In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Thorney like this:
THORNEY, a small town and a parish in the district of Peterborough and county of Cambridge. The town stands on an insulated eminence, amid the quondam marshes of the Nen, adjacent to the Peterborough and Wisbeach railway, 7 miles ENE of Peterborough; was anciently called Ankeridge and Thornie,-the latter signifying "the island of Thorns;" rose around a monastery, founded in 662; was, within the last few years, almost entirely rebuilt; and has a post-office‡ under Peterborough, a r. ...
station with telegraph, a hotel, a church, a reading room and library, national schools, and horse fairs on 1 July and 21 Sept. The ancient monastery was soon ruined by the Danes; was restored or rebuilt in 972, as a Benedictine abbey, by Bishop Ethelwold; had attached to it an hospital for the poor; gave its abbots a right to a seat in the upper house of parliament; and was given, at the dissolution, to the Russells. The abbey church was rebuilt in 1128, and became parochial in 1638; but the present church includes little more than the nave of the ancient one, and has additions of 1840-1. The parish comprises 17,590 acres. Real property, £28,265. Pop., 2,219. Houses, 397. The property belongs to the Duke of Bedford. The living is a donative in the diocese of Ely. Value, £220. Patron, the Duke of Bedford. A temporary chapel of ease was recently built.
Thorney through time
Thorney is now part of Peterborough district. Click here for graphs and data of how Peterborough has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Thorney itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Thorney, in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/2206
Date accessed: 05th November 2024
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