Towns, Cities, Villages and Hamlets

Samuel Lewis's Topographical
Gazeetter 1831

CASTLE-CAMPS, a parish in the hundred of CHILFORD, county of CAMBRIDGE, 5¾ miles (S. E. by E.) from Linton, containing 618 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Ely, rated in the king's books at £16. 4. 2., and in the patronage of the Governors of the Charter-house, London. The church is dedicated to All Saints. At this place are the ruins of a magnificent castle, formerly the seat of the Veres, earls of Oxford, one of whom received it by grant from Henry I., as lord high chamberlain of England and it appears that they likewise held the manors of Tingrey and Weelfelmeston by sergeantry of chamberlainship to the queens of England at the coronation of their kings: the site is now occupied by a farm-house, but the moat and some slight vestiges are still visible.

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

War Memorial

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

Domesday Book Entry
Castle and Shudy Camps merge for the Domesday Book as CAMPS

CASTLE CAMPS is a large and straggling parish, 3 miles south-east from Bartlow station on the Cambridge and Melford branch of the London and North Eastern railway, 5 south-east from Linton, in the hundred of Chilford, union and petty sessional division of Linton, county court district of Cambridge, rural deanery of Camps and archdeaconry and diocese of Ely.

The church of All Saints is an edifice of flint and rubble, with stone dressings, in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing a very fine peal of 5 bells: in the church is a marble monument to Sir James Reynolds kt. appointed a Baron of the Exchequer in 1740 and knighted 23 May, 1745; he died 20 May, 1747: the old tower fell down in 1850 and was rebuilt in 1851 in the Decorated style: the porch was rebuilt in 1855 and the chancel and nave restored in 1883: the church was restored during the period 1876-89: the roof of the nave was reconstructed in 1915: there are 246 sittings, of which two-thirds are free. The register dates from the year 1565.

There is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1856, with sittings for 350 persons..

This and the neighbouring parish of Shudy Camps are said to have derived their names from ancient encampments in these parishes. Here was once a castle of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford, and on the site which adjoins the church there is now a farmhouse, surrounded by deep moat. The Governors of Charterhouse, London are lords of the manor. The principal landowners are Messrs. Christopher Blewitt, John Perry Brown, William Kiddy and William Tilbrook. The soil is clay; sub-soil, chalk and clay. The chief crops are wheat, oat and barley. The area is 3,184 acres; the population in 1921 was 551 in the civil and 530 in the ecclesiastical parish. By a Provisional Order which came into operation March 25th, 1885, all that portion of Helions Bumpstead (Essex) parish in Cambridgeshira was amalgamated with this parish for civil purposes.

Half a mile west of the church is CAMPS END, a hamlet of this parish. CAMPS GREEN and OLMSTEAD GREEN are also places in the parish.

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