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Pidley cum Fenton, Huntingdonshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1932.

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PIDLEY CUM FENTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

[Description(s) transcribed by Martin Edwards and later edited by Colin Hinson ©2010]
[from The Victoria County History series - 1932]

"PIDLEY CUM FENTON, the parish of Pidley with Fenton lies to the west of Somersham and, no doubt, originally formed with it one large parish. The land rises from about 3 ft. above sea level in Warboys Fen in the north to over 100 ft. in the middle and south parts of the parish. In the fenland soil is the usual black peat where the chief crops are potatoes and other vegatables. On the higher ground, clay is found which produces where and barley. Roughly half the parish is arable land, and rather less than half is pasture.There is no woodland in the parish but there are the remains of a few copses - Hill Close Spinney, Stroud Hill Spinney, Dovehouse Close Spinney, where there are the remains of a homestead moat, and Little Wood Spinney - standing on the northern slope of the hill crossing the parish from west to east.

The greater part, if not the whole, of the parish was within the Chase of Somersham and was open country until the inclosures made after the Chase was dischaced at the end of the 18th century. Earlier inclosures seem to have been made by the Hammonds at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, when they obtained the interests in the lease and the reversion in fee of the Manor and Soke of Somersham.

The village of Pidley stands on the top of a hill along the road from Huntingdon to Chatteris. Church End, with the 19th century church of All Saints, a Baptist chapel and Church End Farm, lie about one-third of a mile off the road on the north side. The houses and cottages in the village are mostly of brick but a few half-timbered cottages also remain.

The hamlet of Fenton is about a mile north of Pidley and lies along the road to Warboys. It consists of some scattered farms and (formerly) a brick works. Fenton House, formerly the Manor House, is an early 18th century building of brick with a tiled roof. In the north-west corner of the parish is Fenton End, which touches the village of Warboys."

[Description(s) transcribed by Martin Edwards ©2003 and later edited by Colin Hinson ©2010]
[mainly from The Victoria County History series- 1932]