When St. Neots was a 'Looked-Up-To Society

Few of the shoppers exiting the supermarket car park give Hall Place, one of the town’s most historic buildings, more than a glance. Originally a timber framed double cross wing house, possibly dating back to Tudor times. it is now ‘cased in brick from the local brickyards from the 18th or early 19th centuries’. Samuel Day (1817-93), Solicitor & Attorney, took up residence in 1837 and took as his partner nephew C.R. Wade-Gery who set up his office in ‘The Cedars’ building opposite. Fanny Gregory (‘Memories of old St Neots’ in the St. Neots Advertiser, 26th December 1930 & reprinted in a St. Neots History Society Newsletter in 2004) recalled that:- “Those earlier days were the times of a looked-up-to society in St Neots, of which the leader was Mrs Sam Day. In her time the Old Hall was the centre of all that was highest and best in the county. She was a splendid artist herself, unique in those days, and she collected all the leading lights in art around her. Her accomplishments and achievements were looked upon by the ordinary person as almost miraculous. Moreover, all the fetes, shows and treats of the neighbourhood were entertained on every occasion in their grounds, when she invited all the country people and received everyone in the truly grand manner which was so especially hers. Sam was more in the background, being quite content to be at the beck and call of ‘the wife’. In those days the then Lord Sandwich often came to the functions run by Mrs Sam, and later on by others. He always said we were like a jolly family party at St Neots, and he enjoyed coming. He asked a prominent townsman on one occasion what caused it, saying at the same time that that particularly pleasant camaraderie never seemed to invade the Huntingdon functions, and the answer was, “Well, my Lord, in Huntingdon there is only one lord, and here were are all lords.” How he laughed. He repeatedly invited St Neots people to the parties and festivities at Hinchingbrooke, saying one of his titles was Baron of St Neots, so he belonged to us in a way. What fun we had there when he gave concerts and dramatic performances. My husband was often asked to dine and sleep and take his ’cello. It seemed to be a difficult place to find the way about in at night in those badly-lighted times, and my husband, being unable to find his room one night, after opening several wrong doors, had to subside on a sofa somewhere, and tuck his ’cello away under it, where they were found in the morning by the servants” Volunteers are always appreciated at the museum in helping to bring to life townsfolk and their contributions to the town.