Somersham, Huntingdonshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1932.

SOMERSHAM:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

"SOMERSHAM, the parish of Somersham lies on the eastern boundary of the old county of Huntingdonshire, and adjoins the parish of Chatteris in Cambridgeshire. The northern and eastern part of it is fenland, and here the land falls to some 2 ft. above sea level. It rises to the south and west towards Pidley and Bluntisham to a little over 100 ft.

Most of the parish is arable land but about a third of it is pasture lying in the old park. At one time there was a fair amount of woodland, but now very few spinneys remain. The soil is clay and gravel lying upon a bed of Oxford clay. There were gravel pits on the higher land, particularly to the north of the village. Bee-keeping was once a significant industry in the village.

The village stands on ground rising from the fenland and extends along the high road from Huntingdon and St. Ives to Chatteris for a distance rather more than half a mile. It is about 5 miles from St. Ives and an equal distance from Chatteris. The main road is crossed in the middle of the village by a road from the south called Church Lane, which now only leads from the site of the old palace of the bishops of Ely, but apparently at one time joined Bluntisham Heath Road, and formed the approach to the palace from the south. At the crossing, the medieval market place, which has long been disused, was probably held; here apparently also stood the cross to which there are many references in Wills of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The main road forms a wide village street, the houses on each side being mostly of white brick with roofs of tiles or slates. There is here an old barn built about the time that the bishops of Ely exchanged the manor with the Crown (1600). The church is on the west side of the road in the middle of the village, outside the northern entrance to the palace grounds.

A feast is held yearly on the 24th June (the nativity of St John the Baptist). The fair was formerly also held on that day but it is now held on the Friday before 22nd November. A reference to an almshouse in the village is found in 1486, but there is no vestige of it now.

Boundary alterations took place in 1884 and 1964, when parts were lost to Chatteris parish in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely."