Place:Wilburton, Isle of Ely, England

Watchers
NameWilburton
Alt namesWilbertonesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 48
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates52.35°N 0.183°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 alsoSouth Witchford Hundred, Isle of Ely, Englandhundred in which it was located
Ely Rural, Isle of Ely, Englandrural district 1894-1974
East Cambridgeshire 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

Wilburton is a small village and civil parish with a population of 1,348 in the UK census of 2011. It is now in Cambridgeshire, England, but between 1889 and 1965 in the county of Isle of Ely. It is 6 miles southwest of Ely.

The parish area covers around 800 acres lying on the important medieval route from Earith to Stretham, and extending south to the River Great Ouse. As much of the land in the region is fenland, the village's position on the ridge between Stretham and Haddenham at the southern end of the Isle of Ely was important in its growth and success.

The village contains a number of old buildings, and was described in the 19th century as "very neat and contains some excellent houses". These include the Burystead (the former manor house, built c.1600), one of the few surviving half-timbered houses in the region, and the Victoria Place row of cottages. For the last few hundred years, the Pell family were the prominent local landowners, sponsoring the Ely and St Ives Railway in the late 19th century.

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  • Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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