- Isle of Ely
infobox historic subdivision
Name= Isle of Ely
HQ= County Hall, March
Status=Administrative county
(within Cambridgeshire)
Origin= Liberty of Ely
Start= 1889
End= 1965
Replace=Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely
Arms=
PopulationFirst= 63,861
PopulationFirstYear= 1891
PopulationLast= 89,180
PopulationLastYear= 1961
DensityFirst=
DensityFirstYear=
DensityLast=
DensityLastYear=
AreaFirst= convert|239259|acre|km2|1
AreaFirstYear= 1891
AreaLast= convert|239951|acre|km2|1
AreaLastYear= 1961
Government= Isle of Ely County CouncilThe Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city ofEly now inCambridgeshire ,England but previously a county in its own right.Etymology
Its name is said to mean "island of
eel s", a reference to the creatures that were often caught in the local rivers for food. This etymology was first recorded by theVenerable Bede . ["Historia Ecclesiastica", IV:XIX]History
Until the 17th Century, the area was literally an island surrounded by a large area of
Fen land, a type of swamp. The Fens were ultimately drained using a network of canals designed by Dutch experts.The area's natural defences led to it playing a role in the military history of England. Following the
Norman Conquest , the Isle became a refuge for Saxon forces under Earl Morcar, Bishop Aethelwine of Durham andHereward the Wake in 1071. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/after_11.shtml "Hereward and the Isle of Ely", BBC History, accessed January 6, 2008] ] The area was only taken by William after a prolonged struggle. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/after_12.shtml "The taking of Ely", BBC History, accessed January 6, 2008] ] In 1139 civil war broke between the forces of King Stephen and theEmpress Matilda . Bishop Nigel of Ely, a supporter of Matilda, unsuccessfully tried to hold the Isle. In 1143 Geoffrey de Mandeville rebelled against Stephen, and made his base in the Isle. Geoffrey was mortally wounded at Burwell in 1144. [ [http://www.rootsweb.com/~engcam/elycwar.htm "The Isle of Ely and Civil War": Trevor Bevis, "Hereward of the Fens", (Cambridgeshire Genealogy), accessed January 6, 2008] ]In 1216, during the
First Barons' War , the Isle was unsuccessfully defended against the army of King John. Ely took part in thePeasants' Revolt of 1381.Administration
From 1107 until 1837 the Isle was under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Ely , who appointed a Chief Justice of Ely and exercised temporal powers within the Liberty of Ely. This temporal jurisdiction originated in a charter granted by King Edgar in 970, and confirmed byEdward the Confessor and Henry I to the abbot of Ely. The latter monarch established Ely as the see of a bishop in 1107, creating the Isle of Ely acounty palatine under the bishop. Anact of parliament in 1535/6 ended the palatine status of the Isle, with all justices of the peace to be appointed byletters 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 wascustos rotulorum . A chief bailiff was appointed for life by the bishop, and performed the functions ofhigh sheriff within the liberty, who also headed the government of the city ofEly [Lewis, Samuel, "Topographical Dictionary of England", Vol. II, London 1831] .The Liberty of Ely Act, 1837 [Liberty of Ely Act, 1837 (7 Will 4 & 1 Vict c.53)] ended the bishop's secular powers in the Isle. The area was declared a division of
Cambridgeshire , with the right to appoint justices revested in the crown. Following the 1837 Act the Isle maintained separateQuarter Sessions , and formed its own constabulary.Under the Local Government Bill of 1888, which proposed the introduction of elected
county council s, the Isle was to form part of Cambridgeshire. Following the intervention of the localmember of parliament , Charles Selwyn, the Isle of Ely was constituted a separate administrative county in 1889. The county was small in terms of both area and population, and its abolition was proposed by the Local Government Boundary Commission in 1947. ["Town and county boundaries - First decisions of the Commission", The Times, May 2, 1947] 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, onApril 1 ,1965 the bulk of the area was merged to formCambridgeshire and Isle of Ely , with theThorney Rural District going toHuntingdon and Peterborough .ubdivisions
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 andWisbech (the onlymunicipal borough ). Whittlesey Rural district consisted of only one parish (Whittlesey Rural), which was added to Whittlesey urban district, in 1926.A parliamentary constituency called Isle of Ely was created originally as a two member seat in the First and
Second Protectorate Parliament s from 1654 to 1659. The constituency was re-created with a single seat in 1918, but 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 byCambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office inCambridge .Coat of arms
The Isle of Ely County Council was granted a
coat of arms onMay 1 ,1931 . Previous to the grant the council had been using the arms ofDiocese of Ely : "Gules, three ducal coronets, two and one or". In the 1931 grant, silver and blue waves were added to the episcopal arms, to suggest that the county was an "isle". The crest above the shield was a human hand grasping a trident around which an eel was entwined, referring to the popular derivation of "Ely". On the wrist of the hand was a "Wake Knot", representingHereward the Wake . [W. C. Scott-Giles, "Civic Heraldry of England and Wales", 2nd edition, London, 1953]References
External links
* [http://vision.edina.ac.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10061416 "A Vision of the Isle of Ely", accessed January 6, 2008]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=21880 "Origins of the Liberty of Ely ", "Victoria County History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely": Volume 4 (British History Online), accessed January 6, 2008]
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