Place:North Witchford Rural, Isle of Ely, England

Watchers
NameNorth Witchford Rural
TypeRural district
Coordinates52.372°N 0.183°E
Located inIsle of Ely, England     (1889 - 1965)
Also located inCambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, England     (1965 - 1974)
See alsoFenland District, Cambridgeshire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974

NOTE: In 1889 Cambridgeshire was separated into two sections:

The existence of two counties was to last until 1965 when they came back together as Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely. But in 1974 the area, under a new type of administration, reverted to the name Cambridgeshire. For more discussion of this situation, see Isle of Ely, England. In keeping with the policies of WeRelate, all the places within the Isle of Ely during its existence include "Isle of Ely" in their placenames instead of "Cambridgeshire".

A process is built in so that the places can be redirected to the Isle of Ely if they are originally referred to as Cambridgeshire.

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

North Witchford Rural District was located in the Isle of Ely, England from 1894 to 1965. It was named after the ancient North Witchford Hundred.

It was formed in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the former North Witchford rural sanitary district. From 1894 to 1965 it was part of the administrative county of the Isle of Ely, and then Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely from 1965 until 1974.

It was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and went on to form part of the Fenland District in the newly reorganized Cambridgeshire.

Image:Isle of Ely med 75pc.png

List of Parishes

Parish NameTypeDuration Notes
Benwick chapelry, civil parish 1894 - 1965
Doddington parish (ancient), civil parish 1894 - 1965
Manea chapelry, civil parish 1894 - 1965
Welches Dam extra parochial area, civil parish 1894 - 1965
Wimblington chapelry, civil parish 1894 - 1965

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  • Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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