Downham in the Isle, Cambridgeshire

Historical Description

Downham in the Isle, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire, on the G.E.R., with a station called Black Bank, 2½ miles N by W from Ely. There is a post and money order office under Ely; telegraph office, Ely. Acreage, 10,154; population, 1878. The manor formerly belonged to the see of Ely, but now belongs to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and was once the principal residence of the bishops. The palace was last occupied by Bishop Wren, and was suffered to decay during the Commonwealth, but some remains of it exist, and a portion of the building is used as a farmhouse. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; value, £1195. Patron, the Bishop of Ely. The church, a. building of rubble in the Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular styles, was restored in 1890. There are Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

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 Downham in the Isle from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Downham (St. Leonard))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cambridgeshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Downham in the Isle 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.