Huntingdonshire Parishes - Conington
Brief
Description:
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CONINGTON,
a parish in the hundred of NORMAN-CROSS, county of HUNTINGDON,
3 miles (S.E. by S.) from Stilton, containing 215 inhabitants. The living
is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and diocese of Lincoln
rated in the king's books at £19.6.8., and in the patronage of Dr. Procter.
The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a large handsome structure, having
an embattled tower with octagonal pinnacles, and the windows adorned with
stained glass; it contains many monuments to the Cottons, and an inscribed
tablet to the memory of Prince Henry of Scotland, Lord of Conington, &c.
: the font is characteristic of the Norman and early English styles. The
Rev. James Oram, in 1769, left £500 for teaching poor children. At the village,
within a square intrenchment, are vestiges of an ancient castle, which,
with the lordship, was given by Canute to Turkill, a Danish lord, who, taking
advantage of his residence among the East Angles, invited over Sueno to
plunder the country. After Turkill's departure it fell to Waldeof, Earl
of Huntingdon, who married Judith, niece to the Conqueror, from whom it
descended to the royal line of Scotland, and thence to the Cottons, ancestors
of Sir Robert Cotton, celebrated for his valuable collection of books and
MSS., known by the name of the Cottonian Library. Sir Robert Cotton, Bart.,
on making an excavation for a pond, found the skeleton of a sea-fish, twenty
feet long, lying in perfect silt, about six feet below the surface of the
ground, and as much above the present level of the fens.
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Hundred:
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NORMAN CROSS |
Registration
District:
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The parish of Conington was originally in the Huntingdon Registration District from 1st July 1837. Subsequently it became part of the Sawtry sub-District. Once again, from 1st April 1997, it is directly under the Huntingdon Registration District. |
First
Appearance of Name:
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Charter - 956 |
Available
Bookstall items:
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Links:
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Last
Updated on: 29 November 2001
©2000-. Huntingdonshire Family History Society.