Melbourn, Cambridgeshire

Historical Description

Melbourn, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands 1 mile S of Meldreth and Melbourn station on the Hitchin and Cambridge line of the G.N.R., 2½ miles N of Icknield Street and the boundaries with Herts and Essex, 3 NE of Royston, and 10 S by W of Cambridge; is a large place and a seat of petty sessions, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Royston and a police station. The parish comprises 4725 acres; population of the civil parish, 1649; of the ecclesiastical, 1507. The manors belong to the Hitch family and the Dean and Chapter of Ely. The Bury is a chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, £225 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Ely. The church is a building of flint in the Perpendicular and Decorated styles, comprises nave, aisles, S transept, chancel, S porch, and an embattled western tower, and has a memorial window to the Hitch family; it was restored in 1884 at a cost of £2200. There is a Congregational chapel which was built in 1865 at a cost of £2300, is in the Italian-Gothic style, of various coloured bricks, and has a front wheel window and two flanking towers. There is also a Baptist chapel.

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 Melbourn from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Melbourne (All Saints))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Melbourn 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.