Place:Elm, Isle of Ely, England

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

Elm is a village and civil parish in the Fenland District of Cambridgeshire, England. At its northeast the parish is at the county boundary with Norfolk, and at its northwest is the market town of Wisbech. The northern part of Elm village, at Elm Low Road, acts as a suburb of Wisbech. The civil parish had a resident population of 3,962, as recorded at the 2011 UK census. The population includes the hamlets of Coldham, Collett's Bridge, Friday Bridge and Ring's End.

Situated in the Fens, much of the parish would have originally been undrained salt marsh and salt lagoon, with any higher areas, such as that around Wisbech, forming fen-islands. There is archaeological evidence of salt processing in the Elm area.

The Great Hey or High Fen was common to the vills of Elm, Leverington, Newton on the Isle, Wisbech, Outwell, Upwell and Tydd St. Giles. Drainage and falling sea levels may have prompted the settlement of Elm by the medieval period. In the 13th Century the parish was prosperous enough to fund the building of a significant church.

However, the lower lying parts of the parish were probably not fully drained and reclaimed until the period between the 17th and 19th centuries. Later satellite settlements formed to the south of the parish at Friday Bridge and at Coldham, alongside a stream, known as "The Leam", which once flowed from March to Wisbech and allowed for better drainage.

The former Wisbech Canal connected the River Nene at Wisbech to a junction with the Well Creek and the Old River Nene at Outwell, and passed along the northern edge of Elm. The canal was abandoned, and finally filled in during the 1970s. The Wisbech and Upwell Tramway ran alongside the canal with a stop known as Elmbridge just over the border in Norfolk near to a bridge that linked to Elm. The tramway was closed to passengers from 1927 and discontinued as a line in 1966.

Besides allotments and market-gardening, a number of apple, pear, and plum orchards have been planted on the better drained soils close to the village centre in the north of the parish, while the lower laying peat soils further out are cultivated as high grade arable land. The orchards used to attract fruit pickers from London on working holidays.

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• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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