Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire

A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 264 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, most of the county being parished; Cambridge is completely unparished; Fenland, East Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire are entirely parished. At the 2001 census, there were 497,820 people living in the parishes, accounting for 70.2 per cent of the county's population.

History
Parishes arose from Church of England divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical divisions. Over time they acquired civil administration powers.

The Highways Act 1555 made parishes responsible for the upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways.

The poor were looked after by the monasteries, until their dissolution. In 1572, magistrates were given power to 'survey the poor' and impose taxes for their relief. This system was made more formal by the Poor Law Act 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the Poor Law; overseers were appointed to charge a rate to support the poor of the parish. The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the Poor Law powers were transferred to Poor Law Unions. The Public Health Act 1872 grouped parishes into Rural Sanitary Districts, based on the Poor Law Unions; these subsequently formed the basis for Rural Districts.

Parishes were run by vestries, meeting annually to appoint officials, and were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes, although some townships in large parishes administered the Poor Law themselves; under the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act 1882, all extra-parochial areas and townships that levied a separate rate became independent civil parishes.

Civil parishes in their modern sense date from the Local Government Act 1894, which abolished vestries; established elected parish councils in all rural parishes with more than 300 electors; grouped rural parishes into Rural Districts; and aligned parish boundaries with county and borough boundaries. Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the Urban District, Municipal Borough or County Borough in which they were situated; many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one. Parish councils were not formed in urban areas, and the only function of the parish was to elect guardians to Poor Law Unions; with the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence.

The Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas, and many former Urban Districts and Municipal Boroughs that were being abolished, were replaced by new successor parishes; urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes became unparished areas.

The current position
Recent governments have encouraged the formation of town and parish councils in unparished areas, and the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 gave local residents the right to demand the creation of a new civil parish.

A parish council can become a town council unilaterally, simply by resolution; and a civil parish can also gain city status, but only if that is granted by the Crown. The chairman of a town or city council is called a mayor. The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 introduced alternative names: a parish council can now choose to be called a community; village; or neighbourhood council.

Former civil parishes
From the OS six-inch-to-the-mile maps produced 1888-1913.


 * Barham and Woolley (merged 1935)
 * Bassingbourn and Kneesworth (merged)
 * Bluntisham-cum-Earith (split into Bluntisham and Earith 1948)
 * Brington and Molesworth (merged 1935)
 * Bythorn and Keyston (merged 1935)
 * Cambridge All Saints, Holy Sepulchre, Holy Trinity, St Andrew the Great, St Andrew the Less, St Benedict, St Botolph, St Clement, St Edward, St Giles, St Mary the Great, St Mary the Less, St Michael, and St Peter (merged to form Cambridge)
 * Cherry Hinton (merged into Cambridge 1934)
 * Chesterton (merged into Cambridge 1923)
 * Denton and Caldecote (merged 1935)
 * Duxford St John and St Peter (merged to form Duxford 1874)
 * Ely St Mary and Ely Trinity (merged to form Ely)
 * Eynesbury (now part of St Neots)
 * Eynesbury Hardwicke (split between Abbotsley and St Neots 2009)
 * Folksworth and Washingley (merged 1935)
 * Fulbourn All Saints and St Vigor (merged to form Fulbourn)
 * Great and Little Catworth (merged to form Catworth 1885)
 * Great and Little Chishill (merged 1968)
 * Great and Little Raveley and Upwood (merged to form Upwood and the Raveleys 1935)
 * Great and Little Stukeley (merged to form The Stukeleys 1935)
 * Grunty Fen (formerly extra-parochial, created 1858, merged into Wilburton 1933)
 * Hamerton and Steeple Gidding (merged 2010)
 * Hartford (merged into Huntingdon 1935)
 * Hatley St George and East Hatley (merged to form Hatley 1957)
 * Houghton and Wyton (merged to form Houghton and Wyton 1935 and now split between that and Wyton-on-the-Hill)
 * Huntingdon All Saints, St Benefict, St John, and St Mary (merged to form Huntingdon)
 * Longstanton All Saints and St Michael (merged to form Longstanton 1953 and now split between Longstanton and Northstowe)
 * Oakington and Westwick (merged 1985)
 * Offord Cluny and Offord D'Arcy (merged 2009)
 * Redmere (formerly extra-parochial and in Norfolk; now part of Littleport)
 * St Neots Rural (now split between Abbotsley and St Neots)
 * St Neots Urban (now part of St Neots)
 * Sawtry St Judith and Sawtry All Saints & St Andrew (itself a merger of Sawtry All Saints and Sawtry St Andrew) (merged to form Sawtry c. 1940)
 * Shingay and Wendy (merged 1957)
 * Southoe and Midloe (merged 1935)
 * Swaffham Prior St Cyriac and St Mary (merged to form Swaffham Prior)
 * Trumpington (merged into Cambridge 1934)
 * Upton and Coppingford (merged 1935)
 * Waresley and Tetworth (merged 2010)
 * Welches Dam (formerly extra-parochial, created 1858, split between Chatteris and Manea 1960)
 * Whittlesey St Andrew and St Mary (merged to form Whittlesey (Urban))
 * Whittlesey Urban and Rural (merged to form Whittlesey 1926)

Renamed civil parishes

 * Ashley (formerly Ashley-cum-Silverley)
 * Carlton (formerly Carlton-cum-Willingham)
 * Croydon (formerly Croydon-cum-Clapton)
 * Newton-in-the-Isle (formerly Newton)
 * Thriplow and Heathfield (formerly Thriplow)
 * Wisbech (formerly Wisbech St Peter)