, whose chief asset in the 19th century was the extensive slate-quarrying business which dominated the local economy. They appear to have regarded Wicken as a convenient second country estate, only 50 miles from London in excellent hunting country (three generations of the family were masters of the Grafton Hunt), with more congenial neighbours and certainly more amenable tenants than the small farmers and quarrymen of North Wales, amongst whom the family were deeply unpopular. (fn. 66)
There was litle new building in either the 19th century or the first half of the 20th in Wicken, which remained a close community almost entirely owned by a single estate. Sir John Mordaunt provided a schoolroom in 1839, which was replaced by a larger building in 1878, the gift of the 1st Lord Penrhyn, who later met the entire cost of restoring the church. (fn. 67) The 2nd Lord Penrhyn enlarged the mansion in 1913 and provided the village with a piped water supply, but otherwise the Douglas-Pennants did not do much towards modernising, replacing or increasing the housing stock on the estate, or altering the arrangement of the farms. (fn. 68)
The Modern Parish.
The purchase of the Wicken Park Estate by the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol in 1944, including virtually the whole of the parish of Wicken apart from the glebe (which the Society bought six years later), as well as Dovehouse Farm in Deanshanger and Limes End in Leckhampstead, (fn. 69) marked the beginning of change in the community. The mansion was let to a private school, although the buildings were not greatly altered. (fn. 70) In the north of the parish, Wicken Wood, most of which was cleared during the Second World War, was let to the Forestry Commission, whilst the smaller acreage near Wicken Park was retained as amenity woodland.
The cottages in the village were progressively sold (over 60 had been disposed of by 1979) and the farms gradually consolidated. The 10 holdings totalling 2,306 acres in 1944 had been amalgamated into five principal tenancies (3,075