Chesterton, Cambridge

Chesterton
Chesterton is located in Cambridgeshire
Chesterton
Chesterton
Location within Cambridgeshire
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCAMBRIDGE
Postcode districtCB4
Dialling code01223
List of places
UK
England
Cambridgeshire
52°13′06.62″N 000°08′29.20″E / 52.2185056°N 0.1414444°E / 52.2185056; 0.1414444 (Chesterton)

Chesterton is a suburb in the northeast corner of Cambridge, in the Cambridge district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England, 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Cambridge station, on the north bank of the River Cam.[1]

History

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Archaeological evidence indicates that the area that is now Chesterton has been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age. In Anglo-Saxon times Chesterton formed part of a larger vill spanning the River Cam. The rest of the vill became the borough of Cambridge sometime after the 8th century, but Chesterton was excluded from the early borough.[2]

Chesterton was an ancient parish.[3] The parish included the village and adjoining rural areas generally to the north of it; at the western end of the parish it included Cambridge Castle.[4][5] Chesterton was governed by its parish vestry and manorial courts in the same way as most rural areas until 1880, when the parish was made a local government district, governed by an elected local board. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894.[6] Cambridge Borough Council made numerous attempts to annex Chesterton; on three occasions between 1897 and 1909 the electorate of Chesterton voted against it being absorbed into Cambridge.[7]

Chesterton Urban District was abolished in 1912. The more urban southern third of the parish, including the original village, was then absorbed into the borough of Cambridge, and the (then) more rural north of the parish was transferred to the neighbouring parish of Milton. The reduced civil parish of Chesterton continued to exist after 1912 covering just the parts of Chesterton which had been incorporated into Cambridge, but as an urban parish it had no longer had a council of its own. The civil parish of Chesterton was abolished in 1923 when all the parishes in the borough of Cambridge were united into a single parish.[3] In 1921, the last census before its abolition, Chesterton parish had a population of 11,611.[8] The more rural parts of the old Chesterton parish which had been transferred to Milton in 1912 were brought into the borough of Cambridge in a subsequent boundary review in 1934, and were developed during the 20th century with the growing suburbs of Cambridge.[9]

A large housing association estate makes up part of the East Chesterton area.[10]

Governance

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Chesterton contains two electoral wards (West Chesterton and East Chesterton) in the city of Cambridge. The total population of both wards at the 2021 Census was 18,620, representing a rise of 2.7% in ten years since the 2021 Census. These are roughly the same as the area normally called Chesterton: specifically the land north of the River Cam, east of Castle Hill and south of the Arbury and King's Hedges estates.

City councillors for the East Chesterton ward are Gerri Bird, Alice Gilderdale and Baiju Thittala. City councillors for the West Chesterton ward are Sam Carling, Richard Swift and Rachel Wade. As county council divisions are different from city council wards, parts of the Chesterton area are covered by the Chesterton ward councillor Gerri Bird and Castle ward councillor Catherine Rae.

Transport

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Buses run seven times an hour to Cambridge city centre and six times an hour to each of Milton and Addenbrooke's Hospital.[11]

Milton Road (the A1309 and A1134) is the major arterial road through Chesterton, linking the centre of Cambridge to the southwest with the A14 road to the northeast.

Cambridge North railway station, built on the edge of East Chesterton, became operational in May 2017,[12] something that had been campaigned for by numerous local politicians for decades.[13]

Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chesterton" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 112.
  2. ^ Wright, A. P. M.; Lewis, C. P., eds. (1989). A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9. London: Victoria County History. pp. 5–13. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Chesterton Civil Parish / Ancient Parish". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  4. ^ Parliamentary Papers: Volume 26. 1837. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  5. ^ Roach, J. P. C., ed. (1959). A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3. London: Victoria County History. pp. 109–111. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  6. ^ Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire. 1904. p. 115. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  7. ^ Wright, A. P. M.; Lewis, C. P., eds. (1989). A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9. London: Victoria County History. pp. 26–28. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  8. ^ "Population statistics Chesterton AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  9. ^ "Cambridge Municipal Borough". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  10. ^ "100 Houses Assn, Accessed 6 October 2014". Archived from the original on 19 September 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  11. ^ "Bus Timetables".
  12. ^ Helen Frame (21 May 2017). "As it happened: Passengers board the first train at Cambridge North Station". Cambridge News. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  13. ^ "Cambridge Science Park station". Cambridgeshire County Council. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
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