Patrick Comerford
As a child and teenager in the 1960s, I thought Eaton Square, near my grandmother’s house in Terenure, and Eaton Square in London, were both misspelled – we even joked about the misspelling being a proper ‘Eaton Mess.’
Eaton was also the name of a shop in Terenure, and recently became the clever name of a restaurant in the heart of the south Dublin suburban village.
Of course, both Eaton Squares take their names from Eaton Hall, the country house of the Duke of Westminster near Chester. But last week, after visiting St Neots in Cambridgeshire, I found myself in the twin villages of Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon, once rural villages in Bedfordshire, but now neighbouring suburban, residential areas of St Neots, close to the banks of the River Great Ouse and Riverside Park.
Both Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford were once part of Bedfordshire. But they were incorporated into St Neots in 1965 and were transferred to Huntingdonshire. Huntingdonshire, in turn, was abolished as a county in 1974, and since then Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford been part of Cambridgeshire.
Eaton Socon has a conservation area and the listed buildings include some thatched cottages.
Small settlements grew up on the west side of the River Great Ouse in Anglo-Saxon times. A small village near the water’s edge was called Ea-tun, meaning waterside-village, while a smaller settlement to the northwas known as Forda, later simply Ford.
In time, Ea-tun became Eaton, and as part of a soke or local administrative unit, it became Eaton Socon, while the village at the important ford to the north became Eaton Ford.
The monastic foundation at Eynesbury, with relics of Saint Neot attracted pilgrims and visitors, making the ford at Eaton an important river crossing, and slowly the name Eaton Ford came to be used.
The first bridge across the River Great Ouse at St Neots was probably built in the 11th or 12th century to bring traders and pilgrims into the market place established by the monks of St Neots Priory. The old bridge had 72 arches, was 704 ft long and 7 ft 6 in wide. A new town bridge with masonry piers was built in 1588.
The river formed the boundary between Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire, and both counties contributed to the costs and labour.
The town bridge was replaced again, probably in 1617. The River Ouse (Bedfordshire) Navigation Act in 1670 enabled improvements to the River Ouse so that the river was navigable as far as Bedford.
The bridge was widened in the 19th century and the old stone bridge survived well into the 20th century, until the present bridge was built in 1964.
Ulmar was the local landholder at Eaton at the time of the Norman Conquest. The manor of Eaton was allocated at first to Lisois de Moutiers, but by the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 it had been transferred to Eudo Dapifer, a steward in the royal household, who held Eaton Socon ‘with the Manors of Wyboston and Sudbury’.
William of Colmworth and a group of monks not affiliated to any particular order were given a site at Bushmead by Hugh de Beauchamp ca 1195. This became an Augustinian priory after 1215, but it never rivalled the prestige of St Neot’s Priory.
Hugh de Beauchamp built a castle in Eaton Socon ca 1140. The castle may have been demolished when Henry II succeeded in 1154, and the earth mound is known today as the Hillings.
In time, the area became known as Soka de Eton by 1247. It was known as Eton cum Soca in 1645, and it had become Eaton Socon in the 19th century.
Eaton Socon, often known as ‘Eaton Town’ or ‘Eaton’, was the main settlement in the Parish of Eaton Socon. The parish was once the largest in Bedfordshire and included many hamlets such as Wyboston, Duloe, Staploe, Bushmead, Basmead, Honeydon, Bergwary, Tythe, Goodwick, Eaton Ford, Cross Hall, Cross Hall Ford and other vanished hamlets.
In the days of stagecoach travel, Eaton Socon became a major stop on the journey from London to the North in the 18th century, with inns providing refreshments and overnight accommodation for travellers, and feed and rest facilities for horses.
The inns included the White Horse pub, dating from the 13th century, the Waggon and Horses and the Cock Inn.
By 1754, coaches were travelling from London as far as Edinburgh. At the height of stagecoach activity, 20 coaches were passing through Eaton Socon daily, collecting mail and passengers and changing horses.
In Charles Dickens’s novel Nicolas Nickleby, Squeers and some boys are making their way from London to Yorkshire by stagecoach, and stop at Eton Slocomb, evidently a pseudonym for Eaton Socon. The reference is noted on a blue plaque on the White Horse Public House in Eaton Socon.
The parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin stands on the green in the centre of Eaton Socon. Saint Mary’s was built in the 14th century and enlarged and completed in the 15th century. It was once famed for its poppy headed pew ends.
Saint Mary’s Church was substantially destroyed by a fire on 8 February 1930. Most of the timber and the six bells were destroyed, and the north wall collapsed the following afternoon. The tower was restored, the church was rebuilt, and a new altar was made from a slab of Derbyshire stone, weighing 600 kg.
The reconstruction was designed by the architect Albert Richardson, using local craftsmen. The chancel suffered least and its delicate perpendicular windows were repaired. The rebuilding included a rood screen, choir benches, parclose screens, roofing, and the organ case, all in Suffolk oak.
The stone carving includes many symbolical corbel groups and portraits. Among the faces are those of the Bishop of St Albans, the Archdeacon of Bedford, the Vicar of Eaton Socon, the churchwardens, the architect, the clerk of the works, and the builders’ foreman. After rebuilding, the church was rededicated in 1932.
The railways brought an end to the stagecoach trade. The Cock Inn stood to the north of Eaton Socon Green, between the church and the corner of Peppercorn Lane. It was a large, elegant building of brick with a clay-tiled roof, and double bay windows, and was a large well-known coaching inn on the Great North Road.
A large cookery book was produced by the proprietors in 1830, and it is said Princess Victoria, later Queen Victoria, visited the Cock Inn in the 1830s.
The Cock Inn was later renamed the Manor House. Most of it was demolished in the 1960s and redeveloped in the 1960s as Manor House Close, although Manor Cottage, once part of the house, remains on the corner of Peppercorn Lane, leading to the local cricket club.
A large house on Peppercorn Lane was the Eaton Socon Academy in the 19th century. Later it was a private house and then a glove factory, then offices and a music centre. It has since been converted into private housing.
Eaton Socon, on the west side of St Neots, and between the River Great Ouse and the A1, has a population of over 9,000. The Little End Industrial Estate and the Quora Industrial Estate in Eaton Socon have a range of light industrial units.
Eaton Ford was once a small hamlet and an extension of Eaton Socon. By the 1500s, it had several timber-framed houses, including some built with stone from Saint Neot’s Priory after its dissolution during the Tudor Reformation.
Ford House was one of those timber-framed houses, and today it is said to be the oldest building in Eaton Ford. At the time of the Enclosure Act in 1799, it was described as the Mansion House and it was owned by George James Gorham, who founded St Neots Bank.
Ford House was a boys’ boarding school in the 1850s and the 1860s, and the Addington family lived there from the 1890s to the 1920s. During their time, wooden panelling from Netherstead Priory was installed in the house.
The Barley Mow was built in 1830, and the public house was run by the Osborne family from the mid-1830s until 1915. They strongly influenced the development of Eaton Ford.
Eaton Ford expanded quickly under the London overspill programme in the 1960s, and was separated from Eaton Socon in 1963.
Much of the housing in Eaton Ford dates from the period of London overspill from the 1960s on. Today, Eaton Ford stands by the River Great Ouse and its facilities include the Riverside Park, St Neots Golf Club and the marina. It still has the feeling of a village, with its village green, village pub – the Barley Mow – and little or no industry.
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