Place:Chesterton (near Cambridge), Cambridgeshire, England

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

Chesterton is now a suburb in the northeast corner of Cambridge, England, 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) north of Cambridge station, on the north bank of the River Cam.

It is also the name of two electoral wards (West Chesterton and East Chesterton) in the city. The total population of both wards at the 2011 UK Census was 18,134. These are roughly the same as the area normally called Chesterton: specifically the land north of the River Cam, east of Castle Hill and south of the Arbury and King's Hedges estates.

A local board of health (urban sanitary district) was formed for Chesterton in 1880, becoming Chesterton Urban District under the Local Government Act 1894. This was abolished in 1912, with the urban area becoming part of the municipal borough of Cambridge, and the larger but less populous rural part forming part of the Milton parish.

As will be seen from the excerpt from Wilson's Gazetteer below, Chesterton was also the name of a ancient hundred of Cambridgeshire and a registration district covering the years 1837-1935, as well as the local rural district.

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).

"CHESTERTON, a village, a parish, a [registration] district, and a hundred in Cambridgeshire. The village stands on the river Cam, adjacent to the Eastern Counties railway, 1 mile NNE of Cambridge; includes numerous new houses, inhabited by persons engaged in business in Cambridge; and has a post office under Cambridge. The parish comprises 2,729 acres; and contains Cambridge county jail, a workhouse, and remains of Cambridge castle, a seat of the priors of Barnwell, and the Roman camp of Arbury. Real property: £10,280. Population: 2,986. Houses: 644.

"The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged to the priory of Barnwell. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value: £206. Patron: Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is decorated English. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, three public schools, a general cemetery, and charities £81."

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• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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