Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire

Historical Description

Swaffham Prior or Great Swaffham, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands 6 miles W of Newmarket, and has a station on the G.E. branch line from Cambridge to Fordham. It was once a market-town, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Cambridge. The parish contains also part of the ancient hamlet of Keach, was originally two parishes, St Mary and St Cyriac, and comprises 5563 acres of land and 24 of water; population, 1006. There is a parish council consisting of twelve members. Swaffham Prior House is a chief residence. The living is a double vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, £410 with residence. Patrons, alternately the Bishop of Ely and the Dean and Chapter. St Mary's Church was long a picturesque ruin, but has been partially restored. St Cyriac's Church is a plain building in a debased Gothic style. Both stand in one churchyard. There are a Congregational chapel and an endowed school. The hamlet of Eeach is about a mile N from the railway station, and is partly in Burwell parish. It has a school church, erected in 1860, and a Congregational 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 Swaffham Prior from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Swaffham-Prior (St. Cyriac))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Swaffham Prior 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.