An industrious apprentice, he studied so hard that, without university training, he was a barrister at 25, Solicitor-General at 30, and four years later Attorney-General.

During this period his foremost patron, Lord Macclesfield, was impeached for corruption. Friendship prompted Yorke to defend him; duty bade him prosecute; and Parliament had a heart and excused the younger man this ungrateful task. At 43 Yorke was Lord Chief Justice and Baron Hardwicke, and at 47 Lord Chancellor.

For years his wife would not hear of his accepting an earldom, observing that, though no suitors would expect more than £10,000 with Misses Yorke, they would expect £20,000 with Lady Elizabeth and Lady Margaret. A thrifty woman was Lady Hardwicke. The Great Seal of the Lord Chancellor is enclosed in a rich case of embroidered velvet renewed every year, and, twenty of these falling to the Lord Chancellor, his wife had them made into bed hangings.

Hardwicke presided at the trial of the leading rebels in the Stuart rising of 1745, pronounced their doom, and enacted a law forbidding the weaving of tartan as the national dress of Scotland. He was a powerful advocate of the reform of the calendar, reformed the marriage laws, and struck a salutary blow for justice by abolishing hereditary judgeships in Scotland. He died in 1764 rich and honoured, his son Charles succeeding to the Woolsack but dying without enjoying the office.

Definitions: Follow this link for an explanation of what is a city, town, village and other community and of the local authority structure of the UK

Public Events in and around Wimpole

If you are organising an event in Wimpole then let us know about it and we will put a link to your event here and what's more we'll do it for FREE. The earlier you do it the better as not only will visitors to this Wimpole page see details of your event but so will visitors to our South Cambridgeshire pages and really big events will be displayed at national level too. Follow the link immediately below

To find out how to add an event diary listing

It's FREE, so enter your event now!

Hotels, Apartments and B&B's in Wimpole

The visitor accommodation options for Wimpole listed below are supplied by LATE ROOMS and BOOKING.COM from a selection of over 16,000 hotels located throughout the UK.

Click the link below to view a map showing the location of accommodation in this area

Map of accommodation in the South Cambridgeshire area