Place:Wansford, Northamptonshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Wansford is a village and civil parish. Historically part of Northamptonshire, when County Councils were created in 1889 Wansford was made part of the Soke of Peterborough administrative county, which was nominally still part of Northamptonshire, but independent of Northamptonshire County Council. The Soke of Peterborough was merged with Huntingdonshire in 1965 to form the administrative county of Huntingdon and Peterborough, which was itself abolished in 1974 and absorbed into Cambridgeshire. Since 1998, Wansford has been a parish in the unitary authority of the City of Peterborough, although remains part of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire.

Wansford is a village just off the A1 road near Peterborough and eight miles south of Stamford in Lincolnshire.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Wansford, Cambridgeshire.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Wansford from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WANSFORD, a parish, with a village, in the district of Stamford and county of Northampton; on the river Nen, and on the Stamford and Essendine railway, 2 miles N of the junction with the Northampton and Peterborough railway, 8 miles W of Peterborough. It has a head post-office, two [railway] stations designated Wansford and Wansford-Road, and a bridge celebrated by Drunken Barnaby, originally thirteen-arched, but partly destroyed in 1795 and rebuilt in 1796. Acres: 469. Real property: £950. Population: 180. Houses: 31. The manor belongs to the Duke of Bedford. The living is a [perpetual] curacy, annexed to Thornhaugh. The church is ancient."

Research Tips

• If you are researching anyone whose lifetime preceded (or even mostly preceded) 1889, the places in which he or she lived are going to be in Northamptonshire rather than the Soke of Peterborough. The Soke of Peterborough was actually a section of Northamptonshire.
• Original historical documents relating to the Soke of Peterborough are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office in Peterborough.
• GENUKI does not provide webpages for the Soke of Peterborough and its provision for Northamptonshire is very limited.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages on Northamptonshire (including the Soke of Peterborough).
• A Vision of Britain through Time, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from 1889 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions.
• Map of Northamptonshire in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time shows the Soke of Peterborough (not labelled as such) in the top right hand corner.
• Map of Northamptonshire divisions (including the Soke of Peterborough) in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time