Place:Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Castle Camps is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire District of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Cambridge and near to the borders of both Suffolk and Essex and to the town of Haverhill. The population of the parish (including Camps End) was 684 at the 2011 Census.

Previously named Great Camps and Camps Green, the village is named after Castle Camps, the castle within the parish's boundaries.

History

The parish of Castle Camps lies in the very southeastern corner of Cambridgeshire. Roughly triangular in shape, it covers an area of 3,198 acres (1,294 ha). Its southwestern and southeastern borders separate it from Essex with the former following the line of the ancient woodland that separated the counties, and the latter probably representing the extent of the fence around the Castle. It also borders Shudy Camps to the north and it has a short border with Bartlow to the northwest.

The hamlet of Olmstead in the southeastern corner of the parish was sometimes listed as being part of Helions Bumpstead in Essex, and was part of its ecclesiastical parish, though part of Castle Camps for feudal purposes. It was included as part of Essex in the Risbridge poor-law union in the 19th century, and also sometimes listed as the Cambridgeshire part of Helions Bumpstead parish. The situation was only resolved in 1885 when it was transferred to Castle Camps for all civil purposes.

During the Second World War, Castle Camps, like may other parts of East Anglia, was home to a RAF station on the plateau to the southeast of the castle. Established in September 1939, RAF Castle Camps operated as a satellite for RAF Debden and RAF North Weald and numerous squadrons flew from the airfield until its closure in January 1946.

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS
• The Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Family History Society has transcribed the parish registers for many if not all the ancient parishes of Cambridgeshire and these can be purchased from the Society as separate pdfs.
• A History of the County of Cambridge. Seven volumes from British History Online (Victoria County Histories). This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the county to be found online. From the numbering it would appear that some parts of the county are yet to be published online, but the first two volumes for any county are of little interest to the genealogist. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each parish is listed in the volume's content page.

• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City (Cambridge) and University of Cambridge (published 1959)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; North Ely and South Ely, Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds (the cathedral city and liberty of Ely and the rural areas to the west and northwest, including the port of Wisbech) (published 2002)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 5, the Hundreds of Longstowe and Wetherley, west of Cambridge (published 1973)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 6, the three Hundreds of Chilford, Radfield and Whittlesford (in the south of the county, on the border with Essex) (published 1978)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 8, Armingford and Thriplow Hundreds (south and west of Cambridge) (published 1982)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds (the suburban and rural areas to the north and northwest of Cambridge) (published 1989)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (northeastern Cambridgeshire) (published 2002)

• GENUKI has a page on Cambridgeshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical or ancient parishes in the county. These give references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. Each parish page includes a map of the parish provided by Open Street Maps.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, section "Units and Statistics" for each parish and borough leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974.
• Map of Cambridgeshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of Cambridge divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time