eir land steward. Members of the Society met the tenants, attended church services, and took part in social functions, including cricket matches between the tenants of Wicken and Mentmore. From time to time the tenants were invited back to Bristol to see something of the work of the St. Monica Trust. (fn. 74) As the number of tenants fell over the years, along with the Society's acreage in the parish, and the village lost the unity it had once possessed as a community where everyone depended on the fortunes of a single estate, the style of management became less paternal, although in the 1990s the Society continued to make tours of Wicken and its other remaining properties.
The sale of the cottages and a decline in agricultural employment after the Second World War led to a gradual change in the character of the village, as the older houses were modernised and increasingly from the 1960s became the homes of professional and business people who worked elsewhere, principally Milton Keynes. Wicken proved particularly attractive for such people, since it was within easy reach of the new town but away from any main road and protected by planning policy against large-scale development. Small groups of council houses were built in the village from 1948 (fn. 75) and in the 1970s and 1980s a limited number of high-status private houses were added to the built-up area. During the same period the range of retail and commercial services-never extensive-declined further, although the former rectory was successfully converted into a Japanese restaurant and hotel. The school closed in 1962. (fn. 76)
In 1290 John son and heir of John, who was the son of John son of Alan, lord of Wick Hamon, was allowed to re-inclose his park at Wicken after it had fallen into decay during the time that his mother Isabel had held it in dower. (fn. 77) In 1404 Richard Woodville, then lord of Wick Hamon, made a grant of all the underwood in Wick Park to William Furtho and two others, who were to make a fence round the park at their expense. (fn. 78