Isle of Ely

Coordinates: 52°24′N 0°15.5′E / 52.400°N 0.2583°E / 52.400; 0.2583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Isle of Ely
Isle of Ely shown within England
Area
 • 1891239,259 acres (968.2 km2)
 • 1961239,951 acres (971.0 km2)
 • Coordinates52°24′N 0°15.5′E / 52.400°N 0.2583°E / 52.400; 0.2583
Population
 • 189163,861
 • 196189,180
History
 • OriginLiberty of Ely
 • Created1889
 • Abolished1965
 • Succeeded byCambridgeshire and Isle of Ely
StatusAdministrative county
(within Cambridgeshire)
GovernmentIsle of Ely County Council
 • HQCounty Hall, March
Coat of Arms of Ely County Council
1880 map of the Isle of Ely with nearby rivers

The Isle of Ely (/ˈiːli/) is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county.

Etymology

See also: Ely, Cambridgeshire § Name

Its name has been said to mean "island of

Venerable Bede.[1]

History

1648 map by J Blaeu of Cambridgeshire with the Isle of Ely

Until the 17th century, the area was an island surrounded by a large area of fenland, a type of swamp. It was coveted as an area easy to defend, and was controlled in the very early medieval period by the Gyrwas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe. Upon their marriage in 652, Tondbert, a prince of the Gyrwas, presented Æthelthryth (who became St. Æthelthryth), the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles, with the Isle of Ely. She afterwards founded a monastery at Ely, which was destroyed by Viking raiders in 870, but was rebuilt and became a famous Abbey and Shrine.

The area's natural defences led to it playing a role in the military history of England. Following the

Bishop Aethelwine of Durham and Hereward the Wake in 1071.[2] The area was taken by William the Conqueror only after a prolonged struggle.[3]
The story of Tom Hickathrift is sometimes set around this period. In 1139
Geoffrey de Mandeville rebelled against Stephen, and made his base in the Isle. Geoffrey was mortally wounded at Burwell
in 1144. [4]

In 1216, during the

King John
. Ely took part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. During the English Civil War the Isle of Ely was held for the parliamentarians. Troops from the garrison at Wisbech Castle were used in the siege of Crowland and parts of the Fens were flooded to prevent Royalist forces entering Norfolk from Lincolnshire. The Horseshoe sluice on the river at Wisbech and the nearby castle and town defences were upgraded and cannon brought from Ely.[5]

The Fens were drained beginning in 1626 using a network of canals designed by Dutch experts.[6] Many Fenlanders were opposed to the draining as it deprived some of them of their traditional livelihood. Acts of vandalism on dykes, ditches, and sluices were common, but the draining was complete by the end of the century.[7]

Administration

This plaque in Chatteris serves as a reminder of the Isle's county status

From 1109 until 1837, the Isle was under the jurisdiction of the

Edgar in 970, and confirmed by Edward the Confessor and Henry I to the abbot of Ely. The latter monarch established Ely as the seat of a bishop in 1109, creating the Isle of Ely a county palatine under the bishop. An act of parliament in 1535/6 ended the palatine status of the Isle, with all justices of the peace to be appointed by letters patent issued under the great seal and warrants to be issued in the king's name. However, the bishop retained exclusive jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, and was custos rotulorum. A chief bailiff was appointed for life by the bishop, and performed the functions of high sheriff within the liberty, who also headed the government of the city of Ely.[8]

In July 1643 Oliver Cromwell was made governor of the isle.[9]

Liberty of Ely Act 1837
Act of Parliament
7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 53
Dates
Royal assent15 July 1837
Other legislation
Repealed byStatute Law Revision Act 1874
Status: Repealed

The Liberty of Ely Act 1837 (

Quarter Sessions
, and formed its own constabulary.

Under the

Local Government Boundary Commission in 1947.[10] The report of the LGBC was not acted upon, and the administrative county survived until 1965. Following the recommendations of the Local Government Commission for England, on 1 April 1965 the bulk of the area was merged to form Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, with the Thorney Rural District going to Huntingdon and Peterborough
.

Subdivisions

In 1894 the county was divided into county districts, with the rural districts being Ely Rural District, Thorney Rural District, Whittlesey Rural District, Wisbech Rural District, North Witchford Rural District, and the urban districts were Ely, March, Whittlesey and Wisbech (the only municipal borough). Whittlesey Rural district consisted of only one parish (Whittlesey Rural), which was added to Whittlesey urban district, in 1926.

The Isle of Ely parliamentary constituency was created as a two-member seat in the First and Second Protectorate Parliaments from 1654 to 1659. The constituency was re-created with a single seat in 1918. In the boundary changes of 1983 it was replaced by the new constituency of North East Cambridgeshire. Original historical documents relating to the Isle of Ely are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office in Ely.

Marquessate

The title Marquess of the Isle of Ely was created in the

merged into the Crown
", and ceased to exist.

References

  1. ^ Historia Ecclesiastica,IV:XIX
  2. ^ Hereward and the Isle of Ely, BBC History, accessed 6 January 2008
  3. ^ The taking of Ely, BBC History, accessed 6 January 2008
  4. ^ The Isle of Ely and Civil War: Trevor Bevis, Hereward of the Fens, (Cambridgeshire Genealogy), accessed 6 January 2008
  5. ^ "Wisbech and the civil war". Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  6. ^ "Cambridgeshire History & the Isle of Ely Timeline". Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  7. ^ "The Draining of the Fens". Visit Ely. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  8. ^ Lewis, Samuel, Topographical Dictionary of England, Vol. II, London 1831
  9. ^ "Fenland riots". elystandard.co.uk. 7 December 2006. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  10. ^ "Town and county boundaries - First decisions of the Commission", The Times, 2 May 1947
  11. ^ a b "No. 6494". The London Gazette. 12 July 1726. p. 1.
  12. ^ "No. 6741". The London Gazette. 4 January 1728. p. 2.
  13. ^ "No. 9050". The London Gazette. 16 April 1751. p. 1.

Further reading

Fairweather, Janet (2005). "introduction". Liber Eliensis. Translated by Fairweather, Janet. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. pp. Xiii–xliv.

ISBN 978-1-84383-015-3
.

External links
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