Place:Hardwick, Cambridgeshire, England

Watchers
NameHardwick
Alt namesHarduicsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 47
Hardwickesource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates52.2133°N 0.119°E
Located inCambridgeshire, England
See alsoLongstow Hundred, Cambridgeshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Caxton and Arrington Rural, Cambridgeshire, Englandrural district 1894-1934
South Cambridgeshire Rural, Cambridgeshire, Englandrural district 1934-1974
South Cambridgeshire District, Cambridgeshire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
the text in this section has been condensed from an article in Wikipedia

Hardwick is a village and civil parish in the county of Cambridgeshire, England located about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of the city of Cambridge. The village lies immediately south of the A428 road between Cambridge and St. Neots. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the newly developed village of Cambourne. The village is nearly on the Prime Meridian. In the 2001 UK census, the population was 2,630 in 946 households, increasing to 2,670 in 1,017 households at the 2011 UK census.

History

Historically, the hamlet of Hardwick is hundreds of years old with the first recorded mention in 991 AD and an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086. Hardwick used to consist of just a few houses and farmland around St. Mary's Church, on what is now the southern edge of the village. There are two sites with original water pumps, one near the church and the other quite central just off Pump Lane. The village bakery was sited next to a row of houses just to the east of the pub at the end closest to the church, and the only remnant is the shell of the building which has become a garage.

Hardwick has expanded greatly since the 1960s, mainly due to an estate of hundreds of houses built on the orchard land to the north of the original hamlet, with the roads taking the names of the displaced trees (e.g. "Ellison", "Bramley", "Limes", "Pippin", "Quince", "Worcester", etc).

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  • Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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