Place:Tydd St. Giles, Isle of Ely, England

Watchers
NameTydd St. Giles
Alt namesTydd-St. Gilessource: hyphenated
Foul Anchorsource: hamlet in parish
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates52.7266°N 0.1057°E
Located inIsle of Ely, England     (1889 - 1965)
Also located inCambridgeshire, England     ( - 1889)
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, England     (1965 - 1974)
Cambridgeshire, England     (1974 - )
See alsoWisbech Hundred, Isle of Ely, Englandhundred in which it was located
Wisbech Rural, Isle of Ely, Englandrural district 1894-1974
Fenland 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

Tydd St. Giles is a village and civil parish in the Fenland District of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the northernmost village in Cambridgeshire (bordering Lincolnshire), on the same latitude as Midlands towns such as Loughborough, Leicestershire and Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Tydd St. Giles was founded in the late 11th century with the building of the church of St. Giles in 1084 on a natural rise in the land of the Fens. The church was built of Barnack stone, known to be the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough.

The village is completely low-lying, with an average altitude of 0 metres and is roughly square shaped (formed by the four main roads). The eastern side of the village is dominated by the Norman church. The population of the civil parish at the UK census of 2011 was 1,101.

The civil parish of Tydd St. Giles also includes the hamlets of Foul Anchor, and part of Tydd Gote which lies partly in Tydd St. Giles and partly in Tydd St. Mary in Lincolnshire (and entirely redirected to the latter). The village has no direct "A" road access, but is joined to the A1101 road by the B1165 road. Tydd St. Giles is in the (old) Wisbech postal district, and is the northernmost settlement in Cambridgeshire. It is also the northernmost, and last, parish in the Diocese of Ely. This is enhanced by the fact that the traditional county and diocesan bound is "Eau Dyke", to the north of the village.

Eau Dyke is the only natural watercourse in the village, as it follows the course of the old Cat River. Across the southern boundary of the village runs a part of the "North Level Main Drain". The drain is a vital part to the draining and continuing existence of the Fens. The drain then joins the River Nene at Foul Anchor, after passing through a pumping station, that brings the water up to the level of the river.

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 Tydd St. Giles. 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.