Place:Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, England

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

Fulbourn is a village in Cambridgeshire, England with evidence of settlement dating back to Neolithic times.

The village was probably established under its current name by 1200 at the latest. The waterfowl-frequented stream after which it was named lies in the east, close to the division between arable and fenland.

Fulbourn lies about five miles (8 km) southeast of the centre of Cambridge, separated from the outer city boundary by farmland and the grounds of Fulbourn Hospital. The village itself is fairly compact and roughly in the centre of the administrative parish. North and east of the village the land is flat, drained fen; to the south and southwest the Gog Magog Hills rise to over 200 feet (61 m). Outside the residential area the land is open farmland, with relatively few trees. There is a wooded area, including a nature reserve (Fulbourn Fen) to the east in the Manor grounds (see below). The village is set within the Cambridge Green Belt. The traditional parish boundaries follow the line of a Roman road and the Icknield Way to the southwest and southeast, Fleam Dyke – an ancient defensive earthwork – to the east, and the tributaries of Quy Water that drain to the River Cam.

Fleam Dyke bears the name of the Hundred of Cambridgeshire called Flendish that was known in the time of the Domesday Book by its Saxon name "Flamingdike", pointing to the influence of Flemish immigration into the region.

The parish extends some five miles (8 km) north to south and four miles (6.2 km) east to west. Its population in the UK census of 2011 was 4,673.

In Norman times, Fulbourn was recognised as having five manors: Zouches Manor, Manners Manor, Colvilles Manor, Shardelowes Manor and Fulbourn Manor. Only the last remains today.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Fulbourn.

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). It covers the churches of the parish, a topic omitted by Wikipedia.

"FULBOURN, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in Chesterton [registration] district, Cambridge[shire]. The village stands under Gogmagog hill, adjacent to the Cambridge and Newmarket railway, 5 miles ESE of Cambridge; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Cambridge.

"The parish comprises 5,221 acres. Real property: £7,550. Population: 1,548. Houses: 298. The property is much subdivided. Fulbourn House is the seat of the Townleys. There were formerly two parishes: [Fulbourn] All Saints and [Fulbourn] St. Vigor's; and the two livings remain distinct. All Saints is a vicarage, and St. Vigor's a rectory, in the diocese of Ely. Value of the former: £253; of the latter: £442. Patron of the former: the Bishop of Peterborough; of the latter: St. John's College, Cambridge. All Saints Church was taken down in 1776. St. Vigor's church is later English, and was about to be restored in 1869. There are chapels for Independents and Baptists, the county lunatic asylum, erected at a cost of about £40, 000,and containing accommodation for 250 inmates, a national school, an endowed school with £35, and other charities with £273."

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