Kelly Directory 1908

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CHATTERIS — in Domesday Book written " Cetriz " and " Cateriz," by some old authors "Chateriz," and by Camden "Cheaterizt " - is a parish and market town with a station on the Wisbech and St. Ives branch of the Great Eastern railway, 71 miles from London by road and 83 by railway, 19 south from Wisbech, 25 1/2 north-by-west from Cambridge, 10 3/4 north-by-east from St. Ives and 12 north-west from the city of Ely by road, but 26 1/2 by railway, in the Northern division of the county, hundred and union of North Witchford, in the Isle of Ely, petty sessional sub-division of Chatteris and county court district of March, rural deanery of March, and in the peculiar archidiaconal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely.

Under the provisions of the " Local Government Act, 1894" (56 and 57 Vict. c. 73), the town is now governed by an Urban District Council, having been from 1873 under the control of a Local Board : it is lighted with gas from works the property of the Chatteris Gas and Coke Co. Limited: the water supply is derived from wells.

The church of St. Peter is an ancient building of stone, in various styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with a low spire containing a clock and 5 bells : the chancel is divided from the body of the church by a handsome screen: there are 550 sittings, 250 being free.

The register dates from the year 1650. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £550, with 330 1/2 acres of glebe and residence, in the gift of the Rev. Charles Henry Brocklebank M.A. of Bartlow House, Cambridge, and held since 1901 by the Rev. Henry Fosbery Bagshaw M.A. of University College, Durham.

There is a Mission room at Horseway in connection with the church of St. Peter, and a parish room was built in 1903 at a cost of £100. The Particular Baptist chapel in Hive lane was endowed by Miss Elizabeth Claret in 1800 with lands now producing £50 yearly for the support of a minister, and has sittings for 250; there is another in Park street, built in 1819, with 900 sittings ; and a General Baptist chapel in West Park street,founded in 1783, holding 500 persons ; the Congregational chapel, Park street, erected in 1838, is a brick building in the Tudor style, seating 350; there is a Primitive Methodist chapel at Slade End with about 200 sittings; the Wesleyan chapel, New road, was enlarged in 1855, and now has about 600 sittings. A Wesleyan Sunday school was built in New street in 1903 for 250 children, at a cost of £1,100. The Society of Friends have a meeting house in High street with sittings for about 300.

There are two cemeteries, both in New street: the Parochial cemetery, formed in 1856, covers an area of nearly 6 acres, with two mortuary chapels, and is under the control of the Urban District Council: the General cemetery was formed by a company in 1850 and is 3a. 2r. 13p. in extent.

The trade of Chatteris consists almost entirely in supplying the neighbourhood with necessaries, but it is also an important thoroughfare, being on the direct road from Norfolk to Huntingdon and the western country, and also on the road between Peterborough and Newmarket.

The Corn Exchange is in High street. The market established in 1834, is held on Friday, and there are two fairs, held on the last Friday in April and on the Friday before Michaelmas.

Here are two banks, a brewery and engineering, mat and rope works. At Ferry farm, in this parish, R. G. Heaton esq. has a stud farm for the breeding of horses. The poor's land of 48 acres produces about £140 yearly. A convent of Benedictine nuns, dedicated to St. Mary, was founded here about the year 980, by Alwina, niece to King Edgar, and wife of Athelstan, Earl of the East Angles ; in the reign of Henry I. the nunnery was annexed to the church of Ely, and wholly dissolved in 1538.

Many antiquities have been dug up here in excavating for gravel ; not many years since part of the skeleton of an elephant was found, 10 feet below the level of the ground; and in 1824 an earthen jar, containing about 1,ooo copper coins, was ploughed up, about 2 miles from the village ; they were mostly Roman, of the Emperors Constantius (A.D. 305) and Constantine (a.d 306) ; various other relics of the Romans have been met with at several times hereabout, as well as celts and a double edged sword, the hilt of which was embossed with figures of men fighting; this, when found, was in a perfect state of preservation. In several parts of the fen lands large oak trees have been brought to the surface from a great depth. Near here is Vermuyden's Drain, so named after Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a celebrated engineer, who drained the Bedford level in 1649-53.

St. Matthias' Court, a piece of land of 24 acres formerly held in trust by the Bishops of Ely, was conveyed in 1869 to 24 inhabitants of Chatteris as trustees, and the rent is applied to the general improvement of the town. Algernon Charles Wyndham Dunn-Gardner esq. of Denston Hall, Newmarket, is lord of the manors of Chatteris Ramsey and Bartle-nuper-Gardiners ; Thomas Jennings esq. of Newmarket, is lord of the manor of Chatteris Nunns ; the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, are lords of the manor of Benet College, Chatteris. The principal landowners are A. C. W. Dunn-Gardner esq. Martin O'Connor esq. J. Edward Fryer esq. the Master and Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge, John Stanley Nix esq. James Curtis Smith esq. J.P. and Robert R. Childs esq.

The soil is clay, loam and fen land; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, mangolds, carrots and potatoes. The land around has been rendered very productive by draining and gaulting. The area of the civil parish and Urban District is 13,683 acres of land and 36 of water ; rateable value, £27,665 ; the population in 1901 was 4,711.

Parish Clerk, Joseph Basham.