Place:Pidley cum Fenton, Huntingdonshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

Until 1965 Pidley cum Fenton was located in the County of Huntingdonshire. After mergers in 1965 and 1974 the county became part of Cambridgeshire. It was part of the St. Ives Rural District until 1974 and is now in the Huntingdonshire administrative district of Cambridgeshire. In the UK census of 2011 the parish had a population of 388.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Pidley is a small village north of St Ives. Together with Fenton it forms the parish of Pidley cum Fenton. The name of the village originally meant "Woodland clearing of a man called Pyda".

The village of Pidley has formed a single parish with that of neighbouring Fenton throughout its history. Together they were known as Pidele et Fenton in the 13th century, and Pidley has been variously listed as Pidel, Puddele, and Pydele during medieval times. The manor was held by Ely Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries (circa 1838) and passed to the Bishop of Ely. It was considered a chapelry of the nearby ancient parish of Somersham until it became a civil parish in the 19th century.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Pidley.

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to Huntingdonshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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 all the ancient parishes of Huntingdonshire and these can be purchased from the Society as pdfs.
• A History of the County of Huntingdon in 3 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. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each chapter is linked to the volume's content page. Volume 2 (published 1932) covers Hurstingstone and Toseland hundreds (index of parishes); Leightonstone and Norman Cross Hundreds (index of parishes) are found in Volume 3 (published 1936). Volume 1 is a part-volume describing the religious houses of the county.
• GENUKI has a page on Huntingdonshire 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.
• 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" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions.
• Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time