Place:Weston Colville, Cambridgeshire, England

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

Weston Colville is a village in the South Cambridgeshire District, 10 miles southeast of Cambridge and 6 miles south of Newmarket, close to the border with Suffolk.

The parish of Weston Colville forms a long thin area of 3,235 acres stretching from just south of the A11 major road to the Suffolk border. It is wedged between the parishes of Carlton cum Willingham to the north and West Wratting to the south, and has a short border with both Great Wilbraham and Little Wilbraham to the northwest.

The site has been occupied since at least the 10th century, and there were 40 residents registered at the time of the Domesday Book (1086). By 1150 the manor was owned by the Stutville family. After the death of Anselm de Stutville in around 1198, the land passed to his sister Beatrice, who married William de Colville, lord of Castle Bytham in around 1200. From then until 1708 the manor remained in the hands of the Colville family, who added their name to the village which was hitherto known only as Weston (meaning "west town").

Between 1943 and 1947 the flat area southeast of the village was used as a bomber airfield during the Second World War known as RAF Wratting Common. The buildings there also housed 2000 foreign refugees at one time. The area returned to agricultural use after 1952.

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• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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