Keyston – in Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...

 (now part of Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

), England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 – is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 near Molesworth

Molesworth, Cambridgeshire

Molesworth is a village in Cambridgeshire, England about west of Huntingdon. The village has been designated a conservation area by Huntingdon District Council largely due to its typically rural English character that includes several listed buildings....

 west of Huntingdon

Huntingdon

Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...

.

The village lies at the western end of Huntingdonshire and the parish's western border coincides with the county boundary with Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

. The village is built around the brook that runs through its centre with the brook at about 45 metres above sea-level.

The civil parish of Keyston was abolished in 1935 in creating the larger parish of "Bythorn and Keyston

Bythorn and Keyston

Bythorn and Keyston is a civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 271.The parish was formed in 1935 by the merger of the parishes of Bythorn and Keyston....

", and the ecclesiastical parish followed a year later.

Known as Chetelestan in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

, the name Keyston means "Boundary stone of a man called Ketil". By the 13th century it was known as Keston, and Keyston from the 16th century.

Church

The village church of St John the Baptist dates from the 13th century, with the present nave and aisles having been built in around 1250. The chancel followed in around 1280 and the tower in around 1300.

The church is renowned for its oaken cadaver, a memorial consisting of a wooden skeleton, taken from a fifteenth-century tomb.

Village life

The village is also home to The Pheasant pub, known for its cuisine. Keyston also has a small airfield.

Population

Year	Population
1801	212
1851	199
1901	175
1921	182
1931	151

Census figures after 1935 are included in the parish of Bythorn

Bythorn

Bythorn – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village near Molesworth west of Huntingdon....

and Keyston.