Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for COTTENHAM

COTTENHAM, a village and a parish in Chesterton district, Cambridgeshire. The village stands 2 miles S of the Old West river, 3¾ NW of Waterbeach r. station, and 6¾ N of Cambridge; and has a post office‡ under Cambridge. It is the place where the monks of the abbot of Croyland, in the early part of the 12th century, established courses of lectures which resulted in a regular system of academical education at Cambridge; it was damaged by fire, to the value of about £100, 000, in the spring of 1850; and it gives the title of Baron and Earl to the family of Pepys. The parish comprises 7, 107 acres. Real property, £16, 489. Pop., 2, 415. Houses, 526. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged, in the beginning of the 12th century, to Geoffry, abbot of Croyland. The land was long famous for pasture, and for the produce of a fine cream cheese, called the Cottenham cheese. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value, £770.* Patron, the Bishop of Ely. The church is later English, and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a lofty tower. There are four dissenting chapels. A free school, founded in 1703, by Catherine Pepys, has £153 from endowment; and other charities have £375. Archbishop Tenison and Lord Chancellor Cottenham were natives.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Cottenham AP/CP       Chesterton RegD/PLU       Cambridgeshire AncC
Place: Cottenham

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