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2 - 10 High Street, Grantchester (MoC422/56)

2 – 10 High Street, Wright’s Row, Grantchester

History of 2 - 10 High Street

Listed building:

Row of cottages of several building periods. Late C17, early and later C18 and early C19. Mostly timber-framed on brick plinth, plaster rendered, but possibly some clay bat, particularly in the early C19 parts. Roofs are thatched, longstraw and reed, plain tiles and buff and red pantiles.

The name may be connected with Alexander Wright who in 1513 was miller of Grantchester. They were not all built at the same time however. There is also a possible connection with Edward Wright a baker whose shop was at no.8. At the time of the enclosures Edward Wright owned the Green Man, the Red Lion and two or three houses in Wright’s Row.

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(4)

1911

Fredrick Dilley, 48, bricklayer labourer, b Grantchester

Phebe, 41, b West Wratting

Walter, 16, gardener, b Grantchester

John, 14, gardener, b Grantchester

Ellen, 10, b Grantchester

Ethel, 5, b Grantchester

Earnest, brother, 41, gardener army pensioner, b Grantchester

Ernest Dilley b. 1870, d. Jan 1916. Ernest was the grandson of the first Dilley in the village, John, and the uncle of Walter. Ernest was born in 1870, worked as an agricultural labourer then as a gardener living in the East Road area of Cambridge. He joined the 1st Battalion Camb. Regiment. He was 46 when he died of pneumonia and heart failure at Ipswich Military Hospital.

Walter Dilley b. 1895, d. July 1917. Walter’s father was Fredrick who lived at 4 Wright’s Row with his wife Phoebe. Fredrick had a club foot and stoked the fires of the Green Man as well as working for Sindalls the building firm. Walter worked for a surgeon in Cambridge.  He joined the Camb Regiment when he was about 19 and was sent to France at the beginning of 1915. He was a Lance Corporal when he was killed on the first day of the battle of Ypres, 31st July 1917, during the assault on Hill 19. His body was never recovered. News reached Grantchester on 12th August; Walter’s 12 year old sister Ethel is reported to have missed school that day on hearing the news; she had previously had several years perfect attendance.

The first Dilley arrived in Grantchester in 1827, John Dilley from Eversden, who probably came to work at Bolton’s Brickworks in Long Lane.

(Source World War I by Francis Burkitt, 2020)

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1911 Post Office

Jane Rayner, 60, widow, bake and sub postmistress, b Trumpington

Maud Ellen Greygoose, daughter, 37, assisting in post office, b Trumpington

Joseph Greygoose, son in law, 30, baker, b Fen Ditton

Cyril John Greygoose, grandson, 6, b Grantchester

Douglas Joseph Greygoose, grandson, 1, b Grantchester

In 1901 Joseph is single and a boarder at 1 Merton Street, Grantchester working as County Policeman.

The Greygooses came originally from Quy and Landbeach; by 1903 Joseph was working in the Grantchester baker’s. In 1904 he married the baker’s daughter, Maud Rayner.. For a time they also ran the post office next door. Jospeh also served as village constable and was elected to the Parish Council. He enlisted with the Cambridgeshire Regiment in February 1915 and later transferred to the Northampton Reg. Maud died in March 1917. Corporal Joseph Greygoose was killed on 16th October during the German retreat at Saint-Aubert, east of Cambrai.

(See World War 1, Francis Burkitt)

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The Cambridgeshire Cottage Improvement Society acquired Wright’s Row in 1938 and converted the original 8 cottages into 5 and fitted them with water supplies, indoor sanitation and electric lighting. Previously there had been one standpipe for all the cottages.

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