Place:East Hatley, Cambridgeshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of East Hatley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HATLEY (East), a parish in Caxton [registration] district, Cambridge[shire]; adjacent to [Bedfordshire], 2½ miles SE of Gamlingay [railway] station, and 7½ NNW of Royston. Post town, Potton, under St. Neots. Acres: 1,176. Rated property: £653. Population: 139. Houses: 27. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged formerly to the Castell family; and belongs now to Downing College, Cambridge. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value: £175. Patron: Downing College, Cambridge. The church contains monuments of the Castells, and was recently in disrepair."

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

East Hatley is a row of houses along an unnumbered road. It was formerly known as Castell Hatley. In 1929, the hamlet was owned by the Master and Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge. Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet (1624-1684), after whom Downing Street is named, owned land in East Hatley (his grandson, Sir George Downing, 3rd Baronet (1685-1749), founded Downing College in the University of Cambridge).

Historically, East Hatley housed local farm labourers. Now, few agricultural workers live there and it has been described as a 'small, middle-class commuter settlement'. The houses are mainly privately owned but there are three council-owned bungalows. There is little interaction between East Hatley and Hatley St George.

Around one-third of the parish is occupied by Hatley Park, an area of private landscaped parkland south of the road, formerly owned by Sir John Astor MBE (1818-2000).

In 1957 East Hatley lost its civil parish status and was merged with Hatley St. George as Hatley. Although Hatley St. George and East Hatley are about 0.5 miles apart, they were in different hundreds.

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• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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