Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SOMERSHAM

SOMERSHAM, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in St. Ives district, Hunts. The village stands adjacent to the Cambridge and Wisbeach railway, 5 miles NNE of St. Ives; was once a market-town, and also a resort of visitors to a chalybeate spa; consists chiefly of one street about a mile long, crossed by a shorter one; and has a r. station with telegraph, a post-office‡ under St. Ives, Hunts, and a fair on the Friday before 22 Nov. The parish comprises 4,121 acres. Real property, £8,807. Pop., 1,621. Houses, 355. The property is subdivided. The manor was given, in 991, by Brithnoth the Saxon, to Ely abbey; passed to the bishops of Ely, the queen of Charles I., Col. Wanton, the Hammonds, the Montagues, and the Burtons; and belongs now to J. G. Elgood, Esq. A palace of the bishops stood a short distance S of the church, but has disappeared. Roman coins have been found. The living is a rectory, united with Colne and Pidley, and annexed to the Cambridge regius professorship of divinity, in the diocese of Ely. Value, £1,770.* The church is partly early English. There are two dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £33 a year, and charities, £57.—The sub-district contains 5 parishes. Acres, 15,424. Pop., 4,480. Houses, 1,000.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Somersham AP/CP       Somersham SubD
Place: Somersham

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