19 & 21 Lower Street, Bassetts, Guild Hall, Thriplow

History of Bassetts

Listed Building

Farmhouse, now a house. Mid C16 with late C16, C17 and C18 alterations and additions. … Farmhouse, possibly unheated, originally built as a guildhall or woolhall facing the green. 

Dovecot converted to a cottage. Late C17 or early C18 dovecot with early C19 alterations.

In the 2026 CALH Review there is an article by Shirley Wittering about the Guildhall in Thriplow. Her article traces the history of Thriplow Guild Hall, setting the building within the wider context of medieval guilds, religious life, land ownership, and changing patterns of village society from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.

The article begins by explaining the different types of medieval guilds. Merchant guilds represented traders, while craft guilds brought together artisans practising the same trade. Alongside these were religious guilds, voluntary associations whose members met to support worship, charitable work and mutual assistance. Such guilds were an important part of medieval English society, providing both spiritual and social support across different classes.

Thriplow possessed such a religious guild, associated with the parish church, which in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was known as All Hallows or All Saints rather than St George. Examination of surviving wills demonstrates the importance of this guild within village life. Between 1471 and 1565, sixteen surviving wills specifically mention the Guild of All Saints or its Guild Hall. The article reproduces a table listing these benefactors, illustrating the continuity of local support over almost a century. It also notes that the church only became widely known as St George’s in the nineteenth century, probably reflecting the long-standing custom of holding the village feast on St George’s Day (23 April).

A particularly valuable feature of the article is the inclusion of part of Isobelle Pypylle’s 1494 will, reproduced in both its original manuscript form and modern transcription. Her bequest of barley to the church altar and to the guild illustrates how ordinary parishioners supported both religious worship and communal institutions through their wills.

The article then places the Guild Hall within the broader upheavals of English history. The Reformation under Henry VIII transformed religious institutions, although Ely Cathedral survived because it also served as a parish church. Later, during the English Civil War, Parliament abolished the bishops and sold episcopal lands to finance the army. Because the manor of Pittensaries, which included the Guild Hall, belonged to the Bishop of Ely, ownership passed into secular hands.

Using a succession of estate surveys, Wittering follows the changing fortunes of the building itself. A survey of 1649 describes “a small mansion” with hall and parlour, timber-built and thatched, standing on Church Street. Subsequent surveys reveal gradual decline. By 1650 the building was already described as “somewhat decayed”. In 1763, one associated tenement had long since burnt down and another was reported to be in poor repair.

By 1812, the Guild Hall had become a double cottage. Surveyors criticised the lack of agricultural buildings while noting the property’s walnut trees and suggesting improvements. Following the Enclosure of Thriplow in 1840, Joseph Ellis, who had gradually assembled land in the parish, acquired the Guild Hall and surrounding acreage. Contemporary documents describe not only the house itself but also its gardens, outbuildings and approximately seven acres of pasture. In 1868, Ellis sold the Guild Hall with other properties for £280.

Maps reproduced in the article help identify the Guild Hall’s position within the village landscape, while photographs show both the historic building and its reconstruction in 1988. Together, documentary, cartographic and photographic evidence enables the author to reconstruct the remarkable survival and evolution of one of Thriplow’s most significant historic buildings, demonstrating how a medieval religious institution gradually became an ordinary domestic dwelling while retaining its historical identity.