Tetworth

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Tetworth
Huntingdonshire
TetworthHall.17.9.11.jpg
Tetworth Hall
Location
Grid reference: TL217528
Location: 52°9’36"N, 0°13’12"W
Data
Population: 45  (2001)
Postcode: SG19
Local Government
Council: Huntingdonshire

Tetworth is a small village in the very south of Huntingdonshire. It is close to Waresley, south of St Neots, and sits hard by the borders of both Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. The ancient parish is parted in twain by a corridor of Cambridgeshire territory, so that the southern part of this southernmost parish in Huntingdonshire is a large detached part of the county. It contains part of a farm and the parish church of Everton, Bedfordshire.

Tetworth is a hamlet dependent on Everton in neighbouring Bedfordshire, and ecclesiastically that has long been so.

History

Listed as Tethewurda in the 12th century and Tetteworth or Tettesworthe in the 13th century, the name Tetworth is believed to mean "Tetta's farmstead".[1]

A Roman road from Sandy to Godmanchester runs through Tetworth, with a footpath following most of its route.

Church

The Church, dealing with practicality over strict county boundaries, has long combined Everton and Tetworth within a single parish of Everton, or Everton-cum-Tetworth, whose the parish church stands in the detached part of the Tetworth parish.

The church, dedicated to St Mary, was mentioned in the Domesday Book but was rebuilt in the 12th century, with the majority of that building still surviving today. A west tower was added in the 14th century, and the chancel was rebuilt in the 15th century.[2]

John Berridge, friend of John Wesley, was vicar of the parish between 1755 and 1793.[2]

Tetworth Hall

Tetworth Hall stands on the edge of the Greensand Ridge overlooking the valley of the River Ivel at the southern end of the present parish. The house was built in 1710 for the MP John Pedley, and is a two-storey red brick mansion in the Queen Anne style.[3]

After the Pedley line died out in 1726, the house was bought by Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford before passing to the Lord Chancellor, Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke in 1740. In 1759 it was acquired by Stanhope Pedley, a relation of the original owners, who retained it until 1823 after which it passed to the Foley family.[3]

By 1895 it was owned by Charles Duncombe, 2nd Earl of Feversham who leased it to Augustus Scobell Orlebar. His son, Augustus Orlebar, was a distinguished RAF pilot.

During the Second World War it was requisitioned by the government, though its use during this period is not fully known.[3]

References