In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Somersham like this:
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.
Somersham through time
Somersham is now part of Huntingdonshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how Huntingdonshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Somersham itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Somersham in Huntingdonshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/7388
Date accessed: 26th April 2024
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