HARGRAVE is a small village, near the junction of the counties of Northampton, Hunts and Beds, 2½ miles south from Raunds station on the Kettering and Cambridge branch of the Midland railway, 5 east from Higham Ferrers, 4½ west from Kimbolton and 67 from London, in the Northern division of the county, hundred of Higham Ferrers, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Thrapston, rural deanery of Higham Ferrers (second portion), archdeaconry of Oakham and diocese of Peterborough.  The church of All Saints, restored in 1869, is a small but picturesque edifice of stone, dating from the 13^th century, and consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, north transept, south porch and a western tower, with broach spire, containing 4 bells; the tenor is mediaeval and dedicated to St. Anthony: the stained east window, a memorial to Mrs. Baker, was erected in 1884.  The register dates from the year 1572.  The living is a rectory, gross yearly value from 312 acres of glebe £60, with residence, in the gift of and held since 1865 by the Rev. Robert Sibley Baker B.A. of Magdalene College, Cambridge.  There is a Wesleyan chapel here.  The church land, awarded in 1804, produces £15 yearly for church purposes.  In Nov. 1893 a stone coffin of the Roman period was found here by some men while ploughing in a field belonging to Mr. J. R. Ackroyd; it was 7 feet long, 2 feet 4 inches broad, 12 feet deep and the weight was estimated to be about 2 tons;  inside the coffin, lying with the head to the east, was the skeleton of a man; Roman coins and other relics have been picked up on the same field.  The rector is lord of the manor, George Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam esq. J.P. of Milton House, near Peterborough, and John William Rawson-Ackroyd esq. Of Dean Grange, Kimbolton, Hunts, are the principal landowners.  The soil is Oxford clay; subsoil, chalky clay.  The chief crops are wheat, barley, beans and peas.  The area is 1,384 acres; rateable value, £1,508; and the population in 1891 was 236, whose chief support is derived from agriculture.

Parish Clerk, Thomas Cox

POST OFFICE – Thomas Newton Cox, sub-postmaster.

Letters arrive from St. Neots through Kimbolton about 8.10 a.m.; dispatched at 5.30 a.m. & 4.15 p.m.

There is also a delivery to callers only at 7 p.m.  No post on Sundays.  Raunds is the nearest money order office & telegraph office, Raunds railway station.

Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.

A School Board of 5 members was formed Nov. 12, 1875; the Rev. R. S. Baker B.A. chairman & clerk to the board; Thomas Cox, Hargrave, attendance & inquiry officer.

Board School, erected in 1857 by subscription, for 70 children; average attendance, 37; Miss M. L. Cox, mistress.