Place:Isleham, Cambridgeshire, England

Watchers
NameIsleham
Alt namesGislehamsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 48
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates52.342°N 0.409°E
Located inCambridgeshire, England
See alsoStaploe Hundred, Cambridgeshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Newmarket Rural, Cambridgeshire, Englandrural district 1894-1974
East Cambridgeshire District, Cambridgeshire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Isleham is a small village and civil parish located in the fens of southeast Cambridgeshire. The population of the parish in the 2011 UK census was 2,378. The western parish boundary is formed by the Crooked Ditch or Crooked Drain, the eastern boundary largely by the Lea Brook and the north by the River Lark. The village lies on the B1104 road from Prickwillow (on the edge of Ely) to Chippenham.

The parish church of Isleham is dedicated to St. Andrew. Other places of worship are the High Street Church and the Pound Lane Free Church which has made listings and photographs of the graveyard headstones available via an on-line library.

The Priory of St. Margaret of Antioch was founded in the village in 1090. It was always an alien priory run directly from France and, as such, was dissolved in 1414.

St Andrew's parish church is the burial site for important ancestors of the Peyton family, including Sir Henry Dashwood Peyton, 1st Baronet (1736–1789) and Sir Henry Peyton, 2nd Baronet (1779–1854). Many visitors who have Peyton ancestors visit the church throughout the year, and obtain rubbings of the famous brasses decorating the Peyton monuments.

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  • Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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