Place:Covington, Huntingdonshire, England

Until 1965 Covington was located in the County of Huntingdonshire. After mergers in 1965 and 1974 the county became part of the Huntingdonshire District in the county of Cambridgeshire. Covington was a civil parish in Thrapston Rural District until 1935 when the rural district was abolished. Covington was then transferred to St Neots Rural District where it remained until 1974. Until 1935 Thrapston Rural District covered parts of both Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. This did not fit in with the definition of rural districts from the Local Government Act of 1894 and the county border had to be redrawn. The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography). "COVINGTON, a parish in the [registration] district of Thrapston and county of Huntingdon; at the boundary with Bed[fordshire] and Northampton[shire], 3½ miles NW of Kimbolton [railway] station, and 6½ E of Higham-Ferrars. It has a post office under St. Neots. Acres: 1,290. Real property: £1,315. Population: 188. Houses: 38. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value: £182. Patron: the Hon. G. W. Fitzwilliam. The church is good."

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Covington.

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to Huntingdonshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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 all the ancient parishes of Huntingdonshire and these can be purchased from the Society as pdfs.
• A History of the County of Huntingdon in 3 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. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each chapter is linked to the volume's content page. Volume 2 (published 1932) covers Hurstingstone and Toseland hundreds (index of parishes); Leightonstone and Norman Cross Hundreds (index of parishes) are found in Volume 3 (published 1936). Volume 1 is a part-volume describing the religious houses of the county.
• GENUKI has a page on Huntingdonshire 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.
• 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" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions.
• Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time