Place:Whittlesey, Isle of Ely, England

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

Whittlesey is an English market town east of Peterborough in the Fenland District of Cambridgeshire, England. Including the neighbouring villages of Coates, Eastrea, Pondersbridge and Turves (all located in the former parish of Whittlesey Rural (parish) - see below), it had a population of 16,058 at the 2011 UK census.

History and architecture

Before the draining of the fens, Whittlesey was an island of dry ground surrounded by the marshy fens. Excavation of a Bronze Age settlement has been carried out by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit of Cambridge University. (See Wikipedia for further details.)

In more recent times Whittlesey was linked to Peterborough in the west and March in the east by the Roman Fen Causeway, probably built in the 1st century AD.

Whittlesey was comprised of two ancient parishes of Whittlesey St. Mary and Whittlesey St. Andrew which were controlled by the abbeys in Thorney and Ely respectively until the Dissolution of the Monasteries (c. 1540). The two parishes were combined into Whittlesey St. Mary and St. Andrew for administrative purposes by the Whittlesey Improvement Act of 1849. (All three ancient parishes have been redirected here.) Despite the proximity of Peterborough, Whittlesey is in the Diocese of Ely.

Until it was drained in 1851, nearby Whittlesey Mere was a substantial lake surrounded by marsh. The town is still accessible by water, connected to the River Nene by King's Dyke, which forms part of the Nene/Ouse Navigation link.

Whittlesey was significant for its brickyards, around which the former hamlet of King's Dyke was based for much of the 20th century. Only one brickyard now remains, following the closure of the Saxon brickworks in 2011. The local clay soil was also used to make cob boundary walls during a period in which there was a brick tax. Some examples of these roofed walls still stand today and are claimed to be unique in Fenland. Clay walls predate the introduction of brick tax in other parts of the country, and some were thatched.

In 1832, Whittlesey, then known as Whittlesea, was ravaged by the second cholera epidemic, along with nearby Peterborough.

Churches

St Mary's Church is 15th century, but the majority of the building is later. The church has one of the largest buttressed spires in Cambridgeshire. It also contains a chapel which was restored in 1862 as a memorial to Sir Harry Smith (1787-1860).

St Andrew's Church is a mixture of the Perpendicular and Decorated styles of Gothic, and has records back to 1635.

Governance

Whittlesey Rural District existed in the Isle of Ely from 1894 to 1926. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Whittlesey rural sanitary district, and consisted of one civil parish: Whittlesey Rural (parish).

This parish and district entirely surrounded the Urban District of Whittlesey, which contained the parish of Whittlesey Urban (the subject of this article).

Whittlesey Rural District and Whittlesey Rural (parish) were both abolished in 1926 and became part of the Whittlesey Urban District and parish.

The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).

"WHITTLESEY, a town, two parishes, and a [registration] district, in Cambridge[shire]. The town stands on the Old Nen river, adjacent to the Peterborough, March, and Ely railway, 5½ miles E by S of Peterborough; was known, at Domesday, as Witesie; underwent much recent improvement; is a seat of petty-sessions, and a polling place; and has a post-office‡ under Peterborough, a [railway] station with telegraph, two banking offices, a hotel and several inns, a town hall, reading and newsrooms, a fine ancient church of different dates restored in 1862, another ancient church chiefly decorated English, five dissenting chapels, two endowed schools with £16 and £20 a year, a workhouse, town lands [of assessed value]: £309, general charities £169, a weekly market on Friday, and fairs on 25 January, 13 June, and 26 Oct. Population in 1861: 4,496. Houses: 1,087.

"The parishes are St. Mary and St. Andrew; they have long lost their mutual boundaries, so as to be now intermixed; and they include the hamlet and chapelry of Coates, and the hamlet of Eastrea. Acres: 25,131. Real property: £57,136. Population in 1851: 7,687; in 1861: 6,966. Houses: 1,592.

"The manor belongs to J. W. Childers, Esq. Traces of a Roman road are at Eldernell; and several antiquities, including a massive gold ring, have been found there. The livings of St. Mary and St. Andrew are vicarages in the diocese of Ely. Value of St. [Mary]: £222; of St. [Andrew]: £490. Patron of St. [Mary]: J. W. Childers, Esq.; of St. [Andrew]: the Lord Chancellor. The living of Coates was formerly a [perpetual] curacy, but is now a rectory; and it has been separately noticed. A small new church is at Pondersbridge; and Wesleyan chapels are at Coates and Eastrea."

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