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

KEYSTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

"KEYSTON, the parish of Keyston lies on the Northamptonshire border, and on its west and parts of its north and south sides the boundaries of the parish and the old county of Huntingdonshire coincide. The land is undulating but rises from the brook (which is a tributary of the Alconbury Brook) and which runs through the middle of the parish. Here the land is about 150 ft. above sea-level and rises to nearly 250 ft. in the north, and a little over that height to the south.

Although much of the land is arable, most of it is laid down for grass. there were some small copses scattered over the parish, but on the whole there is little woodland. The road from Huntingdon to Thrapston runs through the north of the parish, and a by-road from Covington to Raunds runs through the middle.

The village stands midway between these roads some 13 and a half miles from Huntingdon, and is approached by a road called Toll Bar Lane from the north, and by another road from the south. It is arranged around roads forming approximately an oval shape. Within this figure is the church, to the west of which is Manor farm. the ancient manor house, which stood in a large field containing earthworks, was described in 1589 as 'newly built'. At that time, Henry Clifford, who had secured the lease for forty-one years from Robert, Earl of Essex, less than a year before the sale of the manor, was living there.

During Henry Clifford's tenure of the manor, the common fields were 'improved and made into several closes', the Earl of Essex having given licence for the inclosure. It seems probably that some planting of trees was done at the same time as the survey of 1589 mentions that 'there are neither woods nor underwoods pertaining to the said manor, saving some oaks and elms growing in hedgerowes (sic) about several closes'. The manor house was pulled down by Thomas Elderkin around 1835, when a newer manor house was built; this latter manor house was subsequently enlarged.

The following place names occur in the survey of 1605: Basingham's Bridge, the Cross, Duckinglane, Froglane, Gotheridge feld, Hilmeadow or Hillymead, Middlebrook, Milford, Morden feld, Staples or Stables meadow, Towne meadow, Torpens meadow, Read close, and Torpill's end.

The civil parish of Keyston was abolished in 1935 to help create the civil parish of Bythorn with Keyston. In 1936 the ecclesiastical parish followed suit when it gained the Bythorn chapelry of Brington with Bythorn and Old Weston to create Keyston and Bythorn ecclesiastical parish."