Towns, Cities, Villages and Hamlets

Samuel Lewis's Topographical
Gazeetter 1831

BENWICK, a chapelry in the parish of DODDINGTON, northern division of the hundred of WITCHFORD, Isle of ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 8¼ miles (S. W.) from March, containing 514 inhabitants. The chapel is dedicated to St. James.

For the Family Historian details available records can be found on the Benwick page of GENUKI Cambridgeshire.

Domesday Book Entry

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There are no entries for Benwick in the Domesday Book.
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War Memorial

The war memorial and the men on it have been documented on the Genweb Cambridgeshire pages

BENWICK, formerly a hamlet of Doddington, is now a parish, 5 miles west from Wimblington station on the Cambridge and Wisbech section of the London and North Eastern railway, 8 north-west by road from Chatteris and 8 south-west from March, in the union and hundred of North Witchford, Isle of Ely petty sessional division and county court district of March, rural deanery of March, and in the archdeaconry of Wisbech and diocese of Ely.

The church of St. Mary was erected in 1854, at a cost of £2,500, the money being raised under "Gilbert's Act," and constituting an annual charge upon the living until the whole amount, with interest, is paid off: the church is a edifice in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a western tower with spire containing a clock and one bell: the church was partially restored and the shire rebuilt in 1902, at cost of £300: there are sittings for about 400 persons. The register dates from the year 1851.

There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels.

There is a cemetery here, 28 perches in extent; it is under the control of the Parish Council.

The land, which consists entirely of fen, is also distributed among many freeholders. The soil is fen; subsoil, clay and gault. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and roots. The area is 3,181 acres of land and 27 of water; the population in 1921 was 808.

[Extracts from Kelly's Directory - Cambridgeshire - 1929]