Huntingdonshire 
Contents
Nearby Places
Nearby churches
Saltrede (xi cent.), Saltreia (xii cent.), Sautre (xiii cent.), Sawtry (xvi cent.).
It is not known when the village of Sawtry began, but there were three churches at Sawtry mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086. In 1147, the Cistercian Abbey of Sawtry was founded by Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Northampton and grandson of Earl Walteof and Judith, the neice of William the Conqueror, who held the manor.
The three parishes of Sawtry lie on the Great North Road (and is now by-passed by the A1(M) Motorway) and are bounded on the north by Conington, east by Higney and Wood Walton, south by Abbot's Ripton, Upton and Coppingford, and south-west by the Giddings. Of the area thus enclosed, the northern part forms the parishes of Sawtry All Saints and Sawtry St Andrews but the two parishes were so intermixed that it is impossible without a map to know where the divisions between them run. The houses are all grouped together in one village just west of the Great North Road. The Church of All Saints stands on the eastern edge of the village, while that of St Andrews was on the eastern side of the road where its churchyard still lies. The southern part of the area once formed the parish (and then the extra-parochial district) of Sawtry Judith (sometimes referred to, in error, as St. Judith). The Abbey, with the Church of St Mary, stood in the north-east corner but there are few houses now still standing.
The three parishes were consolidated by different steps during the 19th century. In 1851, the Sawtry Local Government District was formed from the two parishes of Sawtry All Saints and Sawtry St Andrew under the Public Health Act of 1848. The two ecclesiastical parishes were united in 1873.
In 1879 both churches were demolished and a new church for both parishes was erected on the site of All Saints and dedicated to All Saints and St. Andrew.
The sub-soil of Sawtry is mainly Oxford clay. A considerable area is fen land which has now been drained. The main portion of Sawtry Fen was included in the Great Level Drainage undertaking of the Earl of Bedford in the 17th century.
Cemetery information for the Sawtry parishes are given on each parish page.
Sawtry was originally in the Huntingdondon Registration District of Huntingdon since 1st July 1837. It subsequently became a sub-District itself. It is now part of the Huntingdon Registration District again.
Karen Scott has created an open communtity for all those people who are interested in Sawtry. She will be putting information that she has transcribed from the parish registers onto the site. You will nedd to search communities to find the site - MSN blocks the link.
An old map of Sawtry in the 19th century is available.
The war memorial with detailed information about those who fell is available on the Roll of Honour site for Huntingdonshire.
Population
in 1801 - 790
Population in 1851 - 1393
Population in 1901 - 1013
Population
in 1951 - 1113
Population in 1971 - 1749
Population in 1991 - 4995
Sawtry was part of the Huntingdon Union (for Poor Law
administration).
Births and Deaths registered in the Huntingdon Union Workhouse
(1838 - 1949) are available, as fiche set D10, from the Huntingdonshire FHS.
The area of the united parish of Sawtry All Saints and St Andrew is 3341 acres, and that of Sawtry Judith is 2932 acres of land.
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