Place:Great Chishill, Cambridgeshire, England

Watchers
NameGreat Chishill
Alt namesGreat Chishallsource: name when in Essex
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates52.033°N 0.067°W
Located inCambridgeshire, England     (1895 - )
Also located inEssex, England     ( - 1895)
See alsoUttlesford Hundred, Essex, Englandhundred in which it was located
Royston Rural, Cambridgeshire, Englandrural district in which it was located 1894-1895
Melbourn Rural, Cambridgeshire, Englandrural district in which it was located 1895-1934
South Cambridgeshire Rural, Cambridgeshire, Englandrural district 1934-1974
South Cambridgeshire District, Cambridgeshire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"CHISHALL (Great), a parish in the [registration] district of Royston and county of Essex; on the verge of the county, 5 miles SE of Royston railway station, and 8 W by N of Saffron-Walden. Post town, Elmdon, under Saffron-Walden. Acres: 1,410. Real property: £2,571. Pop.: 473. Houses: 105. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value: £173. Patron: the Rev. R. Wilkes. The church is good."
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Great Chishill is a village which now forms part of the civil parish of Great and Little Chishill in the south of the county of Cambridgeshire. (This merger probably occurred after 1974.) The church is in the Perpendicular style and is dedicated to Swithun. The west tower was entirely rebuilt in 1895, and a ringing floor (for bells) added in 2000. The organ case is "pretty mid 18th century woodwork."

The highest point of Cambridgeshire, at 146 metres (479 ft) above sea level, is about 800 metres (2,625 ft) east of the church. The highest point of Essex, Chrishall Common and the triple point of Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire lie close to each other and about 2 kilometres (1 mi) south of Great Chishill.

Until 1895, Great Chishill was in Essex but then the boundary was changed and it became Cambridgeshire, however the church is still in the Diocese of Chelmsford. When in Essex the parish was also known as Great Chishall.

Probably because of it being in Royston Registration District, Great Chishill was initially placed in Royston Rural District in Hertfordshire. The rural district had only one other parish, Royston itself, which was shortly made an urban district.

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.
  • 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
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Great Chishill. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.