broadcast by the B.B.C. (fn. 390) In 1619 the church of Wick Hamon was taken down and thereafter that of Wick Dive served the whole of the combined parish. (fn. 391)
The advowson of the united living was retained by the Spencers throughout their period of ownership at Wicken, except for a few years after 1696 when Anne countess of Sunderland granted the next presentation to the incumbent, William Trimnell, who assigned the right to Charles Hosier shortly after his purchase of the Wicken Park estate in 1716. (fn. 392) It then remained the property of the estate until 1944, when it was acquired by the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol, (fn. 393) who remained patrons at the time of writing. (fn. 394) In 1794, 1798 and 1806, during the period in which Wicken was settled on her for life, Mrs. Prowse presented to the living, but only with the consent of Sir John Mordaunt, the heir apparent to the estate. (fn. 395)
Income and Property.
The rectory of Wick Dive was valued at £4 6s. 8d. in both 1254 and 1291, on the latter occasion less 26s. 8d. belonging to Osney abbey, (fn. 396) to whom Robert d'Oyley's gift was confirmed in 1267. (fn. 397) In 1535 the living was valued at £10 3s. 5d., less 10s. 7d. due to the archdeacon of Northampton for synodals and procurations. (fn. 398) Wick Hamon, as a chapel, was not included in the taxation of 1254; the rectory was valued at 108s. 11d. in 1535. (fn. 399)
The unified living was certified to be worth £100 a year in 1655. (fn. 400) When the parish was inclosed in 1757 Thomas Prowse, the owner of the Wicken Park estate, agreed with the rector and the bishop that the glebe should be consolidated into a holding of 126 a. and that he should pay a composition of £130 in lieu of tithes previously due from his estate. (fn. 401) In 1780, in addition to the new inclosures and the composition, the living included the parsonage, a house and two cottages let to tenants, a piece of meadow, and the old burial ground belonging to Wick Hamon church. (fn. 402) The glebe was let for about £80 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 Brin