0 a year in the early 19th century. (fn. 403) The tithes were commuted for £477 10s. in 1838 (fn. 404) and in the 1840s and 1850s the income of the living, including the glebe rent, was about £670. There was a drop in rents in the 1860s but in 1870 the gross income was still £564. (fn. 405) The glebe, reckoned as 133 a. in 1851, was augmented by an allotment of 4½ acres in Whittlewood (exchanged for land adjoining the rest of the estate in Wicken) under the Disafforesting Act of 1853. (fn. 406) In the 1870s the income of the living was stated as £435, including 135 a. of glebe, (fn. 407) which by the late 1890s had fallen sharply to £290. (fn. 408) It was only £250 the following decade (fn. 409) but recovered to between £380 and £400 in the 1920s and 1930s. (fn. 410) After the Second World War the rector augmented his stipend by running a taxi service and opening the rectory as a guest house. (fn. 411)
A new parsonage house, presumably on the site of earlier houses belonging to Wick Dive parish, was built by William Trimnell shortly after he was instituted to the living in 1702, entirely from materials from the demolished Manor House near the church. He is said to have laid out £1,000 on the work. (fn. 412) Similarly, as soon as Henry Jonas Barton began his ministry at Wicken in 1838 he spent about £560 on rebuilding the parsonage, before beginning his campaign of restoration on the church. (fn. 413) His successor, Edward Cadogan, added a new wing at cost of £300 in 1873, not long after his arrival in the parish. (fn. 414)
The parsonage house belonging to Wick Hamon was repaired and improved by the rector who was instituted to the two benefices in 1690. Bridges found it still standing thirty years later but described it as 'a very mean building'. (fn. 415) It is presumably the house which appears in a glebe terrier of 1780 in addition to the parsonage then occupied by the incumbent. (fn. 416)
Incumbents And Church Life.
A number of incumbents held other livings, including three who were also rectors of Great Brington. (fn. 417) At least two incumbents were related to the patron: Charles Hosier presented his nephew to the living in 1722 and Sir John Mordaunt his son in 1798. (fn. 418) Two rectors, Henry Jonas Barton and his successor, Edward Cadogan, were rural deans in the 19th century for an area that included Easton Neston, Paulerspury, Alderton, Grafton Regis, Potterspury, Furtho, Cosgrove, Passenham and Deanshanger as well as Wicken. (fn. 419)
The story and commemoration of the unification of the benefice was subtly altered over the three and a half centuries after 1587. Paul Hoskin, who became rector in 1934, suggested that the two parishes were only separated in 1218 and that there had been a long-running feud between the two churches. Under Hoskin, the feast in commemoration of the union became known as the Peace Feast, commemorating the end of the immemorial feud between the two churches.
The Parish Church Of Wick Dive.
The former parish church of Wick Dive (since 1587 that of the united parish of Wicken) is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist and consists of a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, west tower and porch. No medieval fabric appears to survive, although there is a late 12th-century square font-bowl with simple arcading. The present tower, which has a parapet and pinnacles, was erected by Robert Lord Spencer in 1617, at much the same time as he rebuilt the gatehouse of the Manor House and the park keeper's lodge, and (like both those buildings) bears his arms and the date of construction. It measures 16 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. 9 in. and is 76 ft high. (fn. 420) The belfry stage of the tower is in an accurate Early English style and is either remarkably academic for its date or, perhaps more likely, a careful Victorian rebuilding.
In 1753 the whole of the church, apart from the tower, was found to be dangerously unsafe and permission was granted for it to be taken down and rebuilt using the old materials. The chancel was to be shortened from about 28 ft. in length to 23 ft., with a bigger east window, b