Balsham, Cambridgeshire
Historical Description
Balsham, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands near Worsted Street, 3 miles NNE from Linton station on the G.E.R., and 10 SW of Cambridge. It has a post and money order office under Cambridge; telegraph office, Linton. The parish has an acreage of 4550, and includes part of the Gogmagog Hills; population, 894. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; gross value, £887 with residence. Patrons, the Governors of the Charterhouse, London. The church is a handsome building of flint, rubble, and brick in the Perpendicular style. There is also a Congregational chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Cambridgeshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Balsham Holy Trinity | |
| Hundred | Radfield | |
| Poor Law union | Linton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1558.
Churches
Church of England
The Holy Trinity (parish church)
The church of the Holy Trinity is a very handsome edifice of flint, rubble and white brick, in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of large chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 5 bells: the chancel retains 24 stalls of the 14th century; there is a handsome rood screen of the same date, and a fine brass to John Sleford, rector, Master of the Wardrobe to Edward III. and canon of Ripon and Wells, who rebuilt the church and erected the stalls, and died in 1401; the brass includes his effigy in cope, with figures of saints, under a fine canopy and has a marginal inscription; there is another and eimilar brass to Dr. John Blodwell, ob. 1462; a third brass effigy, of a man in armour, probably dates from about 1475: in the south aisle is a memorial window, erected in 1866, to the Rev. Edward Wollaston M.A. 33 years rector, his wife Elizabeth and their daughter Agnes Cornthwaite: the church was restored and a new organ-chamber built by public subscription in the year 1875, under the direction of Mr. William Butterfield, architect, at a cost of £1,641: there are 800 sittings.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
There is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1833, with sittings for 300 persons.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Balsham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Balsham (Holy Trinity))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cambridgeshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Balsham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cambridgeshire papers online:
- Cambridge Independent Press
- Cambridge Chronicle and Journal
- Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Cambridgeshire 1575 and 1619 is available online.