Guildhall, Whittlesford 1903 (photo F J Allen) (Cambridgeshire Collection)

The Guildhall, Whittlesford

History of the Guildhall

Listed building:

Guildhall, converted to several cottages and now one dwelling. Late C15 or early C16, with C19 alterations, restored 1967. Timber-framed with plaster infill; hipped plain tiled roof. Rear chimney stack. Two storeys. Four equal timber-framed bays jettied to south-west and south-east elevations; main entrance in second bay from left hand, and first floor entrance, to rear of first bay.

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Vanishing Cambridgeshire p.186 notes: The Guildhall was for many years the centre of village life. Chimneys were added when it served as a workhouse and the building was later used to house poor people in receipt of a parish allowance. The plaster was removed in 1938 and concrete substituted between the studs.

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Whittlesford Guildhall Workhouse
The medieval Guildhall at Whittlesford later served as both a workhouse and a poorhouse. Most residents were elderly people or widows who supplemented parish support by spinning and other light domestic work. Murphy presents Whittlesford as an example of continuity between medieval charitable institutions and the parish-based system of poor relief that developed after the Elizabethan Poor Laws.

Source: Michael J. Murphy, Poverty in Cambridgeshire.

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Enid Porter writes in Cambridgeshire Customs and Folklore p.18:

In 1723 William Westley left a bequest for the foundation of a school at Whittlesford for the education of thirty boys and fifteen girls between the ages of 5  and 14 whose parents earned no more than £20 a year.

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In 1804 the Scare family were housed in the Guildhall. The son, Jack, was apprenticed when he was 8 years old. In 1817 he was hanged at Cambridge Gaol for burglary.

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In the latter part of the 20th century it was the home of Margaret Spufford. She founded the hostel for disabled students in Tennis Court Road, named Bridget’s after her daughter.

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