Soham, Cambridgeshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1900.

SOHAM:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1900.

"SOHAM is a parish and town in the hundred of Staploe, county Cambridge. It is the head of a county court district, with a station on the Ely and Newmarket branch of the Great Eastern railway, 75½ miles from London, 19 north-east from Cambridge, 8 north-west from Newmarket and 6 south-east from Ely, in the Eastern division of the county, in Newmarket union and petty sessional division, hundred of Staploe, rural deanery of Fordham, archdeaconry of Sudbury and diocese of Ely. The town, which is long and straggling, is lighted with gas, from works at Mere side, the property of the Soham and District Gas Company Limited. The Lode, a navigable canal, passes through the parish and joins the Ouse at Ely.

The parish is extensive, being in one direction more than 9 miles in length. The Fen, which covers 8,000 acres, has now, owing to the superior method of drainage, been brought into a high state of cultivation: there was formerly a large mere or lake on the western side of the town: there are many orchards and gardens, and large quantities of fruit, especially plums, are yearly sent to London, Norwich, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford, Leeds and Manchester.

The area is 12,946 acres of land and 53 of water; rateable value, £22,608; and the population in 1881 was 3,980 and in 1891 was 4,138."