Cambridgeshireshire
Huntingdonshire
Contents 
Nearby Places
Nearby churches
"Doddington is a parish, formerly comprising the chapelry and market town of March and the hamlets of Benwick and Wimblington; but by an Act of Parliament passed in 1856, called "Doddington Rectory Division Act" (19 & Vict. C. 1), which came into operation on the death of a former Rector, in Nov. 1868, these places are now distinct parishes; it is in the Northern division of the county, hundred and union of North Witchford, Isle of Ely, petty sessional division and county court district of March, and in the peculiar archdeaconal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely. The village is on the main road between March and Chatteris, equi-distant 4 miles from each place, and 1¼ miles south-west from Wimblington station on the Cambridge, St. Ives and Wisbech branch of the Great Eastern railway. The parish is supplied with water by the Wisbech waterworks."
The soil is clay and fen; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are potatoes, wheat, beans, oats and roots. The area is 7,037 acres of land and 17 of water; rateable value, £17,373; the population in 1901 was 1,486, including 8 officers and 124 inmates in the North Witchford Workhouse.
[Kelly's Directory - 1912]
The Census Records from 1841-1891 can be found in the Cambridge Record Office and in Wisbech Library. In addition the 1851 Census for Doddington is available in full transcript form, on microfiche, from the Cambridgeshire Family History Society Bookstall.
The church of St. Mary is an ediface of stone, in the early English style, consisting of a fine chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches, vestry and a western tower with spire containing a clock and 5 bells: the chancel, separated from the nave by carved oak screen, was restored in 1891 at a cost of £978, and a vestry screen, the gift of J.H. Marshall esq. of Grimsby, erected at a cost of £103; the nave was restored in 1892 at a cost of £800; the stained west window, a memorial to John Thomas Waddington esq. was presented by his widow about 1867; the stained east window was presented in 1891 by T.R. Harding esq. as a memorial to his wife and other members of the Harding family; the stained south window in the sanctuary was presented by Mrs. Peyton in 1907, in memory of her husband, General Francis Peyton, and there are other windows to the Richards and Peyton families, besides several tablets to the Peyton family, whose family vault is under the chancel; the church affords 600 sittings. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £1,026 with residence, and including 61 acres of glebe, in the gift of Lt.-Col. Sir Algernon Francis Peyton bart. J.P. and held since 1887 by the Rev. Frederick Charles Marshall M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge. This living was formerly the richest in England, but under the Act of 1856 and a previous Act in 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. C. 3) it is divided into seven rectories, viz. Benwick, Doddington, Wimblington, March Old Town, March St. Peter, March St. John and March St. Mary. Here is also a Wesleyan chapel.
[Kelly's Directory - 1912]
Doddington, St. Mary: Records of baptisms 1681-1960, marriages 1681-1983, burials 1681-1992 and banns for 1786-1812, 1843-1910, 1967 reside in the Cambridge Record Office, indexed transcripts exist for baptisms 1681-1900, marriages 1600-1900, burials 1681-1900 and banns 1786-1912, 1843-1900. The parish register transcripts, 1600-1900, are available on microfiche from the Cambridgeshire Family History Society Bookstall. The Bishop's Transcripts for the years 1600-1648, 1661-93, and 1704-1878 can be found in the Cambridge University Library.
Primitive Methodist Church: Records exist at the Cambridge Record Office for the Ely Primitive Circuit of which Doddington is part.
Wesleyan Methodist Church: Records exist at the Cambridge Record Office for baptisms 1868-84 and for the Chatteris Wesleyan Circuit of which Doddington is part.
The St. Mary’s Church Reading and Recreation Rooms form a picturesque structure of brick, erected on a site given by the rector, and presented to the parish by Col. and Miss Harding; there are 98 members. A clock tower with four dials was erected in 1897, at a cost of £90, in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria; there is also a fire engine house.
[Kelly's Directory - 1912]
The "1839 Pigot's Directory of Cambridgeshire" for Doddington index of Inns & Hotels, Taverns and Public Houses, Brewers & Maltsters + Wine & Spirit Merchants.
The both the Doddington War Memorial and the Doddington School War Memorial have been transcribed and researched.
A Roll of Honour to the Doddington Yeomanry inside St Wendreda's Church, March, lists the officers of the Troop when founded in 1798 and officers and men when the unit was disbanded in 1827. These men mostly came from the March, Wimblington and Benwick area.
"Primrose Hill and New World are in the neighbourhood of Doddington."
[Kelly's Directory - 1912]
The Workhouse for the North Witchford Union, erected here about 1838, is a large building of light-coloured brick, and will hold 283 inmates, the average number being about 108.
[Kelly's Directory - 1912]
Extracts from an article about the Lionel Walden School, Doddington taken from the Advertiser & Pictorial of Thursday 2nd November 1967, including extracts from the school log books, encompass the period 1783 through 1912. Also available is a list of the first pupils, 1789, at Lionel Walden School, kindly transcribed by Dave Edwards.
Land Tax: records were compiled afresh each year and contain the names of owners and occupiers in each parish, but usually there is no address or place name. These records reside in the Cambridge Record Office for the years 1798-1801 (1798-99 on microfilm) and 1946-48.
Find help, report problems, and contribute information.
[Last updated 20 March 2003 Martin Edwards]