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

CHESTERTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

"CHESTERTON, the parish of Chesterton lies to the south of the River Nene, which separates it from Northamptonshire. A feeder of the Nene, called the Billing Brook, forms the western boundary of the parish. The altitude varies from 28 ft. to 179 ft. above sea-level; the village being at about 70 ft. The sub-soil is Oxford Clay, Great Oolite and Cornbrash. The parish lies along the Great North Road (now the A1 Trunk Road) which forms its eastern boundary. Neolithic flints have been found scattered over the parish, but it is (with Water Newton) far more famous for their Romano-British remains.

"The Castles", the name given to three fields lying due north of the village and near the Nene and Billing Brook, is the site of the small Roman town of Durobrivae, on the Ermine Street, and which was surrounded by a rampart. The site has not yet been fully excavated but many miscellaneous finds have appeared. The Roman Signal Station, marked on old Ordnance Survey maps, is really a round barrow.

There was formerly a fine house, called Chesterton House, which was close to the church and dating from the end of the 16th or early part of the 17th century; it was probably built by Sir Robert Beville (d.1635), and held successively by the Drydens, Pigotts and Wallers. A surviving bay window from this house is preserved at Elton Hall.

There were changes in the civil parish boundary in 1956 when parts of the parish were exchanged with Castor ancient parish, to the north of the Nene, in the Soke of Peterborough."