Overton Waterville, Huntingdonshire
Historical Description
Overton Waterville (called also Orion Waterville and Orton Cherry or Cherry Orton), a village and a parish in Hunts, on the borders of Northamptonshire, a quarter of a mile S from Overton station on the Peterborough and Northampton section of the L. & N.W.R., and 3 miles W from Peterborough. There is a post office under Peterborough; money order and telegraph office, Woodstone. Acreage of parish, 1400; population, 285. The manor belongs to Pembroke College, Cambridge. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; net value, £215 with residence, in the gift of Pembroke College, Cambridge. The church is an ancient building of stone and rubble chiefly in the Early Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and a massive embattled western tower, the lower portion of which is Early English and the upper portion Perpendicular. It has a beautifully carved oaken pulpit and a brass of 1408. There are a Primitive Methodist chapel, about 27 acres of town and church lands, and some small charities.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Huntingdonshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Orton-Waterville St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Norman-Cross | |
| Poor Law union | Peterborough |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1538.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary the Virgin (parish church)
The church of St. Mary the Virgin is a building of stone and rubble, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with crocketed pinnacles containing 4 bells: the edifice is chiefly in the Early Decorated style, the arches and much of the window tracery being especially fine: the chancel is largely debased, but it has a fine low side window, and near it a semicircular recess with stone seat: the porch and lower stages of the tower, which is very massive, are Early English, the upper stage Perpendicular: at the east end of each aisle is a piscina and brackets: the beams of the nave roof bear the dates 1753 and 1832: the font consists of an octagonal basin on a cluster of five shafts and the pulpit is a magnificent piece of oak carving of the 16th century in the Renaissance style, with richly wrought panels, exhibiting figures and foliage in high relief: in the north aisle is a brass inscribed to John de Herlyngton, ob. 1408: there are 230 sittings.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel
There is a Primitive Methodist chapel.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Overton Waterville from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Orton-Waterville, or Overton (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Huntindonshire is available to browse.