Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for FORDHAM

FORDHAM, a village and a parish in Newmarket district, Cambridge. The village stands near the boundary with Suffolk, 3½ miles SE of Soham, and 5 N of New-market r. station; and has a post office under Soham. The parish comprises 4, 050 acres. Real property, £9, 564. Pop., 1, 406. Houses, 319. The manor belonged, in the time of Charles II., to a junior branch of the Russells of Chippenham; was sold, about the beginning of last cen - tury, to Admiral Sir Charles Wager; and passed to successively Governor Harrison, Viscount Townsend, James Metcalf, Esq., and Francis Noble, Esq. The manor-house was rebuilt by Sir Charles Wager, and pulled down by Mr. Metcalf; and a brick house, on the site of its offices, was erected by the latter. A Gilbertine priory, a cell to Sempringham abbey, was founded here, in the time of Henry III., by Robert de Fordham; and given, at the dissolution, to W. Paris. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £348. Patron, Jesus College, Cambridge. The church is ancient; and there are chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists, and national schools. There are also alms-houses, and other charities £49.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Fordham CP/AP       Newmarket RegD/PLU       Cambridgeshire AncC
Place: Fordham

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