In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Caxton like this:
CAXTON, a decayed town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Cambridgeshire. The town stands on Ermine-street, 3½ miles NNW of North Road r. station, and 9½ W of Cambridge; and has a post office‡ under Royston and two inns. It had a market from the 13th century till the middle of the 18th; and it still has a fair on the 12th of Oct.—The parish comprises 2,000 acres. ...
Real property, £2,276. Pop., 545. Houses, 97. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged to the D'Eschallerses, the Freviles, the Burgoynes, and others. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £80.* Patrons, the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The church contains some old tombs; and was recently restored. There are a national school and a workhouse. M. Paris, the historian, was a native.-The subdistrict and the district are co-extensive; and contain the parishes of Caxton, Bourn, Knapwell, Elsworth, Longstow, Hatley-St. George, East Hatley, Tadlow, Croydon-cum-Clapton, Arrington, Wimpole, Orwell, Little Eversden, Great Eversden, Kingston, Caldecote, Toft, Hardwicke, Gamlingay, Eltisley, Croxton, Papworth-St. Everard, Little Gransden, Great Gransden, Yelling, and Papworth-St. Agnes,-the last partly and the two previous wholly in Huntingdon-proper. Acres, 49,885. Poor-rates in 1866, £5,414. Pop. in 1861, 10,966. Houses, 2,200. Marriages in 1866, 56; births, 416,-of which 30 were illegitimate; deaths, 236,-of which 113 were at ages under 3 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 733; births, 3,907; deaths, 2,046. The places of worship in 1851 were 26 of the Church of England, with 4,951 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 740 s.; 7 of Baptists, with 1,757 s.; 5 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 688 s.; and 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 70 s. The schools were 17 public day schools, with 1,282 scholars; 8 private day schools, with 196 s.; and 27 Sunday schools, with 1,716 s. The workhouse has capacity for 215 inmates.
Caxton through time
Caxton is now part of South Cambridgeshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how South Cambridgeshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Caxton itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Caxton in South Cambridgeshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/2189
Date accessed: 18th April 2024
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