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One hundred years ago, Steeple Gidding was a stable
community. At the head a benevolent landlord; five tenanted farms
with substantial farming families in them, who in turn employed
men and women in considerable numbers. There was a resident Rector
in a 'modern' house, and a new school.
The estate had for many years been owned by Ramsey
Abbey, from before the Norman Conquest until the dissolution of
the monasteries by Henry VIII, when the first private owners since
the 900s, the Boton family who had been the Abbey tenants, took
over the freehold. After them came the Cottons, and later the Heathcotes.
In its heyday it boasted a great house in the field below the church.
Although for a while a senior member of the Cotton family lived
in Steeple Gidding, the estate was always a satellite of the main
seat at Conington, and the house fell into disuse and decay.
In the 19th century the Heathcotes breathed new life
into the community. The outlying farms were all built and in the
second half of the century they built a new Rectory, a new school
and a row of substantial cottages, the old village along Church
Lane having disappeared by then. They also provided more than half
the sum needed to save the church tower. The Heathcote family had
other estates in East Anglia and London, and were prime movers in
the draining of Whittlesey Mere. John Heathcote was also a well
known artist, painting local landscapes, windmills and churches.
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