Towns, Cities, Villages and Hamlets

Samuel Lewis's Topographical
Gazeetter 1831

CHATTERIS, a parish in the northern division of the hundred of WITCHFORD, Isle of ELY, county of CAMBRIDGE, 8¾ miles (E. by N.) from Ramsey, containing 3283 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely, rated in the king's books at £10, and in the patronage of the Rev. Dr. Chatfield. The church is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. There are places of worship for Particular Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. The river Ouse forms a boundary of the parish. A Benedictine nunnery was founded and endowed, about the year 980, by Alfwen, wife of Earl Ethelstan, by the counsel of her brother Ednod, first abbot of Ramsey, who was afterwards raised to the see of Dorchester, and murdered by the Danes in 1016 : its revenue, at the dissolution, was estimated at £112.3.6. Chatteris is a franchise under the Bishop of Ely; who holds a court leet for appointing officers, in a house called the guildhall, given to the parish, with other premises and lands, producing together nearly £70 per annum, which is distributed amongst infirm old men and widows. There is a National school, supported by subscription, wherein from two to three hundred children of both sexes are instructed. At Hunny farm are the subterraneous remains of a chapel, supposed to have contained the bones of St. Huna. In 1757, on opening a tumulus near Somersham ferry, several human skeletons, military weapons, an urn, and a glass vase were found.

Domesday Book Entry

War Memorial

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

CHATTERIS in Domesday Book written "Cetriz" and "Cateriz", by some old authors "Chateriz" - is a parish and market town with a station on the Wisbech and St. Ives branch of the Great Eastern railway, 71 miles from London by road and 83 by railway, 19 south from Wisbech, 25-and-a-half north-by-west from Cambridge, 10-and-three-quarters north-by-east from St. Ives and 12 north-west from the city of Ely by road, but 26-and-a-half by railway, in the Northern division of the county, hundred and union of North Witchford, in the Isle of Ely, petty sessional sub-division of Chatteris and county court district of March, and in the peculiar archidiaconal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely.

Under the provisions of the "Local Government Act, 1894" (56 and 57 Vict. c. 73), the town is now governed by an Urban District Council, having been from 1873 under the control of a Local Board: it is lighted with gas from works the property of the Chatteris Gas and Coke Co. Limited: the water supply is derived from wells.

There are two cemeteries, both in New street: the Parochial cemetry, formed in 1856, covers an area of nearly 6 acres, with two mortuary chapels, and is under the control of the Urban District Council: the General cemetry was formed by a company in 1850 and is 3a. 2r. 13p. in extent.

The church of St. Peter is an ancient building of stone, in various styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with a low spire containing a clock and 5 bells: the chancel is divided from the body of the church by a handsome screen: there are 750 sittings, 500 being free. The register dates from the year 1650.

The particular Baptist chapel in Hive Lane was endowed by Miss Claridge in 1800 with lands now producing £50 yearly for the support of a minister, and has sittings for 250; there is another in Park street with 900 sittings; and a General Baptist chapel in West Park street holding 700 persons; the Congregational chapel, Park street, is a brick building in the Tudor style seating 350; there is a Primitive Methodist chapel at Slade End with about 20 sittings; the Wesleyan chapel, New road, was enlarged in 1855, and now has about 600 sittings. The Society of Friends have a meeting house in High street with sittings for about 300.

The soil is clay, loam and fen land; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, mangolds, carrots and potatoes. The land around has been rendered very productive by draining and gaulting. The area is 13,638 of land and 36 of water; rateable value, £26,813; the population in 1891 was 4,587.

[Extracts from Kelly's Directory - Cambridgeshire - 1900]