RECORDS OF THE PARISH OF ST NICHOLAS ARRINGTON

Ecclesiastical parish records deposited at County Record Office Cambridge were listed according to a scheme of numbered classes, not all of which are present for every parish. Additional records have been added to each class as they have been deposited, with the result that some series are broken and it may be necessary to look through the entire class to identify a full series.

Listed by J M Farrar, June 1971; introduction supplied, May 2003.

The records were deposited by the Vicar in 1971.

Arrington is an ancient parish in the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Ely.

The living is a vicarage, the rectory having been appropriated to the Priory of Ickleton in the 13th century. The Abbey of St Martin, Sees, France, and the Priory of Swavesey, and in succession to the latter, the Priory of St Anne, Coventry, also had interests in the tithes of the parish. After the Dissolution the impropriate rectory and the advowson were granted to King's Hall, later Trinity College, Cambridge. The College presented vicars until 1926, when the patronage was ceded to the Ely Diocesan Board of Patronage. The living was poor, and from the 17th century was often served by sequestrators, who in turn often appointed curates, who also served other cures locally. From the later 19th century, Arrington was held with Wimpole, the incumbent usually residing at Wimpole, and more recently the living was held with those of Wimpole and Orwell, and served from Orwell. For details, see the Victoria County History, vol 5 (1973), p145. It now forms part of the Orwell Group of Churches (united benefice), together with the parishes of Barrington, Croydon with Clopton, Orwell and Wimpole.

In 1836, the parish was incorporated (for poor law and related purposes) into the Caxton Poor Law Union. The civil (non-ecclesiastical) affairs of the parish have been separately governed, by a Parish Council, from 1894.