The rector of Oakington had a house by the church in 1198, probably on the site of the current vicarage. After Oakington church was appropriated (taken over) by Crowland Abbey (the main landowner in Oakington) in 1220, the abbey appointed vicars who were assigned the former rector’s house as their vicarage.
Most of the vicars between 1563 and 1809 did not live in the vicarage. Lewis Yellaton (vicar 1570–1610) lived in Girton. Many of his successors were fellows of Queens’ College Cambridge (the eventual purchaser of the Crowland manor estate after Crowland Abbey was dissolved in 1539) and lived in college instead. The vicarage was therefore left abandoned. and fell into decay. Around 1580 it was used as a barn, a smithy and an alehouse. It was rebuilt as a vicarage by Henry Morris, who was vicar 1748–1764 and, unusually for Oakington vicars at the time, did reside in Oakington. Although his immediate successors did not, it remained in reasonable repair and was lived in by vicars from 1809 onwards. Some further rebuilding work was carried out in the 19th century, and further improvements were made in 1922.
Sources include:
- ‘Oakington: Church’, in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds, ed. A P M Wright, C P Lewis( London, 1989), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol9/pp205-208 [accessed 20 September 2024].
- https://www.ourfamtree.org/records/rectors.php
- Oakington.indd (scambs.gov.uk)
If you have any information or photos of the Vicarage, please leave a comment below.
See also: St Andrew’s Church
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